Greetings my co-learners of Japanese

Seeing as I have less then 100 frames to go before finishing RTK1, I am starting to make sketches of the path ahead.
I am really considering RTK2. Not necessarily in its entirety, but the pure and semi-pure groups really seem like they are practically free. Perhaps if the method has merit I can continue. Or stop halfway if I don't like the method. It's not like I have something to lose, Learning is learning, isn't it?

However I've been wondering, how generalizable are the signal primitives in RTK2? How will having completed RTK2 help me in pronouncing characters I do not know?
Heisig himself says in the opening paragraph of the pure groups: "Each time you see this primitive element, you can be sure what the chinese reading will be." Is this valid for ALL kanji, or only those which Heisig treated in RTK1? Same question for the semi-pure groups. Is the structure Heisig proposes there valid for all kanji or only in his list?
Is there perhaps a database that is searchable by signal primitive and onyomi? That should give immediate clues as to how generalizable RTK2 is.
Somebody who owns RTK3 can perhaps take a look at the reading section there? Are the (semi)pure groups still (semi)pure there?

Thanks for your help

Jorre

P.S.: unrelated question, but I know that some people here did the writing section of RTK3, but did anybody ever do the reading section too? Is there anybody who did the Heisig course in its entirety?

[Katsuo]

@Each time you see this primitive element, you can be sure what the chinese reading will be.

I'm afraid that statement is misleading; for the pure groups you can be sure the RTK1 kanji will have at least the reading concerned, but some have other readings too. Hence when you see an unknown compound using one of those kanji you can mostly guess it correctly, but not always.

Also, even if a kanji has only one (Joyo-approved) ON-reading there are still many exceptions where rare readings are used and others where kun-readings are used unexpectedly.

Despite this I still find it very useful to memorize the ON-readings for several reasons:
• Because with experience you get good at guessing, and judging which guesses are likely to be reliable.
• Knowing the reading helps to trigger/confirm words you half-know.
• It greatly speeds dictionary look-ups.

But learning the readings is time-consuming and probably boring. If you have an efficient method though, it could be worth it.

Regarding RTK3, yes the same group method is applied there.

Thanks for the rapid reply, but I think i didn't make myself exactly clear though.
I know that kanji have *at least* the reading presented in rtk2, but also potentially more on/kunyomi.
I also know the pro/cons of doing memorization of readings.
And I also know that there is a great deal of irregularity in the reading of kanji in compounds.
But what I meant to ask is, if I encounter for example an unknown kanji, (not a compound) OUTSIDE of the RTK1 and RTK 3 list with the 中 signal primitive, if ONE of the readings will ALWAYS be チュウ. Wether it is a common reading or not, rarely used or whatever, as long as it is *a* reading.

So: If I learn a pure group in RTK2/RTK3, whether any kanji outside of Heisig's 3007 will *also* have that particular onyomi, possibly together with other yomi. The same question for semi-pure groups, but with an extra factor of uncertainty. Do the amount of exceptions increase or not?

[Katsuo]

Well the number of exceptions increases of course. I'd say the proportion increases too. As a rough rule of thumb, the larger pure group readings from RTK2/3 mostly continue, whereas the smaller groups are less reliable. A few of the smaller pure groups from RTK2 break down in RTK3, if I recall correctly.

In the case of 中, the JIS 1&2 set of 6,355 kanji contains one exception, 迚 (very rarely used for とても), which has no ON-readings listed in the dictionaries.

If you use the Kanji Town/Movie method, you'll find by putting a primitive into a location that a certain primitive is acting in what Heisig calls a signal. However, because of the nature of how you treated the primitive (locations vice brute force memory) you can adapt how the rest of the kanji's primitives interact to let you realize when a different ON is required.