You might remember the meaning of the character 南 with this easy mnemonic:
My superstitious grandma always puts ten (十) upside down boxes (冂) facing south, with eyebrows (丷) drawn on it during a dry season. She thinks the boxes will scare the weather into some rain.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.