草（くさ、ソウ）

Meaning: grass

Components: 艹(grass), 早 (early)

My hack: You should water your grass early (it’s better for the environment, you know).

OR

Grass (poking up through the snow) is an early sign of spring.

Any other ideas?

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林（はやし、リン）

Meaning: woods, grove

Components: 木 (tree)

My hack: One tree is just a tree, 2 trees are a grove/woods.

森（もり、シン）

Meaning: forest

Components: 木 (tree)

My hack: Oo, I loves me the easy ones. One tree is a tree. 2 trees are a grove. 3 trees are a forest. Basta.

貝（かい）

Meaning: shell

Components: 目 (eye), and something close to 八 (eight) or the katakana ハ.

My hack: I remember this one visually, with the horizontal lines representing the lines in the shell. The 2 final strokes are the little “legs” that stick out of the shell, or alternatively they can be water being squirted out of the shell.

化（ば・ける、ば・かす、カ、ケ）

Meaning:change

Components: 亻(person), 匕 (spoon)

My hack: I remember spoon as a side view of a baby since that is what it looks like to me, so for this one I think of a spoon-fed baby and a person and how quickly one changes from one to the other.

虫（チュウ）

Meaning: insect, bug, worm

Components: 口 (mouth)

My hack: This one really reminds me of a mosquito. The 口 part is the skin, and the last 3 strokes make up the probosis and face of the insect. Sorry if this makes you itchy.

NOTE: this one is really similar to 中 (center), and their ON readings are the same.

村（むら、ソン）

Meaning: village

Components: 木 (tree, wood), 寸 (measurement/inch or glue)

My hack: I think of a village surrounded by a wooden fence, with the slats just an inch or so apart.

耳（みみ、ジ）

Meaning: ear

My hack: This one takes a little visualization. Imagine someone with a bad 80s haircut and a big piercing looking to their right (so you see the left ear).

Stroke 1: line of the haircut above the ear

Stroke 2: sideburns

Stroke 3-4: wrinkles in the ear

Stroke 5: the long piercing

Stroke 6: mullet!

糸（いと、シ）

Meaning: thread

Components: 小 (small) and 幺 (small & skinny)

My hack: What is smaller and skinnier than a thread?

If you like visuals, imagine the hack for 小 (fingers holding a needle) and the thread at the top is going through the eye of the needle.

竹（たけ、チク）

Meaning: bamboo

Components: This is a radical on its own, but I like to think of the first 2 strokes as a mini-radical also.

My hack: The first two strokes are the leaves and stem of a bamboo plant, and the vertical stroke is the stalk. And since bamboo grows in groves you have to have more than one plant.

OR

If you like the mini-radical approach, you make arrows out of bamboo stalks.

干（ほ·す、ひ·る、カン）

Meaning: to dry (something)

Components: 二 (two), 丨(walking stick)

My hack: If you want to dry something, just stretch it over 2 sticks (and let it air dry).

玉（たま、ギョク）

Meaning: ball, jewel

Components: 王 (king) and 丶(dot, drop)

My hack: I like to think of a fairy tale king who has lots  of jewels. Imagine that the dot is a giant gem in his ring, or that it is the royal orb (ball).

Painting by Gerard van Honthorst via Wikipedia.org

王（オウ）

Meaning: king

My hack: Imagine a king from a chess board, and focus on the horizontal lines. You’ll probably have to ignore the cross on the top, but the 3 horizontal lines and one vertical line should be fairly clear.

TIP: keep in mind the stroke order when you learn this one! Top, down, middle, bottom.

Photo by Manuel Marin