So guys I just passed the 500 mark (Yay!), now i kind of want to learn the pronounciation as well. If its to fast I understand but is there any way i can learn the basic onyomi and kunyomi pronounciations?

You can use Kanjidamage since they got the pronoution mnemoics. But I myself compleated RTK without bothering with the pronunciations. You can learn the pronunciations when learning japanese vocab like Core 10k or reading native japanese material. In my opininon it's more effective and you get to learn pronunciations+meaning.

. . . . also a kanji can have more than 6 pronunciations . . . .

You should read the instructions in the book. They address your question fully.

There's certainly a risk in knowing about too many systems, and in your focus getting too diluted among them, but since you ask, there is this thing called movie method for learning onyomi: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12042 and links and advice by a movie method practitioner therein.

Heisig's alternative is to learn RTK1 (just kanji) then RTK2 (onyomi). There are many threads in these forums about strategies for and incremental improvements on RTK2. I think the general consensus is split between whether it is faster/better to learn the onyomi through RTK2 or through sentence-mining/vocabulary-building. (Maybe forum regulars can correct me.)

And for kunyomi, I think the general consensus is that sentence-mining/vocab-building is the fastest/best. As far as I know, there's not a memory system for learning these like kanji/onyomi.

(I'm at about 920. My own interest in learning the onyomi is so I can type a kanji with a keyboard and not have to rely on handwriting recognition or copy-paste. It was a lot of fun and I'm more interested in making this fun than fast because "the funner method may not be the fastest, but it will feel the fastest" (paraphrasing Khatzumoto).)

One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but it's something to think about.

Tzadeck Wrote:One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but it's something to think about.

I agree. When I got to 1,500 I felt like I was sick of RTK1 but with a superhuman push I managed to soldier on to 2,042.

As far as matching the kanji you learn in RTK1 with their readings, I'm doing it naturally as I read Japanese material, do grammar exercises and learn vocabulary. Initially I tried to just learn the readings for each kanji but that didn't work (you'll find what works best is if you already know a word phonetically and you then look up what kanji(s) represent the word, then you know what the readings are).

(I realize some people on this forum don't like doing it, but I can testify that one of the best ways of solidifying your retention of grammar and vocabulary when learning Japanese or any other foreign language is by doing written translation from your native language into Japanese).

Tzadeck Wrote:One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

john555 Wrote:I agree. When I got to 1,500 I felt like I was sick of RTK1 but with a superhuman push I managed to soldier on to 2,042.

I'm trying to keep the desperation out of my fingers, but please explain. In the RTK Walkthrough, there didn't seem much difference between the first half and the second half. I've also read on these forums that the synonym problem becomes really bad >1000, so I was planning on switching to erlog's detailed RTK deck. Is it a matter of motivation or burnout, or do the kanji/keywords get boring?

aldebrn Wrote:

Tzadeck Wrote:One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

john555 Wrote:I agree. When I got to 1,500 I felt like I was sick of RTK1 but with a superhuman push I managed to soldier on to 2,042.

I'm trying to keep the desperation out of my fingers, but please explain. In the RTK Walkthrough, there didn't seem much difference between the first half and the second half. I've also read on these forums that the synonym problem becomes really bad >1000, so I was planning on switching to erlog's detailed RTK deck. Is it a matter of motivation or burnout, or do the kanji/keywords get boring?

Maybe it is because I did RtK lite but for me it became simpler from half way to the end than it was for the first half...

cophnia61 Wrote:

aldebrn Wrote:

Tzadeck Wrote:One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

john555 Wrote:I agree. When I got to 1,500 I felt like I was sick of RTK1 but with a superhuman push I managed to soldier on to 2,042.

I'm trying to keep the desperation out of my fingers, but please explain. In the RTK Walkthrough, there didn't seem much difference between the first half and the second half. I've also read on these forums that the synonym problem becomes really bad >1000, so I was planning on switching to erlog's detailed RTK deck. Is it a matter of motivation or burnout, or do the kanji/keywords get boring?

Maybe it is because I did RtK lite but for me it became simpler from half way to the end than it was for the first half...

I think part of the problem for me was that as you go on you start to have to work harder to remember the kanji for keywords that are similar in meaning. See this thread I posted for examples:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=11732

But another reason for me personally was that at 1,500 I was tired of it and just wanted to be finally finished.

hyeok Wrote:is there any way i can learn the basic onyomi and kunyomi pronounciations?

Here's another system, related to the movie method: the kanji chain. rachels compiled a list of threads and one that I really liked was AkiKazachan's demonstration of it.

And yet another method: this is one I'm trying out. 1) use the RTK sequence, but 2) assign a person or object to each RTK keyword, and most importantly for you, 3) assign a place/setting for each onyomi. (You could use #1 and #3 by themselves.) Set your story in a specific place that's tied to onyomi and make the setting a part of the story. So the 31 RTK1 kanji pronounced ケン will all happen in a kendo dojo. Really visualize the story and see it act out in your mind's eye with a level of detail that would enable to make up a detailed bedtime story with it. (Bedtime stories are important! The Hobbit and therefore the Lord of the Rings started out as bedtime stories for the Tolkien kids.)

aldebrn Wrote:

Tzadeck Wrote:One warning may be that RTK actually gets a lot harder later on, once you're up to 1,000 or 1,500 kanji. A lot of people hit one or two road blocks once they're above a thousand. So while it may seem like you have extra study time now, it may be a lot harder later.

john555 Wrote:I agree. When I got to 1,500 I felt like I was sick of RTK1 but with a superhuman push I managed to soldier on to 2,042.

I'm trying to keep the desperation out of my fingers, but please explain. In the RTK Walkthrough, there didn't seem much difference between the first half and the second half. I've also read on these forums that the synonym problem becomes really bad >1000, so I was planning on switching to erlog's detailed RTK deck. Is it a matter of motivation or burnout, or do the kanji/keywords get boring?

It's mostly a matter of burn out plus a number of similar keywords. The thing to keep in mind about RTK, I for one stopped keeping up with the reviews about 6 months after finishing, is that the most important thing it does is to demystify kanji. Kanji stop being this random incomprehensible mess, and become decipherable. And it provides a system to go about learning new kanji.