When I first started studying Japanese I used RTK. At first, it was really neat, and I used this site, and got a lot of laughs out of the creative little stories that came with each kanji. But, I gave up. I had already moved to Japan (never having studied any Japanese before), and I couldn't afford the time to study kanji with Hseig's method because I really needed to learn how to talk.

I studied a lot, several hours a day when I was not working or dead tired. At first when I told people I was using RTK, a lot of people who had intermediate or advanced levels in Japanese didn't really had any comments about this method or simply told me they think it's better to study with the high frequency kanji, and learn it holistically, with grammar, writing, reading, etc.

It's been a while since I was RTKing, and I think I've moved on to the other point of view, too. It took me a month to learn 300 RTK stroke and meanings, but it also took me a month to learn the 300+ Genki kanji that included the various readings, writings, kanji combos, and meanings.

I think RTK is a great method if you want to focus on the writing and have plenty of time and no pressure to learn grammar. I was really impressed at first by how much support this method has, that's why I used it in the beginning, but I'd really like to hear from those who are finished with this method, and are around the intermediate or advanced levels of Japanese as a whole. Looking back, was it worth it? Who would you recommend it for? It is its own method, and not for everyone. What do you think?

You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere (maybe in the foreword) that Hseig's method is only recommended for those who are learning this particular aspect of kanji, writing and bare bones meaning, and to intend to postone learning with other textbooks, or keep other methods very separate.

Personally I agree with you, I'd only recommend Heisig to someone who was already at an advanced level but just wanted to learn how to properly write the characters by hand. I'm not convinced it offers huge benefits from the beginning given the time and effort it takes to complete, but all people are different and for some it might be better.

Actually I think there are just perhaps a couple of personality types that are suited to it. One is those who are addicted to being able to count their progress ("I know 1456 Kanji!"), or people who have an extremely defeatist attitude from the beginning that Kanji is an impossible barrier to Japanese. For those people I think it might be enough of a moral boost to actually get them focusing on the Japanese language itself. This is why I think there ends up being so many arguments when it comes to RTK, because there isn't a ton of middle ground. I don't think anyone will learn Japanese faster by doing RTK first, but there is a group who 100% believe they HAVE to, so for them its a necessity because they said so. You can't really argue against that =)

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visual_jei Wrote:You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere (maybe in the foreword) that Hseig's method is only recommended for those who are learning this particular aspect of kanji, writing and bare bones meaning, and to intend to postone learning with other textbooks, or keep other methods very separate.

Yes, if you follow Heisig's advice to the T (nobody said you can't improvise a bit of your own) then you keep other methods "very separate" for typically less than a year. A realistic first pass through the book with good retention for the writing (and usually one common meaning) of 2000+ characters is 6-9 months.

Maybe that method is just not for you.

What's the point of RtK (Remembering the Kanji) ?

Many questions have also been addressed in RTK Volume 1 subforum.

Thread closed. Reason: mostly opinions and no genuine question does not invite constructive discussion.