The "thread" primitive ?

Index » RtK Volume 1

  • 1
 
Reply #1 - 2011 December 10, 2:14 pm
kira80 Member
Registered: 2011-01-04 Posts: 23

I don't understand why so many people felt the need to change the meaning to Spider-man. Perhaps it is because of Heisig's warning that the primitive will occur very often ? But so what if it appears very often. There aren't many other thread-related primitives so what's the problem with using just thread.

Did anyone try to go with the simple meaning of "thread" ? How did it go ?

Last edited by kira80 (2011 December 10, 2:34 pm)

Reply #2 - 2011 December 10, 2:31 pm
Apache Chief Member
Registered: 2011-02-04 Posts: 39

I used both, but Spider Man was way easier to remember for most of them, so I used that one more often.

Reply #3 - 2011 December 10, 2:44 pm
Splatted Member
From: England Registered: 2010-10-02 Posts: 776

Spider man just seemed easier to make stories with. I didn't think about it at the time, but one of the advantages of using unique characters like Spider man and Mr T is that they don't create confusion by cropping up in stories where they're not primitives.

Advertising (register and sign in to hide this)
JapanesePod101 Sponsor
 
JapanesePod101
Reply #4 - 2011 December 10, 3:29 pm
pudding cat Member
From: UK Registered: 2010-12-09 Posts: 497

I used 'thread' and it went fine.  Just see which stories are easier to remember.

Last edited by pudding cat (2011 December 10, 3:30 pm)

Reply #5 - 2011 December 10, 5:58 pm
TwoMoreCharacters Member
From: Sweden Registered: 2010-07-10 Posts: 480

The more vivid, special and nonsensical the stories and images are, the easier they stick. Spider-Man is perfect, you can have him do lots of crazy things while still relating to the fact that the original meaning is "thread".

Reply #6 - 2011 December 12, 9:43 am
mcaruso Member
From: The Netherlands Registered: 2010-09-19 Posts: 27

You can use both. I try to stick to etymology where possible (http://www.chineseetymology.org is a nice resource for that), so where it made sense I just used "thread". Where that didn't work or I needed something more memorable, I went with Spider-Man.

Reply #7 - 2011 December 18, 10:53 am
kira80 Member
Registered: 2011-01-04 Posts: 23

For future reference, if anyone stumbles upon this thread (haha..), I used thread with no problems. I found it was one of the easiest primitives to work with so far.

Reply #8 - 2011 December 18, 12:03 pm
amillerchip Member
From: Edinburgh Registered: 2011-05-31 Posts: 103 Website

I used either, wherever each works well. Sometimes, having Spiderman available was just perfect, like for 績 "exploits", for example. Others, thread made the most sense, like for 績 "sutra".

Edit: actually I just realised I revised my sutra story to involve Spiderman doing naughty things, because it's impossible to read that word and not get sexual images.

Last edited by amillerchip (2011 December 18, 12:05 pm)

Reply #9 - 2011 December 18, 1:32 pm
Betelgeuzah Member
From: finland Registered: 2011-03-26 Posts: 464

Thread was awesome, I'd take five of those over cornstalk, cabbage, ketchup, salige, bushes, bonsai, christmas tree, chestnut, ride seedling changing every 2 kanjis...-_-

Last edited by Betelgeuzah (2011 December 18, 1:33 pm)

Reply #10 - 2011 December 18, 5:59 pm
yudantaiteki Member
Registered: 2009-10-03 Posts: 3619

amillerchip wrote:

Edit: actually I just realised I revised my sutra story to involve Spiderman doing naughty things, because it's impossible to read that word and not get sexual images.

I guess I've been in Asian studies so long that when I see "sutra" I don't think of the kama sutra first.  It actually took me a few seconds to figure out what sutras had to do with sexual images.

Reply #11 - 2011 December 18, 7:10 pm
Tzadeck Member
From: Kinki Registered: 2009-02-21 Posts: 2484

I personally used 'anything having to do with Final Fantasy 7' for that primitive--justifying it with how popular it used to be to talk about FF7 on any thread from forums talking about games back in the day.

Was one of the best primitives I ever used actually. FF7 is a fairly huge topic, since you can use any of the characters or story from the game, and you can't really confuse them with anything else.

Anyway, you can use 'thread', 'Spider Man', or anything really.  I doubt it will make that much difference.  Personally, I only have a very vague understanding of the story of Spider Man, so I thought it wouldn't be such a useful primtive for me.

Reply #12 - 2011 December 19, 1:20 am
EratiK Member
From: Paris Registered: 2010-07-15 Posts: 874

yudantaiteki wrote:

amillerchip wrote:

Edit: actually I just realised I revised my sutra story to involve Spiderman doing naughty things, because it's impossible to read that word and not get sexual images.

I guess I've been in Asian studies so long that when I see "sutra" I don't think of the kama sutra first.  It actually took me a few seconds to figure out what sutras had to do with sexual images.

I was scratching my head too: "How is diamond sutra naughty?"

Last edited by EratiK (2011 December 19, 4:50 am)

Reply #13 - 2011 December 19, 4:05 am
apirx Member
Registered: 2011-02-06 Posts: 179

I found the spiderman stories to be very memorable. Although I did confuse him with Mr. T on a few occasions.

  • 1