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Extending RTK 1 methods to vocabulary acquisition - Printable Version

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Extending RTK 1 methods to vocabulary acquisition - fkb9g - 2016-03-27

I'm a beginner at Japanese. When learning other languages, vocabulary acquisition has been my biggest obstacle. I think I have some good ideas for maximizing vocabulary gains at the stage immediately after finishing RTK 1. Please read on and give me your feedback.

Background ¶ (feel free to skip): Memory works by association. English derives from Germanic and Romance languages, so English speakers are already familiar with the components of words from those families. We can readily use those components as "hooks" for making associations (even if not explicitly using a memory optimization technique). Remembering meanings for "false friends" can be easier than learning non-homonyms/non-homophones; the existence of the "inverse" association, plus the strangeness of the different meaning, provides a strong hook for association. Outside the Germanic and Romance languages, things get much harder; word lists take much longer to learn, and vocab facts learned by brute force memorization are soon lost.

My thought is more initial associations are always better for learning, and we should look for any possible sources for associations that could be used to speed up the uptake process (for any type of fact).

For Japanese, Heisig made the first big leap with RTK 1. Using Heisig's method with SRS, kanji writings can be learned and retained rapidly and easily. (I started out using the printed book + Anki and struggled, but experienced a major breakthrough when I started adopting better mnemonics from Kanji Koohi stories.)

After learning RTK writings, the standard advice is to study kun- and on- words together by recognition (Japanese→English) using a Core deck. I tried this approach and it was not a smooth process. On-yomi word meanings were mostly manageable (easy to medium difficulty) but kun-yomi words were impenetrable.

I'd like to try easier options, including unexplored or experimental routes. As they say, 急がば回れ. The interesting post-RTK 1 approaches mostly relate to memorizing kanji on-yomi readings (Heisig's on-yomi readings method from RTK 2, the movie method) and I'd like to concentrate on vocabulary meanings first.

If not Core decks, what's the "lowest hanging fruit" for the post-writings stage? I say associating on-yomi word meanings with stories in bulk. An advance learner needs a vocabulary of 10,000+ words, so why not front-load my vocabulary with a few thousand on-yomi compound meanings up front? I'm not the first with this idea (see DrJones' comment) but I can't find accounts of implementation.

My proposed way forward:
  1. correlate the meaning of kanji words (that have on-yomi only) with their English meanings (creating stories when needed)
  2. learn on-yomi readings (using Heisig's RTK 2/3 method or the movie method)
  3. learn kun-yomi readings and meanings in the context of sentences (with the benefit of meanings from step 1)
I've got a list of on-yomi compounds from the RTK 2 and 3 readings frames. My plan is to learn the meanings (kanji word→English word) and then re-use the list to practice readings (kanji word→Japanese reading). I also have the Kanji Odyssey 2001 vocab list (on-yomi and kun-yomi words) so that's another possible source for on-yomi compounds.

Here are story examples (word meaning in bold and RTK key words in italics):
  • 人気 A popular person is usually in good spirits (happy and cheerful).
  • 分担 To share work, split it into parts before shouldering the burden.
Has anyone done this at scale? Is there a better approach that I have overlooked?

Does anyone want to collaborate on this experiment?  Blush

RE: Extending RTK 1 methods to vocabulary acquisition - Matthias - 2016-03-27

(2016-03-27, 12:51 pm)fkb9g Wrote: I'm a beginner at Japanese. When learning other languages, vocabulary acquisition has been my biggest obstacle. I think I have some good ideas for maximizing vocabulary gains at the stage immediately after finishing RTK 1. Please read on and give me your feedback.
I think it is a good idea to tackle difficult (easy to confuse) words with mneomonics. That goes for the meaning and also for the pronounciation. But I doubt that this is very efficient to build one (two if it is also for pronounciation) mnemonic for each and every word.

Good for you that many words are somehow selfexplaining - most of the times a mnemonic is not necessary. E.g. 狭心症 is more accessible to me than angina pectoris.

And good for you that there are e.g. CORE decks which give the heisig keywords for the components:
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1217051330

I do not know the deck, but I guess it might be helpful for you. I like your examples but probably it is enough to see the keywords without building a mnemonic:
胡瓜 (きゅうり) → cucumber: "barbarian melon"