Post Your Pictoral Associations!

[Starry Starry Fright]

One of the best ways for English-speakers to learn Hiragana is to associate each character with a picture that reminds you of its sound. I'll post some of the ones I used to learn Hiragana back in my day. (I'm so old... crying ) Some of them might be a little hard to see in this font, so my apologies if you don't see what I'm talking about. In handwritten fonts they make sense, I promise. razz

あ (A) - This is a turtle with a bowtie saying AHHH.

た (TA) - This looks like the English syllable "Ta".

み (MI) - This is ME at 21 years old!

ら (RA) - This is a cheerleader's megaphone - RAH RAH RAH!

や (YA) - This is a German with a big pitcher of beer saying "YA!" (My old sensei was a wee bit racist, methinks...)

お (O) - This is a golfball flying "O"ver the golf tee.

ち (CHI) - This is a cheerleader, jumping into the air.

せ (SE) - This is a girl SAYing "I love you" on her boyfriend's lap.

... this may be cheesy to the point of cringe-worthy, but they really do help. What pictorial associations have you found/invented? Share them!  

[Kai Shi]

Oh man...I barely remember any of these anymore...I have some the same as Starry so I won't repost them.


く　- Looks like a beak of a 'ku'ckoo bird

し　- looks like a girls hair (shi) This is hard to get without the picture...

そ - Looks like stitches in sewing ('so')

に - Looks like a 'ni' cap (sorta...)

ぬ - A bunch of 'nu'dles with chopsticks in it.

の　- 'no' smoking

む　- if you use your imagination it looks like a cows head, and what does a cow say? 'mu'

よ - looks like someone playing with a yoyo

ん - kinda actually looks like n