I've only just started recently, but on my second round of reviews I find the components and positions popping into mind almost instantly, before the stories do... is this a counterproductive shortcut my mind is taking? should I make an effort to remember the story each time? I find that if I think longer, the story comes back too, but the keywords are almost instant.

wakaritai Wrote:I've only just started recently, but on my second round of reviews I find the components and positions popping into mind almost instantly, before the stories do... is this a counterproductive shortcut my mind is taking? should I make an effort to remember the story each time? I find that if I think longer, the story comes back too, but the keywords are almost instant.

Story is a failsafe. You might forget writing, but you are less likely to forget story. So I think remembering the story alongside just writing during reviews is right thing to do. And sure stories are but a long route your mind is to cut short with practice.

While reviewing, even when the actual visual kanji comes to mind before the story, I still force myself to take at least a moment and recall the story before passing the card.

Too often a kanji is visually memorable today, but no longer so a month or two from now. That story saves your future butt.

On occasion, I will even go so far as to fail a kanji if I can recall the strokes but not the story. Especially kanji where I'm tweaking the story and want to reinforce the newly changed story.

This thread made me realise, when I'm reviewing, it's usually the visual of the kanji that I see first in my head, rather than the story. I wonder if my mind is suited for this course?

Though I do remember one time I'd completely forgotten the character and so I fell back on the story. When I wrote it out I looked at it and thought, "No way, I've never seen this before." But it was correct... heh. That was kinda creepy.

Even though the kanji pops immediately into my head, I force myself to recall the story in my mind before writing the kanji until the cards are in the 4th stack. I'm at 1400 kanji now and little nuances pollute my visual memory, like placement, or "sideways eye" or similar keywords.