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Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - Cerberus_Red - 2013-03-14
Still going through RTK 1. Enjoying the book a lot. Just wondering though are the actual meanings technically vocabulary someone learns? Like if way in the future I read Japanese and saw the kanji for tree by itself in the middle of a sentence would that mean the word is tree due to the meaning? Obviously, Kanji is mixed in with Katakana, Hiragana and other Kanji itself, but I'm talking about just if a kanji was by itself. Is this true or am I completely off on this? Either way, thank you to anyone who helps.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - chamcham - 2013-03-14
Cerberus_Red Wrote:Still going through RTK 1. Enjoying the book a lot. Just wondering though are the actual meanings technically vocabulary someone learns? Like if way in the future I read Japanese and saw the kanji for tree by itself in the middle of a sentence would that mean the word is tree due to the meaning? Obviously, Kanji is mixed in with Katakana, Hiragana and other Kanji itself, but I'm talking about just if a kanji was by itself. Is this true or am I completely off on this? Either way, thank you to anyone who helps.Sometimes yes.
Sometimes no.
How far are you into RTK1?
Kanji can potentially represent more than one concept.
So it's not always possible to represent one kanji with one keyword.
Sometimes Heisig uses a less commonly known meaning
for a certain kanji because he wants to use that meaning for another
kanji in a later chapter.
Also, keep in mind that kanji with weird, obscure meaning can sometimes
be kanji used mostly in names.
I would advise you to keep continuing RTK1. A lot of questions people have
about RTK1 are answered later in the book.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - Aspiring - 2013-03-15
The keyword does define the kanji.
However, most kanji have multiple keywords, with multiple applications in various Japanese words.
If you want to understand how kanji are defined, jisho.org provides kanji details, including all possible "keywords".
Heisig's purpose is not to teach you the keywords. His focus is to teach you how to write all the kanji.
As mentioned above, Heisig selectively chose keywords only for the purpose of creating an efficient mnemonic system to "remember the kanji"
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - uisukii - 2013-03-15
If it is an English or other non-Japanese language keyword, then no. Tree is tree, 木 is き.
木 is also ボク, モク, and can be こ, in compounds. き can also be the phonetic value of 来, 着, 気, 紀, 機, 期, etc. While the RTK keywood for 木 may be similar to the concept behind one of the potential meanings the kanji can be used for, you aren't really learning any functional vocabulary because when a Japanese person reads 木, they do not think "tree; wood; wooden; etc.".
A word is not a definition and while doing RTK, you are better of focusing on use the keywords for the mnemonic than trying to map them to Japanese vocabulary, as this may only serve to slow the process of having the mnemonics fall away and be replaced with actual Japanese, which is the ultimate goal.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - JapaneseRuleOf7 - 2013-03-15
Cerberus_Red Wrote:Still going through RTK 1. Enjoying the book a lot. Just wondering though are the actual meanings technically vocabulary someone learns? Like if way in the future I read Japanese and saw the kanji for tree by itself in the middle of a sentence would that mean the word is tree due to the meaning? Obviously, Kanji is mixed in with Katakana, Hiragana and other Kanji itself, but I'm talking about just if a kanji was by itself. Is this true or am I completely off on this? Either way, thank you to anyone who helps.Hmmm. A kanji that appears all by itself is usually going to mean something close to the keyword. But . . .kanji don't appear alone that often. Usually they're part of a 2 or 3-kanji word, and in that case, the meaning is subject to radical change. So yeah, 木 means tree and 犬 means dog. But these simple words only make up a small percentage of the Japanese language.
Most kanji are far harder to define than Heisig's keywords would lead you to believe.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - Stansfield123 - 2013-03-15
Nouns are usually made up of multiple Kanji. Often, the Kanji Heisig assigned the English translation of the noun to is one of those Kanji. i.e. 医者 is read いしゃ and means doctor. The first Kanji has the keyword "doctor", in RtK. The second is "someone". They both kinda make sense. You'll find that early on, with the most common words, this kind of logic will be pretty prevalent.
With verbs and adjectives it's even more simple early on, because the keywords are in fact usually the translation of the verb/adjective that Kanji most often shows up in (simple verbs and a lot of adjectives are usually written with just one Kanji, followed by hiragana conjugation).
Of course, Heisig tried to pick keywords that later on help you the most (as in the keyword that refers to the most common word the Kanji is used in), but he had to balance that with the need to also pick keywords that are unique and distinct from each other. So, sometimes, the keyword will in fact be as good as useless in helping you with a Kanji. But it's pretty rare, with the most common words. More often, the keyword is moderately helpful, but some extra memorization is required.
Later on, the keywords will outlive their usefulness, so to speak. Kanji are going to start showing up in words (be it nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) that are unrelated to their most common occurrence. But, by that time, there will be a second, even more helpful connection between the Kanji and the word: the Kanji's readings.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - Zgarbas - 2013-03-15
For the most part. Aside from what's already been said, sometimes even stand-alone kanjis can have multiple meanings. Usually they're at least somewhat related (e.g. 上 is up, but it can also mean superiors, and with okurigana it can mean ascent, eat, and a few other things), but not necessarily (縁 will most often mean edge, but it can be relationship, destiny, family ties, affinity, a Buddhist term, or a type of veranda).
However, as it was stated previously, as you encounter them you will slowly start associating all the important meanings with the kanjis, and usually the keywords are a good start.
Are the meanings for the kanji actual vocabulary? - AlgoRhythmic - 2013-03-18
I'm still a beginner that just recently finished RTK, and so far the keywords have proven to be very helpful. They often mean the same thing, and even in kanji compounds the keywords are often helpful. One example, 電話 - telephone, which consists of the keywords electricity and tale (makes sense right). Or 機械 - machine, which use the keywords mechanism and contraption, and the list goes on. Though of course as other people have stated there are also many examples where the keywords are not very useful, but for a beginner I think they are very helpful. But of course the long term goal is to replace them completely with readings.