I never put that much effort into creating a story, etc. I know you're supposed to, but I feel that it's not worthwhile to spend so much time learning to simply write the kanji.

What I do is I go through the book and spend about 30 seconds max making a story for each kanji. I then write the kanji down once (unless I'm not happy with the way I wrote. ie. It's not pretty enough) on a piece of paper. Add them as new kanji on this site and then a few hours or sometimes even a day later I go through them. Obviously my fail rate is rather atrocious, but this weeds out the ones that stuck easily and the ones which require more work. I then go through and add stories I like from this site.

A few hours or a day later I'll go through the pile and I find I generally remember about half of them or more. When I fail a kanji I read it's story once more and then later review it again. After a while it will stick.

I don't think it's good to put such an emphasis on the stories because while they help you in the beginning, ultimately they're not very important. By the time the kanji are in the 3rd or 4th box most of the time I finish writing the kanji correctly before recalling even half of my story.

simblyne wrote:

Well, it's been about a year, on and off, and I'm only up to kanji 227. Reviewing kanji is really fun, but taking notes from Heisig's book and cross-referencing them with the stories on RTK to figure out which one paints a clearer image is not fun at all. I take notes manually in a spiral notebook from the book itself, and flip through tens of pages of notes to look up certain characters, the story I recorded, and how the individual strokes intersect or "fit" together. I know this is really inefficient but I don't know any other way to study or take notes. How do you go through 20-100+ kanji per day? I really want to get there but I'm afraid at my pace it'll be a decade or so before I'm finished.

Do you use this site to study?
You can copy other people's stories (kanji.koohii.com).

One of the best pieces of advice i can give is to make
stories related to the very first thing you think of when
you see the keyword.

simblyne, use a spreadsheet program to create your guidelines. I made mine about 1cm square using heavy lines then a lighter line to create a 2x2 grid in each one. Had about 20x30 on my sheet when I printed it.

I never try to have a set amount of kanji to learn, I usually aim at getting at the very least one set of primitives done per day. Its usually more, especially when a new primitive only makes like 3 new kanji.

I have the premade RTK 1 & 3 deck on Anki, so I begin each day by pressing "もっと学ぶ" (Learn more) after finishing all my reviews. I look through the next couple of kanji in the book and read all the footnotes Heisig left before starting, or while learning. In Anki, I show the character, then click the keyword to bring up the page on this website and find a story I like (or I make up a story if its easy enough or I don't like any of the stories on the site). I then press ctrl+e and write/copypaste the story on the front of the card (actually there's a conveniently made box that says "Story" on my deck), and bold the keyword and italicize the elements within the story. So, by doing this, I'm practically giving myself the answer to the kanji, so its pretty easy. I always write the kanji down at least once on a piece of paper before moving on. This all takes no longer than a minute to do, although I really should spend more time on each kanji.

I've been at it for six months now, doing some everyday. Only a few left in lesson 55 and then lesson 56 and I'm done.

Good luck on continuing RTK.

Last edited by Jombo (2012 June 04, 3:12 am)

Purrlsta wrote:

simblyne wrote:

Do you just use a piece of computer paper or lined paper? If I have computer paper I get sloppy and my kanji are all over the place, but with lined paper it's hard to write the tiny strokes correctly.

I just use computer paper which means my kanji are all over the place Surely though having enough space to write the kanji is better (especially the first time) then squishing them up? You could always try and buy gridded paper?

Also I forgot to mention that when I'm reviewing the kanji I just trace them on my hand. Saves paper and time

No need to buy it. http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/ Visit this blog and download it, but be so nice, and say thank you to the owner.

Jombo wrote:

I did the first thousand kanji without the story on the front of card and I didn't think it helped me remember the kanji any more than with it. I don't try to perfect every kanji the first time I see it, I just try to turn something that was "completely fuzzy" into "somewhat fuzzy". I think all the kanji will get more vivid over time, and some do stick really well the first time I see it. Although the story is on the front of the card, I generally don't look at the story if I think I can write the kanji without it, and then score myself higher if I get it correct. A failed card for me is if a primitive is written incorrectly or the primitives are not in the correct order.

From my perspective, the whole point of RTK is to simplify learning vocab.
Everytime you learn vocab, you must learn 3 things (Meaning, Pronunciaiton, and Writing).

Example:
Pronunciation: A-shi-ta
Meaning: Tomorrow
Writing: 明日 (Hesig Keywords: Bright + Day)

The whole point of RTK is to simplify part 3 from learning by stroke order to learning by Hesig Keywords, which are then turned into kanji.

So, since you are expected to go from Keyword to Kanji, making your flashcards in the form of Story to Kanji seems more harmful than helpful.

Last edited by Marble101 (2012 June 04, 5:19 pm)

Jombo wrote:

I don't find it harmful at all, its certainly a much higher step from nothing. I'm still going from keyword to kanji, the story is simply a supplement if I'm not able to remember the kanji without it. I still find myself knowing keywords and learning vocabulary the way you mentioned.

You could also hide it using this little script:

<a id="hintlink" style="display: inline" href="#" 
onclick="document.getElementById('hint').style.display='inline';
            document.getElementById('hintlink').style.display='none';
            return false;">Show Story</a>
<div id="hint" style="display: none"> {{Story}} </div>

(Added in some line breaks so it didn't break the forum layout; Originally posted by Akalabeth)

Add this to the front side where you could normally add just "{{Story}}" or whatever. It should show a "Show Story" link, that when you click it, shows the story - that way you don't have to worry about accidentally reading the story! Also, I agree that getting the kanji right from just a story or list of primitives is at least better than completely failing; for those cards though I'd be inclined to mark them as "Hard" (rather than defaulting to the space bar as usual ).

Last edited by khalhern (2012 June 04, 5:50 pm)

Jombo, unless I'm mistaken, Anki has a "hint" function or maybe it's a rollover type reveal. You can set your story to be hidden unless you do need the hint. In those cases, mark the card score lower.

It's great that given two or three english words you can replicate a complicated kanji. Not many outside of our small group and native users of Kanji can claim such a talent. However, in time you're going to be using english or japanese words to replicate one, two or three kanji in those words. It would be better if you can move off needing hints for the most part by that time.

By the way, the rtk 1 and 3 w/ definitions has a field that lists all the primitives and primitives of primitives (Inception style). That can be useful as an answer side hint prior to showing a hint for the story.

I have a big table with all the kanji, keywords and stories.
I go though the kanji, think of a story or go to koohii and look at other peoples (usually use other peoples ). When Im happy with a story I try to make it more vivid in my mind, draw the character and then add it to the table.
I couldn't do it without a good story. It might work for a day or two, but after a month or so I'll definitely forget it. That's just me though.
After I've done the amount I wanted to do, I review them all on Anki.

Last edited by kaamaru (2012 June 10, 5:08 am)