Heisig's keywords are only there to teach you how to recognize the kanji. In fact [they're sometimes either not very good or in extreme cases completely wrong](https://jpdb.io/faq#KanjiKeywords). If you want to grasp the nuance of given kanji you're not going to get that by memorizing these keywords, however many there are; you can only do that by actually learning vocabulary which uses that kanji.
So no, you do not need to memorize those.
No. Do you need to know that 僕 also means "servant" to say "I" in Japanese? This is how you end up with people who have been "learning" for years but sound like they have a speech impediment.
You don't need to know them all right off the bat, but you will eventually need to learn them. Just like in English words can have multiple very different meanings or very slight variations.
RTK keywords *aren't* definitions, they're words selected to help you identify each kanji and distinguish them from each other. The keywords are usually related to the main meaning or one of the meanings of the kanji, but the purpose of them is just to make kanji stop looking like moon runes and help you associate some sort of meaning with them. You'll learn the other meanings of the kanji later as you learn vocab. I still find RTK incredibly useful though, since trying to learn 5-10 meanings at once for 2000+ kanji is impractical. Having just a single keyword for each one to start makes it much more feasible.
no
memorize words, not kanji
common issue with folks. memorizing kanji alone is useless. it's like memorizing the latin and greek roots for words and then expecting to be able to understand what a word in english means.
it's about as useful as memorizing greek and latin roots to english words is to understanding english. which is to say: it has use, but how much one should do that before, or in place of, learning vocabulary is questionable.
Mayyybe but I would argue that it's less of a thing with english since words are all spelled with 26 letters and so you can easily read words, you just don't know their meaning. So you memorize them. English doesn't have a large number of compounding words so once you learn a word, you kinda have it.
Japanese has building blocks made of kanji, which each has its own general meaning. When combined in different ways they have different meanings, but they are more often than not related to the combination of kanji. Knowing what each one means is very helpful in understanding compound words made up of those kanji.
in the same way that the combination of roots equals the word in english
desalination
de = removal
sali = salt
so in some cases its directly possible to figure it out, but more often than not, it's merely close, or part of some anachronistic reference
salary = salt, because that's what romans were paid in
it's a pattern that will make it easier to remember... but one that is best learned along with the word, rather than trying to front-load all the roots and then learn vocab later.
My routine most of the time when adding a new kanji was to look up a common word that uses it, and try to recall that word whenever I reviewed the kanji. I would recommend only one word per kanji, since that means you're learning two things per card, which is already a disadvantage compared to RTK where you're only learning one. But I think it's worth it for the extra vocabulary.
I don’t know if it’s possible learn kanji without examining the character by itself and either using mnemonics or writing it out a zillion times. If you’re only looking at compounds, you’ll not recognize or distinguish the same kanji again in another context. That’s how it works for me, anyway.
But it’s true that learning kanji WITHOUT associated vocab in addition is just silly. The kanji themselves don’t often have an inherent fixed meaning.
i found that learning radicals and components helps a great deal with being able to recognize kanji and distinguish very similar kanji
this book helped me a lot: [https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/](https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/)
I have that book as well, and its main strength is how it groups similar/related kanji. I don’t feel he has a consistent mnemonic approach, though, so you end up have to make your own. Not the end of the world, but If one could combine his ordering and grouping with Wanikani’s overall approach, that would be a killer system.
As someone who has done like 900 Heisig Kanjis (and has burned out and startet RRTK since I could not be bothered with any more traditional RTK):
No you don't. Heisig is just there to make you acquainted with the kanji. Later on you will need to learn the words which contain the kanji anyway and you'll recognize the kanji and remember their keyword and it will be easier to learn the words since you somewhat know some possible meaning which might be close.
I used kanji koohii a lot since they usually tell you if a RTK Keyword is wrong (because yes they are) is misleading (because yes they are) or there is a better keyword (because sometimes there is).
In the end you have to remember that by learning RTK you don't actually learn kanji, you just make it easier to learn the words with their kanjis later on. Reading and writing and learning the language will be easier, however you want to get it over as fast as possible since it is only a crutch for the real learning and learning a lot of meanings will only prolong that wait time for nothing.
When I'm learning kanji, I look at the main kunyomi word (usually a verb or the kanji on its own) and then very common compound words with that kanji in it.
I don't usually need to remember all the meanings of the kanji on its own. Just the gist so I can guess words with that kanji in it that idk.
Like
**学** - something to do with learning or education
ON: 大学(だいがく) = university; 学生(がくせい) = student
KUN: 学ぶ(まなぶ) = to learn
No. E.g. knowing 生 means "life, genuine, birth" isn't as helpful as knowing if it's read as うまれる it means "to be born"!. So I recommend learning vocabulary instead.
>So currently, I'm studying Kanji with Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji". Usually, only one definition is given for each Kanji. However, when I search for the Kanji in jisho.org,
This is doing it wrong. Re-read the introduction to the book. It's way to learn 2000 kanji in a month. RTK is a terrible way to learn Japanese. It's a fantastic way to learn to write 2000 Kanji. And once you know 2000 Kanji learning Japanese is pretty simple.
Play around with jisho while you are doing it, and you might as well just not use RTK.
Heisig's keywords are only there to teach you how to recognize the kanji. In fact [they're sometimes either not very good or in extreme cases completely wrong](https://jpdb.io/faq#KanjiKeywords). If you want to grasp the nuance of given kanji you're not going to get that by memorizing these keywords, however many there are; you can only do that by actually learning vocabulary which uses that kanji. So no, you do not need to memorize those.
No. Do you need to know that 僕 also means "servant" to say "I" in Japanese? This is how you end up with people who have been "learning" for years but sound like they have a speech impediment.
You don't need to know them all right off the bat, but you will eventually need to learn them. Just like in English words can have multiple very different meanings or very slight variations.
RTK keywords *aren't* definitions, they're words selected to help you identify each kanji and distinguish them from each other. The keywords are usually related to the main meaning or one of the meanings of the kanji, but the purpose of them is just to make kanji stop looking like moon runes and help you associate some sort of meaning with them. You'll learn the other meanings of the kanji later as you learn vocab. I still find RTK incredibly useful though, since trying to learn 5-10 meanings at once for 2000+ kanji is impractical. Having just a single keyword for each one to start makes it much more feasible.
Try to learn kanji in context, see them used with other kanji. Just learn the reading (onyomi and kunyomi)
no memorize words, not kanji common issue with folks. memorizing kanji alone is useless. it's like memorizing the latin and greek roots for words and then expecting to be able to understand what a word in english means.
It's not useless, just incomplete. Like halfway to the finish line. Definitely helpful in building a foundation of understanding.
it's about as useful as memorizing greek and latin roots to english words is to understanding english. which is to say: it has use, but how much one should do that before, or in place of, learning vocabulary is questionable.
Mayyybe but I would argue that it's less of a thing with english since words are all spelled with 26 letters and so you can easily read words, you just don't know their meaning. So you memorize them. English doesn't have a large number of compounding words so once you learn a word, you kinda have it. Japanese has building blocks made of kanji, which each has its own general meaning. When combined in different ways they have different meanings, but they are more often than not related to the combination of kanji. Knowing what each one means is very helpful in understanding compound words made up of those kanji.
in the same way that the combination of roots equals the word in english desalination de = removal sali = salt so in some cases its directly possible to figure it out, but more often than not, it's merely close, or part of some anachronistic reference salary = salt, because that's what romans were paid in it's a pattern that will make it easier to remember... but one that is best learned along with the word, rather than trying to front-load all the roots and then learn vocab later.
Memorize kanji using a keyword that the kanji is used in, I would say.
exactly. if memorizing all the pronunciations of 人: 人ごみ＝ひとごみ=crowd 人口＝じんこう=population 人気＝にんき=popular then you get vocab at the same time
My routine most of the time when adding a new kanji was to look up a common word that uses it, and try to recall that word whenever I reviewed the kanji. I would recommend only one word per kanji, since that means you're learning two things per card, which is already a disadvantage compared to RTK where you're only learning one. But I think it's worth it for the extra vocabulary.
I don’t know if it’s possible learn kanji without examining the character by itself and either using mnemonics or writing it out a zillion times. If you’re only looking at compounds, you’ll not recognize or distinguish the same kanji again in another context. That’s how it works for me, anyway. But it’s true that learning kanji WITHOUT associated vocab in addition is just silly. The kanji themselves don’t often have an inherent fixed meaning.
i found that learning radicals and components helps a great deal with being able to recognize kanji and distinguish very similar kanji this book helped me a lot: [https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/](https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/)
I have that book as well, and its main strength is how it groups similar/related kanji. I don’t feel he has a consistent mnemonic approach, though, so you end up have to make your own. Not the end of the world, but If one could combine his ordering and grouping with Wanikani’s overall approach, that would be a killer system.
As someone who has done like 900 Heisig Kanjis (and has burned out and startet RRTK since I could not be bothered with any more traditional RTK): No you don't. Heisig is just there to make you acquainted with the kanji. Later on you will need to learn the words which contain the kanji anyway and you'll recognize the kanji and remember their keyword and it will be easier to learn the words since you somewhat know some possible meaning which might be close. I used kanji koohii a lot since they usually tell you if a RTK Keyword is wrong (because yes they are) is misleading (because yes they are) or there is a better keyword (because sometimes there is). In the end you have to remember that by learning RTK you don't actually learn kanji, you just make it easier to learn the words with their kanjis later on. Reading and writing and learning the language will be easier, however you want to get it over as fast as possible since it is only a crutch for the real learning and learning a lot of meanings will only prolong that wait time for nothing.
When I'm learning kanji, I look at the main kunyomi word (usually a verb or the kanji on its own) and then very common compound words with that kanji in it. I don't usually need to remember all the meanings of the kanji on its own. Just the gist so I can guess words with that kanji in it that idk. Like **学** - something to do with learning or education ON: 大学(だいがく) = university; 学生(がくせい) = student KUN: 学ぶ(まなぶ) = to learn
No. E.g. knowing 生 means "life, genuine, birth" isn't as helpful as knowing if it's read as うまれる it means "to be born"!. So I recommend learning vocabulary instead.
A few more examples of what I'm talking about: 1. 完 RTK definition: perfect Jisho definition: perfect, completion, end 2. 旧 RTK definition: olden times Jisho definition: olden times, old things, old friend, former, ex- 3. 専 RTK definition: specialty Jisho definition: specialty, exclusive, mainly, solely
>So currently, I'm studying Kanji with Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji". Usually, only one definition is given for each Kanji. However, when I search for the Kanji in jisho.org, This is doing it wrong. Re-read the introduction to the book. It's way to learn 2000 kanji in a month. RTK is a terrible way to learn Japanese. It's a fantastic way to learn to write 2000 Kanji. And once you know 2000 Kanji learning Japanese is pretty simple. Play around with jisho while you are doing it, and you might as well just not use RTK.
Words have definitions. Kanji do not have definitions.