i finished heisig about two months ago, and beyond simple greetings and how to talk about the weather, heisig is the sum total of my systematic japanese studies thus far. of course it is hardly the end of my studies, and i am now setting myself to the task of aquiring vocabulary by putting the kanji into compounds. but even though it is just the first step, it has already helped in my daily life in japan dramatically.

it is pretty common for detractors of heisig's method to point out that because heisig doesn't give you full knowledge of the kanji (sounds, multiple keywords, etc.) that heisig learners are spending a lot of energy to reach an understanding of kanji that is still basically useless (only writing and one english keyword). of course, until i learn the sounds commonly associated to the kanji, and more compounds through vocabulary, i cannot and will not really claim that i am "reading" japanese.

however, i recently had two very profound moments of kanji comprehension that i would like to share as examples of just how useful the heisig results can actually be. i started this thread to encourage others to do the same, as i think such stories can be a great encouragement to those still trudging on through the process.

--episode one
my girlfriend was studying for the national accounting certification exam. a lot. luckily i have some very basic understanding of accounting from back home in america or else our relationship might have run aground. did i mention she was studying a lot? anyways, one day she showed me the problem she was working on. it was a ledger all in japanese. we were both amazed when i was able to pretty quickly sort out what all of the categories and accounts were, just from a basic understanding of accounting in english, and my knowledge of kanji a la heisig. i couldn't say any of it in japanese, but i knew what it all meant, what the numbers were, their relationships, etc. if i had studied accounting deeper back home, i might have been able to figure out the answer to the problem by filling in the complimentary accounts. basically, my familiarity with kanji from heisig helped me sort out a text of a highly technical nature.

--episode two
this weekend i watched the new movie from david lynch "inland empire." if you thought "mullholand drive" was difficult, then.... anyway, there are numerous sections of the movie with polish dialogue. unfortunately i don't know polish, and in japan the subtitles for english and polish are in japanese only. so i had to have a go at it with the kanji instead of the polish. well, i am not going to say i understand the movie yet; i will have to work that one out for a while and get back to you. but i was able to pick up what was being said in the polish scenes and see where the same dialogue was getting picked up and recycled in other scenes in typical david lynch fashion. like i said, i don't "get" the movie yet (but that is for reasons entirely unrelated to kanji; give me a break ok!), but thanks to my studies in kanji, i have all the pieces of the puzzle that would have otherwise been lost in those polish scenes.

anyway, like i said, even after having finishsed heisig, i am now just at the beginning of my japanese studies. but i think these stories help illustrate that i certainly do not feel my 6 months working on heisig was a waste of time or energy.

interesting observations and moral boosting stories making this an excellent thread for these times of Esperanto thread lunatics and the "Christine" incident.

I was teaching "how to ~~" to my junior high kiddies, so I made a game where they ask people questions like "do you know how to make takoyaki?" or "Do you know how to speak Chinese?"

So one question I had on the sheet was "Do you know how to write キリン in kanji?"

most of the kids can't write it, so it blew their minds when I wrote it for them.

麒麟. The kanji aren't in RTK, but after doing RTK1 you'll easily recognize all the bits and pieces.

johnzep Wrote:麒麟. The kanji aren't in RTK, but after doing RTK1 you'll easily recognize all the bits and pieces.

They are, actually: RTKIII.

On-topic, I haven't had any success, but when I do, I'll bring back the stories.

On a side note, I've found repeatedly that Japanese subtitles are usually more thorough in that they will translate other languages in an English film that in the English version are not. As one example, I watched The Incredibles with my English club (one of my favorite movies). At the beginning, Mr. Incredible encounters 'Bomb Voyage' who quips several things in French. Neither the English regular version, or even the English subtitles translates what he says, but the Japanese does.

I think a lot of time foreign languages are meant to not be understood by the audience. (unless of course they know the foreign language in question). Often this is done when the character in the movie doesn't understand the language. Often if the character can't understand, then it isn't translated for the audience.

The simpsons season 7 dvd that I bought in Japan has not-so-great subtitles and dubbing. Listening to or reading the translations, I noticed they leave out tons of jokes. (though in fairness I think a lot of the cultural references, plays on words, and sarcasm might be difficult to translate into japanese in a humorous way)

For those in Japan, knowing the meaning of a few Kanji might prove useful in deciphering the multiple options on the super high tech toilets in Japan. Receiving a wash and blowdry when all one is hoping for was a flush was always a bit ....ah....surprising. (And your friends start to wonder what is possibly taking you so long.) Ironically, the toilet buttons with diagrams instead of kanji didn't seem to simplify matters much for me. I never did work out the difference between the three options: 'man', 'woman' and 'family'. ??

once I spent forever pondering all the buttons on a japanese super-toliet trying to figure out how to flush the thing.

I understood all the stuff but was still stumped...I figured...ok...that's the booty wash...that's the temp...that's the seat heater...that's for girls....thats the water pressure...but how do I flush the damn thing? Then I realized the high tech wonder toliet had a manual flush level like a regular toliet. doh.

[Katsuo]

This is a useful web site for learning kanji on everyday appliances:
Toilet training
Other appliances