Hudzon
New member
Registered: 2008-03-27
Posts: 5
Hello, All.
I have started learning Japanese pretty much full time recently, and went through the 200 first kanji of the Heising book in the past few days. (I am using it with Supermemo, which has been a great asset so far);
However, my question is: should I go through the book completely first and start learning their on/kun readings and vocab later, or should I start learning the vocab and readings in parallel with the Hesing book?
danieldesu
Member
From: Raleigh
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 247
Whatever you do, don't spend too much time getting through Heisig, because the longer you are at it, and the more times your motivation drops, the less of a chance you have to finish it. You said "200 in the past few days": try to stay at this pace. I think if you are doing Japanese full time, you can manage this pace and work a bit on learning real words that use the kanji. I kind of wish I had, because there are a few kanji that you will have complete misconceptions about when trying to learn them the Heisig way, and if you spend a little time with each kanji seeing how it is actually used, that will help you immensely.
danieldesu
Member
From: Raleigh
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 247
Ah well... you got two completely opposite replies. Take from that what you will. Personally, I think it doesn't hurt to go above and beyond Heisig, which like I said, can keep you from accidently misunderstanding a keyword. On the other hand, you will not be very efficient in using what you have learned from Heisig until you are pretty much finished with it. I think that is why Heisig recommends separating, because in the order he presents them, you pretty much cannot read anything until you know everything. Plus, once you start reading stuff, you will know which readings are actually important to know. Still, looking up a few words for each kanji as you go can't possibly be a bad thing, can it?
Also, there is this whole concept of "you can't do anything until you are done with Heisig," which is why I personally think going through it faster is better, because the more and more you build up kanji knowledge, the more you will want to use it, which can be distracting from your Heisig studies. If you can be consistent and keep that from happening, I guess any pace would be fine. I'm just thinking logistically, and in my own, not very consistent manner.
rich_f
Member
From: north carolina
Registered: 2007-07-12
Posts: 1708
I think what you do depends on where you are in your Japanese studies. Since you're just starting, I'd say just focus on Heisig and get it over with, and do it the way he suggests in the book. Don't try to get confused. Just chunk it out at the best pace you can maintain. Since you don't have much knowledge about the language itself, I'd say for just learning how to recognize and write kanji, you'll already have a full plate.
Think of the other stuff as a motivation to get to when you finish RTK, if that helps.
And if Heisig's way doesn't work, then start looking at other ways to do it. But for now, as a Japanese language beginner, just learning stroke order, radicals, and an English keyword will be plenty to deal with. On/kun will be there when you finish in a month or two. If you try to learn it all at once, then what's the point of RTK? 
Just whatever you do, DON'T LOSE MOMENTUM. That means no days off, no slacking. If you stop, it's very hard to start again. Even missing a day can be a royal pain in the butt.
And yeah, for every question, you'll get 50 different takes here.
