zardoz73
Member
From: tokyo
Registered: 2008-07-28
Posts: 13
I'm at around the 600 mark and I'm starting to get to kanji in which Heisig offers no story and I need to create my own. This is fine, but when I run across words like "recess" (#611), I don't know if this is a noun (a school recess; a recessed space) or a verb (to recess). Or the very next one, "favor" (#612). Is that the verb (to favor), or a noun (helpful task)?
With some words, the difference between noun and verb is not that great, but with others, the difference is vast; the meaning can change completely. Does this not really matter once you start the 2nd book and learn the readings? Am I overthinking this? Should I just guess at the word form (noun, adjective, etc) and keep plowing on, or will that come to bite me later?
Nukemarine
Member
From: 神奈川
Registered: 2007-07-15
Posts: 2347
Some of stories offered here try to give the meaning of the kanji in more detail. As Alyks said, sometimes you have to look it up. It's one of my complaints about Heisig's book. One of very few mind you.
As this will become more of a problem later, look into the Greasemonkey scripts. There's one that allows you to alter the Keyword. So, for keywords that are ambigious in meaning you can offer a brief explanation beside it: Recess (as in school Recess), or Exhaust (to run out of supplies). In addition, for your synonym words such as (I, Me, Myself, Self), or (Male, Man), or (Happy, Bliss, Joyous), etc. You can put beside the keyword what kanjis that it is not.
Don't do this ahead of time. Wait as your reviews begin getting missed through things not associated with forgetting the kanji. When they pop up, then change that keyword to compensate. Remember, we're learning Kanji, not the Thesaraus.
sutebun
Member
From: Oregon
Registered: 2007-06-29
Posts: 172
I think this is important for later on when you start memorizing vocab. Kanji won't always be used in the connotation of its keyword, but when it does, and if I have crafted a story which uses the keyword in the correct meaning, I find my memory links the two together much easier.
Using your example of recess, I just recently read the word 休憩 （きゅうけい：Kyuukei) , which was used in the sentence to suggest a recess from a meeting. I didn't have to look up the word and could easily guess its meaning because of the two kanji. Although the first kanji is a large giveaway, knowing the second also helped me understand the nuisance of the word since I could imagine and compare how we use the word "recess" sometimes in English.
Most importantly though, I think you should try to use keywords correctly because ultimately you will want to be able to "feel out" kanji. After learning a large amount of Japanese, if your kanji proficiency is good you should be able to view a compound you don't know yet and make an educated guess at what it means (and perhaps read it). Despite never having used the two kanji in this combination, having used the two kanji separately in several other words will give you the knowledge to make a good guess. It's debateable just how much Heisig can help this skill, but I'm sure that no one would argue that associating incorrect meanings to kanji would help this kind of skill.
So if you're in the middle of the stories, why not just use them correctly?
The easiest way to check meaning I found is to open up Jim Breen's page. Go to the kanji search section. When you have a keyword you're unclear about, copy and paste the kanji and search it. It will come up with a lot of text besides it, and at the end of the text it should have several keywords. These should help clarify the meaning. If they don't, click the link on the kanji, scroll down the new page, and check the example words in Japanese.
Samsara
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2008-06-30
Posts: 33
I usually look these type of things up, because as nets0r says, it helps me remember it better. Sometimes one of the keywords given in my dictionary will just make so much more sense for me, or relate to the story better.
Plus, whenever there's something that bugs me about a kanji, it just sticks in the back of my mind and makes it really hard for me to concentrate on what I need to be learning. For instance, when there's an inconsistency in the way the kanji is drawn in different places, or if I have trouble getting my proportions right, or if the keyword is vague... I can't get my mind off of it enough to concentrate until the issue is resolved. If you were disturbed enough to post about it, you probably have the same problem too, so I suggest just looking it up.
