1) I’ve started to learn Japanese recently using Genki 1 and Anki 2k/6k deck and I was wondering if I should start using RTK 1 with Genki 1 or wait till I start Genki 2 to do them together, or is there a better option for using RTK 1/ learning kanji and stroke order?
2) Should I use and Anki deck for Genki 1/2 alongside the 2k/6k deck or is it unnecessary?
2 comments
>is there a better option for using RTK 1/ learning kanji and stroke order?
Why do you want to learn stroke order? Do you need to hand write kanji?
An easier way is to skip RTK and stroke order entirely, and simply learn words. You’ll get to recognize all the kanji you need as you learn all the words you need.
I mean you can learn kanji in isolation, but I’d suggest that there are far more productive things to do as a beginner than that (unless you have some very specific requirement).
Take a few hundred from RTK and learn them. Don’t think of it like putting the kanji away in the vault where they’ll never be forgotten. Even the meaning isn’t important since you’ll soon learn vocabulary. Think of it like breaking down the pieces in a way that will help you recall. Even if you don’t handwrite often, you’ll have a huge advantage in not confusing similar kanji compared to someone who never tried writing. For that reason, I wouldn’t even worry if the kanji is common or not, just trust heisig’s order. I do think that heisig’s recommendation of doing the whole book is too much for a beginner, but a few hundred really isn’t a big investment. You can come back to the rest later on. For reference genki 1+2 lists the number of kanji used in those books as 600.