So I’m using Heisig’s kanji order but learning the two most common words with each character. So instead of 3000 keywords/stories/mnemonics, I’m learning 6000 real words that I see in real Japanese content. This works better for me.

Although I had completed the awkward “Kanji” stage years ago, I understand that a lot of learner just want a push-button system. But if you have passion for the language (and experiment with the methods that you learn about), then the target language(s) will be a breeze. Thanks for the post, Khatzumoto!

My japanese still improved tremedously. I actually started to enjoy playing real japanese games. It’s more important to have a method that keeps you going, than to have the “right” method and get bored!

Heisig’s biggest strength (and weakness) is that it is almost irrelevant if the keyword makes sense or not – some kanjis in the book sport weird keywords that only make sense when the kanji is used in compounds, or really obscure sub-meanings, so they are never totally disconnected, but they might seem weird at time. However, I think this is a complete non-issue as the true aim of the book is not to learn vocabulary, but to make sense of the kanjis in a more… meta way, if that makes any sense.

So I WOULD recommend people to go through Heisig, or at least through enough so that things like element placement and stroke order starts making sense (which it will, eventually and effortlessly). However it is far from mandatory, as you’ll encounter kanjis in the sentences anyways. This is where you actually learn vocabulary. RTK definitely makes the sentence phase smoother, but is not a hard requirement. And if you can’t be bothered to create a story for every kanjis in the book, there are many ready-made shared anki decks that’ll do the work for you.

Also it is worth remembering that Heisig devised this method in a time and age when SRS didn’t exist, so his method with the heavy emphasis on imaginative memory can be twisted beyond recognition and still be efficient, thanks to the incredible power of the SRS.

Phew, that came out longer than I expected… sorry for that.

It’s so true what you said about the getting a backbone in your kanjis though. Like, eventually, if you just continue to fool around with kanjis you’ll become so familiar with breaking them down in a way that’s comfortable to you that, you basically can add them in any order you want. I mean lets be honest. The 2000 常用漢字-list doesn’t really have a meaning anyway. There are a lot more 漢字 after that but they just become more of a pleasure to learn as well 😉

One thing I just wanna share with you all is a thought on the common practice to ask your 日本友人 to correct your mistakes. It’s been mentioned here and there in ajatt and I just wanna make an alternative statement based on my own experiments.
[b/]It’s not a big deal, maybe [b/]
You almost never learn a word by hearing it once anyways, and when i ask what a ginger root is called, or if i’m corrected on how to say some word, since my brain is used to the wrong pattern I’m gonna make the same mistake again anyways and one minute later I’ll ask how to say 生姜(薑(しょうが)) again.
So my point is that, if it bothers you to ask questions and be corrected all the time, don’t sweat it! You’re gonna learn it all eventually so just do the fun stuff and eventually you’ll know the right words anyways. The same with pronunciation really. Eventually you’ll just hear how strange you sound compared to all the other 日本人s and correct your speech on your own 😉 Shadowing is the shit and it’ll help you make funnier jokes 😀

I can’t wait to get onto MCDs. I have had a cheeky look at one or two MCD decks that people have shared on anki and read Khatzumoto’s free samples to get me geed up. I am only wondering whether I will later on make time to do RTK3. I hope so.

Great website, Khatzumoto. Thanks so much. Your methods remind me of James Hamilton’s Hamiltonian system of language learning from Victorian times that I have been researching. He also felt the common way of language learning was awful and relied on grammar, which he did not. He instead provided word for word translations of texts that the teacher recited (one word L1 one word L2) until the student could repeat the words. The idea was that eventually through repetition the L2 word would be learned more naturally. He also used keywords, so each L2 word always had the same L1 translation and maintained that with few exceptions words have only one meaning. He found this convenient.

Anyway, once I get off RTK I will combine your 2 methods. I will get interlinear translations from Mangajin and Hiragana Times and work with them while sentence fishing generally.

Cheers again.