guota
New member
Registered: 2008-12-15
Posts: 1
This will be my second time going through RtK. Last time I managed to get to 500 kanji before quitting. I'm hoping to get through them all this time.
Before I restart, I have a few questions I'm hoping some Heisig veterans can answer. When I was going through RtK the first time, most of my stories weren't visual, but verbal. I'd have a few sentences that said what the primitives were and clued in on their position in the kanji. This method worked well for a while, but I found myself forgetting a lot of older kanji as I progressed.
Anyway, this time I'd like to go through RtK the way Heisig intended by visualizing each kanji. I'm confused about the process though, so I was hoping some of you can tell me how you go about doing it.
How do you remember the position of the primitives in the kanji? Does your scene clue you in?
I'd also appreciate if you could share an example of one of your scenes.
stehr
Member
From: california
Registered: 2007-09-25
Posts: 281
After coming up with a story, you should spend about 1-2 minutes visualizing it in your mind. This is not visualizing with your sight behind closed eyes. This is imagining, daydreaming, much like in a dream state. The more vivid the dream, the more likely you are to remember it.
I also often failed the ones memorized by verbal cues. The only one I remembered was "second" 秒, where the mnemonic was "wheat a few seconds, laddie," but I imagine a leprechaun saying it in a thick Irish accent; so the scene is very vivid.
The first step is looking at the keyword. What is the first thing that pops into your head when you see/hear that word? Then build your story around that. Second, use other people's stories only to help build your own. Many of the most popular stories are short, basic ideas, which should only be used as a catalyst for your imagination, not to be memorized outright. Hope this helps.
Last edited by stehr (2008 December 15, 11:30 am)
Murjab
Member
From: Kentucky, USA
Registered: 2007-08-20
Posts: 22
Well, I think it's a combination of verbal/visual for me... Or maybe it's visual in the same way that reading a story is visual... You kind of see the story unfold in your head, even if you aren't constantly trying to picture every little detail. It's like me coming up with a story now, like, "Joe went to the store the other day. The bookstore.... There were a lot of books, and he was reading a few from the history section. Then he went over and looked at the little DVD section by the checkout lanes." After reading that, I doubt someone would try to visualize every last detail as if it were a scene in a movie, but you might have a general picture in your mind of a generic bookstore with a history section and some DVDs. If you were asked to remember that story, adding little details might help. For example, it's not just any DVD section; it's a "little DVD section by the checkout lanes." That can help create a more distinct image. So take each kanji and work with it until the story is memorable. The images will come naturally; just make the story memorable and detailed.
Here's one of my examples, for the kanji "delicious" 旨 (#455).
Raisin Bran is delicious! Think of the "two scoops" of raisins when writing the *spoon* (but just one spoon) at the top, scooping out the cereal (represented by Raisin Bran's *sun* logo) at the bottom.
I just picture a spoon scooping into a Raisin Bran cereal box with that big sun logo on it. It's just a quick image, not even a whole scene involving much action, but just a mental image of that spoon scooping up some Raisin Bran seems fine for me. But the image is only part of it; in theory, maybe Raisin Bran is tasty, or scrumptious, or some other adjective. I have to remember that "Raisin Bran is DELICIOUS" to get the keyword. So it is partially remembering the mental image, and partially remembering a phrase, such as maybe envisioning "Raisin Bran is delicious" being an advertising slogan or something.
Sometimes word-play helps a lot. For the kanji "lecture" 講 (#1815), I use Riccardo's story for Hannibal "Lecture," for instance. You don't have to use the same strategy for every kanji, just what sticks in your mind the best.
