Changing my stories doesn't really help me out, because of the nature of the keywords, I can swap either of them into either story and it still sounds alright. I've also found that once I have a story in my head, its pretty much impossible for me to really change it.

Adding what kanji it isn't to the keyword spoils the srs interval for those kanji. It's especially bad if they come out in the same review.

I think this is a good idea...I do something similar with vocab in my anki deck.

I think incidentally seeing a Kanji will not screw up your SRS intervals too badly. (especially since you aren't writing out the Nor ~ kanji). 

If you do any other Japanese reading or studying, you will also encounter kanji separately from your SRS intervals.

Sure, it would suck if you had the cards "tax (NOT 租)" and  "tariff (NOT 税)"  show up back to back or very, very close together, but I would say, just roll with it. (And it's probably somewhat unlikely that this would happen 2 or 3 times in a row,  so any problem would fix itself)

I think it's worse for your reviews to have to fail a card because you wrote the incorrect kanji for an ambiguous keyword.

Last edited by johnzep (2008 July 27, 5:47 pm)

If you can clear up the ambiguous keywords by adding a hint about the kanji that is good...

for example:

you could use the substitute keyword script to change

listen --> 聴　　to "listen to music" --> 聴

but I think the (Not ~) idea is good for other cases too, where an easy distinction can't be made.  Or you just want something quick and easy.

Ultimately, the keywords can offer only limited insight into the kanji.  It is important to remember what they are within the context of RTK...which is a prompt to get you to write the kanji. 

Deeper understanding of the kanji will be better achieved via learning vocabulary in the context of actual Japanese, than by even the best keywords.

Assuming you are somewhat strictly following the RTK method (i.e. not learning readings/vocab simultaneously) the distinction between 雲　and 曇　will be tough to draw via keywords alone...but when you learn the vocab 雲　曇り　曇る, it is a simple distinction to make.

So depending on how much Japanese you know, and how closely you follow Heisig's advice, I think both are good ways to clarify similar keywords.

Adding a note to remove ambiguity is good. We're learning kanji, not the thesaurus. That said, I'm not too sure about the "not 'kanji'", but I can see how it will work. Imagine the confusion over evening, night, nightfall, overnight, etc. I think if there's a specific meaning for that kanji over all the others, then adding that additional info to the keyword in great.

I'm in the "elaborate the story" camp. For example, I was mixing up "discriminating" and "distinction" for awhile there, until I added a bit to the story of "distinction" of some one saying "dis stincs!" which enabled me to be discriminating and, ah, make a distinction between the two

alyks wrote:

What I've been doing is learning without Heisig's book. So I have to look up the meaning with the kanji when I learn it. So whenever I have a kanji that is not clear, I elaborate on the definition and include as much of the "feeling" of the kanji as possible. Not only that, but I don't directly put the keywords in my mnemonic images.

Example:
Fix
"I'm gonna fix things between us"
Determine (Establish)
"I've determined that I'm not safe here"
定

What I've found is I'll sometimes forget the keywords, but often remember the true feeling of the kanji.

I don't see the benefit of excluding keywords from your stories.  What is your mnemonic for 定?

Also, I think the sense of the word "fixed" for 定 seems a little off, it's not "repair" or "mend" (仲直り）, but more like a "fixed-term"　like in 定期券