Did you ever want to memorize the index number of a kanji? Maybe you have an index that you really, really love (I'm an engineer, so I can relate). For example:

沢 = swamp
Swamps are nasty!
Nasty = 201, which just happens to be 沢's Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary number.

Why is Nasty = 201? Because N=2, A has no effect, S=0, T=1, and Y has no effect.
This system is actually pretty easy to learn, and once learned, reading the number from a word is instantaneous.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1930853...29?ie=UTF8

There's an existing list of words for 1-1000, and you can expand that to any number you want. I'm not saying we should all link kanji to index numbers, just you. Have fun!

leosmith, intriguing post. I've always been fascinated with the divide between engineers and humanists (?), that is, between quantitative vs. qualitative or numbers vs. language. Yet again another reminder of this divide. I won't even ask you why you might want to memorize kanji and their index number, ha, ha. But I want to ask you this: what do you like about the Kodansha dictionary (I've never seen it)?

You talkin' bout this method?

http://www.buildyourmemory.com/pegging.php

KANJI Wrote:leosmith, intriguing post. I've always been fascinated with the divide between engineers and humanists (?), that is, between quantitative vs. qualitative or numbers vs. language. Yet again another reminder of this divide. I won't even ask you why you might want to memorize kanji and their index number, ha, ha. But I want to ask you this: what do you like about the Kodansha dictionary (I've never seen it)?

Hi KANJI. Even though you didn't ask...I've actually read posts where people wanted to memorize the index number along with every other aspect of the character. Seems crazy, even for a number-cruncher like me, but I thought I'd share this method.

The dictionary is really nice. Fairly big characters, clear stroke diagrams, lots of examples, beautiful printing. On the down side, it's a learners dictionary, so it only has a little over 2000 characters. Hey, do you know of a good kanji dictionary with a lot more characters, that shows stroke diagrams?

scottamus Wrote:You talkin' bout this method?

http://www.buildyourmemory.com/pegging.php

Bingo! Hey scottamus, where are you at? I'm in Ft. Worth.

[ファブリス]

Quote:The dictionary is really nice. Fairly big characters, clear stroke diagrams, lots of examples, beautiful printing. On the down side, it's a learners dictionary, so it only has a little over 2000 characters. Hey, do you know of a good kanji dictionary with a lot more characters, that shows stroke diagrams?

... and if you really want to customize your keywords, then the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary gives you a principal meaning (or two sometimes) for each kanji, which is based on modern usage.

The example compounds in each entry plus the keyword meaning really help understand the 'flavor' of Heisig's english keyword.

I found KKLD very helpful along RTK 1, if I started learning kanji with RTK, that's the only other book I would get until finishing RTK 1, to clear up any doubts about keyword concepts and stroke orders. Before I bought KKLD, until about halfway through RTK I used to look up kanji compounds in JWPce to get the proper concept for Heisig's keywords. But KKLD save me lots of time and shows only the relevant compounds (no rare or obsolete ones that appear in the JDIC).

Here you can find a sample page in PDF format :

http://www.kanji.org/dictionaries/learners/learners.htm

Houston.

When I read the pegging method I thought, "Hey if I pegged a number for each kanji then I could write them all down in order from 1 to 2000+ from memory." But then I decided it is hard enough just remembering the kanjis. In theory though you could sit down anywhere and just count through all your kanjis. It would be like a flashcard program in your head.

To leosmith: I figured for the Kodansha to be so helpful, it would have to limit itself to the range of kanji. When I started RTK in the pre-digital age, I reasoned that I wanted to apply my new learned RTK kanji by studying reading in parallel. This required a pile of books, including Nelson's dictionary, probably the granddaddy of J-E kanji dictionaries. You can bet that all the cross-referencing I had to do consumed a lot of time. Recently returning to RTK, I am amazed and excited by how the 'net provides practically all of the information I had wanted. Kanji study has never before been so convenient. The Kodansha will still be worthwhile to consider, I'm sure.