Metaphysical mnemonics

Let's consider John's language learning journey, "From Beginner to JLPT N1 in 2 Years":

“I highly recommend the Genki series. That's what I used for a semester before coming to Japan. The only issue with the books is that they don't present a good way of learning the kanji. James Heisig has an amazing book called Remembering the Kanji. It’s a legendary book in Japanese language learning circles. I used Heisig's book for six months to learn the first thousand or so common use kanji, and then I learned the next thousand in about two weeks. Basically in this book you learn radicals, and then you invent stories that describe how those radicals work together to form more complex characters. And the stories that you invent encapsulate the meaning of that character. You're basically making up these mnemonics that help you to recall how to write the kanji, and they help you recall the meaning of the kanji, so it's a very useful way of learning the kanji quickly. It’s tons of fun. The more effort you put in, the more time you put in, the better you're going to learn these very quickly. The only downside to Heisig's book is that you don't learn the readings. That's where, for me, manga played a very important role.

There are 2,136 common use kanji characters. The nice thing about manga is that it usually has furigana for each kanji character that appears. I learned the kanji from Heisig's book and so I knew the meanings of the kanji that I was encountering, and then there were pictures, I knew basic grammar from the Genki book, so really all I had to pick up from these words was how to read the kanji. Manga is nice because it's fun, you're probably going to read something that you're interested in, and so it just naturally seeps into your brain.

Learning the readings of the Japanese kanji improves listening as well. Other things that I use to improve my listening: I watched tons of anime, I listened to a bunch of music in Japanese, and I watched a bunch of instructional YouTube videos about Japanese. I mean that's really it: saturate yourself in the language, listen as much as you can just find something that you enjoy and partake in it.

There still was one problem at this point I wasn't able to express my thoughts and ideas clearly, and that's why I actively started practicing output. What I ended up doing was talking to myself in my room. I would also journaled a lot by hand and also on my computer or phone or whatever. And then one day I was just able to speak fluently. I'm not even kidding or exaggerating. There was one day, I distinctly remember the day, when I realized "Wow, I can speak fluently. I can use Japanese in a way that's comfortable. And I could say what I want to say the way I want to say it."

My love of the language and my interest in the language was what enabled me to pass the N1 test in two years. I was just enjoying the learning process. I was enjoying reading manga, watching anime, making friends, having new experiences, discovering things about the country and the culture that motivated me day after day after day after day to improve myself."

Heisig's method (mnemonics) isn't new to me at all. Other sites (like Tofugu) have incorporated it as well. Heretofore I have avoided writing about mnemonics because it always seemed to me to be more like an idiosyncratic, entirely arbitrary parlor trick, a sort of "hack" that is exploited for the stage by mnemonists and contemporary savants such as Daniel Tammet, but otherwise lacking in any rigorous principles. I have a natural aversion to that sort of stuff. But now that I think about it, after recently considering the importance of kotodama, the soul of words, which is basically how words embody metaphysics, Heisig's method no longer has to be arbitrary at all. I had previously imagined that the etymology of words was the only nonarbitrary associative method for learning. The problem here is that current forms and original meaning have become increasingly disconnected through the long path of language evolution. Etymology is an inherently fraught, not to mention, difficult approach for one to take. (Chinese roots can come later.) The more direct narrative association is likely not only far easier, but a better reflection of the embodied kotodama. Andrew Scott Conning wrote "The mind is far better at remembering ideas that are accompanied by sensory and emotional impressions than those arrived at through logical abstraction". He consistently favors concrete visual imagery. It's worth noting that the author of the above video transcript, John, has several videos on translating the Bible, so metaphysics is clearly important to him as well (Christian metaphysics in his case). In short, I think I could use the Heisig method of mnemonic associations, but my associations would correspond with the dual aspect monism of hospitality. Recall that in Basic Japanese Grammar, Everett Bleiler wrote: 

"Japanese grammar is very different from English grammar. This difference is not just a question of different forms and endings, as is often the case between English and German or French or Spanish or Russian; it is frequently a question of a different classification of human experience. ...Do not limit yourself to memorizing the construction of forms and idea-equations between English and Japanese. Try also to understand the psychology of language that lies behind this often very different way of talking about experience... In some ways Japanese is simpler than English, and in other ways it is more complex. It can be extremely simple in its expression of basic ideas, yet very elaborate in expressing the speaker's feeling about the ideas. The conversational situation affects expression more than it does in English, and forms of courtesy enter much more than they do in European languages. Japanese is extremely regular in its grammatical forms; the exceptions to the grammatical rules of formation can be counted on your fingers. On the other hand, syntax and sentence structure can become very complex, and idioms are numerous."

My narrative mnemonics of hospitality will likely draw upon supernaturalism, as do all of the earliest explanations for hospitality. I am familiar with Greek myths, Christian parables, and Kabbalistic origin stories. Japan has magical realism, Onmyōdō, Kanzen Choaku (勧善懲悪), and folktales, that have influenced many contemporary writers, and popular films as well. These stories are used to teach about values and how to live a good life, the importance of kindness to others and responsibility for oneself. (And how to live with ethical integrity is good to know, after all one cannot effectively learn Japanese without getting enough sleep and exercise.) The bottom line is that host-guest mnemonics for pictograms are just the beginning, the importance of the metaphysics of xenia extends far deeper into helping us understand the weltanshauung of any language and culture, and to see new Gestalten. John's advice provides a good entry point into that world. But if that is still intimidating at first, remember it is important to “get out of your comfort zone” in order to broaden cultural understanding and enjoy the benefits of multilingualism. Perhaps these methods could be applied to assist in the retention of endangered languages as well, and keep them alive as living traditions and expressions of cosmoxenia.