Mnemonics for Kanji including On/Kun readings.

[doxavita]

Hello!

I need mnemonic suggestions and methods for learning Japanese Kanji including the On and Kun readings. I am already aware of the Remembering the Kanji method by James Heisig, but I feel it has a drawback:it only teaches the writing and English meaning (Vol. 1). So I am asking that you suggest me a mnemonic method that ties up everything: writing, On AND Kun reading, plus its respective English meaning.

Thank you.

[Belton]

If you join http://kanji.koohii.com/(free) you can see loads of mneumonics for kanji submitted by users. Many of them have On and Kun readings included, but they often feel forced.
However, these kind of kanji mneumonics tend to work best when you invent them for yourself.

And whatever about RTK1's method for English meanings, kanji readings are possibly best learnt and remembered in context, by reading (and writing) the real Japanese you already know. (imho)
(RTK purists probably also feel you need to follow the books in order I think.)

if you do want to try learning in context,
I think 3級編　例文で学ぶ漢字と言葉 (JLPT3 kanji by example) http://www.3anet.co.jp/english/books/te ... kanji.html
is well worth using. Also it's companion volume for JLPT 2

If you own a Nintendo DS I thoroughly recommend Kakitorikun.
http://100mas.jp/kakitorikun/

and Japanese grade school textbooks or texts preparing for the kanken test.
http://www.kanken.or.jp/tosyo/index.html

[doxavita]

Thanks for your reply! , anybody else?

[Javizy]

Maybe you should try reading the intro to Heisig, instead of writing it off based on the cover. Most people finish the book between 4-6 months, and are then able to write and recognise 2042 characters long-term, as well as being equipped with a system to easily learn new ones. If you started trying to learn 50 kanji a week by yourself, you'd quickly develop a more realistic idea of what a 'drawback' is when it comes to learning kanji.

When you have this mental index for a character, it's very easy to begin to attach readings and other meanings to it "organically" as you read them in context. You can make this is even more effective by adding sentences with lots of kanji to a recognition-only deck in an SRS program. Since you'll be reading all the time as you study, you'll find that you do actually know how to read a good number of kanji by the time you finish Heisig.

I don't really have a basis for comparison though, since I'm not sure how long it takes people to learn to write all 1945 characters long-term without Heisig. If somebody could give you a timeframe, and idea of what's involved (particularly how much forgetting), maybe you could compare that to the 4-6 months for the results I mentioned above.

[Taurus]

If you started trying to learn 50 kanji a week by yourself, you'd quickly develop a more realistic idea of what a 'drawback' is when it comes to learning kanji.

When you have this mental index for a character, it's very easy to begin to attach readings and other meanings to it "organically" as you read them in context.

At the risk of derailing another thread with a Heisig discussion, I'm only up to Lesson 9 in Heisig, but it is astonishing how effective it is. Last night I learnt 27 kanji while watching Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and drinking most of a bottle of wine. I actually learnt 32, but I had forgotten five when I tested myself just now (though each of those five were only marginally wrong. I blame the wine). I mean, I was barely concentrating last night!

Yesterday, my Japanese wife looked at me scribbling some kanji to test myself. She pointed at one and said she was really impressed. I told her it was the second time I'd ever written it down. She also asked if I knew what it meant. Ironically it was the kanji for which Heisig gives the key word petition. Which isn't really a very helpful keyword - so it's one of the kanji that highlights one of the drawbacks with the system. But then later, I spotted it while reading a phrase that contained 'onegai shimasu'. And that's all it took for me to associate that kanji with the word 'negau'.