Kanji Learning Process?

[sumikekaito]

I just memorized, them , but occasionally I forget one of the basic 2000 kanji from time to time. So what exactly is KanjiTown and how do you do this method?

Someone please explain this to me here, in a PM, or e-mail. Thanks It might help me remember some that I forget a lot.

[LittleFish]

Kanjitown is basically a phonetic grouping of kanji by ON yomi; group them, and remember the entire group using a specific location (or a story), where each kanji plays a role in the outworking of the story, or the functioning of a location. Each group is a separate location/story, and when you see a kanji all you do is remember where it "lives" or takes place in. This aids in remembering the ON yomi of kanji regardless of how they look (And it helps where Heisig's "signal primitive" method leaves you if you were to study using the second Remembering the Kanji book), as well as making kanji easier to as a whole (You're more likely to forget a single kanji than you would a group of kanji) . ON yomi for any kanji (that has an onyomi) comes instantly. It requires a great deal of work (Such is the case with Remembering the Kanji), but without living in Japan I have conquered the joyou kanji. Adding new kanji isn't hard either, I simply incorporate it into KanjiTown.

The ON yomi are consistent, thus it allows for such a shortcut to work. The KUN yomi however, have no consistency that one can use to remember them all very quickly.

[Immacolata]

I am a Heisig cultist as well. Kidding, its not a cult. ITs just a laborous way of being smart. I completed the first volume and am trying on the second volume now, remembering the onyomi. I've toyed with Littlefish's Kanjitown model but Ive come to the conclusion that it is TOO rigorous a model. Im just chaining instead, a simpler but almost similar method. You simply invent stories for all kanjis sharing the same onyomi, and you still make sure to put them in some location you can recall vividly. But I have given up on trying to make them take place in a congruent mind location. ITs a help, but the real power lies not in the big picture of a town, but in the reinforcement of each kanji within the particular chain you make.

So far its very powerful. If anyone is dead-on serious about learning kanji in order to gain japanese literacy, Heisig and Remembering the Kanji is worth your consideration.

[Bucko]

I've just started putting together stories using that Kanji Town method. It's great! I have a list of about 600 kanji that I already half know, meaning that I know the meaning and how to write, and some pronounciations, and how they fit into some words, but I have no idea whether one pronounciation is on yomi or kun yomi. Thanks to this little Kanji Town idea it looks like I'll have the on yomi pronounciations worked out in no time

[mikuji]

I would like to add my own praise for the Heisig method. It is especially good when studying on your own but can be a problem, I am told, when studying in a formal courses because of the pressure of knowing the kanjis that are most commonly encountered first; these are not necessarily related to each other and their diversity is a main obstacle.

Once the meaning is mastered, knowing which radical points to the sound is also useful but of course there are the exceptions. In term of learning the meaning though, would you either have fun learning or doing it simply by rota under stress and fearing that you will not remember what you learned the next day (as you inevitably will) ? Immagine you started a class knowing how to recognise, write and understand the meaning of all the necessary kanjis- it would then be easier to attach a sound/sounds to each as you learn thenm in the context of new words.

So I am a fan of the Heisig method too!

mikuji

[animate]

Reading them in context is the way to go.

That's exactly how I feel, and I've started to think about resourcing that idea more. Manga was brought to my mind.

I don't know many kanji, but would manga help me furthur my studies? I picked up a volume of something called DEATH NOTE in a bookstore a week ago and noticed that it had the furigana above all the kanji (as do most manga I find). Has this helped any of you before? I'm reluctant to spend $20 on a paperback manga if it's going to frustrate and not help.

[KeithH]

I started with Heisig's RTK a few years back and didn't get very far into it. However, about 2 months ago I found the website Reviewing the Kanji and have since learned almost 800 kanji using Heisig's method. I didn't have the discipline to complete Heisig on my own, but the website really makes it easy.

[Alan]

Opinion on the Heisig book appears to be divided.

Traditional methods learn the Kanji and it's meaning, readings etc. together in the context of usage. i..e. you learn everything related to a Kanji before moving on to the next one.

With Heisig, you just learn the meaning for each kanji, and learn about 2000 of them before going back to learn the readings. Mnemonic stories are constructed to bind the meanings to the kanji. Heisig has written additional books (vols 2 & 3), which I believe cover the learning of ON and Kun readings. I haven't got these & so can't really comment on the method.

Annoyingly in his book (vol.1), Heisig suggests that it doesn't work well with traditional study methods (i.e. using both simultaneously). I think part of this is because the order of kanji learning in his method doesn't follow frequency of use or the order in which kanji are taught in schools. His assertion bothers me somewhat, because my memory works best when I tackle a problem from several different directions in turn (i.e. more like learning the Kanji in context).

As a beginning kanji learner, I'm trying all sorts of methods to see what works best for me. I think the Heisig method (vol 1) might be worth a go, if I can finish it within a few months, because the non-standard order of Kanji introduction would not then be a long term problem when subsequently using traditional learning methods. i.e. use it as a 'leg-up' rather than buying into the whole vol1 through vol3 method.

Alternatively, I see no problem in applying his mnemonic techniques to learning kanji in whatever order I fancy.

[CharleyGarrett]

Of course, your mileage may vary, but this is working for me. I'm looking for my favorite author, or maybe just a favorite novel, which has been translated into Japanese. (For example, Robert A. Heinline "The moon is a harsh mistress"). I get these from amazon.com.jp (which I've got to find a better way to avoid 50% of the expense being consumed in shipping costs). This way, as I read it, I have a pretty good chance of anticipating what each sentence is going to be about basically. There will be a little bit of furigana to help with the odd kanji, or reading, but there will still be some dictionary work. Maybe some of the expressions won't really be "honto no nihongo" but, hey, I'm a beginner! (Well, really I'm more of an intermediate, I guess, since the focus of my study is in finding more vocab and learning the readings of the kanji.

Think about that, okay?

[Immacolata]

I've had a long break in my studies due to a thesis. That delivered Im using my spare time to continue my efforts. I use SuperMemo like LittleFish and are slowly working my way through chains.

The chains are perfect for remembering onyomi. The kunyomis stick rather fast due to the connection you can make between many verbs and their heisig keyword.

Here is an example of a kanjichain story for onyomi ga ガ

GArfunkel the artist works with careful BRUSH STROKES as he paints a picture of a gigantic TUSK that is posed in front of him. On top of the tusk is placed a ring of flower BUDs. Next to the tusk he has placed a plastic turkey and together the tusk and the turkey makes for a GRACEFUL image of power and poultry. GAafunkel has such a big EGO that he holds a fiesta for his talented hands every day and even forgets his meal as his ego STARVES from much work. Only when someone adds lots of shells to his account in CONGRATULATIONS does he stop.

Each capitalized word is a heisig keyword for a particular kanji, like BRUSH STROKES 画

[Bueller_007]

I've had a long break in my studies due to a thesis. That delivered Im using my spare time to continue my efforts. I use SuperMemo like LittleFish and are slowly working my way through chains.

The chains are perfect for remembering onyomi. The kunyomis stick rather fast due to the connection you can make between many verbs and their heisig keyword.

Here is an example of a kanjichain story for onyomi ga ガ

GArfunkel the artist works with careful BRUSH STROKES as he paints a picture of a gigantic TUSK that is posed in front of him. On top of the tusk is placed a ring of flower BUDs. Next to the tusk he has placed a plastic turkey and together the tusk and the turkey makes for a GRACEFUL image of power and poultry. GAafunkel has such a big EGO that he holds a fiesta for his talented hands every day and even forgets his meal as his ego STARVES from much work. Only when someone adds lots of shells to his account in CONGRATULATIONS does he stop.

Each capitalized word is a heisig keyword for a particular kanji, like BRUSH STROKES 画

I'm not sure how that's helpful.

Every time you see the kanji 賀, do you have to recite your speech all the way to the bottom?

[Immacolata]

No.

When I encounter a kanji I know that I know but have forgotten the reading of, I say aloud or recite silently the keyword. Like congratulations. Due to the strength of the story chains I usually remember which story it is part of because I have this keyword associated both with a mental image of the keyword itself but ALSO the fictional or real place that I have put it in.

IT goes with each story that you mentally put it someplace and walk yourself through it. This GA/funkel story takes place in a smart newyorker style artist atelier and doesn't have much movement. Other stories take place where I walk throgh a town or section of a landscape as I describe it.

The strenght of the chain is that even if your forgot one link, there are many other connected links that you can pull the lost one up with. Only rarely do I have to recite the whole story to remember the reading.

To rehearse you simply read your own written down stories once and in a while. Perhaps you figure it differently to strengthen weak points. The time consuming part is to find a place that suits, then make a proper sounded introduction, like GAaaafunkel for 賀, or ITALY for イ, or KANsas city for カン　etc.

The beauty of it is that you build on elements and mnemonics you are already familiar with from Heisig.

Now if you are a real master you can even make it poetic or rhyming, which will just reinforce the chain stories even better. But that aside I can recommend this method for self-students without abundant access to japanese speaking persons or tuition.

You will with great probability end up being able to read japanese somewhat sooner than you will be able to speak it. A rare circumstance I think

[Bueller_007]

No. The strenght of the chain is that even if your forgot one link, there are many other connected links that you can pull the lost one up with. Only rarely do I have to recite the whole story to remember the reading.

Sounds interesting.

[Immacolata]

That is an understatement. It is a marvel.

As I am speaking I have stopped writing stories from a to Wa. Instead when I notice that I encounter certain readingds often during my practice I sit down and write a story that fits the reading. So I jump from ka to chi to jyo to rei and back to ki. It makes the proces very much bearable AS WELL as rewarding since I forcus on elements I need now, not later

[Bueller_007]

That is an understatement. It is a marvel.

As I am speaking I have stopped writing stories from a to Wa. Instead when I notice that I encounter certain readingds often during my practice I sit down and write a story that fits the reading. So I jump from ka to chi to jyo to rei and back to ki. It makes the proces very much bearable AS WELL as rewarding since I forcus on elements I need now, not later

Personally, I find in easier to just focus on the elements of the kanji that make them sound the way they do. As far as on'yomi go, there are a lot of regular elements that are used to give them the kanji their phonetic properties.

刃=nin
忍=nin
認=nin

etc.

I find that to be the most effective way, for me at least. As an added bonus, whenever I see a kanji I don't know, I can usually guess the on'yomi and look it up in the dictionary on the first or second try. (Sometimes it takes more than one try, because the sound changes slightly, like 加=ka, but 賀=ga.)