Visualising different component in hanzi

HanziHero
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For the hanzi character 再 again, i can visualize a rack and a crossbeam, rather than a rack and the ground? If the ground was not attached to the rack, that would work ok for me, but because it is attached, my visual mind immediately sees a crossbeam in front of the rack of supplies, rather than a rack underneath the ground. The adjusted mnemonics will read: Again and again the mischief students move the rack to the inconvenient place behind the bathroom crossbeam, annoying Zelda once again.

I have been using my notes, to modify some of the stories to my liking, but until now, my modifications always use the allocated HH components.

Down the track, how important it is to recall the HH allocated components, rather than your chosen HH component for any given character? I do not think it really matters, right?

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There’s only really 2 cases where the radical composition has an ‘objective’ correct answer. The first is in identifying the primary Kangxi radical of a character, since that’s how they are organized in dictionaries and sorted in computer systems. Incidentally, 再 is considered 冂 + 4 strokes. The second case is etymological. Most characters are phono-semantic compounds where one radical has to do with meaning and the rest of the character is phonetic (gives a hint for the reading). In that case it makes sense to use those radicals in the mnemonic. You can usually find such an etymology on wiktionary. However, 再 is of uncertain origin, so there is no ‘historically correct’ way to remember it.
In terms of sticking to HH decompositions, it really depends. Some people adhere religiously and like the consistency of it all, whereas I mainly abandoned the HH component and sound tricks around level 8, as my brain got used to absorbing characters I started mostly using those etymology things I mentioned earlier, as well as the loose correspondences to Japanese readings of characters that I already know

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Thank you so much for your feedback. It opened up new perspectives to solve this saga, particularly after visiting Vikipedia. :grinning:

“Some people adhere religiously and like the consistency of it all,”

I am one of those people, novice level in here, actually on the rebound after having rushed through sk1 last year. Three months off-line and I am on the come back reset. Taking it slowly, but securely, I think :grinning:

Back to this frustrating 再 again hanzi saga. All because I could not see the right HHcomponents in it, to match HH storyline. That 工 cross beam kept jumping at me :smile:

But today I came across the sk3 component 土 soil that can nicely tie everything together with the HH plot, except that I have to add the a 3rd component to the 再 again hanzi: 土 soil, but at least I got rid of the 工 cross beam :rofl:

For my notes only:
Modified second sentence in HH 再 again hanzi mnemonics:
“She sees a pile of 土 soil, next to a hole in the 一 ground in the corner of the bathroom and goes over and finds the 用 rack”.
I can now clearly see that 用 rack buried in the 土 soil under 一 ground :clap::raised_hands:

On the other hand if we were to take into consideration the stroke order, we have to paint a somehow different story and components.
Just wondering: will the stroke order give an ink of how many and what components form the hanzi?
Stroke order for 再 again is:
1st. 1 stroke for Ground component
2nd. 2 strokes for a Hood component
3rd. 3 strokes for a Soil component

If we were to adopt this stroke order, the modified mnemonics should be something like this:
“Zelda is in the bathroom, looking 再 again for school supplies that have repeatedly gone missing. She sees a pile of 土 soil, next to a hole in the 一 ground in the corner of the bathroom and goes over and finds the half buried missing supplies as well as a 冂 hood that the mischief students must have left behind… It looks like the high school students are playing tricks on her 再 again.”

In any case, whether I choose to use the 用 rack or the 冂 hood , the addition of the 土 soil component to the 再 again character, makes it clearer for me to hook it in my memory for easier recall.

Again (no pun intended), thank you so much for your feedback. :grinning:

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