Reading RTK, a quick question. :)

[jacobf]

So, I am reading RTK and doing my things I do to study, and I came across 吾 which is shown to mean "I". I, however, have never seen or heard this (but I haven't been to Japan), so I was wondering if anyone could clarify when it is used, or why it is used?

どうもありがとうございます！

[Nagoyankee]

I don't know what RTK is but I'm surprised they teach you 吾 at all. You will only see it in old literature. Don't worry about it.

What you should worry about is the use of どうもありがとうございます in your post. You only say it when you have received a service (in this case, an answer), not before. Say よろしくお願いします.

[jacobf]

Ah, ok. ありがとう！ RTK is Remembering the Kanji :P

Also, thanks for the help with どうもありがとうございます and よろしくお願いします

Another weird one, is this used often?
朋 - companion

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by jacobf

Ah, ok. ありがとう！ RTK is Remembering the Kanji :P

Also, thanks for the help with どうもありがとうございます and よろしくお願いします

Another weird one, is this used often?
朋 - companion

If I'm not wrong, RTK is that Remember the Kanji... that book is bloody useless hence why they are teaching you useless characters.

朋 is the alternative character of 友, both read とも. Again hardly ever used. It is derived from
朋友（ほうゆう）meaning friend, but it is almost never used in modern Japanese.

My biggest gripe with Remember the Kanji is the way Heisig describe the characters, is complete non-sense. I think 漢字源 is a MUCH MUCH better resource.

[Lucas89]

I wouldn't worry too much about what his keywords are, some mean what they are supposed to mean but most are either in-accurate or completely off the mark.

The general idea of the keywords is just so you have a handle to remember and recognise kanji until you can replace them with proper meaning and readings etc. so at the end of the day it doesn't really matter that much.

You'll start seeing the more used and common kanji later on in the book, why it was done in this order i don't know but if you complete the whole book then it doesn't really matter.

RTK is only useless if you try to use it for something that it's not supposed to do.

For example it's not supposed to teach meaning, just how to write and how to remember, if you use it for this and only this then it's a great way to learn stroke order etc. of all the kanji in a stupidly short amount of time.

So anyway, the point in my post is just to check that you aren't trying to learn his keywords as the actual meaning of the kanji, since most of them aren't anywhere close to the proper meanings anyway, and to let you know that a lot of the first part of the book contains a lot of kanji that aren't used very often or not at all from what i've seen.

Sorry if i mis-understood, it's just that a lot of people who try RTK go into it not reading the introduction and thinking that his keywords are the actual meaning of the kanji, and thinking that all of these kanji are used in every day life, which as you have seen from 吾 that they aren't

[Kai13]

Originally Posted by Lucas89

a
For example it's not supposed to teach meaning, just how to write and how to remember, if you use it for this and only this then it's a great way to learn stroke order etc. of all the kanji in a stupidly short amount of time.

And this is why I wanna buy it.
I dunno what method I'll use, but I'd like to study it alongside with Genki and Kodansha's Essencial Kanji Dictionary (and later with "an integrated Approach to Intermediate japanese") so that I learn the kanji in context.

I really liked the way that 日or 目, appear together in 冒. And it was surprisingly easy to memorize it thanks to the story the guy gave, but then again, this is an easy kanji : P

At the moment I'm aiming to finish Genki 1 during easter vacations (2 weeks) studying like 4/5 hours a day. Today I'm finishing lesson 8 (I'm doing the workbook exercises now). After finishing it, I shall buy it, but still have a lot to read about it.

I really wanna be the best in college. Glad my country doesn't have that many experts in japanese

[chryuop]

I am one of those who is wasting a bunch of time memorizing kanji with their readings (I lost the count of people who tried to have me change way of study LOL). Anyway...kanji can become difficult to recognize because they are very similar. However if you get to know the very basic kanji (the one with very few strokes) you can recognize kanji easily.
I will give you an example that actually happened to me while reading some examples in a dictionary.
In an example I saw a kanji which was 教 and at first I thought it was the one for number since back then it was the only one I knew with that radical. But it looked a little bit different so I thought at how it was the kanji for number and realized I was wrong. What helped me was that I new number (数) has in it a woman and the rice (女 and 米).

I actually do not know the system you are using, but instead of trying to learn by heart what they look like, try to learn the parts a knaji is made of.
So for example if you find 休 you can remember it is made by a man near a tree (which gets you close to "rest") and if you see 体 think that it is made by a man and the kanji for base/origin (thus it helps you as the base of a man it's his body). Not all kanji might have a logical explanation (at least not to us foreigners), but if you know what they are made of you can recognize them. 鳴 a bird and a mouth, 聞 gate and ears and so on.

Some are more difficult and some are easy...then of course up to you to find the method which helps you more.

[LorenPaul]

Just thought that i'd add my 2 cents as i'm studying RTK at the moment,

i use kanji.koohii.com aswell as an outside resource as an accompanyment..

you wanna know why your learning companion?.. but its' never used?

why your learning "I" and it's never used?

well.. think of it as building blocks.

currently i'm using heisgs method. i've been taking it SLOW at about 10 - 15 new kanji a day for 4 months and i know 800 kanji at the moment with a 90% retension rate.

You learn the weird kanji like "I" and "companion" because later on they become sort of a "primative" in the kanji later on.

such as the kanji for 崩 = crumble.

it has the kanji for mountain and companion there.

so my silly story for it is.

"Sam and Frodo (Lord of the rings reference there) remained faithful COMPANIONS as Mt. Doom (mountain) CRUMBLED above them"

so thats why you learn stupid kanji that you'll "never use" because they back up the kanji that you WILL use and help your advancement of stories and mnemonic aids!

keep going with the book.

lots and lots of people will say "I never got that heisig crap, I think it's rubbish"

but it works for some people, it doesn't work for others.

plus about 80% of people who say they don't like it have never tried it.. and/or don't need to try it as they've done it the hard way and don't want to feel "cheated' out of the effort they put in.

i think it's increadibly effective when used in conjunction with an SRS such as ANKI and I should know all the jouyo kanji in 6 months.. my goal is all 2042 taught to be completed by the 1st of june before I leave to japan on 9th of june.

then I get to teast my kanjiknowledge in real-time ;-)

never give up! kanji is a hurdle you need to learn to jump!

|L.p.

[chryuop]

Wow, 800 kanji in 4 months, that is wonderful. I barely know 200 and took me like 6-7 months (+ another 100-150, but just 1 reading or 1 single way of using it).

[darksyndrem]

Wow, that's awesome Paul. I too am using RTK, however I just started yesterday so I only know 15 xD but I would just like to vouch what Paul said, how the only people that say it doesn't work are usually people who have never tried it. I think it's an amazing method of learning Kanji but then again it works with some people and not with the others