When heart appears on the left, it takes the form of "state of mind", so I dont think you ever see the standard heart on the left. Ear is also usually on the left. When a primitive appears in different positions, it can help to give it a new name. Like for the thread primitive, I usually call it spiderman, but when its on the bottom I call it venom (spidermans enemy).

I have adapted stories to take into account primitive placements. For picture stories (such as "melodious" music), I create a visual image that focuses on the first primitive, then the picture pans out to reveal the other primitives. So with melodious music, it starts with the angel, then the image pulls back and I see the angel sitting on the moon singing a melody. So it's Good then Moon.

As stated already, changing the primitive name to denote placement or appearance really helps. Venom for lower spiderman sounds is such a good idea, I'll use it from now on. I've missed many a kanji due to not knowing where "thread" went.

This does happen to me quite a bit, not as much as it used to though (I guess there are patterns you pick up unconsciously? I don't know). What I usually do is try to see if I can find the logic behind it, based on the meaning of the kanji. Like how all the metals have 金 on the left hand side, it indicates the meaning. I have no idea if this is always true but I pretend it is.

And by logic I don't mean real logic. Like in this case.. well like others said, the heart is never full on the left, but hypothetically I would probably say something like... "the ear indicates shame, because when you're ashamed your ears blush red. That's why it takes the dominant position. Obviously."

Edit: I also do the same as Katsuo, when I know the relevant kanji. I didn't know about shire, so I'll add it now! I have quite a few random RTK3 cards in my deck for that reason.

Last edited by shakkun (2008 July 03, 7:35 am)

Personally, I ignore the placement and press Yes for I remembered it, provided i remembered all of the elements.

I find by the time it gets into the 4th column I can remember the placement anyway.

The most annoying kanji for placement is 目 followed by 貝 I reckon.

Wizard wrote:

Personally, I ignore the placement and press Yes for I remembered it, provided i remembered all of the elements.

I find by the time it gets into the 4th column I can remember the placement anyway.

The most annoying kanji for placement is 目 followed by 貝 I reckon.

I started out being liberal on what counted as passing. Now that I'm done with RTK, I can afford to be more strict on what counts as a miss. Before, like you I passed it even if the radicals were in wrong spots or I missed a stroke. Now, I fail it if I do those things.

Granted, there's a difference when you're reviewing 100+ cards and 300 in your fail stacks, and when it's 40+ cards with none in your fail stack. Always be willing to adapt based on your abilities. Good job Wizard.

When i 'read'/'learn' my story, i do physical turns with my head (this is only for left/right confusions) that way it sort of gets built in to my muscle memory. Eg when i think of spit, i physically turn my head to the right and imagine my mouth is spitting over to the right.

I'm a newb, but I either work it into the story somehow or I'm noticing that the more fundamental element is usually either on the left or the top like fire, water, stone, tree etc.