I got RTK 1 two days ago and I can commit about 4 hours+ to studying.
So far I'm at the end of lesson 2 (about to begin lesson 3) and here is what I do:

Read each frame, write down kanji and stroke order beside it, take note of any primitives, and review. Once I feel comfortable with each kanji and can associate them with their English keyword, I then go back and look up their on/kun readings and memorize those as well.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of a site with on/kun readings (besides kanji damage, I use that site for their mnemonics) I need the on/kun readings for frames 17-34. Oh, and if anyone can provide me with a key to their rtk 1 anki deck that would be great. Thanks.

Sorry if my question is the generic, boring type you get everyday. I'm one of those people who like to have clarification on everything I do.

The only correct method is the one that keeps you practicing. Sounds like yours is just fine.

I don't know what you mean by "a key", but if you need the rtk1 deck you can find it in the shared decks folder.

WataruSayan Wrote:I got RTK 1 two days ago and I can commit about 4 hours+ to studying.
So far I'm at the end of lesson 2 (about to begin lesson 3) and here is what I do:

Read each frame, write down kanji and stroke order beside it, take note of any primitives, and review. Once I feel comfortable with each kanji and can associate them with their English keyword, I then go back and look up their on/kun readings and memorize those as well.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of a site with on/kun readings (besides kanji damage, I use that site for their mnemonics) I need the on/kun readings for frames 17-34. Oh, and if anyone can provide me with a key to their rtk 1 anki deck that would be great. Thanks.

Sorry if my question is the generic, boring type you get everyday. I'm one of those people who like to have clarification on everything I do.

I wouldn't bother looking up the readings just yet, your aim is to learn the kanji, readings are usually better learnt in context (while learning vocab).

Having said that, if you still want to, or just want the readings anyway, my deck here has them.

Are you using a system to review? Like this site or Anki? And how do you find the stories on this site?

Also, if you spend a lot of time on each character writing them out and memorizing its readings, getting through RTK is going to take very long. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, but most people seem to see better value in the method as something to simply blow through in order to only become familiar with the characters, and then quickly move on to learning Japanese with RTK's advantage.

Good luck and welcome to the site

WataruSayan Wrote:I got RTK 1 two days ago and I can commit about 4 hours+ to studying.
So far I'm at the end of lesson 2 (about to begin lesson 3) and here is what I do:

Read each frame, write down kanji and stroke order beside it, take note of any primitives, and review. Once I feel comfortable with each kanji and can associate them with their English keyword, I then go back and look up their on/kun readings and memorize those as well.

You're not supposed to even deal with kanji reading when doing RTK1. At all. That's what RTK2 is for (although most members don't use the book but just learn readings in other ways). But the general theme here is that readings come AFTER RTK. Why? Because you already know how to distinguish 2042-2200(6th Ed/added supplement) kanji.

Readings will be so much easier because at this point kanji aren't unrecognizable chicken scratches anymore, but a unique and beautiful writing system.

Here its in the intro of the book (EDIT: forgot to mention the quote is on page 10 of the book)

Quote:When Chinese adult students come to the study of Japanese, they already know what the kanji mean and how to write them. They have only to learn how to read them. The progress they make in com- parison with their Western counterparts is usually attributed to their being “Oriental.” ...It is their knowledge of the meaning and writing of the kanji that gives the Chinese the decisive edge. My idea was sim- ply to learn from this common experience and give the kanji an English read- ing. Having learned to write the kanji in this way—which, I repeat, is the most logical and rational part of the study of Japanese—one is in a much better position to concentrate on the often irrational and unprincipled problem of learning to pronounce them.

Kanji damage is pretty different from RTK in that it uses readings in its stories. If you like the stories Kanji damage had provided so far, you should probably just learn the kanji in their order. There should be a shared Anki deck available for you to download and review with

@quincy: I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

@Frony0: thanks! I'll probably using it down the line some time.

@twomorecharacters: I'm using anki, but other than that, just good old note reviewing. Thanks for the insight, I guess I'll just use the direct Rtk method then because Incould have been on lessons 5-6, but looking up the readings slowed me down. Guess I'll pick up RTK-2 when I'm done

@Rawrpk: ah, I guess this books method was designed this specific way for a reason. I guess I'll stick to it and just focus on associating the Kanji with their english keywords and eventually pick up rtk 2. Thank you for the advice.

Again, thanks everyone! I was expecting a response in a few days or so, but this forum is more lively than I thought. Thank you for helping me in my studies!

RawrPk Wrote:You're not supposed to even deal with kanji reading when doing RTK1. At all. That's what RTK2 is for (although most members don't use the book but just learn readings in other ways). But the general theme here is that readings come AFTER RTK. Why? Because you already know how to distinguish 2042-2200(6th Ed/added supplement) kanji.

Readings will be so much easier because at this point kanji aren't unrecognizable chicken scratches anymore, but a unique and beautiful writing system.

I think we should keep in mind however, that RTK1 is originally an over 30 years old method that was made for a time without the incredibly efficient SRS flashcard programs, the plethora of tools and the native material that we have free access to for language acquisition today. Just because the steps of the first book donät include learning the readings as well I don't think we should say that it would be wrong to do so; It's at least less wrong to do it using Anki while keeping up exposure to Japanese than it is with nothing but paper flashcards of 1977.

Edit: not that I disagree with you, I think readings are more easily and enjoyably learned after RTK1 by learning vocabulary through whatever preferable methods too. But just as something to note. Whatever keeps us practicing, as quincy said.

Anyone tried http://www.Readthekanji.com? That site seems good for learning readings. Basically I was hoping for someone to say what they thought, because it looks very nice for when I finish RTK.

Well you don't have to know how to write to learn how to read so you don't have to wait. I learned to read like a 1000kanji from song lyrics before I did rtk

Rote memorization of onyomi/kunyomi readings is a waste of time.
There's no logic in figuring out which reading goes to which kanji.

If you've ever studied for the Japanese Kanji Kentei Exam (a kanji exam for
Japanese people), they give readings and then a list of vocab words. But very
often, you don't see some of the readings being used in the vocab list.

Also, if you come across a word that you've never seen, but you have all
the readings memorized, how are you going to find the correct reading?
Probably by looking it up in a dictionary, which would defeat the purpose
of rote memorization of the readings in the first place.

Instead, learn and memorize readings from vocabulary that you come across while reading.

Lastly, most of the onyomi readings in Japanese comes from different Chinese dynasties. So it's a complete mess.

From Wikipedia:

"Generally, on'yomi are classified into four types:

Go-on (呉音?, "Wu sound") readings are from the pronunciation during the Southern and Northern Dynasties during the 5th and 6th centuries. There is a high probability of Go referring to the Wu region (in the vicinity of modern Shanghai), which still maintains linguistic similarities with modern Japanese.

Kan-on (漢音?, "Han sound") readings are from the pronunciation during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th to 9th centuries, primarily from the standard speech of the capital, Chang'an (長安 or 长安, modern Xi'an). Here, Kan is used in the sense of China.

Tō-on (唐音?, "Tang sound") readings are from the pronunciations of later dynasties, such as the Song (宋) and Ming (明). They cover all readings adopted from the Heian era (平安) to the Edo period (江戸). This is also known as Tōsō-on (唐宋音).

Kan'yō-on (慣用音?, "Idiomatic sound") readings, which are mistaken or changed readings of the kanji that have become accepted into the language. In some cases, they are the actual readings that accompanied the character's introduction to Japan, but do not match how the character “should” be read according to the rules of character construction and pronunciation."

chamcham Wrote:Rote memorization of onyomi/kunyomi readings is a waste of time.
There's no logic in figuring out which reading goes to which kanji.

This. You learn this the moment you run into 二十歳. :-p

KanjiBox has a JLPT reading drill feature that I love. It tracks to JLPT levels, so not sure how useful that will be for Heisig folks, but I've found it very useful. It's also a good way to pick up some additional useful vocab.