I have the 3rd Edition of RTK1, so maybe newer editions are different, but for me the primitive 'taskmaster' is described as follows on p. 128 of the paperback

"not unlike the pictograph of 'woman', but quite different from that for 'walking legs'

This seems exactly wrong to me. I see no difference between 'taskmaster' and 'walking legs', except that maybe the latter is a little more stretched out (but lots of primitives are stretched or compacted, depending on context). On the other hand, while there is some similarity of both of these to 'woman', I find 'woman' to be the most different of the three. Am I blind, or what?

nah, I'd agree. I didn't really notice they were different until I did rtk.

They do look more different written by hand than in the computer font though. Just make sure you're writing walking legs with 3 strokes and taskmaster with 4.

Ignore 'woman' if you like, but 'taskmaster' and 'walking legs' are a pair which look similar at first sight but are definitely different -- Heisig is trying to alert you to the difference, because it's important. The number of strokes is different, so when you write by hand they move further apart than they usually are with computer fonts, as caivano says. (I think what Heisig is trying to say is that the way in which 'taskmaster' and 'walking legs' differ is that 'taskmaster' is closer to 'woman' in that the horizontal and the vertical are separate strokes.)

This is exactly why I like RtK. Before I started using radicals/primitives I was mixing things like this up all the time.

Taskmaster is 4 strokes, walking legs is 3 strokes.
http://kanji.sljfaq.org/kanjivg/makepng-...A7&s=3&l=3
http://kanji.sljfaq.org/kanjivg/makepng-...84&s=3&l=3

The ">" shape in walking legs is one stroke, while in taskmaster, it's two. To make them look different, make the first part of the stroke extend farther out horizontally in taskmaster.

Another way to remember the difference is to think of taskmaster as ケ with an extra fourth stroke, and walking legs as タ with the 3rd stroke elongated and its curve inverted.

Yeah, it was having ク and ケ pointed out that hammered it home for me. In addition, it made writing katakana much more easier as I related them to how I write kanji.

All those comments are very interesting and instructive, thank you. Since my exclusive interest is in learning to read Japanese, a plenty big task by itself, I haven't been all that conscientious about learning stroke order. I'm just trying to remember meanings, which I'm able to do pretty easily with Heisig's help. Anyway, it seems that, 90% of the kanji anybody sees will be in computer fonts; who hand-writes these days, other than calligraphers and other learners? I guess I'll just have to guess from context which of these two primitives I'm looking at.

It's not even just the stroke order though - the number of strokes in walking legs and taskmaster is different, the former being three strokes, and the latter being four.

I agree though that Heisig's comparison with the woman primitive is strange, because the final three strokes of taskmaster are precisely the opposite of woman. Taskmaster ends Horizontal - Right - Left, while woman is Left - Right - Horizontal.

Here's another one. 'Cow' (frame 245) and 'Noon' (frame 568). Heisig says: "Note how this kanji-primitive [noon] differs from that for 'cow'.

But as far as I can see, it doesn't, either in appearance or in how Heisig says it's written. Does it? .

Siwasher Wrote:Here's another one. 'Cow' (frame 245) and 'Noon' (frame 568). Heisig says: "Note how this kanji-primitive [noon] differs from that for 'cow'.

But as far as I can see, it doesn't, either in appearance or in how Heisig says it's written. Does it? .

Of course it differs. 牛 午. In cow, the vertical stroke goes past the top horizontal stroke, it does not in noon.

Siwasher Wrote:who hand-writes these days, other than calligraphers and other learners?

Actually, pretty much everyone in Japan hand-writes these days.

It is critically important to learn the stroke order even if you don't care to write--that's the only way these situations can be resolved.

Siwasher Wrote:Here's another one. 'Cow' (frame 245) and 'Noon' (frame 568). Heisig says: "Note how this kanji-primitive [noon] differs from that for 'cow'.

But as far as I can see, it doesn't, either in appearance or in how Heisig says it's written. Does it? .

Maybe if someone here has contact information for James Heisig, you could write your errata suggestions directly to him.

牛 and 午 are definitely different in appearance.

When 牛 is used as a primitive, the vertical stroke is the third stroke. In the full version of 牛 and all occurrences of 午, the vertical stroke is the fourth stroke. Does the book not indicate that?

Again, this is why learning to write the characters is critical. When you pull out a piece of paper and move your pen to the paper, you suddenly think "wait, exactly where do I start for this stroke? at the vertical line or above it?" And you think it because when writing you HAVE to make that choice, and as 牛 and 午 demonstrate that choice is critical to comprehension. After RTK you don't have to pick up a pen ever again if you don't want to--but during RTK it is really not optional.