Proxx
Member
From: ドイツ
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 149
Website
Hi,
i'm wondering how you handle the following:
Do you try to remember the keyword/meaning of the single kanji when reviewing sentences in your srs? Or do you just try to recognize the whole compound?
For me it's often that i can regognize the meaning of the compound (for example 警察), but if I try to think about the kanjis (heisig) keywords it's takes a lot of time and sometimes I cannot remember it.
I'm just afraid that I will have problems after I will have added more sentences (currently about 570). So for the moment I can just "see" the meaning of the compound. i'm afraid that the more sentences I will add, the more I will have problems with "seeing" the meaning without thinking about the kanjis meaning.
I'm interested in your opinion and study method.
Proxx
tummai
Member
From: Japan
Registered: 2008-03-14
Posts: 24
Website
My situation is a little backwards from yours. I didn't do Heisig and I had a lot of sentences in my SRS. I could recognize compounds and words for reading but often I couldn't write them because I'd get similar looking kanjis confused, or I just was reading the compounds as-is without paying careful attention to what kanji they consisted of. It was due to this problem that I finally decided to pick up Heisig in the first place.
I'm about 750 frames into Heisig now, and I find that when I do my old SRS sentences that suddenly I will recognize the kanji in a compound and try to think up the keyword real quick. Making this connection isn't that big a deal for me when it comes to reading and understanding words - I could do that fine pre-Heisig. But it has been *extremely* helpful to me for writing the compounds.
It's also good for active recall later on, like if I am talking in Japanese and I can't remember a word I want to say. If I've made the keyword connection in the compound for the word I'm trying to remember, sometimes it will come to me in keyword form, and then I can piece it together real quick. Before Heisig I would have had to give up, use a different word or bust out the dictionary mid-conversation. Now I can get the word I wanted to say, with only a small awkward pause.
So yeah, if you can think about the keywords when reviewing sentences, it can help them stick, or at least give you another hook to grab onto when you need to produce that word in an active recall situation (i.e. writing it down without looking at it, or thinking of a word on the fly in speech).
Proxx
Member
From: ドイツ
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 149
Website
Thanks for your answers.
I can understand what you mean and it sound logical. But for me it's quite hard to remember the keyword for a kanji, despite what Heisig says and what other rtk-members tell... Maybe also because English is not my native language. So I sit there and even if I can create the story for the compounds, I won't figure out that keyword...
Anyway, I will try to pay more attention to each kanjis keyword, and that was what I wanted to know. So thank you very much :-)
btw tummai: I saw the same "rest room" sign as you in Himeji in January and I was almost as exited as you ;-)
Last edited by Proxx (2008 April 26, 11:05 am)
