Hi all ,

I found this thread through google and found it really interesting. I'm quite new to this kind of learning methods, RTK, SRS, Anki, etc, so I would like to ask some newbie questions here (I did some search before posting this but didn't find exactly what I wanted, so if you can suggest old threads that answer my questions, that would be nice as well).

The questions are :
1. I understand that RTK method suggested that doing the Keyword in the front and Kanji in the back is enough, the inversion is not necessary.
- What if I want to recognize the vocabulary in Kana (Kana - English)?
- should I use the same strategy?
- and should I write the kana down on the paper like RTK ?

2. As you may have already noticed, I'm not a native English speaker. I'm from Thailand and English is my second language.
- Do you think there is any problem with this if I follow RTK method or memorize vocab using Japanese - English?
- Is it better to do it in my mother language ?

Thanks in advance ! ^^

In regards to question 2, doing English for RTK should be fine, but there are cases when obscure English words are used to seperate out kanji with very similar meanings. In those cases, I'm sure you can edit the keyword to use Thai, or put a hint in Thai on there. It won't have any negative effect, I think.

Hi!
I apologize if I'm wrong, but from your first question it seems like your mixing "keywords" and "meaning": the keywords given by Heisig are not the meaning of the kanji: kanji can have different meanings depending on context, position in the sentence, and being or not part of a complex word made of more than one kanji.
Heisig methos gives you a great advantage in learning vocabulary after finishing his book(s), but learning vocabulary (like the meaning of kana words) is different than learning kanji.

That said, if you haven't done it yet, I suggest you to search info about a thing called "Core 2k" (which is followed by Core 6k and Core 10k). There are different versions of it, with small changes in their name and some different tweaks, but all of them are good ways to learn vocab.

Getting to your second question.
I'm also not a native english speaker (I'm Italian), and I'm using RTK with English keywords (I'm at frame 812 or something like that). Sometimes understanding the keywords or distinguish between similar keywords can really be a pain, but translating the keywords in your language (unless you find some table with Thai keywords out there) would require some hard work and it's quite prone to errors: you need to have a different keyword for each kanji, some of the english keywords won't have a clear translation in your language, etc.
If you'd like to do it anyway, consider posting the results in this forum, so that other people from your country will be able to use it! :-)
Otherwise, if you're online just google words you don't understand, and try to work some solution when two keywords look to similar in meaning on a case-by-case basis.

But if your concern was more about wanting to make stronger connections between Japanese and Thai (and not between Japanese and English), don't worry and go on with the English keywords... Heisig himself agrees on the fact that when you'll start to learn vocabulary and real japanese, the keywords will (and should) vanish, and you'll just know how to write Japanese... so, it doesn't really matter the language of the keywords, as long as you can use them effectively.

http://kanjimania.wordpress.com/archivio-kanji/

for Italian learners this could be helpful. The translation isn't always accurate but in many cases it's good inspiration.

Ephel Wrote:Hi!
I apologize if I'm wrong, but from your first question it seems like your mixing "keywords" and "meaning": the keywords given by Heisig are not the meaning of the kanji: kanji can have different meanings depending on context, position in the sentence, and being or not part of a complex word made of more than one kanji.
Heisig methos gives you a great advantage in learning vocabulary after finishing his book(s), but learning vocabulary (like the meaning of kana words) is different than learning kanji.

That said, if you haven't done it yet, I suggest you to search info about a thing called "Core 2k" (which is followed by Core 6k and Core 10k). There are different versions of it, with small changes in their name and some different tweaks, but all of them are good ways to learn vocab.

You are so right, I mixed them up. What I really meant is "meaning" not keywords, sorry about that. And the reason I asked this question is because I have been taking Japanese class (before I realize there is RTK available on this planet). So, my plan is to finish a set of these classes then move to RTK.

The point is that I want to try applying Anki to my class which I have to remember Kana vocab with their meaning. So I was wondering what I should do with the front and the back of each card.

Thank you so much