I'm about 1,000 frames in on Vol. 2 and I've noticed a bit of a problem. I'm doing ok with the readings (for the most part), using a variation of the method for Vol. 1 and a host of bad puns, but I have having issues with the compounds.

I'm ok at reading them, but remembering their meaning is a hit and miss affair, even with daily sessions of Anki. I'm sure part of the issue is that in many instances the compounds have very little to do with the meanings assigned in Vol. 1 (Unless I'm missing something in understanding how Large +Length +Husband = doing ok), but I'm just having one devil of a time remembering them.

Any suggestions? I'd hate to have to go back through 900+ kanji compounds and write stories for the meanings ala Vol. 1, or is this something to just keep repeating via Anki and then attempt to snag later on when working on vocab (In other words, reading only know, meaning later)?

JusenkyoGuide Wrote:I'm about 1,000 frames in on Vol. 2 and I've noticed a bit of a problem. I'm doing ok with the readings (for the most part), using a variation of the method for Vol. 1 and a host of bad puns, but I have having issues with the compounds.

That's not surprising; memorizing words out of context tends to be difficult.

Quote:I'm sure part of the issue is that in many instances the compounds have very little to do with the meanings assigned in Vol. 1 (Unless I'm missing something in understanding how Large +Length +Husband = doing ok)

This is because each kanji has a number of meanings -- usually the RTK 1 keyword is one meaning, but it's not always the most common one. Also words change meaning over time -- 丈夫 originally meant "big [i.e. strong] man" and then came to mean "strong" or "healthy", and at some point 大 got added to that and the meaning changed to "OK".

I don't have any suggestions because I didn't do RTK 1, but I think people usually do something like Core 2K or the like rather than RTK 2.

Welcome to the interesting world of the Japanese language. Though sometimes you can get a glimpse of the meaning of a word by its kanji, more times than not times you can't. The Heisig keyword is usually just one "sense" in which the kanji can apply meaning to a word. For any kanji you can have a dozen senses in which it applies to a word and sometimes it is just arbitrary. To get an idea of this, you can check out a Kanji Dictionary which usually shows a list of example compounds for a given kanji partioned by how kanji adds its "sense" to the word. The Heisig keyword is really meant for a way to remember the kanji and to be able to read and write it.
Many people who start using RTK don't understand this and are surprised when they go to study words that it can be difficult to memorize them. I've even seen on iKnow! a post that after 6000 words you should be able to "figure" out the meanings of any other words you come accross. That person will be in for a rude awakening. There's also the couple thousand hiragana/katakana words you should know that don't have kanji as well.
I suggest using a SRS program and use that for studying words with a deck like Core 6000 and its variants.