Hello, I'm new to this site (which looks great by the way ) and I plan on starting to learn my Kanji with the RtK method. I'm only beginning Japanese but I've almost got all my Kana down.

I know RtK 1 is about learning how to draw and memorize the Kanji, but not to learn the readings. From what I understand, a Kanji can have multiple readings. But are these just different ways to pronounce the same Kanji, or does it also indicate a different meaning? Basically what I'm asking, is if the meaning given in RtK is what a Kanji will mean in a sentence? Or can the meaning of a Kanji change depending on it's context in a sentence?

RtK doesn't give you meanings, it gives you keywords to help you remember the kanji. Sometimes they do coincide with some common meanings, but I wouldn't rely on it too heavily to figure out what a sentence is saying.

In most cases, I'd say that the core meaning of the kanji retains itself throughout, even though the readings may change. The readings are more about historical word importations from China etc, vs. words that are originally Japanese. But for the most part, the general meaning behind each character remains more or less the same.

A lot of characters, however, don't mean anything when not in a word. The second character in 記憶 (memory) doesn't mean anything if it's just 憶 by itself.

I'd say don't worry about the meanings of the kanji too much. Worry about the meanings of the words.

Although the essential meaning of a kanji generally is conserved regardless of its reading, there are cases where both the reading and the meaning change depending on the context. Right now I can thinks in the following examples:

辛い　からい spicy, salty
辛い　つらい tight, difficult

実　じつ truth
実　み seed

Also, there are words whose meaning is completely unrelated to the kanji they are composed of, as they only take the reading, the notorious 当て字 (あてじ):

風呂　ふろ　meaning "bath" and composed of kanjis meaning "wind" + "backbone"

Thanks to both of you for your explanation, I really appreciate the help

So what would you recommend is the best way to learn the readings and meanings? I'd imaging learning every reading for every Kanji as you go through RtK isn't the best way of doing it.

I've also heard a lot of people say not to bother going through RtK 2 when you finish with 1.

japaneseperkins Wrote:So what would you recommend is the best way to learn the readings and meanings?

Learn the readings and meanings as you learn Japanese. Get a basic textbook and use your RTK knowledge to hit the ground running. The Japan Times is currently publishing a new version of the GENKI series and I would suggest starting Japanese there.

http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en

Thanks, sounds like a logical way of doing it.

I've read about Genki and do plan on picking up a copy when I get the money. I'm also going to get private lessons from an instructor with my girlfriend (we're learning together ) but that wont start for a little bit yet and I don't wanna sit around and do nothing when I'm so excited to be learning. Gotta take advantage of the beginners high after all lol