zodiac
Member
Registered: 2008-04-01
Posts: 123
I checked the yahoo and sanseido dictionaries, they both claim that this word means an audience as in a meeting with someone of higher status (Emperor, Pope) but most of the stories take it to mean the people listening to a speech, is this mixing up of the meaning ok?
kfmfe04
Member
From: 台北
Registered: 2007-10-21
Posts: 487
Yup, it's fine. The keyword is meant to give you a rough idea of one of the usages of Kanji. Eventually, after mastery, you will even forget the keyword; in its place you will have compounds, on-yomi, kun-yomi, and other more useful proxy for the keyword...
Of course, since you took the time to look up the Kanji, you could make up a story like: "The emperor #took audience# with me by letting me have my *say*. But when he spoke, I realized he was just a proxy for the real emperor. The *guy in the sombrero hat in the hot sun* is the real guy, hiding away from his evil uncles."
Usually, I don't like to put too many details in my stories that are not relevant for fear of mistaking some details as keywords or components (like emperor or evil uncle in this case), but it totally depends on your learning style.
Good luck.
Last edited by kfmfe04 (2008 October 30, 9:50 am)
Katsuo
M.O.D.
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2007-02-06
Posts: 887
Website
Although it's sometimes helpful to use a pun to remember a difficult keyword, I'd advise using the intended meaning as much as possible.
After a while, as you attach more and more Japanese vocabulary to a kanji, the keyword fades, and you acquire an overall feel for its meaning. So a "wrong" keyword meaning will be corrected. It could be argued therefore that the keyword doesn't matter.
But personally, I've found the process to be more efficient when the keyword relates to the Japanese meaning(s). And note that for rare kanji like 謁, the keyword may remain your main association for a long time.
yukamina
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2006-01-09
Posts: 761
Tobberoth wrote:
However, it doesn't matter much. The point of Heisig is to recognize and be able to write kanji, not to give english keywords. Besides, many of Heisigs keywords aren't very good in the whole "meaning" sense anyway.
People here way this all the time, and I always disagree. Most of the keywords are okay for meaning, they're just ambiguous(more than one meaning, like audience). And what's the point of spending so much time/effort studying RTK if it's not even for meaning? If you see the kanji later, and you recognize it, but don't really know what it means... it's a bit of a waste for the time you spend studying. If the keyword is ambiguous, just look up the kanji(not the English word) to verify. I say it's better than cementing the wrong meaning in your head every time you review. That's my opinion.
