Mnemonic phrases to memorize numbers!

Japanese have an extremely intuitive way of memorizing things. Let’s see how.

Square root of 2

1.41421356…
人世人世に人見頃 (ひとよひとよにひとみごろ)
Meaning: It’s people’s world; people’s world. It’s time to observe people.

To understand, you must look at the hiragana. Each one (or more, depending on the case), points to a digit! Let me show you:

1(ひと).4(よ)1(ひと)4(よ)2(に)1(ひと)3(み)5(ご)6(ろ)

ひと is used in ひとつ, よ is used in よっつ, に means “two”, み is used in みっつ, ご means “five”, and ろ is used in ろく! Awesome eh? It seems to always fit well xD

But here are more examples!

Square root of 3

1.7320508…
人並みにおごれや (ひとなみにおごれや)
Meaning: Treat me as if you do to other people.

Beginning year of the Kamakura era

1192
いい国作ろう、鎌倉幕府 (いいくにつくろうかまくらばくふ)
Meaning: Let’s make a good country: The Kamakura shogunate.

The other day I was watching a TV commercial about a certain medicine that uses freshwater clams substances in it. They are called シジミ in Japanese. The medicine is used everyday. Well, can you guess the phone number to subscribe it?

xxxx – 443 – 012

xxxx – シジミ – 毎日

xxxx – しじみ – まいにち

し and じ are associated with “four”, み is used in みっつ, ま is used in まる (circle -> zero), い is used in いち that means “one”, and にち begins with に that means “two”! Awesome isn’t it?

When I find new interesting ones I’ll post here!