Hello I have some questions/concerns re trying to remember kanji which I would be grateful if someone could advise me on.

Firstly. I think both the site and the book are really good resources. The stories are effective at helping me recognise kanji, but don't do much for memorising the stroke order. Hesig says don't bother writing the kanji out more than you need to, and the review function on the site doesn't show you which bits get written first. I'm ok for the moment but i'm worried that I'm going to forget the correct order to write kanji in and will end up having to relearn it all from scratch.

Secondly, I remember reading in the book that I should try revise from key word to kanji and not the other way round. So far it has not explained and i'm very curious to know why this recommendation is made.

Thirdly, are there any templates for making the flashcards floating on the net. I came across one but it was pdf and I'm looking for a word based template so I can add my own stories.

Thanks

1) personally i just write out the kanji on an a4 folder next to my desk when im reviewing. helps memorise stroke order, writing, etc. you don't have to, some people choose not to. i think it helps.. if anything its also a visual representation of how far along you are.

2) you want keyword to kanji because when you learn the Japanese you want to remember that when you look at it, not the english keyword. I've just finished RTK a few weeks ago and im slightly fighting this when reading emails. i read the english of whats written if i know that the japanese meaning is the same, 娘 as daughter for example, when i should be reading it as むすめ.

3) Use this site or Anki.. I used this site for RTK and im using Anki for sentencing and key things to remember.

Hope this helps

xzseth Wrote:Hello I have some questions/concerns re trying to remember kanji which I would be grateful if someone could advise me on.

Firstly. I think both the site and the book are really good resources. The stories are effective at helping me recognise kanji, but don't do much for memorising the stroke order. Hesig says don't bother writing the kanji out more than you need to, and the review function on the site doesn't show you which bits get written first. I'm ok for the moment but i'm worried that I'm going to forget the correct order to write kanji in and will end up having to relearn it all from scratch.

Once you learn the stroke order for the primitive elements, you won't have that much of a problem remembering stroke orders of more complex characters, as there are very few exeptions to the stroke order "rules".

xzseth Wrote:Secondly, I remember reading in the book that I should try revise from key word to kanji and not the other way round. So far it has not explained and i'm very curious to know why this recommendation is made.

From what I understand, you do this, because whatever you can write out, you can take in (I won't say read, since it's not really considered reading yet). So if you can write out a kanji, you should be able to remember the shape of the kanji when you see it, both in shape and in meaning.

xzseth Wrote:Thirdly, are there any templates for making the flashcards floating on the net. I came across one but it was pdf and I'm looking for a word based template so I can add my own stories.

Thanks

If you are using anki, there is a sample deck in the sample deck folder with all the kanji from both RTK1 and RTK3, with keywords. Else, you can just use this site, like Gingerninja said.
Forgot to add: There's a field on the anki template for stories.

Hope this helps. =)

Thanks for the replies. It seems that no one is bothering making physical flash cards then. This site and anki are enough for most people?

I use this site and Stackz (something like Anki, but no freeware) on my PDA. No Paper.

xzseth Wrote:Thanks for the replies. It seems that no one is bothering making physical flash cards then. This site and anki are enough for most people?

Phy-phy-physical? What be that?

At the moment I'm using this site for the flashcards, with the Kanji Stroke Order font and Greasemonkey, as explained in this topic:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2778

I always write the kanji on paper when reviewing. I've heard some people say they can pretend to draw it with a finger, but that doesn't work for me.

There are very nice pdf flashcard sets for RTK1 and RTK3 at http://www.polarcloud.com/kanji

http://www.polarcloud.com/f/rkanji_1.zip
http://www.polarcloud.com/f/rkanji_3.zip

I wouldn't bother with paper flashcards. The huge majority here only use anki or this site.

The real reason for reviewing Keyword -> Kanji is that the hard part of kanji study is to _write_ the kanji from memory. Remembering the meanings and the readings is very very easy.

People here generally train keyword -> kanji with RTK then go for full kanji sentences to remember the meanings and the readings.

1. I write the kanji with a pencil and paper for every character review. It keeps me honest - I think I would unintentionally cheat if I only imagined the characters in my mind, or imagined writing them on my hand. I interpreted Heisig to mean that you shouldn't write the kanji over and over again as a method for memorization. Writing practice is good though.

2. I think Heisig writes that you should do it from keyword->kanji because that's the hard one - you don't really need to do the other way around because it will come naturally. I've mostly found that to be true for myself. I think another reason for it is that not studying kanji->keyword will help you eventually transition away from the keywords, allowing you to more easily link the meaning to the Japanese instead.

3. I did paper flashcards up until about 1100. I had a stack almost a foot high. It took sooo much time just to make those, and every day, I would spend hours reviewing through the stack. That's when I discovered this site and other SRS (like Anki). Besides being a time saver, in that I didn't need to make physical cards, I found I didn't need to study nearly as much. When you rely on the computer to rank the cards, you end up spending your valuable time on the cards you have trouble remembering, and not wasting your time on ones you've memorized.

Now that I'm done with RTK1, I'm changing my whole Japanese study program, all centered around SRS. I've even bought a netbook now so that I can take it with me everywhere, like I did with my original paper flashcards before I got smart