Administrative Assistant
Originally from Austria, Ulrike Narins now lives in San Francisco, California, where she works as a software developer.
She has always been interested in languages and had started studying Japanese a few times, but in 2003 she finally got hooked and has not stopped since. In 2007 she studied at the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki (Aichi Prefecture) for four weeks, staying with a Japanese family for total immersion.
She loves Japanese culture and is completely intrigued by the complexity of the language. She will never run out of fascinating and surprising stuff to discover about this language.
Ulrike likes to examine each kanji in detail, but greed often gets the better of her and drives her on to the next character. She hopes that Joy o’ Kanji will help her linger longer with each kanji and savor it in all its beauty.
Her favorite kanji is usually the one she is learning at the time. She loves creating mnemonics that help her remember the meaning of any given kanji. For instance, the big characters in Ulrike’s photo are 高橋節郎 (たかはし せつろう: the name of a lacquerware artist), though only the last two kanji are fully visible. The final character, 郎 (ロウ: young man; male name suffix; counter for sons), combines 良 (a component meaning “good”) and 阝(a component meaning “village” when it is on the right side of a kanji). Ulrike's mnemonic: “In this village (阝) a man is only a good (良) son (郎) when he can row ( ロウ).” She especially likes when she manages to weave a hint about the yomi of the kanji into the mnemonic.
