humpolec
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2008-10-23
Posts: 10
Hello to everyone!
I'm planning on doing the RtK1 book during this academic year.
This is not the first time I've attempted this - I discovered RtK a few years ago, when I was still in high school. I became attracted to the idea, but unfortunately English is not my mother tongue (I'm Polish).
Seeing that I wasn't very proficient with English language, and RtK features some rather obscure words as keywords, I decided to translate the keywords on the go, and learn the Polish ones. With help of English dictionary, kanji dictionary and RtK indexes (to avoid any possible collisions) I managed to go quite far (somewhere above 1000 kanji). However, later I lost my motivation somehow, and stopped; now I probably won't remember most of them.
So now I wonder - should I start learning with the English keywords or go with the ones I already managed to translate?
If I go with the Polish ones, I think (re)inventing the stories would be easier, because I simply know more Polish than English :) What's more, I have all the flashcards I made, and learning would be easier because I already did half of the book once.
On the other hand, a few years passed and I know English better. Despite my best efforts many keywords I translated are probably more or less inaccurate. If I go with English, I will also have access to many good resources like printable flashcards (with non-ugly kanji, unlike mine I wrote by hand) and this site :) (By the way, is there an option to review in the opposite order - see kanji, guess keyword?)
So, those of you who don't know English as a first language. Is it going well? Is it hard to remember and use English keywords? Should I give it a try or stick to what I did before?
gruikya
Member
From: France
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 10
Sure... Words like beguile, bequeath, awl, abet, dwindle, entice etc. are quite hard to understand for non-native speakers. I sometimes fail a kanji because I do not remember what the english word means (even if the kanji is still fresh in memory).
Even if translating all of the keywords is not necessarily useful, Greasemonkey scripts may be helpful to add subtitles to the hard ones.
Tobberoth
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2008-08-25
Posts: 3364
Personally, I often find it easier to remember kanji for keywords I do not know, simply because my whole knowledge of the word is based on this site and that kanji. For example, I had never heard "quandary" but I knew the word 困る long before I came to this site... so my story was simple "Quandary means 困る, and a tree stuck in a box sure is 困る" or something like that. When ever I see the keyword, I try to remember what quandary means, and 困る jumps into my head.
annabel398
Member
From: Austin TX
Registered: 2008-08-04
Posts: 80
gruikya wrote:
Sure... Words like beguile, bequeath, awl, abet, dwindle, entice etc. are quite hard to understand for non-native speakers.
Beguile - to enchant, to persuade with one's charms, but usually in a good way. "She beguiled everyone with her sunny smile."
Bequeath - Give:receive :: bequeath:inherit. To give something to someone in your will.
Awl - A pointed instrument, usually with a rounded wooden handle, used to punch holes in leather. The rounded end fits into your palm so you can push harder than if you held it in your fingers. Louis Braille was blinded as a child in an accident with an awl (his father was a shoemaker).
Abet - To help, usually in a criminal act.
Dwindle - To become less and less until it is nothing. Usually said of supplies while on a trip.
Entice - To lure, often with a promise of something desirable. "He enticed people away from their former jobs with offers of huge bonuses."
Japanese isn't the only thing we can help each other with in this forum ;-)
QuackingShoe
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2008-04-19
Posts: 721
Although the subtext isn't present that often. Modernly, outside of 'vicarious thrill', you almost always see the word used in one specific situations: parents living vicariously through their children (think stage moms). I like the word, so I use it in whenever it seems appropriate, but in general that's about the only place you actually see it get used.
Non-natives are of course guiltless and wonderful people, but it actually always kinda unsettles me how many of these words natives say they don't know. Our vocabulary spirals down...!
Edit: On the other hand, I'd never heard the word 'vittles' before until it was part of a question in a trivia game about a week ago. Apparently everyone else in the world is perfectly aware of it. So.
Last edited by QuackingShoe (2008 October 23, 11:24 pm)
bebio
Member
From: Lisbon
Registered: 2008-08-19
Posts: 94
I am Portuguese, and I base myself on comparing the stories from the English and the Spanish edition, in order to make my stories. Sometimes I ignore both of them, if I feel I can make a better story. I speak English like a native, so for the most part I don't have much problems. But I always try to use a English-Portuguese dictionary, to make sure that I have a very specific meaning. Sometimes a english word is generalistic. Choosing a portuguese equivalent forces me to be more specific, and it helps with memorizing it. I usually print the pages of RTK1 in cheap, used photocopy paper, and on the side of each english meaning, I write the equivalent portuguese word. When I memorise the kanji, I think about it often in portuguese and english to make it more solid. then, for a quick review, I use a hand on top of the cheap photocopied paper, to cover the kanji and english word, and looking at the sribbled portuguese word, I write the corresponding kanji. I can't complain, it's worked well for me so far.
Last edited by bebio (2008 October 24, 12:11 pm)
