learning hanzi with RSH after RTK??

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Reply #1 - 2011 June 24, 3:34 pm
aqublue Member
From: USA Registered: 2010-03-06 Posts: 13

My question has to do with coming across multiple meanings/keywords for the same exact character in both sets.  There are many differences in keywords and some meanings vary a great deal.  Is it best to come up with two stories for each character that has a different meaning in RTK versus RSH?  Or should these new meanings be memorized by rote?


Sorry, forgot to add that would it be best to put the two keywords (RTK/RSH) together when reviewing identical characters, but basing a single story of one or the other?  Or should the story be modified to include both meanings?  Sorry, this is getting confusing.  Maybe i'll just forget about it and memorize the differences.  What is the best way for those who have tried?

Reply #2 - 2011 June 25, 12:13 am
bertoni Member
From: Mountain View, CA, USA Registered: 2009-11-08 Posts: 291

I'm not sure this is what you are asking, but I decided that it wasn't worth doing RSH after doing RTK.  I found that working on Chinese text was enough to get the  new meanings into my head.

Reply #3 - 2011 June 25, 12:30 am
nadiatims Member
Registered: 2008-01-10 Posts: 1676

I've reached the same conclusion as Bertoni.

If the character is identical in RTK and RTSH, why bother learning 2 stories? It's a complete waste of time. The keyword does not matter in the end. What you need to know is actual Japanese or Chinese vocabulary.

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Reply #4 - 2011 July 13, 2:19 pm
gdaxeman Member
From: Brazil Registered: 2007-06-19 Posts: 278 Website

The biggest problem when doing reviews is not multiple keywords for the same character, but the same keyword for different characters! It happens a lot if you do RTK+RSH, and it causes you to fail much more cards than you should, therefore wasting a lot of time and even stressing yourself out depending on your personality (that is, how you deal with 'failure'). Because of that, I would say it's better to use only one set, be it RTK or RSH, and then add subsequent characters based on that set. In my opinion, hanzi would be better to use as the main focus because, well, it's from where the kanji come from and there are quite a few great Chinese dictionaries to help, but the thing is that there's a lot more ready-made Heisig material for kanji, so it's up to the individual to choose.

Just to add something as to why you shouldn't worry too much about the keywords: as you may know, the idea behind them is not to teach the true meaning of the characters (and most of the time it's not even possible to "translate" one to a single English word without impairing its meaning), but to associate them with something you already know so that you recall them better; it's nothing more than a mnemonic device. Then, if you end up creating your own cards, which will be needed if you intend to use Heisig's method to learn more than 3000+ characters, you'll probably notice that there's a point where there's not a single word that can be used to express the subtleties of the character well — and, when there is, the keyword is already taken...

Although I believe the keywords are useful during the first stages of learning the language, I believe in the end the goal would be to discard all of them and simply have the characters being part of you below the level of words — that is, no more associating them laterally (from one language to the other) but vertically (from the idea/concept/feeling/reaction/sound to the character).

Reply #5 - 2011 July 13, 4:03 pm
ta12121 Member
From: Canada Registered: 2009-06-02 Posts: 3190

I was thinking of doing those RSH,RTH. But since I've done 3000 RTK kanji. I might as well start learning,context,vocab and work listening. Personally,I've started deleting none-useful kanji from my RTK deck(kanji that I don't see or rarely see). So far I went from 3007 to 2500(As they show up in my reviews)

Last edited by ta12121 (2011 July 13, 4:04 pm)

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