You might remember the meaning of the character 猪 with this easy mnemonic:
I've seen a cat (犭), ten (十) dogs, one (一) earth (土) worm, a snake that can slash (丿) you with its fangs, but never a pig under broad sun (日) light.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.