Hello

I'm just about to start out with RTH traditional (I'm just waiting for my book to arrive). I have previously studied Japanese using RTK but have recently switched to Chinese. I plan to use an SRS to review the hanzi and am trying to decide whether to learn the pronunciations at the same time. I am just wondering who on this forum has learnt the readings along with writings of the hanzi and whether you think this was advantageous. Also, whether you learnt just one reading per hanzi or multiple readings when required. Thank you for any help!!!

Sam

As a side note I am about to start making a spreadsheet with keyword, and traditional hanzi etc that I will use to build an anki deck. I'm sure this has been done already so if anyone would like to share I would be much obliged. Otherwise I will be happy to share one I make once its done.

As I plan to take chinese myself either in january or in june , this part "I have previously studied Japanese using RTK but have recently switched to Chinese. "aroused my curiosity

-are you already done with japanese ? reached a native like fluency ? or reached the objective you set (link reading manga or japanese forum)
-or do you intend to resume later japanese ? when ?
-or to study both of them at the same time ?
-or did you give up on japanese ? (I know that among those who used to study japanese for big business ,like business school graduate , those kind of swap occur more and more as they deem japan is doomed)


sorry for being inquisitive but I like to draw comparaison between different approches to improve my own decision making process.

Hi ghinzdra

I basically gave up but with a view to possibly continuing in the future. My reasons are basically:

1: The main reason I was studying Japanese rather then another language was because I lived in Japan a short time before and felt I should continue because I already had some basics. Recently I decided this was not a good reason, particularly as I haven't been studying hard recently and haven't reached a level that I couldn't reach again in another language in a relatively short period of time (I hope)
2: I went to Taiwan last summer and loved it there. If all goes to plan I hope to move there in one years time.
3. In general I really dislike Japanese films... at least contemporary ones and excluding some anime. I really want to study using films and have tried to watch so many films but always end up bored. That's probably my main reason for quiting actually.

Still, it was a bit of a spare of the moment thing. I just came home one day and thought I'd start again.

simple Wrote:I am just wondering who on this forum has learnt the readings along with writings of the hanzi and whether you think this was advantageous. Also, whether you learnt just one reading per hanzi or multiple readings when required.

I have done it and written about it in great detail somewhere on this forum.

simple Wrote:I am just wondering who on this forum has learnt the readings along with writings of the hanzi and whether you think this was advantageous. Also, whether you learnt just one reading per hanzi or multiple readings when required.

Unlike Kanji, which can have multiple pronunciations depending on how it's used or what its paired with -- Hanzi really doesn't act like that. It's fairly static. You might (nay, "will") have variant pronunciations, but those are mostly regional differences (ie: guoyu vs putonghua; northern vs. southern, etc.), not lexical ones.

And though many of the Hanzi in Heisig/Richardson are independent words, it's still best to think of them as components. Yes, 子 means "child" (among other things), but 99% of the time you'll see it in combos, like 孩子, etc. In other words, don't overly fret about specific "meaning" or "pronunciation" at this stage. Once you have the characters down and start collecting vocab, the rest will fall rapidly into place. And it will be easier then (you'll have some sort of context to tie it to). The teeny-tiny advantage you may get by knowing the pronunciation in advanced isn't worth taking your focus away from the task at hand -- learning the characters.

Now, having said that, I do include pronunciation in my own personal database. But I make no real effort to commit it to memory. It's there for passive learning or reference (in case I wanna type it out in the IME).