Shouldn't you wonder "What am I getting from passing a test that I'm not getting from learning Japanese?". Reason why I say such a hurtful thing is that this question has popped up twice recently in one form or another.

The question is never "Should I start learning more Japanese to prepare for the JLPT 2". It's "Should I put off learning kanji to study for the JLPT 2". I'm kind of noticing that people are actually putting Japanese (more precisely kanji) on hold for a test that supposedly assesses your abilities at Japanese (and at some points, kanji).

That said, there is a list that was put together called "RevTK Lite". It's JLPT level kanji plus those that are prerequisites due to being primitives. That may be what you're looking for.

The kanji-lite version is a possibility if you're looking for a quick jump in common kanji, (I may have tried it had it been around when I started) however I wouldn't suggest changing Heisig's order. There's beauty in the apparent madness, with later kanji building upon earlier kanji in such a way that way you are practising/reviewing two or sometimes three kanji at once. It's a very logical, efficient way to learn the kanji and staying with it the way he designed it will pay big benefits in the end.

BTW: Khatzumoto's rant on JLPT is spot on, as least as far as TOEIC/TOEFL test takers go. I run into them daily, and many of the better test takers, ie, those with the higher scores, are far poorer communicators than those with lower scores or those who have never taken the test and just use English on a daily basis.

I could start another rant on the subject, but Khatzu did it so well ...

Last edited by timcampbell (2008 October 23, 11:35 am)

The point is

if RTK Full, with 2042 kanji, consumes 3000J of your energy
RTK lite, with ~1000, will consume 2500J of your energy

Doing RTK full is probably not much harder than doing RTK lite. The numbers are deceiveing.

But I think JLPT2 is a great goal, and you should do it. Definitely adopt the RTK lite. If you can mantain your motivation that way, that is the way to go.

Motivation is half of the work.

Just a thought.

A definitive list of kanji ordered by general usage is largely a myth.
It's really depends on each individual and how they encounter kanji.

For example, even if a certain kanji is the most frequently used kanji in some newspapers, just ask yourself: how many people actually read that article? "Most frequently appearing kanji" does not necessarily mean "most frequent used kanji" by people.

Although many people read certain newspapers, books, magazines,etc, I'm willing to bet that even more people DON'T read them.

Also, if you are a chemist, the range of kanji that you'll see is VERY different from let's say a novel writer or musician. And even if you see the kanji frequently, you may never use it in conversation.

Basically, kanji by frequency is a waste of time. Your best bet is just to learn as many as you can as time permits. Taking shortcuts will force you to take more time down the road.

In addition, if you follow a kanji frequency list, the radicals you'd have to learn would be out of order and you'd be jumping all over the place. Heisig eliminates that by making everything cumulative.

Really the question you need to answer is whether or not JLPT or Heisig is more important.
If you're a  foreigner looking to get a job in Japan, then a JLPT Level 1 certificate would definitely help. On the other hand, once you finish RTK1, you can start reading Japanese manga, books, andarticles right away and quickly building your vocab.

So just ask yourself which means more to you and stick with it.

FYI, I'm actually studying for JLPT2 now, and I'm pondering whether or not to just finish Heisig 1 and 3 instead, since the benefits are very practical(reading manga and articles).

Last edited by chamcham (2008 October 23, 1:40 pm)

Actually, Khatz used Zhong wen, which breaks them down the same way based on etymology. I have a list of primitives on my site and memorized that before learning kanji. This way you can learn kanji in any order, which is the main point of the Movie Method.