My Review of Remembering the Kanji
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- čas přidán 27. 01. 2021
- I finally read Remember The Kanji!
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▶ABOUT THIS VIDEO
Author of Japanese From Zero! George Trombley read Heisig's Remembering the Kanji while in Los Angeles overnight. Here are his thoughts and how he thinks the book stands up to his own series, Kanji From Zero!
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To answer the question of, why doesn't RTK have mnemonics all the way through?
It is because RTK teaches you how to make them yourself. When you read the book, it is heavy on the explanations early on, then as you keep working on it, the explanations becomes more and more barebones, leaving you with less and less to work with. He forces you to use your own imagination to come up with stories for each and every kanji. There is one major reason for this; if someone provided me with mnemonics for every kanji, what happens when I meet a kanji in the wild? With RTK you get the tools needed to: Break it down, compartmentalize, sort, and finally, create a completely unique mnemonic from your own imagination and internal logic. You may not like the Biblical stuff, but Hesig is probably someone influenced by it; Hence his stories contain it, emphasis on HIS. If you don't like it, substitute it with something that makes sense to you. Learning kanji is not complicated, it's just.... for the lack of a better word, tedious/repetitive. The complexity comes from the sheer amount, and I think Hesig equips his students for that multi month/year journey with all the tools you'll need.
3/4 of RTK is creating your own mnemonics after spending 550 kanji learning how to make your own by following Heisig’s examples-that’s the point of the book. he stops holding your hand after about 550 and by 1200 I was extremely proficient on my own and blasted through the last 1000 in the same time i spent on the first 500. RTK 2 is separate and does only readings. I spent 10 months on RTK 1 and have memorized all 2200 by both mnemonic and eventually by form because i’ve seen them and flashcarded them 100s to 1000s of time each.
i’m not knocking this video hatefully, but you missed the point of Heisig’s mnemonic method. He holds your hand until 3/4 and then let’s you go on your way. Once you get far enough you begin to be thankful that you can create your own stories and even today i feel like my overall memory/visual memory has increased in outside studies too.
I find it strange that you read the entire intro and enough of heisig’s mneumonics to know that he uses a lot of bible references but failed to understand the way he structures this book. he points out in the intro & the directions for part 3 that he will gradually give less and less help as the book goes on so that the reader can expand their own imagination while learning the kanji. That’s the entire point of the 3 part structure, and clearly it works if you take your time. He doesn’t “give up” on giving the student mnemonics, he does it intentionally and for an actual active user of the book it’s pretty obvious why after going through page by page, word by word until the final kanji.
I'm doing RTK and I've found that: the sentence isn't always as important as the IMAGE you make in you mind of the story. Heisig emphasizes this often in the first quarter of the book. This way it is not necessarily important to write mnemonics in the order that the primitive elements are written because: the writing of the kanji and the image in you head begin to merge over time. Images are much more sticky then sentences, I've found.
Yeah probably because sentences are a chain of information references in our mind, while an image is mostly a blob of information. So for us to recall a complex picture is easier than to recall a complex sentence. After all, we get 80+% of information via our eyes, so it's visual.
that sound bite at the beginning is hilarious 🤣「心の準備をしないと」
wow! you understood that!? it was way too fast for me. your listening skills are amazing!
@@user-yi7yb5cc6i You will get there. Just keep listening and reading.
Mixufixu ahhhh, I see. ohhh ok cool!
I cracked a laugh listening to this
Right? Lmao
I came back after a much needed hiatus! I am stronger in my resolve to learn Japanese ! Yea baby! Yeah
We love your enthusiasm, George !
To be honest. I loved learning Kanji using Kanji Koohi. Mnemonics are community created, so there are often very creative ones (solely out of variety).
I’ve been on that site for over a decade. It’s a great compliment to RTK.
I'm SO glad you're making a book 2!!
Wow i haven’t been here in so long. Hey George👋🏻 I was an avid watcher of your channel about a year and a half ago and your content really was what started off my journey of learning Japanese. Now we’re a year and half later and I’m still studying by myself and preparing to study Japanese language and culture once I leave for university in half a year. Thanks for being awesome!
I've just found this video - I love George's advice to create your own mnemonics. I'm starting this as a project now.
I'm just about to finish up my second refresher through RTK and I've gotta say, the last 500 kanji are tough to recall using Heisig's method. I wish your Kanji from Zero book had been out when I started. I have your Japanese from Zero and love it. Keep up the good work.
I finished Kanji from Zero today, waiting for the second one
Have you ever done Kanji look and learn? I want to compare to see which to purchase
The idea behind the method is that you make your own mnemonics, and the first thought is always the best, like Spiderman collected in his cave a bunch of computers on the ground, 纏める. A good mnemonic is not only for remembering the meaning, but also provides the guidance for writing the kanji, like a pirates treasure map. It shouldn't be a remember the mnemonic someone else came up with, that's not intuitive, that would be even more information than only tryhard remember the stroke order. That's why the second half is "empty", you should have learned the method by then and make your own out of your own experiences, thoughts, movies, etc.
I enjoyed your review, I'm glad you finally did it.
I'm about N-Baby level in Japanese, and I'm in Lesson 4 of your book, mixed with a little bit of Genki, bunpro, and other sources. RTK was the first thing I got and I'm about 500 Kanji in. While going through your book, I am reaping the benefits of already being 25% through RTK.
Here's the benefit. Whenever your book introduces a new word, for example car, there is a chance that I will already know that kanji thanks to RTK. Whether or not the keyword he gives matches the meaning is irrelevant. Some of his words have nothing to do with the meanings, really. The helpful thing is that when I see a new word in your book, I look in your Kanji column, and I think to myself "oh, it's that Kanji. Got it." Because I already know how to write it, I just have to associate it with the new word. I can skip right over the stage where I'm writing くるま instead of 車.
mnemonics
I’m glad you get it lol
How are you getting on now with your studies a year later out of interest?
@@danielwolstenholme9649 Pretty good! My conversations with people are now always way more Japanese than English
Do you allow us to download or receive new additions to your books? Even just a PDF for those who purchased an older physical copy would be nice if that's not already a thing. Love your grammar books, haven't tried the kanji ones yet until more are out!
I really like RTK, as the book's cover implies it really helps me remember the kanji. I wanted to be able distinguish/identify them so when I'm then actually learning kanji words I don't have to constantly question if this is the kanji I think it is. That's all I really wanted to take from RTK and it delivers phenomenally on that premise as long as you learn to make your own stories to string them all together as the book encourages you to do. I memorized 2200 kanji in a little over a month using this method and flashcard programs, it really sped up my ability to learn kanji words.
"If I was my own competition, I'd give up right now!" Haha I love that confidence in your own work. In fact, I love it so much I'm about to buy the first Kanji from Zero book online here in New Zealand.
How did you find the book? Thinking of picking it up
Damn, you're getting me excited. I'll probably give your Kanji volumes a try once you (re-)release them.
Nice review of this book and your new book sounds epic :D What's the music you used in this vid? It's pretty cool
So I’m about halfway through RTK. It took me about 8 months or so to get the first 1,000. I tried really hard to grind out and remember as many stories/words/kanji as possible without burning out. Now I’m starting to go back and review to keep my mind fresh before I move onto the second half of RTK.
I’ve noticed I “forget” about 20-50% of the kanji. Then once I set those forgotten kanji into a separate pile and start to review them again, I pretty much remember most of them. Is that okay? I’m just hoping im not too forgetful with these.
Congratulations for the new kanji book teacher jeorge ! I would be happy if I got it but now it's hard because of corona 🥺🥺🥺
Good review, though there needs to be one correction. Around 11:00 you mentioned that Heisig apparently “gave up” on giving kanji descriptions, but there’s a reason for this. In the introductory materials and theory sections at the start of every chapter, he describes the reason for slowly phasing-out stories. It’s difficult to describe quickly, but if you follow his method and rigorously follow the instructions from page 1 onwards, your knowledge builds upon itself and RTK begins to reveal itself as a solid and efficient way to learn most kanji. It almost parallels Japanese From Zero! 😂
4:16 LOOOOOOOOOOL that is so true actually, I'm working through the book right now and some of Heisig's stories are just so wildly specific that it's like?????????? Why does he expect people to know some of this stuff lol. And some of the keywords are words I've literally never heard of before, so I've had to replace those with words I actually know. Despite that though I still like the book and plan on finishing it.
The kindle version of all your books are not available on my region. Btw I am from Indonesia...
I’ve bought Japanese from zero books, but I’m yet to buy any of the kanji from zero books. I’m planning to buy them once the second book is released.
This video was more like a mic drop to heisig's shortcomings but anyways, I've just finished RTK using memrise and and literally reviewing so much has become increasingly difficult to a point I quit the memrise module. If I continue forgetting then I'll give your book a try. I occasionally search up some kanji I come across and look it up on jisho when my memory is refreshed with the keyword heisig gave me earlier. As you just said, the lack of mnemonics in the later part of RTK is really frustrating. The author had only one job which he messed up with.
Hey if you see this, how did this go? Did you have any other solution? I think the SRS system (spaced repition system) works super well but I haven't been able to learn enough yet to put it to the test. (using Kanji From Zero and etc) Hope it's going well brother.
@@charmolettafranquestafiestayam in the end i had mastered around 1.7k kanji very well but rest i did it in a rush as i had other work. I didn't continue learning then as I am preparing for my airline tests i hope i can recover after i find time again. lot of the kanji i still forgot due to the lack of in context use but i may remember it every now and then when i come across the primitives
For me that pro and con you said first is reversed: I don't like they've given only one meaning to a primitive; and I enjoyed Biblical and actually literature reference.
I think you kinda reached with the Bible take, if you're not American/British, there's a whole lot you have to research to understands Heisig's meanings/keywords the primitives - folk sayings, literature, obscure English words for obscure Japanese meanings... I thought it was fun, even though exploring Anglo-Saxon culture wasn't really what I had in mind while trying to learn kanji.
The main problem with the 'single meaning primitive' is that it acts kinda like an addictive substance, to get a hold of the 2000 kanji it gives, you have to go through practically the entire book to see which keyword was chosen by Heisig. You can in theory rename them, but you must see what was his original keyword, otherwise you get stuck with his logic later on.
Sensei I tried sending you an email with the email on the website but it comes back with a server misconfigured error. Btw, your background images are beautiful.
The way you talk about your own book sounds like a hilarious Rick Flair pro-wrestling promo
Did you already re-do the Kaji 1 book ?
No, Kanji From Zero! book 1 has not yet been restructured.
i agree, all the mnemonics that have worked for me are the ones ive created myself
Im just going to follow you into the light until I go to Language school. lol Im beginning course 3 next week and started Kanji from Zero 1 today. after all five courses and Kanji from zero, I should be well prepared for language school in Osaka.
I learned my multiplication tables as a kid with mnemonic stories. Each number had a word, and each answer was a story using the two words.
6 = chicks
7 = surfin'
42 = some story of how chicks went surfing on a door and found a shoe in the water or something.
It helped me learn my multiplication, and I went on to enjoy math, but 20 years later I can't think of 42 without seeing that picture of surfing chickens and it's kinda annoying! Haha.
I also think of knee when I think of the hiragana に and it also bugs me. I'm trying hard to graduate from romaji and make a mental connection from the sound straight to the character so I don't subconsciously translate it into English.
Please make more book four videos
I started RTK but I found whenever I try to read Japanese now all I think of when seeing kanji is the imaginative story in English, it may help to remember the actual pictures but it's not really doing anything for the pronunciation or reading of Japanese, maybe I haven't read through it enough
You are not going to learn how to read or how to say words with RTK, it's not how it work. You are memorizing how to recognize the kanjis, after that, you have to mix it with inmersion or it don't gonna work for anything, while you has not ending the book, you can watching tv shows, readings or whatever what you want and if you detect all the kanji of one of the sentence, then you can go and anote it in anki or wathever. The final point is that you should not need the story for remember the kanji, but just use it like a tool when you don't remember what kanji it is, and for that purpuse you have to immersion.
Go live more George!
When is your Chinese from zero and Spanish books coming out
Please give us a hardcover option! I would pay extra for sure!
I actually prefer Henshall. mostly due to the fact that it provides actual etymological information and readings to associate the kanji with.
I think you are missing the point of the RTK which is a singular purpose. It's to get you to remember the Kanji. It's not to teach you how to read japanese, it's not about learning context and readings. It's simply a way to insert the Kanji into your brain and have a single YOUR native language meaning associated with that kanji. That's it, and for that purpose it is the gold standard. Adding more data points for you to remember with each kanji reduces your ability to absorb them and imprint them in your memory. That's intended to come later, and as you learn those extra data points, and as you interact with the language and therefore the kanji in more natural settings, then the extra data points will get retained and make more sense. Right now, using RTK, the point is to get beyond the Kanji being incomprensible squiggles for you....that's all there is to it.
Well... I teach Japanese. And RTK doesn’t seem to do that in the first book. And this is why I don’t really find it as powerful as it is portrayed.
@@japanesefromzero appeal to authority. How does RTK not do what this guy said? You didn't mention that in this video.
@@japanesefromzero there is more than one RTK book…
The book can't be used to look up kanji and at the end there are no kanji-stories anymore bcs you are supposed to remember the kanji as well as the story. The book is supposed to be started with at the beginning to remember 1. The kanji, 2. The meaning and 3. The story (which helps remembering the meaning). So if you look up a random kanji without knowing the stories of the kanji radicals, of course you don't get the kanji which mere keywords (the keywords are the kanji meanings of kanji explained earlier in the book). Hope it makes sense now.
I’m honestly down to read Kanji from zero 1 and Kanji from zero 2
What method does it use ?
There are 5-6 new kanji in every lesson. For each kanji there is 音読み and 訓読み and also example words (4 mostly). Then in each lesson you practice different words writings and some games to make sure you learned it correctly. Have to say they are amazing and they do help memorizing better. And also after a few lessons there is whats called super review. thats a fun part. :) overall im super satisfied with the KFZ book. Cant wait for KFZ2. :)
RTK stops giving mnemonics after like a few hundred Kanji, after which it forces you to make your own for each one until 2200 are done.
Also assigning a radical your own name works like a charm. I assigned the person 人 radical as you, George from JFZ xD, and that helped me remember hundreds of Kanji
when they stop teaching you a meaning and you have to make your own is what makes this a good method. The fact that you have to do it yourself and be creative it will make you remember them more. But if you don't have too good of an imagination it is not the best method.
I'm going to be ordering the remembering the kanji based on peoples reviews. I have ADHD and dyslexia. I thought it may work for me hopefully.
Thanks for the review.
Exited for the Kanji from Zero 2
I'm pretty sure they are going to carve George Trombley's face in mount rushmore once he finishes the book.
7:00 That's literally what I came up with XD
I agree that wanikani mnemonics are a mess but I still use it at least the free fist three lessons and just ignore the mnemonic section and just try to remember the kanji meaning for me the best mnemonic lessons I have used not for kanji but hiragana and katakana is the app dr moku it turns the characters in to pictures and gave an example of that sound like for the katakana for Ki the actual character is in bold letters but a faded circle is on the end to make it look like a key I can see kanji being difficult so I appreciate your and anyone’s effort to help people remember
With Tofugu's mnemonics I learned hiragana in one sitting, I was like holy cow I can read the sounds of basic Japanese text. I don't know how good it could be for kanji but I imagine someone can learn about the same amount of kanji as the number of hiragana there are every day.
dat ending
I wish your books were compatible on my kindle 😭
Me too!!!! Kindle creator is unfortunately not a good creation tool. I can load PDFs on my kindle white but not a kindle formatted book that is made by importing the book PDF into Kindle. It hurts my soul how a company with so many resources can build a better creator tool.
@@japanesefromzero So in theory I could convert the file to a pdf and then upload that to my kindle and it’ll work! I’ll give it a shot. If it fails then it looks like I’m buying an iPad! I’ll send you the bill 😉
I think the reason why RTK is still so popular is that people are paying homage to the book that popularized the mnemonics way of learning kanji. Also the book is so old and influential that a huge amount of recourses and better ways to go about learning kanji have been developed but they all use the RTK way of numbering and breaking kanji down. As you said there is not standard way to break kanji down, well RTK is that standard way.
I made this mnemonic a while back for the kanji for “up” and “down”....
下 (した) (shita) you take a shita *down* into your pants.
上 (うえ) (ue) the smell then *rises* to your nose and makes you go “ue”.
I feel like I do a lot better with kanji just learning meanings and readings as I associate them with words. 学 I learned fairly quickly would have to do with school or learning because it was in 学生, 大学, and 学校 and was mostly pronounced GAKU because that is how it sounds in those words. If I was trying to learn Kanji by going one by one through a textbook, memorizing their onyomi and kunyomi, some of these Kanji having dozens of sounds, I would probably give up on it all together because that turns japanese into a brute force method rather than a natural method. Plus, I'm just not sure why I should guess the pronunciation of a word via readings rather than looking it up and getting a definitive answer.
This is how we teach it.
@@japanesefromzero That's good
i like kanji master the best. make copies of the pages and write and write.
I think it's a great book
RTK was useful..... my biggest thing I hated about it is that you'll be half way through the book before you could even write "nan desu ka", the ordering of that book is terrible. Not that you'd know though, the book never really tells you whether each Kanji you learn is useful or not and expects you to burn through the whole thing. That is what I liked the most about KFZ, you find out just how useful each Kanji is.
Thanks for your books sir and videos
When I tried RTK I noticed the biblical references too and I was really surprised that I've never seen anyone criticizing it
How on earth is that a complaint? Good grief.
@@but_iWantedTo_speakGermanim assuming its because not everyone reads the bible. It may be confusing (speaking from experience :’))
I glanced through RTK and wasn't impressed but also it's kind of a "wall of text" that George hates. I got the Tuttle kanji book and it's pretty good although there are some mnemonics where you just wonder what the hell they were thinking. Occasionally there is one that I think is dumb that I later have to admit served it's purpose although I would have gone a different route. In almost every case the drawings are completely worthless. I agree the best are the ones you make up yourself. I do think that reading and speaking are 2 completely different skills using different parts of the brain, so remember kanji without readings is useful if you are also doing a conversational course at the same time. Eventually you make connections between the visual elements and the spoken words.
Rtk is the complete opposite of a wall of text. It's not impressive if you just glance through it, and it isn't supposed to be. You skim-read the introduction, if that.
If you don't like the RTK mnemonics, make them yourselves. As you said, the best way to go about mnemonics is to do it yourself. At a certain point you're expected to be able to produce them by yourself. Also, while I can't prove this, I bet that it sticks with you better if you make it yourself (especially if you make it pungent).
That's how I remember it ..... only got one eye... SO!?!
Can't hear language from a book, not sure how much can be learned
RTK doesn’t work for me because you have to learn the meaning and the reading separately. I’ve been using Wanikani for over a year now and have completely learned 900 kanji and probably another 3000 words using those kanji. The mnemonic device system doesn’t work for everyone but for me it does.
is wanikani an ap?
@@anab0lic it’s a website but there are unofficial apps as well. First three levels are free (you’ll learn around 100 kanji and 450 vocabulary words) and then after that it’s a monthly subscription.
@@valeriek8537 ok thanks. I'm doing book learning from home but want something to supplement that with when I'm at work and can't really carry a book around with me, ill check it out.
@@anab0lic It’s worth a try for sure. They teach you the kanji according to difficulty in writing them, not according to the most used. So you’ll find that you’ll be able to recognize easier kanji but maybe not the most frequently used right away. But I’ve stuck with it and it’s amazing how much I’ve retained.
They might use the Bible references due to it being the one of the most read books of all time. But it is also the most controversial book of all time 😅
Thing is most advanced kanji have the mnemonics built into them. You usually break the kanji into 2, the part on the left is the meaning, the part on the right has the ON reading of a simpler kanji that hopefully you already know. 銅 this the best example, left 金(the metal related radical) right 同 has the on reading dou, so is a metal named dou=copper or bronze.
Everything thats not divided like this or like this 券 拳, is almost always illogical and too much work.
I love the phonetic and semantic aspect of kanji and have been delving more into it lately as I get close to the 1000 kanji mark.
@@valeriek8537 Most used the semantic aspect in their stories not realizing the kanji was designed in part around that idea, but don't learn till much later there's likely an onyomi phonetic aspect. Heisig shows this in Book 2 in a poor fashion, but that book is so bad no one in the community really recommends it.
@@NukeMarine I picked up the book The Kanji Code which is a great reference. I’ve also installed a user script for when I’m using Wanikani that teaches the breakdown when learning new kanji. It’s a great feature that I was was built in to Wanikani already given how they lean on the idea of radicals.
In addition to the heisig book I can recommend kanji.koohii.com/. There you can find the sentences of other user (which are often much butter than the bible bullshit stuff).
i started Reading Remembering the kanji and i rly can relate to 4:36 ! i am not into Bible stuff so i dont have any clue about it~ thats why i mostly made up my own stories
If you really want to learn Kanji, get a Kanji notebook with 100, 150 or 200 squares and practice writing ten characters everyday. Make it a habit. That will help with your memorization. I don't have any KFZ books, I've always used Kanji Kentei study books.
What do pneumonics have to do with anything?
Am I the only one that learnd radicals as they learnd Kanji. I didn't do it on purpose
Same, what's the point. I barely know a few radicals yet got to the point where I read novels everyday without much trouble
@@kezzako2 I wish I was at best I can read about 40 ish Kanji
@@LastGhost12 just takes time and effort! keep studying everyday and you'll get there
@@kezzako2 yeah I'll continue learning
Hey I found you again
I did contact JWH and asked if there was a chance of Remembering the Hanja ever being made. Unfortunately, he did not think it would be warrant to make such a book, due to the likely low interest in it.
I understood, as language learning is a niche market. Considering Korean is the lowest in demand out of the three main East Asian languages, much less the older style of writing for Korean.
Even many Koreans are not interested in Hanja, unless it was a specific field of interest. Effectively Hanja is too specialized.
Your really emotional 😅😅
こんにちはー！
Sounds like a marketing scheme or a compariaon with your book rather than a review.
For an honest review, I'd focus on reviewing the book as a whole, then by the end of the video introduce alternatives.
Well I always let people know you can’t trust my review or ask me questions about any Japanese learning material since even if I say I’m not biased, I probably am. But… in this case I really think RTK gets too much credit.
I have always felt that mnemonics should be 1 sentence or less.
You forgot to mention that the reason why authors of Remembering the Kanji gave for lack of stories in the second part of the book is for each individual having have to come up with their own stories corresponding with each kanji. This way if forces everyone to actually create stories to their own liking. Apart from that there’s literally hundreds of stories for each kanji in this book in the kanji koohi (kanji Ryokucha app on iPhone) where one can select story for each kanji as well and practice them if you really lazy to do it on your own.
Hit or miss? I guess they never miss, huh?
I grew up very much Christian and I have to agree that the mnemonics take those biblical stories a little too far sometimes.
There's basically a superior version of RTK out there called The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course, should check it out.
It's great as a reference book.
RTK trains you on how to create your own mnemonics and really stresses building your own the beginning is just a how to
I also train you how but not giving you any in book one. It forces you do be awesome. :-) Just kidding!
George先生, do you know about Kanji Koohii? Heisig is super into religion..... cool. I’m not into that aspect either. The method gives you freedom to ignore his stories all together. Heisig prefers that you don’t use his stories.
Like, I’m not sure if you’re actively trying not to understand why the book works allows people to be able to write 2200 or if you’re stubborn or something. It’s super odd.
I think it’s safe to say that if you’re gonna be going on about how your book has grammar, readings, etc etc then yours wins lol. Your book is better in that sense. In every way. I’ve used Heisig and I will confidently state this to anyone: George has a better comprehension Kanji book and one of the best comprehensive books.
That isn’t the point though. Matt didn’t say you learn the meanings first. You learn to recognize kanji using the keywords but recognition and writing is key. The English is meaningless in
The end.
Like I can even tell if this is a troll
Video. Heisig didn’t give up lol. Look, if you’re not trying to understand the other side and are just trying to sell books, state it in a video or PM me, and I’ll try to sell your book to every person you encounter. At least I’ll know what it is you’re trying to do then and I’ll have no problem disregarding Heisig and recommending your book to everyone who asks me how I learned Japanese
The worst mnemonic I've seen was in Genki's kanji book. 文 "A pattern on the old vase became a character". Really? It doesn't give any clue to what the kanji looks like.
Bruh the anime girl voice caught me off guard, I thought he had no interest in anime, lmao.
“good artists copy, great artists steal”
great artists get sued
Chinese from Zero when? :D
あ
あ
あ
あ
あ
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If you really hade read the book thoroughly you would have known that the purpose of them leaving out the mnemonics was so you would have to start making your own. 😉 Just like you sad that you like to do it. 🤔
Just because the author uses Bible references to remember Kanji should not be taken as a "negative". Give me a break.
Not for you maybe. But what if I made a book where all the references were about Satan and you were Christian? Would you be okay with that?
I’m not a huge fan of the origin stories humans believe involving a God. So learning Kanji and having a lot of bible references sucked for me. To each his own I guess.
I don't have to be religious to call you out for unfairly maligning a book you're claiming to review objectively. I don't wear my religion (or lack thereof) on my sleeve like you do. I'm simply stating you misrepresented the book to sell your own.
What is bothersome is you didn't take a real quote. You literally make one up and pass it off as a generalization of the book. I think that was unfair, and you should be called out on it. @@japanesefromzero
i hate rtk with a passion. i can only see it useful for absolute beginners. basically i do not want to think in english about kanji just adding another english layer to things n
Its funny how uncreative people learning languages are apparently. Like, you can read a kanji and meaning, and if you dont like a mnemonic...make your own?? You can even change the key word. This guy has made it his job to tell you "You shouldnt have to think that hard to learn and never be creative, buy my stuff." You can learn language for free.
I seriously feel bad for people who try learn Japanese with Remembering the Kanji. It's just so slow and inefficient.
So do I, and I was one of those. But I am glad I went through it because it literally the one method that gave me the opportunity to "learn how to learn" after countless failed attempts. It offered measurable progress that made me stick to a schedule and didn't bum me out when I hit a wall. Now, I am glad that I can read through a sentence and pick up Kanji because I had already built up that knowledge base. It really shows it's effectiveness years into the future rather than immediately. Of course that was before KFZ was a thing.
I bought it and then promptly sold it and bought the Kanji from Zero book.
I imagine it would be good for some people. But for me I didn’t like not learning the Kun and On readings. And not being a massively imaginative person I found it hard to visualise as a large amount of Kanji really do not like anything too me lol.
Yeah, i feel so bad for those people who more or less never have to worry about kanji again. Read Nukemarine's comment, he explains it well. You can do RTK In a month, learn the most usefull thousand or so. The community has "fixed" any real issues with rtk.
I did it the old school way with the full 2200 and anki while ago. It was difficult, but not as slow as gradually forcing them into my brain in a painful struggle across many years. It was a great time investment, even though it took 3 months. Kanji are my biggest strength and have never once gave me any real issues or problems since.
Imo doing the more modern RTK adaptations will let you invest only 1 month, its easy, and gets you an amazing bang for your time-buck. I feel sorry for people who try to learn kanji any other way.
RTK本の感想の批判編にはよーしよしよし、準備万端整っている。なんてさ、始まりの動画でワロタ（笑）。ゼロから漢字3版リリースするのはいつか、間違いなくRTKよりも売れるので。
Slightly bias.
You heard me say I was biased in the video right? I still don’t think I would like it if I hadn’t wrote my own books.
I can’t believe anyone uses RTK. It doesn’t teach you any Japanese you will come out the other end of the book not being able to read one word of Japanese.
So... it's only half a book, and there are those weird ass religious references? Why I wonder. Does the author assume we all were pushed the same magic man in the clouds stories?
I was about to buy this book.
I'm really surprised at how well rated RTK is. I looked through it a bit and did not care for the format. Then I learned the author doesn't know Japanese.
This review felt very disingenuous.
Firstly it is bad practice to review something and use that as a platform to promote your competing product.
But more importantly you contradict yourself in talking about it. You said you yourself used to not be a big fan of mnemonics because you should make your own (not explaining what changed your mind or confirming if it did) but then you go on to criticise RTK for not teaching you mnemonics after a certain point. At the very least you should adress how you used to completely support that approach and why that changed, rather than criticising that part as inherently negative.
Thanks for the comment. I made a video to respond here: czcams.com/video/2TvLwz8UPxQ/video.html
Kanji from Zero it's better than remembering the kanjis ...
It depends on the person, but whether you take a Ferrari or Lamborghini, what’s important is getting to your destination. And no vehicle can drive itself without a patient, dedicated driver at the wheel
If you go trough RTK as Heisig intended you to do it is a pretty bad way to learn kanji. But the good way is to use the multitude of free online resources that utilize just the RTK numbering and kanji breaking up system.