Hey, i am new to the site and just received my copy of RTK 1 the other day, as i started getting into the book and understanding the introduction, after going through frame 1-50 i feel like i am lost, like something is not right, the way i have been coming up with "stories" seems very wrong, for instance for the kanji "goods" frame 23, i came up with a story of

"the people come in masses to receive the goods to consume."

This seems wrong, as i think i have gotten mixed up with the primitive and keywords of making a story...and now i am lost altogether, Can any one point me in the right direction?

So now my stories and meanings and primitive meaning are getting jumbled up, and are hard to remember, and now i can't stop reviewing my SRS, and going back over over and over, i just need help, a good and sure way to start out in RTK, i know there may be many variations of methods, but experience always helps the non experienced such as my self, because honestly, right now, i'm lost as hell.

so if ANYONE can help me out, i'll be eternally grateful!...thank you in advance.

Goods contains the primitive "mouth" so your story must contain both the keyword "goods" and the primitive keyword "mouth":

"Three hungry mouths waiting for the goods to come." (taken from this website)

Look also at the word "three" that help you remember that "goods" is made by three "mouths".

Keyword: Label, or "meaning" of a kanji as a whole. They're marked in bold
Primitives: The smaller parts that make up a kanji. They're in italics

The story you make for each character should make you able to review each kanji in a way like this:
1. You see or think of the keyword of the kanji
2. You remember and imagine the story
3. You recognize each primitive in the story
4. You put the primitives together into a kanji

So in your story for "goods" you don't seem to even be thinking of the primitive mouth, the three squares.

If you didn't know, there are pages for each story where people can share them. I suggest to keep making your own and coming to the pages when you need help or inspiration.
http://kanji.koohii.com/study/kanji/23

Thank you guys i really apreciate that, but what about an SRS? should i review it now?　Or study it later on when i gather a sizable ammount of kanji?

And what do you recommend for writting the kanji, with out jumbling them up?　

You can start doing SRS now as long as it doesn't interrupt your establishing a solid daily routine of adding new kanji/continuing through RTK. You probably shouldn't go more than 350 kanji without starting some SRS just so you won't have to relearn things which would interrupt your learning the new ones. You also don't want to surpass your progress in the book with your progress in the SRS deck, so that's why you might want to wait a couple hundred before adding the cards. Make sure you do both everyday, but the most important thing is finishing the book and you can catch up in SRS later.

As for jumbling the cards, just take your time learning correct stroke order as it's described in the book. I would also recommend Skritter.com. It's a pretty fun and easy way to learn how to write characters. If you use Skritter just five to ten minutes a day I think you'll become a natural at writing. You don't NEED it, but it's a pretty cool site/system that really helps you get the rhythm and logic of the stroke order. Once you learn the stroke order it's pretty consistent across all kanji, and the weird--but fun--characters (like 必) are explained by Heisig.

Have fun. Stay diligent.

cophnia61 Wrote:Goods contains the primitive "mouth" so your story must contain both the keyword "goods" and the primitive keyword "mouth":

"Three hungry mouths waiting for the goods to come." (taken from this website)

Look also at the word "three" that help you remember that "goods" is made by three "mouths".

This is exactly right. Also the primitives and key word should be made to work together in as logical a way as possible.

And for me anyway the mnemonic should incorporate the relative position of the primitives.

Here are some before and after examples of my own mnemonics where my first attempt failed and my rewrite of the mnemonic worked for me:

Frame #1786 "universal": row + sun where "row" is written over top of "sun".

My first mnemonic that failed completely was:

"UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE IS THAT CROPS PLANTED IN A NEAT ROW GET THE BEST SUNLIGHT."

I ended up re-writing the mnemonic as follows and then it worked perfectly for me:

"UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE IS THAT ROWS OF SUNSPOTS CAN BE SEEN ON ANY SUN IN THE UNIVERSE."

This helped me remember that the primitive for row is written over top of that for sun and not e.g. side by side.

Frame #1764 "national flag": banner + bushel basket:

Bad mnemonic that didn't help me remember: "AFTER THE NATIONAL FLAG WAS REDESIGNED THE OLD BANNERS WERE STORED AWAY IN A BUSHEL BASKET."

Good mnemonic that solved the problem: "THE NATIONAL FLAG OF IRELAND IS A BANNER WITH A BUSHEL BASKET OF POTATOES ON IT."

Frame #1222 "tribe": banner + dart:

Bad mnemonic: "THROW DART AT BANNER SHOWING EVIL TRIBE."

Good mnemonic: "THE TWO OPPOSING TRIBES, EACH CARRYING ITS OWN BANNER, THROW DARTS AT EACH OTHER."


Frame #1089 "celebrate": altar + teenager:

Bad mnemonic: "TEENAGERS CELELBRATE BY DANCING ON ALTAR."

Good mnemonic: "TEENAGERS CELEBRATE FIRST COMMUNION AT ALTAR."

Frame #1224 "wisdom": know + sun, where know is over top of sun:

Bad mnemonic: "WISDOM IS BEING WISE ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN."

Good mnemonic: "WISDOM IS BEING WISE ENOUGHT TO KNOW THAT YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING OVER THE SUN, NOT JUST UNDER THE SUN."