Radical Mnemonics: 皆 & 階

I sometimes confuse the kanji for everyone with the kanji 
for floor—as in third-floor balcony. One kanji is the right-
hand piece of the other, minus the left piece called the radical, 
the way other is found in mother, which is also rather radical.

“Is floor a part of everyone, or vice versa?” I ask my husband, 
“Which one has beta (β) as the left radical?” “Beta?” he laughs. 
“I can kind of see it, yes. Floor has the beta.” So, everyone
is contained in the kanji for floor. I need a mnemonic:

Everyone is in the building on different floors—separate, 
alone. Or—better—there are enough floors to hold everyone. 
That really is a radical idea, though it shouldn’t be.
But what if it were the other way around? What if

floor were inside of everyone? Would everyone be
an architect? Or would each person have many levels: 
would we each contain multitudes? But this is NOT the way
it is—this is a useless and confusing mnemonic. Some people

are just simple, inside and out; on the other hand, I’ve ended 
homelessness. Everyone is housed: the architects, the beta males, 
the mothers, and the others. All of us are standing on our balconies
gazing at the beta stars, the second brightest stars of every constellation.

Read more from Issue 20.2.