I really like how Hanzi Hero uses mnemonics to teach Mandarin. It’s similar to methods like the Hanzi Movie Method and Mandarin Blueprint. This makes learning characters more fun and easier to remember.
But I found a pain point me that you could fix. Please add a feature to change the actors and locations in the mnemonics, just like you allow us to add synonyms. Sometimes I can’t imagine the scenes well because I don’t know the actor or place. For example, Charlie Brown is not popular in my country, so it’s hard to connect with him. I also haven’t watched Breaking Bad, so Walter White means nothing to me. Another example is when the location is an office building. I’m still in high school and have never been to an office, so it doesn’t feel familiar.
I know there’s a way to add personal notes to change the story. But using the notes feels frustrating, especially if I make a mistake during review. It breaks my focus and makes learning harder.
Other competitor, Mandarin Blueprint lets users change actors and places freely, which helps a lot. But I chose Hanzi Hero because I’m learning Traditional Chinese, and Hanzi Hero supports that.
I hope you can consider adding this feature. It would help many users learn more easily and feel more connected to the mnemonics. Thank you for the great tool. I’m excited to keep learning with it.
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Thank you for a great tool - I have used WaniKani before, so I understand the system.
I am still very early on, but I do find that some of the name / place choices are based on spelling rather than sound. Example: -a = auditorium, but sound is “ah”, and you dont pronounce it “ah ditorium”. Similarly, chu = Chucky, but sound is “choo”. It seems you prefer the visual spelling reminder rather than the sound. If it was sound, I would have gone for Chewbacca. Just thoughts as I try to understand the system.
I agree this would be useful. I also have different actors and places, since I already had them from MB. @mandarren0 for what it is worth, i just have a separate list of actors and places which i have memorized after not too long. i basically ignore the HanziHero mnemonics for characters (sometimes i read them if i need an idea, but i still have to adapt them to my actor and place). I do look at the mnemonics for props and words.
One thing that MB emphasizes is that sets and actors should have personal meaning. That also helps make it fun, because scenes can be a playful trip down memory lane.
FYI, i also used to make notes of my scenes, but I don’t do that anymore. faster. and, worst case, i miss it, i recreate the scene, and it gets bumped down an SRS level.
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doubt it can be made optional memonics are all intertwined with the current definitions. Suppose you can ignore it like @welchn13 if you really want to go make your own menmonics. I did change some characters e.g xena to jhon cena, yugi to Usain Bolt. But memonics sometimes are a bit off with those changes but generally speaking they still work.Adds a little bit more friction tho.
Going in the other direction, when I came across something like Patrick or Jimmy Neutron, I ended up doing research into these characters. I read through the wikipedia article on them (they’ll usually be linked on the actor card) and then watched like 5 - 20 minutes of their shows. Just enough to get their ‘character’. It’s a little more upfront work but the idea of changing every story for every cards seemed like too much work.