I've had the same issue, but sometimes it seems helpful to learn the story so that you have more flexibility to decompose it later if you need to use some of the primitives for a story in an even more complex kanji.  So if the meaning of the kanji itself is very abstract, when it combines with other primitives you can make a more vivid story using its parts.  I think that's Heisig's point in not skipping through the first chapters that many people know before starting - you can use those images in later stories.

I think it's the goal, actually-- the story steps aside as the connection between the kanji & keyword takes precedence.  (But I would be wary of this happening before you've reviewed the kanji in question several times.)

Also, I find it much easier in cases like this to reconstruct the story from the kanji rather than the keyword.  In this sense, the keywords are definitely a crutch, but the stories useful tools.  I think if you've reviewed well, the story's floating around in there if you need it.

Remember the Joke "Yes ma'am, can you get Bartle for me?" "Sir, could you spell that?" "Yes: B as in boy, A as in apple, R as in robot, T as turtle, L as in little..." "I'm sorry sir, L as it what?" "...."

If you can reproduce the Kanji, you did the job. The stories and mnemonics were the tools to get there. Now, you should have a visual story that can be recalled if need be (probably comes to you right as you see the Kanji), but don't mark the Kanji wrong for the story. Mark it wrong when you get the Kanji wrong.

usis35 wrote:

It happens a lot, when reviewing, that I remember a kanji, I can reproduce it perfectly, but not the story. What should I do in those cases? Just mark the kanji as known and go on, or mark it as failed and spend time refreshing the story again ?

Don't mark it as failed, no matter what, you recalled the character. That's the goal. Initially, I remember using stories (using them during recall) for almost all the characters, but now the need for the story has started to fade quite significantly. There are of course still plenty that I do need the story to recall. But I'm sure that with well over half of the joyo set now, I don't use any kind of story, the pieces just come to me somehow.

But in line with what Wrightak says, if I ever fail to reproduce a character, I like to be checking and refining my story.

Rakushun wrote:

I have a semi-similar question.

What if you know what a kanji means, but not the exact keyword?

Like...昔. I know what it means.  It means 'long ago' and stuff like that.
But I couldnt remember the exact Heisig meaning of 'once upon a time.'
Is this worth worrying about?

No, keywords are mainly just prompters anyway, the true meaning regularly has much more depth. Also, when you use the characters "practically", you'll be associating them with Japanese words, so the connotation could well be slighltly, mildly (annoyingly very) different.

Last edited by Christoph (2007 December 12, 5:30 pm)