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Having problems with the primitives - andikaze - 2014-01-01
Hi there,
I have a terrible problem while learning (got 540 or so down so far), and that's the primitives. While the early ones up to and including ones like fiesta or march stick, and some of the later ones do, too, like devil, others, like beg just refuse to do so. I already had a hard time with graveyard and got it down only because I had to write it so often.
I started out here with RevTK, then migrated to ANKI. I'm a German living in Japan, using an English version of RTK, looking up all the strange keywords on dict.leo and fighting my way through. My Japanese is good enough to live and work here, and if not for the Kanji, I'd take the N2, maybe the N1 (but I think I have to work on my vocab a bit for that).
While I can write everything I do remember, those primitives give me hell. Stuff like angel I get wrong every time - or used to, until I changed it for myself to "high heavens". But a lying man and a fish hook just don't click for me.
What can I do to make it better? Any ideas?
Thank you!
Having problems with the primitives - Linval - 2014-01-01
Don't be afraid to make up your own primitives. Ultimately, what matters is that you remember the kanji - primitives and their names are just a way to make them stick. The stories you can find on this website are usually full of great suggestions for alternative primitive names.
If a primitive is composed of several elements, you can always use those individual elements instead, or only some of them to make your own primitives - again, what matters is that you remember the kanjis. No one is ever going to ask you to decompose your kanjis into primitive - ever. Primitives are just tricks to make the stories stick. So don't sweat it too much, and work those elements in a way that works for you. Even if your stories end up less than ideal by your standards, sheer repetition will make up for it. That's the power of the SRS.
Having problems with the primitives - andikaze - 2014-01-01
Yea, I wondered about that. Heisig warned that changing the names could result in conflicts later. I then read in some thread here about someone, who used "spear" instead "fiesta", then had to change the real "spear" to "lance" and still got it wrong sometimes.
Do you think doing a deck with only the primitives would help?
Having problems with the primitives - Japisfun25 - 2014-01-01
I was right about where you are when I started to realize I was just forgetting a lot of the kanji. I was just short of 600. I would recommend slowing down. That is what I did. Now I fail every card when I don't know it in a few seconds. That has helped a lot. The problem is if you just kind of know a kanji and press the good or hard button than you will remember it even less the next time you see it. This only builds and it only gets worse. I would recommend failing every card you don't know cold so that you see it everyday until you know it good. Keep us posted on your progress. Good luck.
Having problems with the primitives - andikaze - 2014-01-01
Thank you. I figured something must be wrong, because I have retention rates from hell, and it gets worse every day. I used to add 40 a day, but right now only do my reviews and add like 5, until I got them all down.
My stories are weak, and I've not been doing it for long, so the effects of ANKI couldn't fix my memories yet. It's all a bit sad ^^
When I know that "the guy awoke after the siesta being thirsty and looked for some water" contains water and siesta and can't write siesta, that's when I wish the primitives themselves would be parts of the deck itself, too.
I now got a separate deck for the primitives. Hope that'll help me. I'll also be more strict.
Having problems with the primitives - kassia - 2014-01-01
I'm also having lots of trouble with primitives. Specially ones that just seem super forced (like siesta for example). I might also consider making a separate deck for primitives too!
Having problems with the primitives - andikaze - 2014-01-01
Another problem with this is, the reviews add up very fast. I saw some Kanji several times and hit my forehead because I used to be able to write them, but then forgot how to write a primitive while still remembering the story for the Kanji.
Then there are some obscure keywords like "muzzle" that seem to have a lot of meanings. English is not my mother tongue, as I have written above, and I had to follow through all Kanji using this, reading through all the stories and think hard until I just decided to make a mental note "muzzle = gag = thing to make one shut up". Holy crap.. ^^