Here's the problem:
When you guys srs and you can write out a kanji easily by seeing the keyword, yet you cannot remember the actual story for that kanji, do you count that as a "pass?"
This has been happening to me often lately, and it makes me kind of nervous. I guess my feeling is, if I know a particular kanji today, but don't remember the story, then I won't have any means to recall it if I forget that kanji four months from now. So, I've been putting those cards in the "fail" pile until I refresh my memory of the story, even though, most of the time, I can stroke out the kanji without hesitation. It does take a chunk of extra time doing this, so is it worth it? Am I just being paranoid here?
FYI: I'm a bit over 1700 kanji into RTK 1, add 15 new cards a day, review about 150-200 a day, find about 5-10 cards that fit this description a day.
-Tom
vaendryl
New member
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2011-09-12
Posts: 3
I'm only at 350 at the moment, but from the start I've thought that the stories and perhaps even the keywords are like "stitches" that tie the kanji to your brain. it's okay if they fall by the wayside. the eventual goal is being able to write the kanji based on the keyword and if you can consistently do so without thinking of a story you're doing very well.
Just as Heisig says though, you should be careful. it's easy to overestimate how strongly the flesh has fused after the stitches disappear. while learning more new kanji and making up more stories you can get confused with earlier kanji.
tl;dr when that happens you can click you remembered it, but refresh the story afterwards if you haven't finished rtk1 yet.