I've just started to look at RTK3 and it seems to me that there are two kinds of Kanji in here:

1. Frequently used 常用漢字 that didn't make it into RTK1
2. Bizarre, rare Kanji - you can almost tell which ones just by looking at them!!!

...with not much in between. Are my impressions wrong?

Any comments from veterans who finished RTK3?

But how do you know a kanji is bizarre and rare until you don't see it? :o

There's a paradox in there.

Bizarre like what? Like 鑿 for instance? I haven't found a single Japanese person who was able to read it (or guess at a meaning-- but they aren't particularly good at this for joyo kanji either, usually) yet.

But other kanji, like 潟 of 新潟県 start to pop up everywhere as soon as you start to memorize them. And, as soon as you get into texts about flowers, plants and animals, you'll really be glad you took the time to learn some of the related kanji. Go into novels and you'll find kanji that aren't even in RtK3 right away... I was going to give an example of one or two here I found in the first few pages of a story I was reading, but I seem to have misplaced the appropriate spreadsheet.

I mean, there's a reason that RtK3 is for "advanced proficiency," it's not for everyone. However, at the same time, the kanji in it barely even breach the surface of what you need to know to pass the 漢字検定 above level 2 or 3.

almost sounds like the kanji in RtK 3 arent so rare afterall?

saizen Wrote:almost sounds like the kanji in RtK 3 arent so rare afterall?

One of the kanji in RTK 3 is 誰. That's だれ. I see this everywhere. So I would assume they are not very rare as well.

fyi: you might want to check out a couple threads where folks discussed and listed the most useful RTK3 kanji to know. I don't have time to look now, but I believe Katsuo posted the list.

Thora Wrote:fyi: you might want to check out a couple threads where folks discussed and listed the most useful RTK3 kanji to know. I don't have time to look now, but I believe Katsuo posted the list.

Thank you for pointing this out. Looks like this might be the thread:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=262

Glancing over the thread, it looks like there are still around 400 common characters, so maybe it's better to just learn all 1,000 anyways...

Okay, I guess I'll just do RTK3 straight-up...

...and what do I find? 2053. camelopard 麟 wtf!!!

According to Heisig, "The keyword here refers to a motley-colored mythical creature from China with a body of a deer, the tail of a cow, and the crest and claws of a bird"... ...okay, just when I think I will never ever see this Kanji again, I look up the reading and it has 麒麟 キリン or giraffe!!!

Doh! Maybe he should have just called 2053 Kirin - I mean everyone knows the beer! Maybe the hard part about RTK3 isn't the Kanji, but the friggin' keywords!

I'm just bustin' his balls - for some reason, I have no desire to rush RTK3, so I can have more fun with the contents...

kazelee Wrote:

saizen Wrote:almost sounds like the kanji in RtK 3 arent so rare afterall?

One of the kanji in RTK 3 is 誰. That's だれ. I see this everywhere. So I would assume they are not very rare as well.

How in the name of ***** did the 漢字　for 誰　not make it into the 常用漢字　when archaisms and such like that ***** 匁　make it in?

屁 Why is this a kanji? I hope it is not 人名用漢字!

has anybody got a frequency list of Kanji that goes to about 3000? Maybe could ask a native Japanese speaker to look at the RtK3 list to eliminate archaic Kanji and add some missing ones. Then again, why not learn them. How about making a RtK4 with Kanji used to read classic texts?

J

kfmfe04 Wrote:...and what do I find? 2053. camelopard 麟 wtf!!!

According to Heisig, "The keyword here refers to a motley-colored mythical creature from China with a body of a deer, the tail of a cow, and the crest and claws of a bird"... ...okay, just when I think I will never ever see this Kanji again, I look up the reading and it has 麒麟 キリン or giraffe!!!

Doh! Maybe he should have just called 2053 Kirin - I mean everyone knows the beer!

Indeed, kirin can mean both giraffe, or that mythical creature. Speaking of the mythical creature, have a look at the logo for Kirin beer:
http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/images/...eerCan.jpg

Also, take a good look at the mighty moustache on that kirin beer creature, and compare it to Thomas Glover's moustache.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Glover

See any similarities? Thomas Glover was one of the co-founders of Kirin Beer

I had a look at RTK3 a while ago, and some kanji are fairly common depending on what you read. Others are really specialized. I don't really feel a need to learn kanji for types of fish, trees, plants etc.
I'd rather just learn new kanji as I come across them in my field of interest(I don't plan on reading up on flowers, or fish).

I noticed the section on 人 had a lot of kanji I had already learned while reading fiction. Sections like that might be useful, but on the other hand, I can easily learn them in context, so why bother learning them isolated and without a reading?