北
North
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| ほく | きた |  + ヒ |
Meaning: North
The nailbat and spoon are your weapons (what else would you do with a nailbat and spoon combination? Prolly nothing). What will you do with these things? You’re going up to the North Pole to take out that two-timing, scheming bearded elf slave-driver named Santa.
If you need help, think that you’ll use the nailbat to take out santa, and the spoon to dig a grave and bury him. Things might get kinda graphic in your head, but just know that it’s for the sake of memorization, and even santa has to make sacrifices some time. Also, focus on the location as well. You know that Santa is at the North Pole. Think about how that’s where you need to go to finish your job.
Reading: ほく
a ほ〜〜、すごいね。
That’s going to be the first part of this mnemonic. In the second part く, is going to equal “cool.” It’ll make sense in a second.
When you think about the North (especially the North Pole), you think about how cold (cool) it is. It’s freakin’ cold. So, when you think about someone expressing what they think about the North Pole, what would they say?
“ほ〜〜〜 Cool!”
It’s not the prettiest mnemonic, but it should get you to where you need to get (ほく), or at least very close, until you remember it naturally (you will, over time).
Go through the explanation a couple of times if you need to – make sure to sound out the (strange sounding) “ほ〜〜〜 Cool” and make the “L” in “Cool” nice and soft.
Vocabulary
Learn the one word below. There’ll be many more as you learn more complicated kanji.
a 北（きた）＝ North
- Meaning: The same as the kanji.
- Reading: The kun’yomi reading – just like most single kanji with nothing attached vocab words.