Just wondering which road you guys will take or have taken. Right now I am planning to follow the AJATT method. But it looks like this method skips RTK II. So, I'm wondering if anyone has or will learn the readings first...

I'm not anywhere close to finishing RTK I yet (technically I'm only a fourth of the way there I think) but what I have been doing alongside RTK, and what I want to continue afterwards, is to learn the readings of the kanji by studying the compounds they show up in and building up my vocabulary. I go to the JLPT study site (can't remember the URL), find the lists of vocab they have for the JLPT level 4, dump that in a word file, and every few days I add a set of words to Anki. Not all of those words will have kanji for them, mind you, and some of them have kanji that I haven't technically "learned" in Heisig yet, but so far I haven't had any problems with getting my wires crossed, and in fact find that doing both has strengthened my ability to recall the writing and the reading at the same time.

I don't think I'm gonna do RTK II, simply because I feel it's redundant and I prefer to learn the readings in the context of compounds rather than on their own.

That actually sounds like the AJATT method. I trust his method, because it obviously works. But I wonder if anything is lost by skipping RTK II.

I can vouch that not studying RTK2 isn't a problem, I didn't bother with it.. just started with kanken study.. I highly recommend getting hold of a Nintendo DS, and some of the excellent study software they have available (漢検DS by the rocket company is my personal favourite).
good link here:-
Kanji Games for the Nintendo DS

RTK 2 does have some helpful sections though.. the pure groups are well worth looking into. It's just that the magic kind of goes out of it with RTK 2, I'm of the belief that you can study readings however the hell you want.

There's plenty of threads about RTK2 on the forum somewhere.. just have a search.
RTK 2 methodologies

I recently finished RTK1 and don't have a definite plan as of yet. I've done something similar to jannahj. I'm going through Kanji in Context and entering all the vocab I don't know/want to practice into anki. Started Tuesday and have 2 chapters in. After I import the chapter deck, the next step is writing all the unfamiliar words and do a review in Anki and then try the workbook.

I started RTK2 last week by inputting only the the vocab into files hoping to assimilate the readings like others have said. I'm not sure if I want to continue. Study time is becoming longer and the hours in the day remain the same. It's just not fair! I definitely like learning WORDS as opposed to ONLY keywords though.

Christoph Wrote:(漢検DS by the rocket company is my personal favourite).[/url]

Kanken DS 2 was released last week and I held it in my hands this morning. It presumably makes the original one obsolete. I'll provide my thoughts on it once I get a chance to try it out. Hopefully it improves on some of Kanken DS's shortcomings.

I was checking out the website for 漢検DS, and it looks like it can make practice a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to being able to understand how to use it! Lol...from what I gather it's made for the Japanese.

ruisu Wrote:Lol...from what I gather it's made for the Japanese.

The Kanken, I believe, was made for the Japanese.

On-topic, the road after RTKI is pretty obvious: RTKIII. Seriously, what did you expect?

Oh, and RTKII isn't all that bad: conversely, it's pretty awesome, although people seem to give it lots of flack, for whatever reason. jannahj mentioned learning readings in the context of compounds, but, this may strike you as somewhat odd, but RTKII provides a compound for every reading, so it actually helps to reinforce that.

Ahh, I didn't know that Megaqwerty, thanks! I haven't seen the RTK II book in bookstores, but if I do I'll at least peak inside and see what's in it. So far though, I have been fine just slowly learning basic JLPT 4 vocab and picking up whatever compounds come with it. From the impression I got, RTK II uses a kanji-chain sort of method to get you to learn the readings as well, right? I think that's the reason why I've been kinda iffy about getting it. Learning mnemotics for actual symbols is very easy for me since I am a visual learner, but learning stories for sounds is a whole 'nother issue.

And ruisu, thanks for the link to the AJATT page. I think I skimmed through a long time ago, and now after reading the page again, that method is looking more and more attractive to me once I finish RTK 1. (Just uh... 1500 kanji to go! lol).

I really wanna get one of those DS games that help you with the kanji, but alas, I don't have a DS and have too many other things I want to buy first (like the Pimsleur series).

So much desire to learn, so little time.

jannahj Wrote:........I really wanna get one of those DS games that help you with the kanji, but alas, I don't have a DS and have too many other things I want to buy first (like the Pimsleur series).

So much desire to learn, so little time.

Take a look at http://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/kanjigame.html for Kanji games on your PC.


Tom

The road I took, after finishing the 2042 kanji, was to learn the kanji from 2043-3007 (Remember some of it, but gonna do more work to consolidate it some of the stuff, the "tree" section put me in a quandary). It was after learning the 3007 kanji that I returned to the other side of Japanese (the grammar). I went to Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar site and studied the grammar there. It's a very systematic approach to grammar compared to conventional text books, as far as the ones I've looked at (Colloquial Japanese, Japanese for busy people).

I wonder if anyone is going to write a book "Remembering the Japanese Grammar" like Heisig did with the Kanji. Tae Kim's guide seems like the answer to systematizing the grammar maybe...

lankydan Wrote:...the "tree" section put me in a quandary).

Was that an intentional joke, or is catching up on all of my missed reviews getting to me?

After I finished(sorta) RTK1 I started on RTK2. I don't know why people are so down on it, it really helped me. I only did about half of it, but it made a great foundation for learning and predicting the readings of kanji compounds. Before, all the repeated and indistinct on-yomi wouldn't stay in my head(is this kanji shuu or kyuu or kou...?!) but now it's all fallen into place, even when the kanji aren't in any logical group.

Anyway, I started on increasing my vocabulary with RTK2 compounds, JLPT3-2 vocabulary, and some words from context, and other books. I already knew up to JLPT3 grammar so I started on level 2 grammar. And, of course, reading practice. I am happy to say that I can somewhat comfortably read the Japanese book I took out from the library!