If you're just doing Kanji->Kana, then I'm not surprised. If you're in anki, create a new model that goes Kana-> Kanji, get out a large stack of paper, and start going the other way, too. I started doing it around March or so, and I don't have the problem you're talking about anymore. The nice thing about Anki is that it's really easy to do-- just create a new card model. As long as you already have the facts in there (with the kana readings), you're golden.

The downside is that it takes a lot of time to review this way. But the upside is that you'll be able to write them from memory pretty well.

Sequa wrote:

I figured that reading a word over and over again doesn't help because I still can't write very common words such as 勉強. Not because I don't know how to write the kanji but because I don't know which kanji are used. The only words that I can write easily are those whose kanji's onyomi I know.

Trust me, after a while (an admittedly long while), this does work. For my university Japanese class, we wrote べんきょう a lot. After I started writing it in kanji, it took about a week until I didn't need to even think about it anymore. However, that's a week of writing it every night, at least a few times on homework, as well as on kanji practice (just writing the kanji over, and over, and over).

However, if this method is too slow for you, devise up a mnemonic that covers knowing which kanji to use for the word. It can be done, you know

頑張って <--- Still can't write those kanji... I can recognize them, and I know the first one quite well, but I always forget it's that kanji. I just don't write it often enough.

Last edited by Ryuujin27 (2008 June 27, 7:49 pm)

First let me say, the inability to write very common words is perhaps my greatest frustration with Japanese and what caused me to take up RTK1 in the first place. It seems the simplest solution is as rich_f said: do question -> kanji production cards in Anki for example. I think any sort of mnemonic or memory trick is worth using, so long as its benefit outweighs the extra time spent on it.

I've finished RTK1 and am now starting to use it towards my goal of being able to write most of the words I know. In the past 2 weeks I've added 700+ words (recognition and production cards) in Anki. That pace was a bit too much as I ran into reviews of 200+ cards a day and stalled out on adding new words.

Let me tell you how much easier it is to write words having completed RTK1. Since every character will be stored in its own place in your memory, being able to write a word reduces to simply making the links to those kanji. This path can be made automatically by just doing your SRS reps. However, here's a few things I do to make the path stick easier the first time:

1) Make a story linking the kanji stories to the meaning. It takes a bit more mental gymnastics to make this super-story, but I find it useful. You have to see each of your stories interacting in some way expressing the meaning.
2) Make a story using the RTK keywords. Sometimes the keywords fit logically into a sentence with the meaning; other times you'll have to use your imagination. For example: 頑張る：A stubborn guy trying very hard to lengthen himself using methods from those infamous emails. Obviously this would work better if you use Japanese keywords.
3) Pay attention to kanji from previously known words. I.e., if you know 反対（はんたい）and 戦争（せんそう）and are now learning 対戦（たいせん）it should be a peace of cake. It sure would be awesome if Anki would show you this automatically; I think I'll request this feature.
4) Pay attention to the reading and readings of previously known words. This can screw you up though; if you know 反対（はんたい）and are learning 批判（ひはん）then you'll be tempted to write 批反. If this happens, try applying 1) or 2).

So far this has been working great for me. In 2 weeks I can now write 700+ words I couldn't write before. Not bad. Such a task would have been a nightmare before RTK.

I'm interested to hear of any other tricks.

Last edited by radical_tyro (2008 June 27, 9:43 pm)

If you know kanji, you should definitely be learning vocab in their kanji forms as opposed to just the kana. To memorize the kana and then have to go back and re-learn all the vocab with kanji is an enormous waste of time. Personally I find it much easier to memorize vocab with their kanji instead of just sounds.

Also, there are quite a few members of the forum who are rather high level.