Remembering the Kanj II and those darn <strong>おんよみ</strong>
Friday, 23. June 2006, 10:37:29
Having finished Heisig's Remembering the Kanji I (RTK1), I was eager to get them yomis down. But it is much harder than I anticipiated. That was, untill I found a project named KanjiTown, coined by a guy LittleFish at Crisscross.com forums.
I didn't really see how that would work at first. When you open RTK2 the first time, you are immensely discouraged. It seems that all your hard work with RTK1 is now to be put on the shelf. There will just be hard, rote memorization left to learn the yomis.
But then I read an example story of LittleFish's kanjitown method. The smart thing is, that in RTK2 there is an alphabetical list of all kanjis in the book RTK1/2. So you already can see all kanjis that are pronounced "aku", for instance. There are two. Those kanjis are BAD and GRIP. So I made a story about a powerplant AKUmulator that went BAD in an explosion, and then the firefighters just hung in there by a GRIP of their fingers from the roof. Mentally I placed this AKUmulator Powerplant somewhere far outside of the fictional KanjiTown. Having played SimCity 4 helped me formulating this image in my mind.
Suddenly it makes sense. You simply work your way through the on-yomis by taking them one sound at a time. You can learn the on-yomi by heart very quickly and consistently this way. Sometimes more than 10 kanjis share the same pronounciation, and you are then forced to make a very long and very good story to remember it. But once the chain is solid, you will probably never forget any of them again.
Now it is as if your story making skills from RTK1 really get to pay off. You make whole chains, placing them carefully in different parts of your imaginary KanjiTown.
What about kunyomi I hear you asking? Well, I have seen no solid method to learn them, but they do have one big difference from the onyomi reading. The kunyomi, or japanese reading, is very often used as the first character in a verb or an adjective. You sort of learn that by heart. When I see 行くI know it is いく. But when you talk about the compound words, such as 阿弗利加 (Africa) it is onyomi all the way. Thats when it helps that you can just recite the readings automatically. Then you taste a bit on the word. "Afurika? Ah, AFRICA! hehe"
I am highly encouraged by this method. It is actually fun to write those silly stories.
If you arrive here by a googit, don't forget to read the rest.
I didn't really see how that would work at first. When you open RTK2 the first time, you are immensely discouraged. It seems that all your hard work with RTK1 is now to be put on the shelf. There will just be hard, rote memorization left to learn the yomis.
But then I read an example story of LittleFish's kanjitown method. The smart thing is, that in RTK2 there is an alphabetical list of all kanjis in the book RTK1/2. So you already can see all kanjis that are pronounced "aku", for instance. There are two. Those kanjis are BAD and GRIP. So I made a story about a powerplant AKUmulator that went BAD in an explosion, and then the firefighters just hung in there by a GRIP of their fingers from the roof. Mentally I placed this AKUmulator Powerplant somewhere far outside of the fictional KanjiTown. Having played SimCity 4 helped me formulating this image in my mind.
Suddenly it makes sense. You simply work your way through the on-yomis by taking them one sound at a time. You can learn the on-yomi by heart very quickly and consistently this way. Sometimes more than 10 kanjis share the same pronounciation, and you are then forced to make a very long and very good story to remember it. But once the chain is solid, you will probably never forget any of them again.
Now it is as if your story making skills from RTK1 really get to pay off. You make whole chains, placing them carefully in different parts of your imaginary KanjiTown.
What about kunyomi I hear you asking? Well, I have seen no solid method to learn them, but they do have one big difference from the onyomi reading. The kunyomi, or japanese reading, is very often used as the first character in a verb or an adjective. You sort of learn that by heart. When I see 行くI know it is いく. But when you talk about the compound words, such as 阿弗利加 (Africa) it is onyomi all the way. Thats when it helps that you can just recite the readings automatically. Then you taste a bit on the word. "Afurika? Ah, AFRICA! hehe"
I am highly encouraged by this method. It is actually fun to write those silly stories.
If you arrive here by a googit, don't forget to read the rest.
WIDGETIZE
Dario # 23. June 2006, 10:51
My plan is actually finishing RTK1 and then spend time on vocabulary (as it's the most important part of communication in another language).
knowing how to write the kanji will help remembering the word, knowing the word will help remembering the readings of the kanji.
At least, that's what I'm hoping dor
Immacolata # 23. June 2006, 11:24
Anonymous # 14. April 2007, 00:07
Here's another idea:
I completed remembering the Kanji in 3 months. When I finished, I was a bit lost about where to go to learn the Japanese readings of the Kanji. Nothing really fit with my learning style. Soon after this I became obsessed with the idea of studying Kanji in the comfort of my own bed. I had this idea that it would be nice to come home pop in a Kanji DVD and have Kanji flashing in front of me repeatedly until I memorized them all. Well, my dream has come true and it really does work! If you wish to try this technique , you can take a look here:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid687242779/bclid686980835/bctid715965798
Anonymous # 13. October 2007, 15:06
Im having trouble with the first book of Remembering the kanji....the author of the book ASSUMES that I all ready know the first 15 kanji presented in the book, which are numbers.......Great job "Heisig" because now I can't learn the first 15 kanji which you promised to show me how to remember. Thanks, thanks a lot. I really want to learn kanji the mnemonic way and with this book. But, I cant even begin because I cant remember the first 15 which just seems wrong.....if someone could get in contact with me and suggest what to do then that would be a BIG help. If you are going to contact me please remind me where you got my e-mail address from, because a few people who I used to be friends with have went around giving out my e-mail address out and people have added me thinking I was a girl and such such. My e-mail address is konkiller@hotmail.com
Anonymous # 9. December 2007, 13:36
Dalu said: "What about learning the various reading by focusing on vocabulary?"
I think it's possible with another book that I have found in the net. The book is called "300 Kanji with 10000 words".
http://www.lulu.com/content/1635336
So the title indicates that the method is based on "10000 words" which is a good amount of vocabulary. And the compound words are created combining the kanji which you are studying and this very moment and the previous kanji that you already have studyed.
Greetings