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Who decides the English Keyword associated to a Kanji?

#1
Hi everybody!
I started recently to learn Kanjis using Heisig method.
As expected, it works pretty good, but I have some difficulties to understand the meaning or the lexical range of some of the keywords.

My first question is (more for my own culture) who decide the keyword associated to a Kanji?
As I find the same keyword in Heisig book and in JWPce, I imagine keyword are a kind of standard, but my wife and some of my friends, who are Japanese, sometimes do not recognize the sense written in the book.
Do you ave an explanation about who define the keyword list, and why do japanese do not recognize the keyword of all kanji ? Where can he list be found?

As English is not my mother tongue (which is French) , i have sometimes difficulties to understand the sense of some of the keywords written, for example :"sort of thing", or "just so", I do not find a good traduction. In a general way it makes my time to search the exact sense of the keyword sometimes longer than assimilating the kanji itself.

So, my second question is if the keywords are standard, there is probably also a standard "keywordization" of the kanjis in French ( or other languages different from french) Is it true? where can it be found ?

Finally, Is there a way ,(using greasemonkey or whatever) to have "Reviewing the kanji" website "translated" for another language?

Thanks for your replies!
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#2
The keywords are by far from standard. The author chose them out of the other possible 'meanings' they could have taken. You can change a keyword for all you care, many of us here do.

Japanese people may not recognise the keyword possibly because of the problem of english meaning and connotation to japanese meaning. They don't exactly transfer so well.

Im sure you can find a set of frenchified keywords.
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#3
Heisig determines them. IIRC Jim Breen asked for and received permission to use the keywords as the first sense in Kanjidic, which is free and thus widely-used, which is probably why you have a sense of it being standardized.

~J
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#4
Why don't you just get the French translation of the book?
http://www.amazon.fr/Kanjis-dans-t%C3%AA...217&sr=8-1

There is also a list of the French keywords at Google Docs:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0...WbEE&hl=en
Edited: 2009-10-02, 10:31 pm
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#5
teroer Wrote:My first question is (more for my own culture) who decide the keyword associated to a Kanji?
As I find the same keyword in Heisig book and in JWPce, I imagine keyword are a kind of standard,
As Woodwojr said, James Breen used RTK as a reference when compiling Kanjidic. At the same time, Kanjidic is the only Kanji dictionary freely (and legally) available for any use, so it is the source used by lots of websites (like jisho.org, Kanjibox, etc) and desktop applications (like Wakan, NJStar, JWPce, Rikaichan and Moji for Firefox, etc.). That's the reason why you keep seing the same "meanings for kanji at several places.


Quote:So, my second question is if the keywords are standard, there is probably also a standard "keywordization" of the kanjis in French ( or other languages different from french) Is it true? where can it be found ?
There is a French version of RTK.

Quote:Finally, Is there a way ,(using greasemonkey or whatever) to have "Reviewing the kanji" website "translated" for another language?

Thanks for your replies!
Yes and no. There is a Greasemonkey script called "Substitute keywords" that allows you to change the keywords. Unfortunately, if I am not wrong the author of the French version didn't like the idea of the French keywords getting spread over internet, so if you wan to use French keywords, you'll have to edit them one by one.

There are also other interesting scripts for this site. I recommend you installing Greasefire. It tells you when there are scripts on userscripts.org for the sites you visit. Then go to the Review section and check all the scripts available for it.

Hi and welcome. =)
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#6
thanks for all your replies!
I get the French list of keywords this is very useful and many thanks for it!
i will now look carefully this "Substitutes keywords" to see if i can adapt it for my own work.
thanks a lot for your precise answers all is clearer now!!
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