Quote:
Originally Posted by jesselt
Again, I understand that RTK isn't supposed to teach you how to say the word for it, but it just seems sort of counterproductive to spend that much time learning how to read Kanji in English, especially when it becomes completely useless in many compounds. As I posted before, just because you can understand the English equivalent for 新 and 聞 doesn't help you read 新聞 at all unless you want to understand it as "new listen" or "new understand" or something equally useless.
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Well the way natives learn Japanese as babies, their parents would point to something, like, newspaper and say thats しんぶん. It's not until MUCH later in their lives that they learn how to write 新聞. The RTK thing is the complete opposite. You learn Kanji, with no context whatsoever, no reading, nothing, just pictures... ??? ... profit!!... 500% speed up. I have no idea.
To RTK's credit, the way native Japanese processes new Kanji is similar to RTK's method where complex Kanji is pieced together from common body parts. So when a native sees the Kanji 語 and want to remember it, it would be 言＋五 with 口 down the bottom. 望 would be 亡＋月 with 王 down the bottom etc. Although the description in RTK is VERY imaginative indeed.
Anyway as I said, I don't think RTK is a bad thing as long as you used it with other books that teaches you compound and reading. You can't only rely on RTK (although in the book, they tell you the exact opposite which is where all the contraversy lies).