I‘ve been doing RTK for a few weeks almost daily and I‘m already struggling retaining some of the earlier Kanji. To be perfectly honest, I think Heisig‘s mnemonics absolutely suck.
It also doesn‘t help that there are so many hyper-specific Kanji that just don‘t interest me as a beginner, so going through this book is just mindnumbingly boring to me. It‘s just not fun for me.
I‘m doing an N5 tango deck on Anki which also includes Kanji, and my retention rate on those is WAY better because it‘s in-context and the actual meaning of the Kanji is taught.
I‘ve heard of RRTK, which is apparently RTK in another order to teach the more frequent Kanji first. Should I try that or do something else entirely? Any help is appreciated.
15 comments
u answered ur own question
just use tango n5 and immerse
I think that the RTK method is most useful for the memorizing technique it teaches by creating stories with vivid images that relate to the kanji. The problem is it takes a while for it to let you start truly constructing your own. The book also doesn’t do anything to teach you readings, leaving a big gap to fill on your own.
I found wanikani easier to stick with than rtk since getting vocab at the same time helped the meaning stick for me. I wouldn’t say their mnemonics are necessarily better though. I’ve had most success with a hybrid of mine/their mnemonics.
One thing that helped me find mnemonics that worked for me was realizing that I’m not a visual recaller, so the “image” based ones didn’t stick but I can remember a story/sentence better. Mess around & see which mnemonics seem to work the best and then find/make ones that match that.
I’m doing an RRTK deck with the 1000 most frequent Kanji and I’m over half of the way in and haven’t had much trouble recalling most of them so far. The best feature is that the deck isn’t pre-loaded with any stories but the ID is a clickable link that takes you to [https://hochanh.github.io/rtk/](https://hochanh.github.io/rtk/) with the character appended, so you can pick your own story from the top rated Koohi ones, edit the card and add it yourself (or make your own up). I mostly use others’ stories and sometimes will customise them slightly.
you have to use https://kanji.koohii.com because, it has crowdsourced mnemonics which are better
or you can use KKLC if you want a different book, KKLC is similar but the key difference is it has vocab bundled in
or just learn vocab, that’s what I do
RTK has been helpful to me, but I can’t say if it’s the most efficient. I’m 340 characters in, and it’s been slow.
But I get a huge confidence boost when I pick up a new word from elsewhere, and find the corresponding kanji is one I’ve already learned from RTK. It makes it a breeze to remember them.
>It also doesn‘t help that there are so many hyper-specific Kanji that just don‘t interest me as a beginner
You only study what you think is important, then language learning is not for you.
I hated Hesig, however the radicals do really help (Hesig’s convoluted narratives for most kanji however do not). Just ramp up the number of new cards, get through it as quick as you can, don’t worry too much about accuracy of anything other than radicals. Then start using a vocab deck. It will be much more useful…. I look back on my time with RTK as a waste.
What works best for everyone will be different. RTK didn’t work for me either. I do think the basic concepts in RTK though like: recognize the 200 ish radicals that build Kanji, recognize Kanji are just components put together of either multiple radicals or a radical+another Kanji, and make up mnemonic stories to help remember, all are useful ideas. I just didn’t find the whole overall RTK program useful. I’d suggest taking those basic concepts to any other method you try if those concepts helped you.
I personally did a lot better just doing any ordinary “learn with sentences” anki or memrise srs deck, and learning Kanji as just part of whatever words they were in. For me just moving on and learning it as part of words regularly with srs worked better. I still used radicals to help break down Kanji visually so I recognized them, and sometimes looked at the sources below for mnemonics to help me remember if a Kanji really didn’t stick in my memory. But just learning Kanji as parts of words, within regular sentence context, might be an alternative you want to try. The upside of just learning Kanji as part of the regular words you learn being: no weird order as it’s just the regular order you planned to learn words, and when you learn a Kanji you immediately learn a word that uses it so your knowledge is immediately applicable in reading or using it in a sentence. At least for me that made a big difference, rtk I really felt I couldn’t read or do anything with Kanji I had “studied” even though I know long term all the Kanji recognition from rtk would have benefited me.
So kanji.koohi.com has user submitted mnemonic stories for Kanji. One option is to learn Kanji from literally anything else like a beginner Tango N5 anki deck, textbook, core 2k deck, nukemarine Let’s Learn Japanese memrise, etc, and just use Kanji kochi to help you think of mnemonics when you have trouble remembering a new Kanji you run into. KKLG Kodansha Kanji Learners Guide is a Kanji reference book, it does not use mnemonics but may be a good alternative to reference Kanji as you learn words if you need help remembering a Kanji in a word. Japaneseaudiolessons.com is a site that makes Learn To Read Japanese Kanji mnemonics books with memory aid stories for meaning AND pronunciation (unlike RTK) within sentence reading examples, which I personally liked as a Kanji aid, but it’s very dry to read like a textbook so I understand it may not click with everyone. I also really really loved Learn to Read Japanese Today Tuttle book with 400 Kanji when I was a total beginner, Tuttle just tends to make mnemonics books for Kanji and chinese hanzi that click in my brain easier than other sources personally.
Another alternative option is app Wanikani which is quite popular. It provides pre-made mnemonics, and I hear the order of Kanji is more in line with JLPT. I’ve never used this app but it seems widely used and liked.
Having a basic understanding of radicals and meaning/sound components is good. If mnemonics don’t work for you, no worries, they’re not necessary. (I never did mnemonics).
Kanken type study worked for me. Kana to kanji (in context) and kanji to kana (in context) – alongside your vocab study. Kanken materials at the lower level are always super common words that any child would know so you can mine them for vocab / sentences.
It’s a matter of finding what works for you. There is no perfect method.
Hmm you could try WaniKani.
Its free for a bit so you can evaluate. I restarted recently, it overwhelmed after about 6 months so this time I’m taking it much slower on new lessons
I disliked RTK from the start haha. Particularly having to use random English stories. Dropped it quickly.
Instead I just used the 10k anki deck with desired immersion material as soon as I could, supported with stuff like jisho and the kanji study app. Looks something like: Do my ankis, do some reading or podcasting, back to anki, do some grammar lessons, see if I can play some pokemon in JP etc.
Just cycling like that, postponing any immersion that was too hard at the time, attempting it again after a getting a couple hundred cards + couple of textbook chapters done.
I’m reading novels now, so it worked well enough, at least for me.
As for radicals, I didn’t do it on purpose, but I noticed that the kodansha kanji learners course deck I use for handwriting practice was making me recognize radicals. So, you could add that to your toolbox.
If you want Kanji cards to be automatically generated from the Tango N5 deck (or any Anki deck), consider using the Migaku Kanji God Addon (free). This video from Migaku explains the methodology: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APMYK1Aa69k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APMYK1Aa69k) .
There are other videos on the Migaku channel that discuss the Kanji God Addon, including the [release trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXXjqNEYseY) and [user guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bmWLvUBQo).
(This was copied from another one of my comments. Also, I am a beginner, so feel free to take this recommendation with a grain of salt).
You should learn vocab through anki.
Learn in context. Learn vocabulary rather than individual kanji. RTK is the antithesis to these recommendations.
Of the many many approaches I’ve taken with my studies and hundreds of books I’ve used, if I were starting all over again, I would use the following:
Beginner ->
Kanji Look and Learn + Workbook,
ASK Japanese Graded Readers
Intermediate ->
Kanji In Context + Workbooks,
ASK Japanese Graded Readers,
Breaking Into Japanese Literature
Grammar ->
A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns For Teachers and Learners