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I was wondering what opinions are on introducing Japanese keywords early. I'm not talking about combining RTK learning with vocab learning, I'm talking about using Japanese words that I already know where they would be appropriate.
I've been studying Japanese for a number of years now, and I'm conversational, so there are a lot of places where I feel like a Japanese keyword would help me with a distinction between similar sounding keywords.
For instance, when I see the keyword "difference" I'm more likely to think of "差” (listed by Heisig as "distinction," also a perfectly valid definition) than "違". What do you guys think about using ”さ” for "差” and "ちが(う)" for "違", as well as others (and maybe some just to cut out the English middleman, "さる” for "猿", etc.) before finishing RTK1?
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Thats lucky I think of 違う for difference. But there's lots where a Japanese keyword would be easier for me, but using this site I guess it's not very practical.. and I don't really want to move to anki...
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I've been doing it the whole time with a flashcard program on my computer (not anki, but similar), so such a change wouldn't be hard at all if I decide to go for it...
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Ooh, good idea iSoren. Though as far as "さ" goes, as long as I write it in hiragana there are only two options it can be (差 or 佐). But even two possibilities would leave me right back where I started (i.e. "wait, which one did I mean again?...") ><
What are opinions as to "distinction さ" (or "distinction サ") on the card versus using a sentence to distinguish, something like "50と20の(さ)は30です" (I'd probably put the ”さ” in bold on the cards)? Part of me want to banish English in places where it's possible.
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No problem in using Japanese keywords if you already know the Japanese words. It isn't discussed much though since most of the people here who do RtK don't know any Japanese yet.
Joined: Jan 2010
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I've seen a post or two in RevTK (can't remember where) mentioning a Japanese-keyword version of RTK, so I thought it already existed. (I think it would be AWESOME to have a version of RTK1 (and maybe RTK3) that used exclusively Japanese keywords.)
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I ended up with a kind of hybrid, because my vocabulary wasn't large enough to go all-Japanese keyword, but I wanted to use and reinforce what I already did know.
When I first started doing RTK I saw that I already had a strong Japanese word association for some kanji and/or their keywords. The multi-tasking aspect was appealing, so I tried converting to all Japanese keywords using the spreadsheet linked in another RTK thread. This quickly turned into a vocabulary exercise, not a bad thing in itself, but it slowed my kanji learning down to a discouraging level, so I went back to English keywords, although I still say a Japanese word when I write the kanji, if I know one, and I don't make a story for kanji that I already recognize and know a Japanese word for.
