RTK Question

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

I started Remembering the Kanji a week ago, so far I got to kanji 254 and I can remember most of them without struggling. But I'm worried about something... how do I get vocabulary? Of all 3 RTK books I didn't find any topic about vocabulary. Is there any method out there as efficient to learning vocab? And preferably free?

[DimDito]

Are you referring to the use of kinyomi and onyomi? How kanji spell in sentences and names?

Remembering the meaning of a kanji is already 'vocabulary' in and of itself. e.g. 日 = sun, 月 = moon

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

But what about the reading? Is the volume 2 of the book sufficient? For EVERY kanji from volume 1 there's a kinyomi or onyomi?

PS: If I remember correctly, 日 = day, 月 = month, sun and moon are used for primitive meanings.

[Zakamutt]

^ They are not always merely primitive meanings. There's this vn named 月姫 and all, but months are number-月 etc. For 日, you've got both meanings as well...

 

As for readings (on/kun-yomi) for the kanji, the second book apparently does that. You won't necessarily have to though, you can just start reading with text hookers once you can readish some kanji.

 

If you want to learn actual words/compounds, idk. There's probably something linked in the learning japanese thread's first post. Again, might be better to just start going for text hookers, idk.

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

You're kidding... kanji with two meanings? The book was supposed to warn about that...

[Zakamutt]

You're probably misinterpreting the book. There are a lot of meaning overlaps in kanji, it would be insane to try to fit a Heisig-style method to that. What it is supposed to warn about are in case the meaning he gives will have a possibility of conflicting with kanji introduced later.

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

Then I suppose reading only RTK1 and 3 for kanji is not enough, what would you recommend in that case?

[Berilium]

What I am going to do is study the RTK1 and a few kanjis of the RTK3 (maybe all of them, don't know) and then go to the grammar phase. I think when you know what are you writing you can link the kanjis in question with the meaning.

 

Well that is my style. A lot of people also say that you should learn the grammar first. I am not an expert on this topic so all I can say is that you should learn Japanese in the way you think is comfortable for yourself.

 

Question: What's a text hooker? =_='

[Jptje]

If you only have 1 and 3, I think you should get 2 as well, 2 teaches a reading for all the kanji. You're not going to get very far if you'll only learn the meanings: it may seem futile at first, but (at least in my experience) learning the readings makes it easier to learn in the long run, if you're reading something for example.

As for vocab, I'm struggling with that myself. I use anki for that and I'm hoping I can start reading more and more to replace anki, but you need a good base vocab for that. This works, but it might not be the most efficient way for you to learn. I agree with Berilium, you'll have to find what works best for you.

[Zakamutt]

Meph is probably more helpful than me when it comes to text hooking etc, but basically you can install programs which provide automatic dictionary lookup, translation and grammar/syntax markup for the text in the VN.

[zoom909]

The most complete course for "official use" kanji you'll find is Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary.  It covers all meanings and readings plus a large number of common vocabulary words and exception words.  It also helps you identify radicals, kanji parts that contribute to the meaning, and kanji parts that contribute to the sound (pronunciation).  It even shows you how to look up unknown kanji.

 

But, it is probably too overwhelming for a beginner.  Just remember it for the future.

 

Learning vocabulary words: the way I did it is to google for the JLPT practice vocabulary lists, starting at the lowest level.

The free program Tagaini Jisho provides another easy way to access these lists.  Click on N5 and on Vocabulary and you'll see a list of some 800 easy words.

Of course, you can always look up words and kanji as you read.  But if you know some of the most commonly occurring words, you don't have to constantly break the flow of your reading to look up words.

(Needless to say, a good grasp of grammar is important--the meaning of sentences can still elude you even if you know the words.)

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

The most complete course for "official use" kanji you'll find is Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary.  It covers all meanings and readings plus a large number of common vocabulary words and exception words.  It also helps you identify radicals, kanji parts that contribute to the meaning, and kanji parts that contribute to the sound (pronunciation).  It even shows you how to look up unknown kanji.

 

But, it is probably too overwhelming for a beginner.  Just remember it for the future.

 

Learning vocabulary words: the way I did it is to google for the JLPT practice vocabulary lists, starting at the lowest level.

The free program Tagaini Jisho provides another easy way to access these lists.  Click on N5 and on Vocabulary and you'll see a list of some 800 easy words.

Of course, you can always look up words and kanji as you read.  But if you know some of the most commonly occurring words, you don't have to constantly break the flow of your reading to look up words.

(Needless to say, a good grasp of grammar is important--the meaning of sentences can still elude you even if you know the words.)

Thank you, that was really helpful. This is my plan then:

-RTK1

-RTK2

-RTK3

-Grammar Guide

-JLPT lists

Hopefully I can do all of this in 1.5 years tops.