What's the best direction for recall?

General Memory Chat
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I want to make a mnemonic system that will let me recall a Chinese character’s pronunciation based on its appearance.

Based on this post that I read recently:

I’ve started to think that if the arbitrary symbol can remind me of a location and a transformation of that location (e.g. turning into a tiger), I will likely to be able to vividly recall that scene. Now something about the scene needs to encode the pronunciation of the character… Haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

Other approaches to memorising Chinese characters that I have seen are normally about making the components of the character etymological/semantic “props” in a scene, and the scene is based on the character’s pronunciation.

Mandarin Blueprint’s Hanzi Movie Method is: location is based on the pronunciation, actors in the location are based on the pronunciation, and props in the location come from the character. E.g. 半 is Brad Pitt (pronunciation) in the toilets of the amphitheatre (pronunciation) saving a cross (十) from satan (丷) by cutting satan in half (meaning) with a razor blade (一).

Marilyn Method is: location is based on the pronunciation, actors in the location are based on the pronunciation, and the location may undergo transformation or have props in it according to the character components (e.g. 苗 is 艹 “flower” and 田 “rice field”, so the lobby of the Keio Plaza hotel (pronunciation) is now a rice field, and flowers grow from it and the flowers bloom into figures of Marilyn Monroe (pronunciation) )

Are you more likely to succeed in recall if the immediate cue (in this case, the Chinese character in front of your eyes) represents a location, or represents props?

Is it easy to go from 半 → 十 cross, 丷 devil horns, 一 razor blade → oh Brad Pitt was using those in the bathroom of the amphitheater? I think it’s unlikely that you will always recall the scene based only on the props.

What can you associate cues with to be most likely to recall the information you want to?

Chinese character Marilyn method critique
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(note: I’m learning Japanese, not Chinese, but I feel most problems are similar, so here are some thoughts)

A general note: the function of the mnemonics is to help you during the learning phase, after a while what you’ve learnt is automated and the mnemonics are going to fade (as they should), and seeing the kanji will lead to instant recognition of the word, without you remembering the stories and “dissecting” the kanji (cross + horns means…)… so it doesn’t really matter which way you arrived there, in the end, the important is that you arrived.

In my experience kanji recognition relies also heavily on something which is not included in the mnemonics, which is context, meaning that often I see a word in a sentence and I know what it means and how to say it (I can read the sentence aloud), but I wouldn’t be able to name the kanjis in isolation and list all their possible prononciations. Since I don’t need to take a “kanji test” I don’t really care, as long as I can read/understand.

That being said, it is a very good thing to think about what is the cue and what is the desired result. What is the situation you are in the most often and need to rely on the mnemonics? Or otherwise said, what are your pain points?

Maybe it’s that when I’m reading I simply don’t recognize words I already know written in kanjis.

For example, I see 未来 and don’t recognize the word instantly. Cue is the shape of the kanjis. The mnemonics use the components to tell me that the kanjis mean “not yet” and “come”, and in the context of the sentence I understand that it means future (and I know future is said “mirai”, so it was all I needed).

But maybe I’m hearing sentences (because I’m listening to someone talk or watching something without original subtitles), and I’m stuck because the sound “mirai” isn’t a word I automatically recognise. In that case the cue is the sound of the syllables mi+rai which I have to work with becaus I don’t have the written word.

Or maybe I see the word 未来 and I know/guess it means “future” so I understand the sentence I’m reading and what I’m missing is that I don’t know how to pronounce it (I can’t read the sentence aloud).

So if the “Marilyn” system is based on prononciation, it’s probably because the prononciation was the pain point of the person who created it. It fit their needs. The question is, what are your needs? You probably need to learn for a while before being able to say. (And it’s also possible that your needs are going to change after a while).