I'm to the point now (a bit less than 400 kanji, learning about 40 per day), that I can remember the kanji straight from the key word, without going through the mental imagery necessary to remember the individual primitives. This is especially true of some of the earliest kanji, and even some of the middle and later ones that I've remembered. Of course, most of the kanji I use my mental imagery when I recall them.



For example, grave: I just 'know' to put soil underneath graveyard. It comes out of my mind spontaneously. Is this what is supposed to happen? Am I getting lazy? Is this progress? What would be the point of mentally remembering every primitive, if I can just write the kanji anyhow? I just want to make sure that as I get further along in my progress, that I am not going to create hazards for myself.

When you get across the river, stop carrying the boat. The stories (and, eventually, the key words) are the boat in this analogy.

~J

This is indeed progress that you are making. The final result should be that all two thousand will come like that. The images and primitives are merely a way of getting it to fix, once its fixed, the images will go and the kanji will become a part of your natural thoughts. Can you imagine having to use the stories/primitives forever? This would use up too much time.

Good luck and keep going.

Yes, this is progress. I guess you will need stories later on as kanjis are getting harder and more complex. Eventually your images will fade but you will still remember the kanji. That's a good thing. Be sure to use SRS software or this site. Without it you'd get lost over time...

woodwojr Wrote:When you get across the river, stop carrying the boat. The stories (and, eventually, the key words) are the boat in this analogy.

~J

hehe, I think you need a little help with this phrase: "Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back." (from Bruce Lee, in this example)

You see, one shouldn't carry the boat, period. ;p Well, unless you obtained it somewhere on land and you're carrying it to the water to get across.

nest0r Wrote:You see, one shouldn't carry the boat, period. ;p Well, unless you obtained it somewhere on land and you're carrying it to the water to get across.

This bolded bit is the way I'd always taken the phrase.

~J

woodwojr Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:You see, one shouldn't carry the boat, period. ;p Well, unless you obtained it somewhere on land and you're carrying it to the water to get across.

This bolded bit is the way I'd always taken the phrase.

~J

But you predicated 'stop carrying' on 'once you get across', not 'once you get to the water', which when you think about it, the latter isn't as effective as describing the process of using the boat to cross the water, then discarding it. It would be best to say 'don't carry' once across, rather than 'stop carrying'. If I wasn't an expert on this metaphor, I would surely have been confused. No need to thank me for helping you out, I'm just being a good citizen.

But you have to carry it across the river. How would it get across otherwise?

I blame Merlin Mann for my sins.

~J