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+--- Thread: RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? (/thread-1701.html)
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - smujohnson - 2008-07-21
Hi,
A lot of threads here have addressed what is the best way to learn the Onyomi (and maybe the kunyomi) readings of the Kanji. But, has anyone here actually learned the onyomi and kunyomi from RTK2? If so, please speak up, let your voice be heard, and warn us whether this was a great way to do it, or if there are better ways.
Much appreciated!
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - revenantkioku - 2008-07-21
I "completed it" by transcribing every compound from the book to a spreadsheet, put that into Anki and suspended them all, and slowly look up sentences for the words.
Not much, but something. It's kinda nice when I don't really find any sentences on my own in a day, and just use the words for inspiration as what to grab from a dictionary.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - mikemikepw - 2008-07-22
I've spent about 26 days on it now. I'm up to frame ~1700. I've placed all the frames that i've learnt into anki and have been using it to review/study. No problems so far.. well except that it's taking me approx 5 hours/day to clear about 500 reviews/day. So far memory retention is still about 85%.. I would say that using the RTK2 book is much better than if i had to brute force everything. Haven't tried the popular(on this site) kanji in context text book method though.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - erlog - 2008-07-22
I think the on-yomi/kun-yomi distinction is fairly unimportant, and that RTK2, for the most part, is a solution looking for a problem. Learning the readings of the kanji isn't that difficult provided your vocabulary is large enough. The JLPT tests typically require a large enough vocabulary to make readings for kanji within the test fairly straightforward. Trying to brute force readings in the way that RTK2 suggests doesn't seem worth it.
Better would be to learn the readings through new vocabulary. That's what I'm doing. It works fine. I kill two birds with one stone. I learn more vocabulary while learning new kanji readings.
However, I will admit that the first half of the book will take you far enough to make the purchasing of the book worth it. The second half is just nonsense, though, as far as I'm concerned.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - strugglebunny - 2008-07-22
I've already found that I'm picking up readings as I learn new vocab and I'm just shy of 400 in RTK1. Hopefully as my vocab increasing (as others have mentioned) I'll find RTK2 superfluous.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - Dragg - 2008-07-22
One advantage of RTK 2 is that it should help you to be able to confidently use a dictionary for unknown compounds much sooner than if you were only learning through contextual readings. Also, being able to consciously recognize signal primitives should make reading feel more natural and can help prevent the kanji keywords from becoming too much of a crutch in the future.
Imagine if every time a non-English native came across a word like "understand" he had to break it down into two smaller words: "under" and "stand" which he, in turn, had to interpret semantically as "below" and "arise" before the pronunciation finally popped into his brain. This is similar to how I was reading many Japanese words before RTK 2. Its an excessive layer of processing that no native ever has to deal with on a conscious level.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - gibosi - 2008-07-22
Unlike erlog, I do not have a large vocabulary so I have been using RTK2 to learn the onyomi readings and to build vocabulary. Like mikemikepw, the structure it provides is working very well for me, however, I am moving at a much slower pace than he is. As to the question of actually completing the book, I am not sure. I have no doubt that I will finish the onyomi readings, although I may skip over the most obscure Buddhist readings at the end. And I am not sure how useful the section on kunyomi will actually be. But again, for learning the onyomi, it is working for me.
RTK2, has anyone here actually completed it? - yukamina - 2008-07-22
erlog Wrote:\ The JLPT tests typically require a large enough vocabulary to make readings for kanji within the test fairly straightforward. Trying to brute force readings in the way that RTK2 suggests doesn't seem worth it.The way I see it, JLPT is the one that has people "brute forcing" readings and vocab.
People find lists of information and try to memorise it.
Quote:Better would be to learn the readings through new vocabulary. That's what I'm doing. It works fine. I kill two birds with one stone. I learn more vocabulary while learning new kanji readings.What? It's the same thing. In RTK2 you learn the readings through vocab.
The kun-reading section of RTK2 should be skipped, I think. It doesn't say what each reading means...and well, that's basically learning a huge list of words that you don't know the meaning of. 明 has many readings(あかるい あきらか あく あける あかり and probably more) but they don't all mean 'bright'. You have to learn the meaning of each word.