English: courtesy
Formula: leave + mouse
Pronunciation: lǐmào 
Characters: 礼貌
Mnemonic: In mainland China it is common courtesy to leave a mouse when you aren’t at home. That way visitors will know that there is no need to knock.
Tone Hint: What is that on the ground? Běnd over to get a closer look (low tone). Òh! It’s mouse. They must not be home.
Let me know what you think of this. Please leave a comment below.
What a great site! In my personal experience, the mnemonic method is one of the most effective in expanding your vocabulary, far surpassing the boring memorization/drilling. Your picture/description combinations are very creative. My personal favorite is ‘leave a mouse‘ – very funny!
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That’s an amusing mnemonic
can I just ask how long it takes you to come up with each one? I wound up in a bit of an argument heated discussion a a while ago about the pros and cons of using mnemonics for language study – the other guy was saying that it took too long to come up with a mnemonic for every word… do you use a memory aid for each word, or just ones that present a particular problem?
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Twitter: chinesemnemonic
Let me answer that question in my next blog post here.
Part 2 of the post is here: http://www.mandarinmnemonics.com/editorial/how-long-does-it-take-to-come-up-with-each-mnemonic-2/
A terrific website, made me laugh. I’ve studied several languages, a bit of Mandarin in the past, most recently Thai. I’ve been knocking my head on the tones (Thai has 5 tones, too) but you’ve inspired me to keep plugging and come up with mnemonics of my own with the tones built in. Thank you!
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Twitter: chinesemnemonic
That’s great. I love it when I can make someone laugh and learn at the same time.
Be sure to tell your friends about the mnemonics that you come up with. When you tell others it instills the vocabulary deeper into you mind.
Nathan Cain´s last blog ..How long does it take to come up with each mnemonic? – Part 1