So, I just started working on Remember the Kanji Volume one but don't understand what Heisig is talking about really in the descriptions. :/ I'm kinda stressing out since I really want to use this message but wondering if I'm really slow.

For example..

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/helpr.jpg/


When he's talking about 3 , is he saying to keep the stroke in the middle short like what the number 3 is ?

And about 4 what strokes is he trying to explain? How to make the 'mouth'? O.O; But he says he'll talk about it later since he calls it a 'primitive element' like the 'human legs' ...x.X

I'm sorry if I'm sounding slow..maybe the stress is getting to me. D:

Just general Kanji.

The 漢字 三 has three strokes (continuous lines) which are written left to right, top to bottom. The top stroke is longer than the middle stroke, and the bottom stroke is the longest. That is the correct way of writing the 漢字 三.

The radical for 四 resembles 口 the 漢字 for mouth. Also, the other two stokes are part of the human-feet radical. These you will learn more about later.

My advice is just remember Heisig's explanations, it should make more sense as you complete more 漢字.

Are you currently only using Remember the Kanji Volume One to study Japanese?

If you're getting stressed out on the 4th character, I think you need to try to relax a bit and not sweat things so much.

In 3, he's referring to how 二's top stroke is shorter than the bottom one, so if you stack 一 on top of that, you get something with a shorter stroke in the middle

一　　 →　　三
二　　/


For 四, he's pointing out right there in the text that 口 is mouth and 儿 is human legs. He's not explaining the strokes; just saying that the character's visual representation is made up of those two parts. And when he says you'll see them in later lessons, that means that he hasn't fully introduced them yet and you're not supposed to know all about them. :-)

Omoishinji Wrote:Just general Kanji.

The 漢字 三 has three strokes (continuous lines) which are written left to right, top to bottom. The top stroke is longer than the middle stroke, and the bottom stroke is the longest. That is the correct way of writing the 漢字 三.

The radical for 四 resembles 口 the 漢字 for mouth. Also, the other two stokes are part of the human-feet radical. These you will learn more about later.

My advice is just remember Heisig's explanations, it should make more sense as you complete more 漢字.

Are you currently only using Remember the Kanji Volume One to study Japanese?

Hmm what are radicals exactly? Sorry for all the questions. X.X;

I'll try my best and remember them.

Well, it's the only book I'm using at the moment.

JimmySeal Wrote:If you're getting stressed out on the 4th character, I think you need to try to relax a bit and not sweat things so much.

In 3, he's referring to how 二's top stroke is shorter than the bottom one, so if you stack 一 on top of that, you get something with a shorter stroke in the middle

一　　 →　　三
二　　/


For 四, he's pointing out right there in the text that 口 is mouth and 儿 is human legs. He's not explaining the strokes; just saying that the character's visual representation is made up of those two parts. And when he says you'll see them in later lessons, that means that he hasn't fully introduced them yet and you're not supposed to know all about them. :-)

Ohhh I seee. I thought he was explaining ways to remember the kanji already. Thanks. I really need to calm down. :B

For what it's worth, I found Heisig's stories pretty awful. The book got a lot easier for me after frame 500 or so when he stopped giving stories and I started to use my own / other people's on this site.

I'd advise that if you have an easier way to remember a character, use that. Consequently, if you see a story on this site that works better than Heisig's, go for it. The goal is to remember the meanings and writings after all, the specifics of the journey don't matter too much so I wouldn't stress about that. ;-)

Omoishinji Wrote:Hmm what are radicals exactly?

Radicals are building blocks that make up kanji. When you look at kanji, you see certain patterns of sub-kanji that show up over and over again. The same thing is also true of primitives, with the distinction being that radicals are the traditional components that kanji can be reduced to, whereas primitives are the ones that Heisig and followers of his method came up with. For the most part they overlap, but radicals are based on Chinese etymology and primitives on easy memorization. So you will see things like two different primitives where they are traditionally considered variants on the same radical, or primitives with names that are arbitrary but easy to visualize and make stories about.

Radicals are the fundamental component of the Kanji. Thank you Corodon, I am glad you were able to answer Suisei's question.