I recently took a look at the characters I’ve been having most trouble remembering and was surprised at what I found. Since starting to work my way through the Heisig method for remembering the Hanzi, I’ve been amazed at how easy it has been to remember some seemingly complex characters. So it struck me as strange to realise that the characters below are the ones I have most difficulty memorising.

Those of you not familiar with the Heisig method for learning to remember Hanzi Characters may want to take a look at some of Greg’s excellent posts on the topic over on his Mandarin Segments blog.

• 贯 – to pierce
  
  One of the problems I face with 贯 is that I’m often replacing the 母 (mother) with 女 (woman). When recalling the image associated with this character, I don’t have a problem visualising the pearl earrings hanging from pierced ears. However, I’m not able to make the distinction between woman and mother. Perhaps this image would be more memorable if it weren’t the ears that were being pierced.
  
  
• 省 – to economize
  
  This character is made up of two components, 少 (few) and 目 (eye). I often substitute these component parts for 小 (small) and 口 (mouth) respectively. I’m not too sure how, but somehow I think Mikey (from Monsters Inc.) needs to get involved in resolving this confusion: fewer eyes and all…
  
  
• 升 – metric liter
  
  I can’t blame anything other than a lack of attention to detail for getting this character wrong so often. I’m forever confusing it with similar characters such as; 什 and 仟. But, a second glance at the character 升 reveals the 十 (ten) which is often associated with the metric system. Now all I have to do is somehow link this with a measure of liquids. Can anyone else see the ‘fl‘ in there? I know fluid ounces isn’t a metric measure, but you can’t have everything can you?
  
  
• 同 – same
  
  For some reason, I regularly confuse this character with 如 (be like), 肖 (resemble), and 若 (as if). Show these characters to a native speaker and they’ll remark how completely different they are. To me, this highlights one of the shortcomings of the Heisig method; the dependence on a single keyword for the meaning. Look any of these characters up in the dictionary and you’ll find a far more descriptive explanation of the meaning. Fleshing out the stories for each of these characters with details from the dictionary definitions has helped resolve the difficulties here.
  
  
• 均 – equal
  
  When writing this character, I find myself forgetting to include the 土 (ground) on the left. Without this, we are left with 匀 (uniform), which whilst not dissimilar in meaning, is in practice a separate character. Again, resorting to a more complete dictionary helps resolve the confusion. 匀 can also mean ‘even’, which can be considered as a grouping of two, i.e. an even number. So, all I need to do is to make an outrageous statement like, “For everyone in China to be considered equal, their land must be divided evenly, with each couple sharing an even plot of land.”
  
  
• 切 – to cut
  
  With this character, I’m always getting the relative sizes of the components wrong. I have a tendency to write the 七 (seven) much larger than the 刀 (knife). To solve this, I just have to remember the seven tiny teeth on the large kitchen knife I’m using to cut my way through everything in sight.
  
  
• 越 – to surpass
  
  This is another one of those characters where I have trouble remembering the relative sizes of the components. On the left we have 走 (to walk) and on the right we have a primitive component (not actually a character itself) meaning parade. I’d imagine that if two parades are trying to surpass each other for recognition, the participants are going to be more concerned with walking than they are with enjoying the parade. Walking is therefore formost in the minds of all involved, and also foremost in the character 越.
  
  

From this simple exercise I’ve realised two things I need to improve on as I progress through the book. Firstly, the more vivid the image associated with each character, the easier it is to remember. This is especially true for characters where the keywords have similar meanings in English. Secondly, when struggling to form that perfect image for a problematic character such as those listed above, turn to a dictionary. Very often, the subtleties in meaning help clarify the image you have formed.