I was wondering if anyone else has read this great book? I was surprise to see that a lot of the memory principles for remembering Kanji are in the Mega Memory book. The book does not mention Kanji at all, but it does have tips for learning foreign langauges. (some points I disagree with because of pronunciation)

The same imaginative memory is used, but actually, better expained in the book. There are a few other key elements that Heisig never mentions to help remember the stories. I suggest everyone should read this book if you are having trouble remembering the Kanji even after the Heisig explanation.

Does Heisig know about Trudeau or vice versa?

What is that, Peg system, sound association, chaining, and Major system? There are better things, and there probably isn't anything new in the book that isn't already out there. He's just some d____ who decided to make some money selling techniques that have been around for hundreds of years. Imaginative memory is not a new idea.

There are far better books out there than his.

I believe most of the memory tricks in use today were perfected by the Romans, and have been around for 1000's of years. (See wikipedia's Art of Memory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_memory). Now, all these (simple) techniques are available to learn online free of charge. The beauty of RTK is in the order the Kanji are learned and grouped in, thus it is a worthwhile buy. Does "Mega Memory" have any original or unique tricks for memorizing?

alyks Wrote:What is that, Peg system, sound association, chaining, and Major system? There are better things, and there probably isn't anything new in the book that isn't already out there. He's just some d____ who decided to make some money selling techniques that have been around for hundreds of years. Imaginative memory is not a new idea.

There are far better books out there than his.

Compiling information together and explaining it is not easy. Before you call someone names for working hard and making money off it, try doing it yourself first.

Heisig, BTW, did the same thing. He just compiled information that was already out there in a format that was easier to take in. It's not like the jouyou kanji are a new concept, and neither is re-arranging the order to make more sense when learning them. Heck, even the memory concepts aren't original.

wccrawford Wrote:Compiling information together and explaining it is not easy. Before you call someone names for working hard and making money off it, try doing it yourself first.

Yeah, I have. For free.

But this guy isn't creating anything unique or more presentable, it's the same exact information in the same format. Heisig actually put 1 and 1 together, applied the mnemonics to an order - something original.

Have you looked up the author? Read the reviews on amazon.

[ファブリス]

Is this the man you're talking about? Looks like he's quite the controversy...

Trudeau was born in 1963. Heisig published RtK first in 1977...

Either Heisig is just very smart and learned to use mnemonics by himself or (my bet) he read about the "art of memory" through his studies in philosophy and put that to use when he arrived in Japan.

Having checked his background on Wikipedia I can see where alyks is coming from

Have you checked Tony Buzan's books on memory and "mind maps" ?

Also according to Art of memory on Wikipedia:

Quote:It has existed as a recognized group of principles and techniques since at least as early as the middle of the first millennium BCE

The article seems much more digestible than the book of the same name (though the latter could be a good investment if you have insomnia).

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alyks, did you want to write "dunce"? That one is not filtered ;-)

stehr: woops, didn't see you posted the link already!

alyks Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:Compiling information together and explaining it is not easy. Before you call someone names for working hard and making money off it, try doing it yourself first.

Yeah, I have. For free.

But this guy isn't creating anything unique or more presentable, it's the same exact information in the same format. Heisig actually put 1 and 1 together, applied the mnemonics to an order - something original.

Have you looked up the author? Read the reviews on amazon.

I'm not saying your work is bad... I actually think you've done a good thing with it.

But it's hardly on the scale of a 368 page book... And it only MSRPs for $15. He's hardly ripping people off, and they are completely free to not buy his book if they don't want to. I haven't looked at the content and don't need to... Compiling information and explaining it is never a bad thing, especially when nobody is forced to even look at it. 33 people even gave it 5 stars, so it's obviously useful to some people. (34 gave it 1 star, and almost nothing in-between.)

wccrawford Wrote:He's hardly ripping people off

Well, according to wikipedia:

Quote:Trudeau was convicted of fraud and larceny in the early 1990s. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued him numerous times. A court order currently restricts his ability to promote and sell any product or service. However, he is permitted to promote books and other publications due to free-speech protection under the First Amendment as long as they are not used to promote or sell products or services and do not contain misrepresentations.[1][2] On November 19, 2007, a court found Trudeau in contempt of that court order for making deceptive claims about his book The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About. [3][4]

Apparently this guy has been ripping people off for around 20 years. I definitely wouldn't buy it.

I can reccomend a book called "YOUR MEMORY-how it works and how to improvie"
It was written by Kenneth L. Higbee (PHD), and academic professor.
He is pretty objective and honest about the fact that most memory books are just complied information of techniques that have been around forever.

He wrote the book I beleive to use with his college courses, so it is backed up by a lot of data and research, as well as giving one techniques for mnemonics and such.

Its a good book that bridges the gap between academic and layman ...

ファブリス Wrote:Either Heisig is just very smart and learned to use mnemonics by himself or (my bet) he read about the "art of memory" through his studies in philosophy and put that to use when he arrived in Japan.

Or he just used a Japanese method that's been around for centuries. I've heard Japanese children remember 繭 by using a story. And I've had Japanese friends off-handedly tell me stories about other characters (替 for example). Maybe that's why there's so much less Heisig resistance from Japanese than from fellow students.

I also read an article about a Chinese professor, native speaker, in the 60's or 70's, in the US, who taught his students to use the story method. The article was on the internet, but I can't find it again.

Heisig is still the man. He took what was sort of a novelty method for teaching kanji, successfully applied it to every single joyo character, and showed us that it's a more effective method for many western students.

But IMO, he didn't invent this method. He might have arrived at it independently, and he certainly formalized it, personalized it and explained it thoroughly. I'm glad he did, because I probably never would have learned kanji if he hadn't.

I was observing the night sky with my telescope the other day, and thinking "even though there are so many stars randomly sitting up there, people (including me) can recognize and remember a good number of them".
Then I realized that the so-called "constellations" are nothing more than mnemonic devices. Each constellation, in any mythology of the world, has a detailed story and history, and relations to other constellations. It's heisig applied to the sky... and it's been devised thousands of years earlier!
I was kind of enlightened.

It's clear from Heisig's writing that he's familiar with plenty of memory techniques. I doubt very much that he took it from Trudeau, but probably from the myriad sources of better information and research available.