lanval
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2008-11-29
Posts: 162
Not that I can give any help, rather I need some, and I suppose other people might be torturing themselves with this as well.
F.e.: 基準 = standard, those take aaages to get into my head. Even if I can find a way to get "basic + semi = standard" into my head, that is.
What I find effective is hearing other people's stories on words. mnemonics, even better! So please tell your method of memorizing!
Last edited by lanval (2010 January 23, 10:05 am)
rich_f
Member
From: north carolina
Registered: 2007-07-12
Posts: 1708
You need to get past the Heisig English keywords. To remember that 基準 is きじゅん, you should already know that the first character is the き in 基本, and the second character is the じゅん in 準備. It's all about learning the on-yomi for a lot of these characters, and letting that become the "new" keyword for the kanji.
At least that's how I've approached it, thinking-wise.
And if I'm having trouble remembering it, then I add a couple of extra sentences to my deck. Usually short ones from a dictionary. Seeing it in just one sentence alone and expecting that to make for perfect reinforcement is absurd from my experience.
As for the English translation, well, as many others have suggested many previous times, it's more profitable over time to use a Japanese definition for a Japanese word-- you build up a lot more vocabulary that way. English is faster at first, but going monolingual will pay off more in the long run.
Last edited by rich_f (2010 January 23, 12:59 pm)
aphasiac
Member
From: 台湾
Registered: 2009-03-16
Posts: 1036
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=5037
in this thread, I talk about how I've been making mnemonics for some compound words. As i'm progressing, I find I'm needing to do it less and less; as people have said, you start remembering the readings of each kanji so less and less need for stories.
Also I'm using advice from this thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=4993
Basically don't punish yourself if a card is too hard, just keep going, you'll get it eventually so better just keep adding more cards.
finally, I think you have stumbled across the basic principle of AJATT and it's 24/7 audio immersion approach. You can SRS a word or a grammatical phrase 1000 times, but it will only sink in once you've heard it and understood it once or more "in the wild". I've realised how important this is, and why user-built decks are so much better than pre-made ones (you have already heard the word/phrase and have context).
p.s. unrelated, but in KO2001 sorted deck, I've already encountered soo many kanji with the reading 「せい」. Is this a really common on-yomi?? Also i don't actually know if I'm learning on or kun readings - does it matter?
rich_f
Member
From: north carolina
Registered: 2007-07-12
Posts: 1708
Well, if you read anything at all for pleasure, make a rule that it HAS to be in Japanese. That will start to help solve the problem. Don't give yourself an easy way out.
Also, you don't *have* to use the sentences in KO. They're a bit long and make remembering difficult over time. (I've noticed this myself.) Shorter sentences are faster to go through, and are easier to remember. (But sentences that are too short don't seem to work for me.)
KO also has a tendency to add extra vocab in sentences out of nowhere, which is annoying. (But that random vocabulary is very useful. Make a note and add it later if you can.)
I've had luck with the Yahoo online dictionaries-- yahoo.co.jp uses two JP->EN dictionaries, both of which have example sentences you can use. Just copy/paste into your deck. Add extra sentences to your deck to help reinforce.
I can't help you with your motivation. Sadly, we cannot learn Japanese like Keanu Reaves learns Kung-Fu, so you have to do the work. (And find your own reason to keep going.)
