fishhead
Member
From: Japan
Registered: 2012-05-12
Posts: 41
This is my first time posting here, so first of all a big はじめまして all!
I am considering taking the plunge and committing to RTK for the next three months, but wanted to ask for some opinions before doing so.
I have been studying Japanese, to a greater or lesser extent, for about 4 years. I had two years of class in high-school (not very intense, maybe 2 hours a week) and have studied it as a minor subject in college for a year and a half. I passed 3級 of the JLPT last December, and aim to take 2級 this December, though I do not expect to pass.
I have tried various methods of learning kanji, but feel that none of them are really 'sticking'. Recently I have been having some success with Kanji Damage （http://kanjidamage.com/) which, like RTK, involves making up stories in order to learn the kanji. However, some of the meanings assigned to radicals are quite arbitrary, and so I though it might be worth giving RTK a go.
However, since I already have 4 years' study behind me, I do have some familiarity with the kanji. I know that in order to do RTK effectively you have to start from the very beginning, and am wondering if it would be a waste of time to have to re-learn the basics before I go onto new kanji. Has anybody else tried switching to RTK after using other methods?
Looking forward to taking part in discussions here!
AkiKazachan
Member
From: Georgia
Registered: 2009-03-25
Posts: 43
I don't post much, but I'm in a similar situation, so I'll try and see if I can help.
I found RTK in 2009 after studying Japanese for a few years, maybe somewhere between 3 and 5. I had already taken some classes, and I did not consider myself at the beginner level. I had a working knowledge of a few hundred Kanji, but I was eager to go ahead and knock the rest of them out.
When I started RTK I could read Japanese fairly well. The one thing I found most frustrating about it was that it did not teach me how to read the kanji, which was the thing I was most interesting in learning. I could recognize a few, but I still couldn't read them, and it was really bumming me out. So after using RTK on and off for a few years, I finally quit it last year and started looking for other methods.
The method I use now is kanji chaining (I wrote about it in my post here: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=9314), and it's working remarkably well for me. Because it gives me a reading as well, I can at least have the illusion that I'm learning how to read 
So, what I did was that I started with RTK, realized its method wasn't exactly for me, and switched to something else. RTK is a wonderful resource for anyone, especially beginners, but I would say for those in the intermediate+ stage, it might be a bit too slow, especially if you already have knowledge of kanji. So I would suggest finding a method that fits where you are in your studies and what you're trying to accomplish.
The most important thing is the basic method behind Heisig, which is breaking up the characters into smaller parts in order to facilitate learning their reading/meaning/stroke order/etc. This is the basic principle behind many of the methods that come out of this site. I would try RTK and see if it works for you, because it might 
but if not, I would try to look for some other methods and see if they might be more appropriate for you level.
cingo
Member
From: germany
Registered: 2007-10-03
Posts: 31
I went up to 3級 before considering RTK at all. My life (as a Japanese learner) changed completely. I cannot recommend it enough. It took me one month several hours a day to complete RTK1, but the change is enormous. Apart from the fact that you can infer the meaning of words you have never seen before, I really feel I can write kanji now, which is quite amazing.
My method before this was the rote repetition method, which was not efficient at all.
I am going through RTK2 now btw. I am apparently one of the very few who appreciate it (possibly also because many people take up RTK at the beginning of their Japanese studies, unlike me: if you already have a reasonable dictionary it is quite a pleasurable experience). It demands more discipline than RTK1, but it really teaches you how to read the kanji.
chamcham
Member
Registered: 2005-11-11
Posts: 1444
fishhead wrote:
This is my first time posting here, so first of all a big はじめまして all!
I am considering taking the plunge and committing to RTK for the next three months, but wanted to ask for some opinions before doing so.
I have been studying Japanese, to a greater or lesser extent, for about 4 years. I had two years of class in high-school (not very intense, maybe 2 hours a week) and have studied it as a minor subject in college for a year and a half. I passed 3級 of the JLPT last December, and aim to take 2級 this December, though I do not expect to pass.
I have tried various methods of learning kanji, but feel that none of them are really 'sticking'. Recently I have been having some success with Kanji Damage （http://kanjidamage.com/) which, like RTK, involves making up stories in order to learn the kanji. However, some of the meanings assigned to radicals are quite arbitrary, and so I though it might be worth giving RTK a go.
However, since I already have 4 years' study behind me, I do have some familiarity with the kanji. I know that in order to do RTK effectively you have to start from the very beginning, and am wondering if it would be a waste of time to have to re-learn the basics before I go onto new kanji. Has anybody else tried switching to RTK after using other methods?
Looking forward to taking part in discussions here!
Using this website, you can delete cards (click on the wrench
icon in the upper right corner and choose delete).
So review RTK as usual and delete any cards that you already know.
That way, you'll only have the kanji that you need to remember.
For the cards that you delete, MAKE SURE that you can actually write them from memory.
Don't just glance at it and say "yeah i know that one", and when the times comes, find out that you can't write it down.
Last edited by chamcham (2012 July 10, 3:59 pm)
fishhead
Member
From: Japan
Registered: 2012-05-12
Posts: 41
Thank you so much for your comments - it is great to hear about other peoples' experience, particularly that it has worked for some and not for others. I think I am going to go ahead and order the book, commit to it for the next month and see how I progress. As was suggested, I should be able to plow through the kanji I know already fairly quickly, but it will also be a good way to test whether or not I actually know the ones I think I do!
maruru
New member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2012-03-05
Posts: 7
fishhead wrote:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Remembering-Kanji-1-James-Heisig/9780824835927
Just want to confirm that this is the most up-to-date version of the book.
Yep, the 6th edition is the up-to-date version, including the extra kanji that were added to the jōyō list in 2010. You may want to take note, however, that the numbering system on this website (if you wish to use the site's SRS system or get inspiration for stories here) follows the 4th edition. By all means get the newest edition if you're able though, just wanted to point out that you need to look kanji up here by keyword, not by frame number (although I believe someone made a number converter between the 4th and 6th edition)
