Ever go through heisigs book and think to yourself "Now what the hell does that mean?" Normall going through a dictionary would help you out. not only to learn a new kanji but also learn an interesting new word in english that youve never heard spoken in your everyday casual life. Well these arent the difficult keywords I am talking about. I am talking about the vague Keywords the ones that are difficult to visualize: melancholy, disconcerted, repent, idea, concept.

How do you guys deal with these problematic keywords. What do you visualize. AS you can tell all of these are from lesson 22 (The heart lesson). And i must say so far this has been the hardest most problematic list of kanji ihave encountered to memorize. not because of the kanji themselves but because of the vague keywords.

I added some words I knew that used the kanji to the card with the kanji itself kanaified. Worked well, but relies on preexisting knowledge, so it doesn't work if you're doing an AJATT-style RtK-before-anything approach.

~J

These are hard. "Idea" versus "concept" are both rather abstract and similar, as are "disconcerted" versus "melancholy".

I'm not sure my way to sort these out will help you, but I go from the keyword to a hint phrase. For these five:

Idea - good idea? (depends on how it *sounds* to your *heart*)
Concept - concept car (*inter-*action with *heart*)
Disconcerted - disconcerted with Katrina (*state of mind, laid waste*)
Melancholy - Hamlet (draw Hamlet: *head*, *crown over heart*, *walking legs*)
Repent - repent sin - (Over-zealous idea of everything is a sin: *state of mind* *every*thing)

these are all fairly well locked in my mind. I once forgot the "walking legs" of Hamlet; I knew there was something, but, kept thinking of the widow with the knife in her lap. They are not as well locked as some others. Over time, they seem to stick better.

Enjoy learning about claws and fingers! I'm just starting banners and flags.

oh my god this is the most troublesome lesson i have encountered./ Lesson 22. With all the hearts and states of mind and all the abstract keywords! I'm currently on 800 kanji and no other kanjis has given me this much trouble. I spent two days on that lesson! Today they came up on reviews. The mnemonics i had created for them didnt work. Because the first thing the keyword is meant to do. is conjure up an image. This abstract lesson does nothing of the sort.

Maybe i should rote memorise all the heart and state of mind kanjis. What did you guys do to cope with these. They are killing my confidence

mastermx Wrote:oh my god

I spent two days on that lesson! Today they came up on reviews.

Maybe i should rote memorise all the heart and state of mind kanjis. What did you guys do to cope with these. They are killing my confidence

Here is a recent thread started by someone with problems with heart/state of mind kanji. Maybe it will spark an idea for you:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4022

I hope you are personifying state of mind into something easier to remember, like Data the robot or the Dalai Lama or someone else. That helps tremendously.

Perhaps the keyword is not evoking a clear image. Did you think of a hint phrase like kilioopu suggested?

Keep tweeking your stories, if needed. Have faith in the SRS and your ability to remember. It's only been a couple of days. You're going to see those kanji many many many more times. You will eventually remember them.

Your right. The keyword is invoking absolutely no image, Im gonna try making an image of what the keyword sounds like. I noticed people were personifying state of mind as data or dalai lama. why those characters? How does state of mind link to those?

P.S. Who is data? i even tried google imaging him couldnt find a thing. I even checked the starwars character list. not there

EDIT:LOL ok data is from star trek. He looks funny i wont forget that. but how does he tie in with state of mind. What if i forhget that data is state of mind

mastermx Wrote:I noticed people were personifying state of mind as data or dalai lama. why those characters? How does state of mind link to those?

What if i forhget that data is state of mind

Data - as a robot, he doesn't have a heart; he uses his "mind," not emotions to analyze situations

Spock from Star Trek would work as well for similar reasons.

Dalai Lama - I didn't use him but I suppose the link is that he gets into another "state of mind" when doing Buddhist meditation

The character you choose for "state of mind" will stick in your memory because you are using it in so many stories. Just make sure the link between the character and "state of mind" makes sense to you.

In the other thread I posted this, which I think may be a good intro to Data, but also just good clips anyway (or maybe that's just me) :

If you want to know more about Data just watch this clip. I think it's worth the effort because of many of the good stories on this site that you can use. It shows a lot about him in a short amount of time. His personality, his capabilities and characteristics:

Also worth noting he got a hold of an emotion chip at one point: