Hi all,
after getting through rtk using the very logical mneumonic system he encourages i started adding sentences from KO2001 lat week at a rate of 50 sentences a day to my SRS. The problem im having is that I have no systemise dway of trying to memorise new words which i encounter. How would you suggest I do this. Sometimes I use a mneumonic or some kind of memory technique to help me but its very basic and inconsistent, not something i can build on. I always worried about bad memory and how i could progress in japanese until i found heisig and his system. does anyone have an alternate system for sentence srsing.
I was thinking about taking all the phonetic kana and creating a primitive element for each for example if ね　is nest and こ　is corn　so when i try to remember the word for cat, i can think of a cat eating corn from a nest. thats just an exaple, but is it ridiculous to create such a system, even if its just the first couple of syllables of the word, just to trigger memory. I would be grateful of any systems you use/know of.

Heisig has a list of words for each Hiragana 'letter' in book 2. He does like you say in your example of corn and cat. he uses it as the way to learn the Japanese reading of the kana, which has no pattern. I have been trying to use it, but I am also struggling with the first book, I find making images very hard. Often they seem ok but a week later are gone.

Its funny I have been trying to work the same problem as you have for a year or so now. I stopped my study with YesJapan.com because I came to a vocab list and could not get it in my head no matter what I did. I have been stuck like that since then. I can learn things short term, for a test, but a month later its gone. The weird thing is I have some words like ant and fly I learned once and never used (3years ago) and yet remember them easily. I cannot work out why, I wonder if its because I over learned it.

Sorry it wasn't much help.

Movie method

AmberUK Wrote:The weird thing is I have some words like ant and fly I learned once and never used (3years ago) and yet remember them easily. I cannot work out why, I wonder if its because I over learned it.

Try harder to work out why those words stuck.

Why don't you try the Iversen method? search for it here and on the net.

I´m currently working through KO2001.
Some advice:

- KO2001 has a learning-curve, like everything else. Accept that it´s going to take a while to memorize/enter a sentence in the beginning. Don´t start off doing 50 a day in my opinion. After a couple of days/weeks you´ll get the hang of it, THEN up your pace.
- Find your own path - some learn by writing it down, some learn by saying it out loud. For me I use mnemonics 90% of the time. I don´t write down stories or anything, here´s an example of what I usually do with a sentence:

あの運送会社はピアノの運送が専門だ。

When I studied this sentence, the new part for me was "運送" (うんそう)
I did a quick act for myself in my head, acting a Japanese dude getting his piano delivered, saying: "un!! sooo!! un!!! So so so!!!" (As in YES, there, put it there, UN! SO!)
It might be stupid, it might be weird, but for me it works like a charm. And it takes me 10 seconds to make a small thing like that. A tip is to make a mini-story/act based on the sentence, in this case a Japanese dude getting a piano delivered by the company that this sentence is all about.
These stories fade away after a couple of correct reviews, and sometimes I forget them and make them up as I go, it´s all good, and it will all stick if you keep up your reviews.
The good thing about KO2001 is that you get the vocab in many different sentences, so you review newly learned vocab in many sentences, not just one.

I used 3-4 hours on 10(!) sentences in KO2001 in the very beginning. (Kanji 16-130ish)
I´m now going through KO2001 doing 100 a day, using 4-5 hours.
Don´t stress, you´ll get the hang of it!

Z...

thanks everyone, all of thats very reassuring and sometimes i think all i need is reassurance that im doing the right thing.
i think ill go through the sentences, make an iveron style word list and after every 7 or so new words, look at my list and make simple LINKWORD style mneumonics for those words and go back into my anki deck until i get seven new words i dont know. Its near enough what ive been doing but i suppose i just need to refine a system that im happy with and stick to it.

undead_saif Wrote:

AmberUK Wrote:The weird thing is I have some words like ant and fly I learned once and never used (3years ago) and yet remember them easily. I cannot work out why, I wonder if its because I over learned it.

Try harder to work out why those words stuck.

Why don't you try the Iversen method? search for it here and on the net.

I did look up the Iversen method. It was writing lists in 4 columns? I didn't get it.

I would suggest a good book on memory. there are some decent tips and tricks that you can use.

I suggest "Your Memory" by Kenneth L higbee PHD

zazen666 Wrote:I would suggest a good book on memory. there are some decent tips and tricks that you can use.

I suggest "Your Memory" by Kenneth L higbee PHD

Thanks, I just ordered a copy.

Page 37 in my edition has good info about remembering pictures versus words. That helped me a bit

Thanks! I will have a look at it when it arrives next week.

zazen666, thank you very much.

I have tons of books on memory and I've read hundreds of articles on it, but this is the best book on memory ever.

It's weird that I never noticed it before.

AmberUK, until your copy arrives, these are pages 37-39: