Oh, I never considered that people would do RTK on it's own separate from studying Japanese or put off their Japanese study in order to do RTK. I realize that Heisig talks about that in the preface, but it seemed like bad advice that few people here end up taking.
If the question were phrased as, "when should I start studying real Japanese instead of just Heisig," then I would say as soon as possible. Since the question was phrased as a kind of "when should I quit?" my stock answer was "never." I probably should have read more carefully.
I agree that you shouldn't put off studying real Japanese in order to finish RTK3. I studied both at the same time. There were some weird holes in my knowledge that didn't get plugged until kind of late, but I think as long as someone doesn't copy me in taking like 6 years to finish RTK then they should be alright.
I would start Heisig and Genki at the same time, and prioritize the kanji that come up in Genki out of their usual order in Heisig. By the time you hit the chapters in Genki where kanji start showing up I think you'd have a few hundred Heisig kanji under your belt. Some of those would cross over with Genki, and so they would kind of reinforce each other.
I really think doing RTK on it's own without studying Japanese is asking for trouble. RTK gets so much easier when you start developing your own sense for and relationship with the kanji in the context of the actual language. There's too many synonyms in RTK1 for me to keep straight without using Japanese keywords and adding more English keywords for certain kanji.
If the question were phrased as, "when should I start studying real Japanese instead of just Heisig," then I would say as soon as possible. Since the question was phrased as a kind of "when should I quit?" my stock answer was "never." I probably should have read more carefully.
I agree that you shouldn't put off studying real Japanese in order to finish RTK3. I studied both at the same time. There were some weird holes in my knowledge that didn't get plugged until kind of late, but I think as long as someone doesn't copy me in taking like 6 years to finish RTK then they should be alright.
I would start Heisig and Genki at the same time, and prioritize the kanji that come up in Genki out of their usual order in Heisig. By the time you hit the chapters in Genki where kanji start showing up I think you'd have a few hundred Heisig kanji under your belt. Some of those would cross over with Genki, and so they would kind of reinforce each other.
I really think doing RTK on it's own without studying Japanese is asking for trouble. RTK gets so much easier when you start developing your own sense for and relationship with the kanji in the context of the actual language. There's too many synonyms in RTK1 for me to keep straight without using Japanese keywords and adding more English keywords for certain kanji.
Edited: 2012-04-12, 8:08 am