Some questions. Before starting this book i already knew close to 1000 kanjis because of previous study in class.

1-Do I have to learn stories for those kanji i already know hos to write?

2-Since i still take classes, where i learn new vocabulary / kanji by repetition, is there any problem to continue the Rtk book way of learning in parallel with normal presential classes ? Will they contribute to each other?

Best!

Tough question! RTK was designed to start from scratch... and since you know 1000 kanjis, you're already half-way. I guess it depends on how good you "know" them... If you feel you current method is working well, you certainly could continue with it and forget about RTK. But if you'd like to try a new approach, I'd suggest doing all the 2000+ with RTK... the method builds on previous kanjis, so you can't really skip many of them...

The idea behind RTK is to:
-separate writing from pronunciation and meaning to learn the correct stock order,
-introduce Kanji in a logical order that gives Kanji building blocks before Kanji built from them,
-and help with keeping similar Kanji apart and remembering small details with mnemonics.

If you think you've covered those points in the 1000 Kanji that you've learned, then I don't think you have to memorize the stories for them, BUT you have to memorize the keywords for them, which might require memorizing the stories, most keywords are related to the meaning of the Kanij.

Try not to memorize the stories and if works continue.

You use RTK because when you want to be able to write kanji it saves you great amount of time that you spend on repetitive writing. For reading, RTK is not really essential although still convenient. Take a look at this post of mine. Good luck.

just learn the primitives (heisig speak for different components that make up characters) and skip the characters you already know.

and by know I mean the ones that you know so well that you can write from instinct like nichi, gatsu, youbi etc

it is still useful for telling apart similar kanji that you may have learnt but still have trouble with.

This way you have a system that you can use beyond the jouyou kanji.

As the others said, learning the primitives is important. So learn them and the kanji you don't already know.

For the ones you do know, one thing you could try is to just rename their keywords here to what you know them as -in Japanese or whatever. If you use an English word for it, use this site to check if another kanji already has that keyword - if it does you can rename that too (if you don't know it yet, you can look up alternative keywords using sites like kanjidamage.com and jisho.org, or sometimes people list alternatives in their stories here).

You could also do it Japanese Level Up style, and put an example word next to each kanji to give you context and help your vocabulary: http://japaneselevelup.com/2011/01/29/ho...t-1-kanji/

Eh... I'd probably start from scratch if I were in your position. If you already "know" how to write them as instantaneously as one becomes using RtK, then you'll just go through it quicker than most, which is a bonus within itself.

I don't know- the main part of RtK is to get through it, create those neural connections and start revising daily to re-enforce those mental kanji maps in your brain while learning actual Nihongo vocabulary to attach to those kanji. You either do RtK and get it done or not at all. Hesitating is pointless and does nothing to increase your Japanese, which is even more pointless for something which can pretty simply be done in a month or two.


Not saying you are hesitating or anything. Heisig's methods of "remembering the kanji" are really something you don't need to over analyze. The process is fluid in itself and now that I've finished it and learning actual Japanese vocab, I can tell you that it would sure be a right pain the sphincter if I had to exhaust any extra mental capacity in having to think about writing the kanji while trying to recall readings.


Essentially, RtK works so well because it can be completed very fast and the imaginative memory techniques involved are like creating a layer of subconscious memes- give it a few months and you won't be able to forget how to write the kanji. Learning over 1000 (if you choose to "learn" the remaining "Standard Usage Kanji") kanji the traditional way sounds like pulling teeth. Hell, even if I only had to learn to write 500 常用漢字, I would still use RtK, because it's easier that way.

Start from the beginning and include the Kanji you already know. Add some Japanese words to the Kanji you already know:

(front) strong - 勉きょう、つよ・い.
(back) 強

You get the full benefits of the RTK method (learning the primitives and building block Kanji), and a way to maintain writing ability for Kanji you already know. Good luck.

I see a primary value in getting RTK over with quickly, having the benefit of being mainly familiar with the characters but being able to get into using them to learn vocabulary quicker. I wouldn't add characters I already know well.

If you want to use the method to get writing down however, and if you're currently not using an SRS to review the 1000 characters you "know", I would definitely add them into the reviewing cycle. I'm not questioning your knowledge on them, but I think it should be recognized that you will forget the writing (the ability to construct the characters in your head, which is what RTK teaches) of characters you don't review or write regularly - while you retain the ones you keep reviewing because of RTK.

If you know a character already, and it isn't used as a primitive for the following ones, then you don't need to learn its keyword. I can't think of any way in which that would help you. So you have two options:
1. add your own keyword/ other hints (hiragana writing of words it's in) to the question, to circumvent the need to remember the English keyword;
2. suspend the Kanji altogether.

I think it's pretty obvious that 2. is the better option. 1. is a a waste of time. In fact it wastes more time than going through the full deck would.

As for finding out whether a kanji is used as a primitive somewhere in the book, for that you're gonna need a search-able electronic copy of the book (a pdf, for instance). Whenever you suspend a kanji, you need to search for the keyword, make sure it's never used elsewhere (or it's only used for kanji you already know).