is the book remembering the kanji any good before i consider buying it ? :) - Feed Post by AH_Jonesy

• 
  Kimbo

  It has it's positives and negatives, and many people seem to love it or hate it.
  
  I've worked my way through it and made 2000 physical flashcards. However, after months and months of revising, I decided to cut down how often I review them and have forgot about 40% of them!
  
  But this isn't necessarily too bad. The book helps you to read, but it doesn't teach you to read, yet usually takes 3-6 months to work your way through it (it took me 6, adding 10 cards a day + reviews).
  
  Sometimes when I look back at my cards now... I actually say the wrong keyword because I've learnt the actual use of the kanji, and forgot his assigned keyword. I think eventually forgetting many of the teachings and putting them to real use is a natural part of the progression, but that's just me.
  
  After working through RTK, it's much easier to recognize and learn kanji without spending much time studying them. I'm not sure about other people, but I can do the kanji tests on this site without even looking at the kanji list, get almost 100% and not actually know what most of the words mean -.-
  
  I would say breaking down radicals and use mnemonics is one of the best ways to remember kanji, but also practice your actual reading as you go along, e.g. sentence decks.
  
  My advice would be, if you have lots of time to invest in the long-term, and you want to use this method, do it.
  
  If you are limited on time, just use an anki deck RTK or not at all. Like I said, it's effectiveness is controversial, but those who complete it give good reviews (obviously because those who don't like it don't bother spending months and months on it).
  
  But yeah, don't expect the book to do anything magic after huge time investment, and be expected to forget-relearn-forget-relearn.

  July 30, 2014 at 4:28am