You shouldn't learn from kanji to keyword but you should review from kanji to keyword, it really does help, I've tried it. If you don't do this, you'll be bad at recognizing kanji compared to someone who studies both sides. I'm not sure if Heisig wants you to not review either, but from personal experience, I have become so much better from doing both sides.

If you use Anki, it is extremely easy to set this up. I would recommend to use save as to create a separate deck. (Don't forget to change your deck sync name)
edit>model properties>cards tab
in question, switch
<a href="http://kanji.koohii.com/study/?framenum=%(text:Heisig number)s">%(Keyword)s</a>
into your answers
and in answers, plop
%(Kanji)s
into questions

EDIT:I just want to be a bit more clear. Learning to write is very important and you should do keyword to kanji and it should be your priority. When you're all caught up in keyword to kanji, then kanji to keyword makes an excellent way to study as well which helps you recognize kanji as you see them in Japanese text.
Kanji to keyword just shouldn't be done alone at least imo

Last edited by raseru (2008 July 01, 8:39 pm)

I think it probably couldn't hurt, but the skill itself seems completely useless to me.  I mean, going keyword to kanji teaches you to write the kanji, and carves out a space for them in your brain to facilitate later learning.  I can't, however, think of a single situation where seeing a kanji and coming up with Heisig's keyword would be the least bit useful.  All in all, I have a nagging suspicion that the reason Heisig advises only going keyword to kanji has less to do with review times and the lack of SRS software when he wrote the book, and more with the fact that it probably isn't that useful of a thing to do.

I imagine you don't live in Japan if you don't think it can be useful to instantly recognize the meaning in everyday life.

For instance, when you go into a restaurant and see something like: ピーマン肉詰め on the やきとり menu, it helps to know the meaning of that kanji because then you know exactly what you're getting, even if you don't know the reading!

Last edited by FutureBlues (2008 July 01, 10:42 pm)

FutureBlues wrote:

I've run into a number of instances where I will see a character I've memorized in context (on a menu, sign, etc.) and fail to remember the keyword meaning, even when I sometimes recognize all the elements.

You may be encountering kanji not contained in RTK 1. For example, you probably already know the primitive elements in 頃 but it isn't in RTK 1.

And what exactly is an "electricity child resign write"?

Nukemarine wrote:

Mcjon01 wrote:

And what exactly is an "electricity child resign write"?

Electronic Dictionary (Den shi ji sho) I think. Too lazy to look it up right now.

Oh, I know, I was simply demonstrating.  I like to demonstrate, you see.

Technically, RTK2 advocates Kanji to Keyword reviewing. Although, the kanji are compounds and the keywords are bound up in the translation. It was this recent realization that's going to get me to try out RTK2 via Trinity. Yeah, it's technically learning a vocabulary list, but with a guided purpose of getting on-youmi pronunciation down pat.

I do advocate Kanji to Concept. Rapid recognition of kanji is key to scan reading.

Anyway, I'll post how I end up later.