This is my first post after lurking around for some time-
English is not my native language, so please forgive the many errors I am about to inflict you ^.^

I have been studying japanese in a formal school for about 2 years, finishing now the 5th and last shokyuu level. The lower intermediary levels start next year.
I have already been exposed to and studied a small number of kanji, say, about 70 new per semester, around 350 so far. These I learned as the classes progressed, always in context, always learning compounds and on and kun readings. And then I discovered - stumbled upon - RTK, like a week ago. So far I made it up to lesson 16, frame 369. Naturally some of the kanji I already new, but just a few. Following the lessons and reviewing the kanji in Anki is very addictive, I can easily spend hours going through some pages, adding the kanji to Kanji LS Touch on the iPad, drawing them repeatedly then reviewing in Anki, and repeat ad nauseam.

My point is simple: being as addictive as it is, I have no doubt that I can finish it in a few months. But I am not sure how these newly learned kanji, from which I know only one meaning and how to draw them, are going to integrate themselves in the progress of formally learning the language. I have not yet come across the situation where I learn a word or reading of a kanji I already knew through RTK, so I wanted to ask whether you have had the experience and how it worked for you.

How much does having learned a kanji through RTK help when you learn the readings and other meanings along the way of your classes?

Thanks for reading so far-
Happy drilling!

I first started learning kanji the old-fashioned way through rote memorization. However, once I started to approach 1,000 kanji everything started to get more difficult and I was having trouble differentiating between different kanji. What RTK did for me was help me create a system where I could more easily recognize kanji. Basically, it broke everything down into easily manageable pieces. That allowed me to concentrate more on vocabulary instead of trying to memorize a every kanji's stroke order and hope I could remember the radical placement.


Plus there is the added benefit of (sometimes) being able to decipher a ridiculously difficult text of Japanese using Heisig keywords.

Hello Womacks23,

Thank you for sharing your experience - I believe that the results you obtained are more than enough to justify investing the time to finish RTK. And since it is so addictive, it becomes like a game, i.e. time passes and you do not notice.

Hopefully I will start noticing the effects sooner than later.

Thanks-