LupinIII
New member
From: USA
Registered: 2008-01-06
Posts: 1
I'm am thinking about buying this book. I memorized all of the hiragana and plan to start katakana. to start memorizing these kanji in the book do you have to have any other knowledge of japanese? i know a handful of words but i cant put together a sentence. Also in a review i read for the book it said to come here and I'll figure ouyt a good review schedule or something like that. One more think can someone recommend another book that teaches you how to speak japanese like grammar and vocab and stuff? Thanks.
Transtic
Member
Registered: 2007-07-29
Posts: 201
to start memorizing these kanji in the book do you have to have any other knowledge of japanese?
Theoretically speaking, you don't need any knowledge on Japanese at all. Indeed, Heisig advices you to use the book and learn all the kanjis before learning Japanese at all. Anyway, IMHO you should have at least a very basic knowledge of the language, and keep on studying Japanese while using the book.
By the way, you can find a free sample here
.
As for the "good review schedule or something like that", based on"Spaced Repetition". I recommend you to do some research on the topic. You could start at Wikipedia for example.
And last, but not least, you should pay attention to the info contained in this very site. Specially to the "Learn More" section.
Welcome to the Kanjisphere. 8)
Pauline
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2005-10-04
Posts: 134
Transtic wrote:
Theoretically speaking, you don't need any knowledge on Japanese at all. Indeed, Heisig advices you to use the book and learn all the kanjis before learning Japanese at all. Anyway, IMHO you should have at least a very basic knowledge of the language, and keep on studying Japanese while using the book.
Well, I suppose I'm proof of that theory then. I started RTK before even learning the kana or speaking any japanese.
About reviewing, to put it simple: To remember what you have learned, you need to refresh your memory before you forget. You do that by reviewing. Spaced repetition is a learning technique that helps you to avoid unnecessary reviews.
I third the advice to read the "Learn More" section.
vosmiura
Member
From: SF Bay Area
Registered: 2006-08-24
Posts: 1085
I'd also suggest getting up to speed with some basic Japanese before embarking on RTK, only for the purpose of giving yourself more reason and motivation to finish this book, since it can be quite hard to go the distance with RTK1 without good motivation.
However if you have some solid reasons to be motivated already, e.g. a Japanese girlfriend, or some other good reason then you probably have enough motivation to start and finish RTK1.
Now that you've learned Kana, the textbook I recommend most for learning basic to intermediate Japanese is "Japanese for Everyone" http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Everyone … amp;sr=8-1 . It's a great text to follow; but it's out of print. You can get a used one for about $20 though which is what I got and am very happy with.
The Genki books are another choice.
Last edited by vosmiura (2008 January 06, 8:55 am)
ファブリス
Administrator
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-06-14
Posts: 4021
Website
Welcome!
I think learning some very basic Japanese grammar would be a plus, but speaking from my experience, you can be a complete beginner at Japanese while embarking on RtK.
If you can get the Katakana down now, you should probably do that first. If only to be able to read the kanji readings as you do RtK, you don't want to memorize readings, but it's always nice to be able to check them, if you ever come accross one in your excursions and you somehow made a connection with the sound.
As for grammar, I would recommend to get something REALLY simple. Tae Kim's guide is already far too long. Google up for something like "quick and dirty guide to Japanese". Even if it's got romaji, at this stage it doesn't matter. What you want to get down is the very basic particles like の で に と は, understand the sentence order with verb at the end, understand the basics of inflection of adjectives (～い ～な ...) and understand the okurigana (inflection of verbs). Armed with that you can make sense of the mix of kanji and kana in a sentence, start seeing the different parts.
To be clear, like others have said, you technically don't need this knowledge to complete RtK1, but you'll want it when you finish RtK1, especially that the Trinity section I'm working on will be out by then (soon hopefully) and you will be able to jump straight into readings and vocab. But then, you can also learn all this stuff at your leisure while doing RtK1, that's what I would recommend. Prioritize always your quota of kanji to reach your target (eg. 6 months, or min. 10 kanji a day), and when you want some more lookup some basic grammar 
