I cannot say how happy I am to have come across Heisig Kanji bible. Been studying Japanese for almost 5 years, live and study in Japan, but have never managed to get my head around reading. The more I studied the more I seemed to forget. I tried everything, like writing each character 50 times and making up stories that included al the Kun and On Yomi. That was a waste of time, it got so complicated I never remembered anything. I used the Pictographix book. Liked it at frist, but than also realized that after some time it gets too much (He is a great artist and it looks awesome, though http://kanjipictographix.com/). But Heisig, wow, I am amazed! The only thing that amazes me more is that my university has never given us the strong recommendation to learn with the RTK method. Is there any better? For me not, for sure.

One question that came up to my mind when I check the Kanjis with the great scroll over dictionary rikaichan (http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/) is, whether some of Heisig keywords have failed to capture the actually meaning of the kanji. There a many examples. Like the kanji 討 's keyword is "chastise". It almost always means something like chastise etc. http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E8%A8%8E&am … dict=edict I think that obviously attack would be better. Or the hanging scroll, it is completely misleading. 幅 might have derived from hanging scroll, I don't know, but hanging scroll means 掛物 and the kanji 幅 is better understood in the word broad.

So, I wonder what people think that have studied further. Have you changed keywords? Is it worthwhile to look at each keyword carefully and adjust it if possible. It would be a great thing for this page to see where and if others have changed the keyword. It cool that the programers of this side have given us the option to do so in the first place.

Last edited by mickymay (2011 May 02, 3:24 pm)