romanrozhok
Member
From: NY state
Registered: 2007-02-26
Posts: 37
I am about to finish RTK1, and I am wondering if it is worth my time to do the other book. Are the other 1000 kanji useful? Do they show up often? Or are they a bunch of harder, less common kanji, that one would really not have to worry about to get by?
I mean, I understand that it would be a good idea either way, but considering how time consuming the process is, is it something that I will be rewarded for in the end? Or is Heisig just trying to make more money from the other books?
Thanks,
Roman
dukelexon
Member
From: Utah
Registered: 2007-12-02
Posts: 44
If you're interested in doing things like reading novels, or functioning at least almost as well in Japanese as you do in English, the benefit of the extra 1000-odd kanji in the third book is almost necessary.
For me, it was never a question that I wouldn't stop at the Jouyou. I intend to be able to read Japanese science fiction and fantasy. That's a personal thing, however ... if you never plan to move away from simple manga or newspapers, you may not need it.
Personally, I went right from RTK1 to RTK3. I've been trying to learn readings as Khatsumoto recommends, in context, upon my first encounter with the kanji I learned from Heisig in a real-life sentence. So far, it's working brilliantly.
If you'd rather go the more traditional route of strictly memorizing readings for each kanji, which has very strong benefits, RTK2 can indeed be useful ... there's a lot of buzz in the community about foregoing RTK2 for the kanji "chain" method, however.
The general consensus, as far as I can tell, is that the second book is the least useful of the three, but that isn't to say that it's useLESS.
Last edited by dukelexon (2008 March 12, 7:23 pm)
