Just go at it as if you don't know anything. I did have some interference with mnemonics I already had that were still strong as mnemonics. Of course, mnemonics tend to fade with time and you only remember the thing you were trying to memorize anyway.

When quizzing yourself, though, if you can look at the keyword and remember and write the character, then don't worry if you have the story and Heisig elements to do it... you still got the right answer. That's the important part and you don't need to force memorizing an unnecessary mnemonic.

You'll also probably find that learning to write the characters out is quite a different experience from learning to recognize them in front of you and many mnemonics don't clash at all simply because one is for writing and one is for reading.

If your vocabulary is up to it, then I want to second Betelgeuzah's suggestion to use Japanese keywords.

Wrighttalk, an enthusiast for this method, goes into the details (and the advantages) of using Japanese keywords here.

There is also a thread on this forum is discussing the merits (or otherwise) of Japanese keywords that I thought I would link to but I haven't been able to locate it.

EDIT: The thread is as follows.

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=946

It's not an all or nothing approach; people who advocate this method suggest first replacing the English keyword with Japanese keywords you already know and then slowly replacing the remainder as you learn the required Japanese vocabulary through your studies.

Good luck

Last edited by Harpagornes (2011 December 30, 1:40 am)

http://japaneselevelup.com/2011/01/29/h … t-1-kanji/

Here is another method of appending Japanese keywords to RTK, much more straightforward then most methods to be honest.

I decided to stick to Wrighttalk's since it doesn't bring such a great change to the original RTK whilst helping me out more. (and the JapaneseLevelUp method kind of confuses me=/).

Started today . Aiming to do about 20 new per day to keep it simple(though I think I might make that 20 NEW ones to quicken things up a bit. I don't need help with 回、for example, so when that's in the batch I'll just add one more). See you in the "Finished RTK" thread!