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RtK1 - Waste of time?
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Hey folks,
I haven't virtually reviewed anything after having finished the first volume of Heisig in Octobre 2010. I always learnt the kanjis and my stories with the KanjiGym Light application freely available on the German website of the RTK1 book of Heisig. When I finished back then, I immidiatly started doing the core6k deck, provided by Nukemarine and today, including my other random vocabulary deck, I reached like ~4000 unique words. My decks look like this:
Q: Kanji/Word
A: Kana (Reading) | Meaning | Sentence (and corresponding audio, if available)
The question is if it's worthwhile starting over with learning the kanji using Heisig's method over again, since I've collected already quite a good basis of words, I think. With the end of core6000 I will cover almost all Kanjis for JLPT5-1, including almost all Jyouyou (my transcription, yeah 
) kanjis.
What d'you suggest, folks?
P.S. After I finish core6000, I will change the decks structure to get a better hang of producing like this:
Q: Kana | Sentence (in Kana) and corresponding audio, if available.
A: Kanji | Meaning | Sentence (with Kanji)
..and start with core10k slowly
You haven't done any reviews?!? Shame on you!
You sir, have got some explaining to do, explaaaaaain sir, explaaaaaaaaaaain! Will you kindly let him ... [quote from Miss Marple Murder Ahoy].
If you still know how to write the kanji, there is no reason to do it all over again, it is a waste of time. And by this i don't mean writing every single one from memory, but more in the general sense of being able to write them.
Anyway instead of doing RTK again, get a book that teaches you compounds in the way that Basic / Intermediate Kanji book or similar does. So you can maintain how to write the kanji, and you might get vocab for free, which you haven't learned yet. This is a good "exit strategy" in general, for moving away from RTK, and learning how to read and write compounds.
What do you mean by production? Producing as in writing sentences by hand, with words that you see in kana, which you would write in kanji during reviews? Or just input via keyboard into Anki? Or coming up with your own sentences?
Tori-kun wrote:
What d'you suggest, folks?
Wire me 50.000€.
Learn to rope-walk.
Swim down the Niagara-falls in a barrel.
Wire me 50.000€
Learn to knit socks.
Visit the Himalaya and see if you can find traces of the Yeti.
Did i mention the lovely 50.000€ you could send me? No?
If you want any more suggestions, please ask, i would love to help you out as much as i possibly can. 
Last edited by Nagareboshi (2011 June 06, 9:46 am)
Nagareboshi wrote:
If you still know how to write the kanji, there is no reason to do it all over again, it is a waste of time. And by this i don't mean writing every single one from memory, but more in the general sense of being able to write them.
Yes. I do know how to write kanji. And they look pretty smart, I find and my wife, too, haha. Actually, I'm writing a lot in Japanese, like a A5 page per day, including naturally kanji. I have no problem recalling them, just sometimes, I know the reading and the meaning but not the exact kanji, or mix them up like in the following: 遠足 is the correct one, but I'd write 遠促 instead with the human-radical to the left hand side of the second kanji. Sometimes I get screwed up if the reading of a word is コ or コウ instead (or both are possible, duh).
On top of that.... Mrs. Marple! I did my reviews DURING RtK1, but not afterwards That's the point.
Anyway instead of doing RTK again, get a book that teaches you compounds in the way that Basic / Intermediate Kanji book or similar does. So you can maintain how to write the kanji, and you might get vocab for free, which you haven't learned yet. This is a good "exit strategy" in general, for moving away from RTK, and learning how to read and write compounds.
I was thinking about that. Somehow, I called this topic "waste of time" as I forgot basically 1/2 of the kanji I did learn with Heisig. I mean, I know how to write them all, but I simply forgot their meaning. (Hm, sometimes the meaning is quite vague, I must say, even the keywords. And seeing a compound of two or three kanji, it does not help you to know the meaning of every single kanji to guess the overall meaning of the compound in a sentence, I started recognising. Therefore I dared entitling this topic with "Waste of Time".)
What do you mean by production? Producing as in writing sentences by hand, with words that you see in kana, which you would write in kanji during reviews? Or just input via keyboard into Anki? Or coming up with your own sentences?
Production = writing / speaking (freely)
Learn to knit socks.
Well.. I must admit: In Soviet Russia, socks knot YOU!
I.e. I can knit socks already. lol
Tori-kun wrote:
Actually, I'm writing a lot in Japanese, like a A5 page per day, including naturally kanji.
You are handwriting everything i presume? If that is the case, why do you want to do all of RTK again, it would make no sense.
Tori-kun wrote:
I was thinking about that. Somehow, I called this topic "waste of time" as I forgot basically 1/2 of the kanji I did learn with Heisig. I mean, I know how to write them all, but I simply forgot their meaning. (Hm, sometimes the meaning is quite vague, I must say, even the keywords. And seeing a compound of two or three kanji, it does not help you to know the meaning of every single kanji to guess the overall meaning of the compound in a sentence, I started recognising. Therefore I dared entitling this topic with "Waste of Time".)
What I don't get is what you'd expect RTK would do for you in that respect. If what i presumed above is correct, and you are writing by hand and not with IME, what exactly is it that you are (hand)writing? Doing RTK is never a waste of time, doing it again, is. Being familiar with kanji, by reading, or even writing with IME - you are constantly exposed to them. It will not help your reading or writing ability, to re-familiarize yourself once again with those kanji, that you might have forgotten.
Tori-kun wrote:
And seeing a compound of two or three kanji, it does not help you to know the meaning of every single kanji to guess the overall meaning of the compound in a sentence, I started recognising.
You mean something like 日付変更線? Yes, it does not help to know the meaning of a single kanji, to make an educated guess on the overall meaning. But it still helps to know, or rather more being able to remember, some readings for single kanji. In this case ひ、づけ、へん、こう、せん. Which you yourself should know pretty well are easy to pick up while learning vocabulary or studying sentences. It is no guarantee to be able to read them, to also being able to apply them in written sentences. I mean in all honesty, i do know how to write every single one of those kanji in International Date Line, but i would be lost were i asked to write it from memory. But with the method taught in BKB you can overcome this problem. If that is what you want to achieve.
If not, please tell me, what it is exactly that you want.
Tori-kun wrote:
Production = writing / speaking (freely)
I am sure that you will master these skills soon enough.
Tori-kun wrote:
Well.. I must admit: In Soviet Russia, socks knot YOU!
I.e. I can knit socks already. lol
Good for you, forget about studying, and move to Japan. I bet they are looking for skilled knitters. I don't know if you are familiar with the slogan "welding America," but if you are you could do something similar, "knitting Japan." *lol*
Last edited by Nagareboshi (2011 June 06, 11:14 am)
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