Lesson 16 tossed in a bunch of new primitives that are all really similar. Parade, thanksgiving, arrow... meh, the list goes on!

I can't keep them all straight! Does anyone have any good suggestions?

I felt the same way at first. But I just ploughed on learning new kanji and reviewing the ones I've failed.

Clear the ones you fail every day, get the stories straight in your head and in a few days you'll have them down.

Also make sure you write them out when you test them and when you fail them.

I think this is where I really like the Heisig method - when you get primitives like these grouped together, I think it makes it easier to learn - especially if you have strong stories.

Good Luck.

Zarxrax Wrote:Lesson 16 tossed in a bunch of new primitives that are all really similar. Parade, thanksgiving, arrow... meh, the list goes on!

I can't keep them all straight! Does anyone have any good suggestions?

I got those yellow sticky notes and then wrote out each of those primitives in a row. Then I stuck it just outside of the shower where I could see it from the shower, while brushing my teeth, etc. Within a short time, I stopped confusing them and they haven't been a problem since.

Bathroom study is highly effective for some reason. Often, just sticking them up there already means the confusion is over. At least, that's my experience.

You'll use all of them so much that eventually you'll just "know" them. They keep showing up, over and over again as you progress, so don't worry. Just clear them out of your fail pile religiously, and keep reviewing them.

[ファブリス]

Put more effort into visualization, *see* those primitives in your mind. What kind of arrow? Does it have some feathers attached to it? What kind of parade? Thanksgiving.. what object would best represent it? Or scene? Once you chose a particular look for your arrow, keep the same one for other stories. Visualization can work wonders. Heisig is not very explicit about it but he does say "imaginative memory". My take is he didn't want to scare people away who have unfounded apprehension towards imagination, so he chose his words carefully.