Visit my new Blog!!!

http://vttlj.wordpress.com/
This is the URL of my new blog, I hope to see you there too.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Remembering the Kanji or Core 2000? RTK Pro and Contra!


This articles is only about the pros and contras of Heisig's book Remembering the Kanji,the second part,about the pro and contras of Core 2000 will be published in about a week.
In my opinion learning the Kanji is the hardest part of learning Japanese,there are thousands of them and at least dozens of methods on how to learn them. I already tried a few , while struggling to efficiently learn them. A few methods are (really) good and other only bullshit.Remembering the Kanji (in short "RTK") and Core 2000 are one of the well known methods. I "worked" with both of them a bit (especially with RTK) and want to share my expiriences.


Remembering the Kanji

[+]Heisig breaks the Kanji down in primitves,that helps a lot to create good  mneminics and ultimately to remember them
[+]Furthermore Heisig starts with very easy Kanji,new Kanji are mostly based on previously learned Kanji or primitives
[+]He enhances the difficulty step for step,so it's not very hard to write or remember them.
[+]Heisig groups the Kanji in so called "Lessons" with about 20 Kanji,so you often have the feeling of accomplishment, after you finish a lesson, that keeps you going.

[-]The stories Heisig gives you aren't very helpfull,but with the help of kanji.koohii.com you can get (ideas for) mnemonics.
[-]RTK only teaches you a keyword as the meaning 
[-]RTK won't teach you pronunciation of the Kanji

Conclusion:
In my opionion RTK is the best "tool" for learning the Kanji,it lets you learn the Kanji efficiently and fast. 
I really reget that I stopped learning Kanji with RTK by now.
There is a "demo" chapter available ( Click here to download ),so if you aren't sure if it will help you download and test it.


PS:I know,it's a bit late but even so: I wish you a Happy New Year!
   

2 comments:

  1. Let me blog this please. I'd love to make this part of my guide on self study. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds interesting. Have heard of Heisig before, but I never knew what it really was.

    ReplyDelete