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Consistency of story metaphor - KANJI - 2006-08-29
This post is for the RTK non-purists among us: RTK lacks consistency of metaphor. And so I encourage members of this site to help make RTK more consistent. Examples will follow.
RTK is a monumental achievement and most of the inconsistency is attributable to the nature of the beast, kanji. But where we can add consistency, we should. So let me offer two examples of inconsistency and ways to bridge it.
RTK #44 Round
RTK departs from the original Baseball metaphor for the element "9". Here I offer a way to keep the baseball metaphor and therefore be consistent.
New Story: In a baseball game, players (NINE) often "go "ROUND the horn" when the team on defense (in the field) has caused an out. This is Squeezing out (EYE DROPPER) practice in the middle of a game! Going around the horn is in fact practice. I cannot think of another sport in which "practice" is permitted to be done during a game. Think of Japanese industriousness to squeeze out the most of something.
RTK #51 eminent
This kanji contains a primitive element EARLY but is not utilized in the story. Rather its alternate SUNFLOWER is. Eminent magician uses a sunflower for a magic wand.
New story: The eminent magician is "quick (early) to the draw" with the wand (in raising sunflowers). The wand slinging magician.
These may not grab you but my concern is what holds when memories rust over time. Consistency of metaphor does, I believe. The two examples above show one case when RTK completely departs from an established metaphor; and another case where RTK uses a secondary metaphor not a primary one.
Consistency of story metaphor - Raichu - 2006-09-03
I don't think a purist approach is practical. You just do whatever sticks best on a case by case basis. A lot of it is personal--what works well for one person doesn't work for another.
I don't like some of Heisig's primitives. For one thing, I've been brought up in Australia. What's a turkey? I've never seen one. I prefer emu myself, and it works well. What's baseball? I think it's a game like softball, but 9 works fine for me.
Consistency of story metaphor - KANJI - 2006-09-04
Assuming that many members of this site are new learners of RTK, I believe that they are or will be deceived by the ease of learning. What happens when 1) the cue is not the keyword but the kanji itself; 2) English keywords merge or conflict; 3) RTK kanji are completely removed from associative cues like RTK ordinal position; 4) long absence of study.
In my experience, inconsistencies--like varied meanings of primitives--became easily confused. Everyone, of course, has the freedom of choice and naturally will follow their own way of study. Probably there is no single RTK program. Even the "purists" will probably make some revision of RTK during the road of mastering 2000+ !
It would be ideal if the primitive elements kept the same meaning throughout. That is probably unrealistic given the kanji system itself. Nevertheless, I am trying to add consistency where I can. For example, see my story I contributed to this site for SMASH. I encourage other members to try also.
I can see that for any RTK-er outside of American culture, they will want to make changes, especially if unfamiliar with something cultural. Such people will probably be the easiest to convince that RTK, as ingenious as it is, can be improved.
Consistency of story metaphor - KANJI - 2006-09-04
Further to my previous post, let me say that my example given was just a simple one. I mentioned it not because it is imaginative--it is not--but only because RTK ignores the previously learned images for the related primitives and adds yet new ones.
Consistency of story metaphor - Pangolin - 2006-09-04
KANJI Wrote:I can see that for any RTK-er outside of American culture, they will want to make changes, especially if unfamiliar with something cultural. Such people will probably be the easiest to convince that RTK, as ingenious as it is, can be improved.Absolutely, I find extended metaphors based on baseball of no use, I didn't even know a team had 9 players. Others I don't find helpful are "thanksgiving" and the biblical references and such that pop up from time to time. In the case of thanksgiving, I can surplant the concept with that of the harvest festivals that churches in England have, but when Heisig extends that to hay-rides and mention of pilgrims garb, or whatever, I have to come up with something else.
Consistency of story metaphor - vosmiura - 2006-09-04
I'm new to RTK; learned 400 kanji at a rate of about 200 per week and seem to retain close to 100%. I may run into trouble later by presuming too much at this early stage.
For me associating the multiple meanings to each primitive seems to be working well so far. Take for example 塾 'cram school'. We could stick to one meaning "receive-round-soil" and come up with some story such as "Kids go to cram school to receive a solid grounded, well rounded education" however going to other meanings "tall kids-fat-soil" makes for a very funny and memorable story. Further it assists with remembering the next frame 熟 'mellow' together.
Regarding early/sunflower, 'early' is more abstract and easy to use in many stories that never use the 'early' primitive, whereas 'sunflower' is very concrete. If a sunflower is the hero of your story there can be no doubt the kanji uses the early/sunflower primitive.
For me the hardest thing so far has been keywords with similar meanings such as 'complete' and 'whole'. Second hardest thing has been remembering the order of primitives when writing the kanji. I've been able to get through it but with extra effort in stories, or in some cases (sadly) just pure memory.
Consistency of story metaphor - KANJI - 2006-09-04
To Pangolin: Interesting examples you gave how, despite the unity of language between both sides of the Atlantic, there still remains cultural gaps if not gulfs. People often imagine cultural gaps between very disparate cultures like East and West. But we have them also within the same diaspora, such as English.
It can get serious because it is said, for example, that Americans and British have a different sense of irony, which can lead to unfortunate outcomes for the people involved. I was really surprised because so much we take for granted. I mean, there were a couple of wars such as in 1776, but since those days we seem like almost one people, ha, ha. Anyway your cases are good examples how we need to keep in mind differences as well as similarities when operating between cultures. I hope the gaps in RTK will be much less frequent for you.
Consistency of story metaphor - KANJI - 2006-09-04
To vosmiura: You"re hot! You're hot! Eat 'em up. I anticipated as much in a previouis post, and so need not make any more comment other than to cheer you on. Nail those suckers!!