Kanji, the ideograms in Japanese that were imported from China, are one of the most daunting things to learn. There are over 2000 kanji, and you need to learn at least about 1200 to achieve a certain fluency in Japanese. Many people feel completely lost and have no idea how to learn the kanji of the Japanese language; in this article, we will discuss one of the best methods to learn this language, the famous RTK – Remembering the Kanji method.
RTK (remembering the Kanji) is a three-volume book written by James Heisig aimed at teaching the 3007 frequently used kanji in the Japanese language. The book is available in several languages besides English, including Portuguese. In Brazil, it is sold under the name Kanji Imaginar para Aprender. James Heisig created his own method and managed to learn over 3000 ideograms of the Japanese language in a few months. He shares everything in this book that we will cover in this article.
We made a recent video talking a bit about RTK:
Table of Contents
What is the goal of the Book – RTK
The goal of this book is to teach Kanji in a completely different way from the JLPT. In this book, they do not teach in the traditional way, strokes, etc. Here they teach using radicals and composite parts of the ideograms to facilitate the understanding of even unknown ideograms. The aim of the book is to ensure that you do not forget the meaning and strokes of the Kanji using imaginative memory.
The goal of the book is to provide the Japanese language student with a simple method to correlate the writing and meaning of Japanese characters, so that both aspects become easy to remember. This method offers a new perspective for learning kanji, showing how to overcome the complexities of the Japanese writing system, highlighting its basic elements and suggesting ways to reconstruct meanings from such elements. Even advanced Japanese students often use and know the method.
The method requires the student to invent their own stories to associate the meaning of the keyword with the written form. The book presents detailed stories, and over time, less detailed stories. This is to encourage the student to use the stories as practice to create their own. The method may seem quite random, but it requires you to really know the components and meanings of the ideograms before trying to create your own stories and reconstruct the elements. Therefore, the book dedicates itself to explaining each radical and kanji that serves as a component.
Does using RTK mean abandoning JLPT?
JLPT separates kanji by frequency of use, while RTK values the strokes, radicals, and kanji that are used as components. In my opinion, the order in which you learn Kanji makes no difference, because I always advise people to learn Japanese according to their own needs.
It is a fact that the best way to learn kanji is by using its radicals and components along with your imagination. It doesn’t matter if you follow the learning order of JLPT or your own order. Thus, we conclude that the RTK method can be applied alongside any study method.
Japanese students who are at a very advanced level seek to use this method. Even if you have learned kanji using the order of strokes and their ON and KUN readings, it is important to learn kanji using the RTK method because each kanji has a story that will help you associate other related kanji. We recommend using all methods together for a more comfortable experience.
Examples of the RTK Method
Let’s see a list of the method being applied simply below:
好 – This is the ideogram of affection, liking, and love. It is composed of the kanji woman (女) + child (子); we can associate the love of a mother for her child or the child’s love for the mother to remember the meaning and essence of the kanji. A friend of mine remembered it differently; he thinks a man likes a young woman since 女の子 means girl.
大 – This is the ideogram for big. It is composed of the ideogram for person (人) with a stroke that represents the arms. It occupies a large space with its legs and arms extended, which is why it means big.
太 – This ideogram means Fat. It is the simple ideogram for big with a stroke underneath. We can imagine a fat person tired with their tongue out or sweating a lot.
厂 – This kanji means cliff; I think it is unnecessary to reason why, just look and imagine.
石 – This kanji means stone; it is the combination of cliff (厂) + mouth (口). To remember and imagine this kanji, we can picture a cave under the cliff that is closed off by a large rock. It is worth noting that this ideogram is used for any size of stone.
見 – This is the kanji for see and look. It is the combination of the ideograms for eye (目) and the radical for leg (儿). This clearly shows large eyes attached to a leg, representing the ability to see.
Where to get the RTK Book?
This book is essential for anyone who wants to delve into the meanings of Japanese ideograms and learn them in a simpler and more enjoyable way. We can find these books for sale on Amazon Brazil itself. We will leave the links below for you to buy if you wish; just click and purchase.
- Book – Kanji: Imagine to Learn – Portuguese;
- Book – Remembering the Kanji – Volume 1 – Original in English;
- Book – Remembering the Kanji – Volume 2 – Original in English;
- Book – Remembering the Kanji – Volume 3 – Original in English;
Unfortunately, Volume 2 and 3 seem to be unavailable in Portuguese, but don’t worry; Volume 1 already covers over 600 ideograms and enables you to naturally discover meanings and components of ideograms that you have never seen in your life.
It is worth clarifying that the book alone will not make you master knowledge of all the ideograms of the Japanese language. No book, course, or teacher can make you fluent unless you dedicate yourself! Have you had the chance to read this book? Leave your opinion in the comments and share the article with friends.
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