Comments on: 18 months or 8 months?

By: jinsei

jinsei — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:39:14 +0000

Thanks, I’ll do that. It’s not any less work than looking through paper dictionaries which is what I’m doing now.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:49:51 +0000

Hmm…you could look up the kanji on http://ziggr.com/heisig/ (or perhaps Rikaichan) to get the Heisig number, then punch that in to http://kanji.koohii.com/study/ and read some of the stories. Might be a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort when you’re just plain stuck! There’s some times I look at the primitives and the keyword and think ‘no freakin’ way!’ Other times, someone on http://kanji.koohii.com will suggest an alternate keyword that might be closer to the kanji, such as when Heisig calls 漫 ‘loose’, but someone else says that ‘comic’ or ‘cartoon’ might be better, because it’s the 漫 (man) in 漫画 (manga).

By: jinsei

jinsei — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:17:07 +0000

Heh.. right after I posted I say how old this post was. For some reason I thought it was only a few days old… Kanji ABC really doesn’t add anything over RtK other than better organization/more accurate keywords (and pronunciations, but you can find those anywhere). It’d be kinda silly to change books at this point. Congratulations on approaching the 1,000 mark.

http://kanji.koohii.com is an interesting site. I wish I could integrate it into my SRS somehow.. I prefer to come up with my own stories, but every now and then my imagination has trouble making a story that will stick, and a site like that would certainly help.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:25:55 +0000

Hi jinsei,

Actually, I am about 886 kanji into RtK, so I’m going to stick with Heisig right now, recognizing that even the fifth edition isn’t perfect. There’s a forum with people who share stories with each other, so when I can’t think up a story that sticks, I am often inspired by fellow students at http://kanji.koohii.com. Some of the folks there have corrected keywords/primitives that I use instead. (Besides, I’ve already purchased the fifth edition, and someone sent me a digital copy of the 4th edition, so I’m already financially involved…) ;)

I haven’t heard of ‘Kanji ABC’, but I might look into that as a supplement. Better keywords are always appreciated!

Thanks for stopping by!

By: jinsei

jinsei — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:06:08 +0000

Might I recommend “Kanji ABC” over RtK? It doesn’t have the detailed stories that Heisig has, but the keywords are more accurate. It’s cheaper too. And I think you’ll be disappointed to find that 90% of Heisig doesn’t have stories either… just a listing of kanji+keyword+primitive.