Hello, all. Recently I've been having some success using chaining to learn onyomi, and I wanted to share with the world. My family didn't seem too interested, so I thought I'd share with you guys :p (kind of long though!)
I came across RTK after having a few years of Japanese under my belt (low intermediate, I would guess) back in 2009 and tried it for a few months. I got to about 500 frames before I quite. I tried on and off again for a few more years before I got sick of it, and decided it wasn't for me.
Thing is, coming in as an intermediate, I wanted to improve my reading ability, and I didn't have the patience to go through RTK without learning readings. So I started looking at the movie method and KanjiTown and decided to try them out.
After a few months of tinkering with those two I finally settled on a method of kanji chaining. Note that I have not done RTK, I am doing this in place of it and I am already seeing results. I used the onyomi lists from this thread (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=8020) and sorted the ONyomi by number of kanji.
I also got the list of primitives that Alyks suggested to use for his movie method (I believe it was him? I can't remember) and I spent a good week or two just going through those. The primitive names I didn't like I changed so that I would remember them better.
After I had the primitives down I started on the kanji. Naturally I started with the highest numbered ONyomi, ショウ (64, I believe). I copied the list of Kanji into a Word document and went through them, moving them into "sets" of Kanji that would later build a story.
As I am doing kanij chaining I believe and not the movie method, I did not pick a movie to host the ONyomi; rather, I just chose something that reminded me of the sound and used that. For example, the four I've done so far:
ショウ - SHOUtime Theater
コウ - KOUKOU High School
シ - SHI's Just Not That Into You (nothing to do with the movie lol)
カン - Korea (韓国)
So I go through the list of Kanji and just sort of examine them, looking for ones I think "go" together, or ones that would make a coherent story. After I have them in a rough order, I list out the primitives by the side. Remember, I haven't done RTK1, so I'm learning 書き方 and 読み方 at the same time. So, another example from ショウ (the first paragraph from the story): *primitives* and KEYWORD
Welcome to the SHOUtime Theater! Here is where some of the best plays in town are performed. The actors *hide out* in the back, applying special *dirt* and *rice* COSMETICS (粧). Everyone is running around, *going* faster than a *thousand computers,* and COLLIDING (衝) into each other. ABOVE (上), a *magic wand* drops to the *floor,* signaling the start of the show. The director BECKONS (招) the actors to the stage, acting all *seductive* with a *thorn*-laden rose in his mouth. The LEADER (将) steps up, *turtle* shell *glued* to his back and a *vulture* on his head. He INTRODUCES (紹) the play, *seducing* the audience with a *thread* of words. The *umbrella* opens and *drops* of gold *jewels* rain down, revealing the BELL (鐘) that *stands* on the *computer*. As it rings, let the SHOU begin!
So that is how the rest of the kanji with the ONyomi ショウ go. I like making up stories, so this method works well for me. Also, the same aspect of the story fading away as you continue to review in Anki works here as well - it's been about a month or two since I've done ショウ (I was moving really slowly at first) and I remember bits and pieces of the story, but mostly just the kanji, the reading, and a meaning.
Sometimes the stories get way out of hand, don't make sense, or don't follow logically, but I'm not too upset about it, as long as I can remember the kanji (lol).
As far as success goes, the few hundred or so Kanji I've studied so far I can pick out when I see them in native material or during class. I just learned カン and コウ and シ the past month, so I see these a lot.
市、観光 (a double hit!)、寒い*、鐘*、降る*、関東、韓国、賞
Those are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. Every time I recognize a new Kanji that I just learned (and that I can read!!), I get really excited and my resolve increases.
I starred * those kanji because these are 訓読み I believe, and that was another point I wanted to make. Coming in as an intermediate, I already knew a lot of words in Japanese, so my study of 音読み is also indirectly teaching me 訓読み, because now I have a Kanji to associate to the words I already know. So, I of course already knew the word 寒い, but I could never remember how to write it. By learning the 書き方 under the 音読み カン, I can now associate the kanji with the word, and can write 寒い. Similarly I can now write 降る in expression such as 雨が降る、雪が降っています。
So I really really like this and I'm excited about it! I've already learned ショウ、コウ、シ、カン and トウ is up next.
So yeah, just wanted to share that with you guys
off to class now!
I came across RTK after having a few years of Japanese under my belt (low intermediate, I would guess) back in 2009 and tried it for a few months. I got to about 500 frames before I quite. I tried on and off again for a few more years before I got sick of it, and decided it wasn't for me.
Thing is, coming in as an intermediate, I wanted to improve my reading ability, and I didn't have the patience to go through RTK without learning readings. So I started looking at the movie method and KanjiTown and decided to try them out.
After a few months of tinkering with those two I finally settled on a method of kanji chaining. Note that I have not done RTK, I am doing this in place of it and I am already seeing results. I used the onyomi lists from this thread (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=8020) and sorted the ONyomi by number of kanji.
I also got the list of primitives that Alyks suggested to use for his movie method (I believe it was him? I can't remember) and I spent a good week or two just going through those. The primitive names I didn't like I changed so that I would remember them better.
After I had the primitives down I started on the kanji. Naturally I started with the highest numbered ONyomi, ショウ (64, I believe). I copied the list of Kanji into a Word document and went through them, moving them into "sets" of Kanji that would later build a story.
As I am doing kanij chaining I believe and not the movie method, I did not pick a movie to host the ONyomi; rather, I just chose something that reminded me of the sound and used that. For example, the four I've done so far:
ショウ - SHOUtime Theater
コウ - KOUKOU High School
シ - SHI's Just Not That Into You (nothing to do with the movie lol)
カン - Korea (韓国)
So I go through the list of Kanji and just sort of examine them, looking for ones I think "go" together, or ones that would make a coherent story. After I have them in a rough order, I list out the primitives by the side. Remember, I haven't done RTK1, so I'm learning 書き方 and 読み方 at the same time. So, another example from ショウ (the first paragraph from the story): *primitives* and KEYWORD
Welcome to the SHOUtime Theater! Here is where some of the best plays in town are performed. The actors *hide out* in the back, applying special *dirt* and *rice* COSMETICS (粧). Everyone is running around, *going* faster than a *thousand computers,* and COLLIDING (衝) into each other. ABOVE (上), a *magic wand* drops to the *floor,* signaling the start of the show. The director BECKONS (招) the actors to the stage, acting all *seductive* with a *thorn*-laden rose in his mouth. The LEADER (将) steps up, *turtle* shell *glued* to his back and a *vulture* on his head. He INTRODUCES (紹) the play, *seducing* the audience with a *thread* of words. The *umbrella* opens and *drops* of gold *jewels* rain down, revealing the BELL (鐘) that *stands* on the *computer*. As it rings, let the SHOU begin!
So that is how the rest of the kanji with the ONyomi ショウ go. I like making up stories, so this method works well for me. Also, the same aspect of the story fading away as you continue to review in Anki works here as well - it's been about a month or two since I've done ショウ (I was moving really slowly at first) and I remember bits and pieces of the story, but mostly just the kanji, the reading, and a meaning.
Sometimes the stories get way out of hand, don't make sense, or don't follow logically, but I'm not too upset about it, as long as I can remember the kanji (lol).
As far as success goes, the few hundred or so Kanji I've studied so far I can pick out when I see them in native material or during class. I just learned カン and コウ and シ the past month, so I see these a lot.
市、観光 (a double hit!)、寒い*、鐘*、降る*、関東、韓国、賞
Those are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. Every time I recognize a new Kanji that I just learned (and that I can read!!), I get really excited and my resolve increases.
I starred * those kanji because these are 訓読み I believe, and that was another point I wanted to make. Coming in as an intermediate, I already knew a lot of words in Japanese, so my study of 音読み is also indirectly teaching me 訓読み, because now I have a Kanji to associate to the words I already know. So, I of course already knew the word 寒い, but I could never remember how to write it. By learning the 書き方 under the 音読み カン, I can now associate the kanji with the word, and can write 寒い. Similarly I can now write 降る in expression such as 雨が降る、雪が降っています。
So I really really like this and I'm excited about it! I've already learned ショウ、コウ、シ、カン and トウ is up next.
So yeah, just wanted to share that with you guys
off to class now!
