The kanji 是 has been giving me some trouble as a primative. "Just so" doesn't quite seem concreate enough for me. Does anyone else have the same problem, or anysuggestions for a good alternative meaning that won't confuse it with another kanji?

yeah that one really sucked. its important though because it's used as part of the kanji that appear in the following very common words 問題,　題名,　話題,　宿題.

For me I don't even need a mnemonic for it anymore but like you had problems creating one in the first place due to the abstractness of it. The bottom shape is shared by several kanji so it will become ingrained in your head very much so and the top part will be well ingrained in your head already as it is the kanji for sun. It might be an idea to just think of it as sun + てい because often that bottom part will make the kanji be pronounced てい. (except for when in 題 where its だい but in that kanji I always see the head part of that as だい haha).

It means "to be" in Chinese, originally. It's the hanzi equivalent of です. Maybe that helps clarify "just so".

Extending Heisig's story of one spending a whole day mending a sock, I've given it the additional primitive meaning of an old lady doing so, slowly bobbing back and forth in her rocking chair with darning needles twiddling away. Thus 題 is that one old lady you know who can talk your head off about any old topic.

nmessenger Wrote:Extending Heisig's story of one spending a whole day mending a sock, I've given it the additional primitive meaning of an old lady doing so, slowly bobbing back and forth in her rocking chair with darning needles twiddling away. Thus 題 is that one old lady you know who can talk your head off about any old topic.

Prepare to be confused when you get to frame 804, really important rule of RTK, don't change keywords

meolox Wrote:

nmessenger Wrote:Extending Heisig's story of one spending a whole day mending a sock, I've given it the additional primitive meaning of an old lady doing so, slowly bobbing back and forth in her rocking chair with darning needles twiddling away. Thus 題 is that one old lady you know who can talk your head off about any old topic.

Prepare to be confused when you get to frame 804, really important rule of RTK, don't change keywords

Don't worry once he reads my story for Old Woman, he'll never forget that old women have skin as wrinkly as waves like one has after an over extended bath (Free advertising )

meolox Wrote:Prepare to be confused when you get to frame 804, really important rule of RTK, don't change keywords

I change keywords quite readily and I find it very easy to avoid collisions. It's easy to search this site and then look up Heising's primitive listing to ensure that the keyword you choose is not going to cause problems later on. Over 1000 kanji and 0 collisions so far.