how to do heisig’s remember the kanji for free (no book needed!)

[@たかしひろみ]

I refuse to take tips from someone that pronounces it "kuu-hee". Obviously not an authority on learning Japanese.

[@vera-vf4we]

1. Surprisingly, I actually went onto the site to study the material it provided, not to work out what its romanized name was attempting to reference (without any use of katana) in a space where quirky made-up names abound. It's quite literally a matter of me simply never giving enough mind to the name to even consider it was trying to make a deeper linguistic reference. 2. 💁🏻‍♀️

[@PerfectHilton]

Thank you for using hiragana for you name and making me feel like i know something! takashi hirame, not sure if my romaji is fully correct.

[@たかしひろみ]

@@PerfectHilton Takashi Hiromi

[@Elaxkun]

That's an ad hominem argument, I think that an advice could be good disregarding the person giving it

[@たかしひろみ]

@@Elaxkun As much as I appreciate the attempt at sounding somewhat educated, This person is giving very misleading advice. The only reason I mentioned the mispronunciation of the romanized word was to provide an example. Not as the sole reason not to listen. If you disagree with the original statement, then you probably didn't notice the other bad advice and misunderstandings that this person is spreading.

[@nagasakibex]

I have lived in a japan for 10 years and can read Japanese fairly fluently. I used Heisig’s book way back when and if in retrospect it was a great choice. If I had to learn Japanese all over again I’d choose that book again. What this book does: teaches you how to feel familiar with every single component of kanji, know why that component appear in that kanji and helps you notice kanji has rhyme and reason and order to it! Once you know that massive lesson kanji is pretty damn fun and easy to remember. No this book will not teach you the readings you do that yourself next.

[@MichaelRedford]

@@hritesh7 boo hoo

[@a.m.4479]

@@hritesh7 Do you recommend any other resources instead?

[@Gigasimo456]

@@hritesh7 Well, i'd rather learn about the beauty of kanji (and literally everything japanese) directly from japanese books. And that requires reading kanji which i have to learn beforehand. So this book does exactly what i need - who cares if i'm calling ⺙ hitler, 公 public bathroom (go in with elbows bent), 罒 a camera, 圣 toilet paper (dirt under crotch). I remember them fondly and if i want to later know what they come from i'll do it later when i actually know the language, by using the language.

[@AnastasiaIvanova03]

I just like having a physical book when I'm studying, or being on a dedicated app. If I'm just on a website, I can easily get distracted. Definitely personal preference, but I have no problem paying the (now) $30 for the book.

[@vera-vf4we]

Totally understandable, but even with the physical book I do think Kanji Koohii is at the very least quite necessary, and if you're going to make allowances for that, you might as well just use it (Koohi) and RTK Search, since RTK Search is basically a digitalized version of RTK. But of course, you do you, and maybe look into anti-procrastination browser add-ons that allow you to selectively - or non-selectively - block websites!

[@jackhammer5683]

Special thanks for Kanji.Koohii, Vera - this is a true gem💎! What a wonderful discovery!

[@BB-pn2qv]

The hell? Yes, buy the book. Support people doing educational material. This takes MASSIVE work.

[@theamazinghippopotomonstro9942]

I barely got the money to support myself much less other people lmao

[@lumetaldesu]

Not everyone has the possibility. For example, in my country, adding the import taxes and all it literally cost 100 dollars. I can’t afford that, but if there are resources out there, I mean why not use them?

[@Ryodakun]

I think the main criticism at the wrong keywords are missing the point. RTK's point was never to teach you the actual meanings of those kanji, it was to put them clearly in your head so you can later connect them easily with vocab. It's easier to connect a word with a kanji you already know, even if that word is different from the keyword of the kanji. And his keywords are never that terribly off anyways. Way I see it, RTK is an isolated exercise in character memorization and it doesn't really matter what keyword the symbol has. As long as you can clearly image the kanji in your head and write it down without looking at it from memory. That's ultimately the goal. And once you can do that solidly with all kanji, you start with actually attaching vocab to them which then is much easier than if the kanji is unfamiliar to you. Cuz ultimately, vocab is where you learn the real meaning anyways.

[@artistflare9072]

I have a question, I might sound dumb but I just started learning Japanese and so far only know hiragana and katakana. I'm thinking of building my vocab now and speaking skills as well as grammar by using Genki then after that starting to learn some basic kanji using Heisig's method. But I checked out the pdf book and it doesn't have the pronunciation of the word in Japanese, only a story and it's meaning in English. For example, it says 一 and this means 1. But it does not say the pronunciation. If I didn't know that one was ichi (いち) I would've just remembered how one looks without knowing how to say it. Am I doing something wrong, do I need to learn to speak Japanese first to be able to fully use the book?

[@Ryodakun]

@@artistflare9072 Some people can do kanji + readings. If you do that I recommend just making sentence cards with anki and build up your own deck. I tried that but my brain couldn't handle kanji very well so it was a real pain to remember the readings simultaneously to kanji I couldn't remember the shapes of. So I went to RTK with the idea to get used to Kanji. And it works superb. And by now I know around 400 Kanji and their meanings to which I can attach vocab to easier. Main point is to get my brain properly to recognize Kanji and not just see them as random scribbles anymore. And that works wonderfully. Here's 2 sites with resources for you. itazuraneko.neocities.org/ massimmersionapproach.com/ Personally I follow the mass immersion approach.

[@toffeekun1717]

@@artistflare9072 Your question totally makes sense, but the goal of RTK is to first be able to completely recognize the kanji and their meaning regardless of the reading, and after being able to recognize the (2,000) kanji, that is the time that you might want to learn the readings. Because if you try to do all at once, you might be overwhelmed and so not be able to remember all of it(writing,reading). But that's just the RTK way, you can still do you.

[@artistflare9072]

@@toffeekun1717 ah makes sense thanks

[@107_tyronetheodorelukman5]

Artist Flare finished my minna no nihongo 2 just now, i think i saw the furigana too much, idk about genki but i think they also have furigana. i think im going to do rtk because its a raw kanji learning style. You can learn grammar in books but i think kanji is better to be learned after hiragana katakana

[@Zoruachi]

just started rtk 2 and you do indeed have to learn completely new words to associate with kanji alongside their onyomi and occasional kunyomi. by already knowing what the kanji generally means it has been easier to connect it into the compound examples. essentially, how i see it, is its 2200 japanese vocab words with readings but made way, way, way simpler because you aren’t learning them all from the beginning and have all of the preexisting keywords from rtk1 to pull from. i’m only about 70 in and planning on doing 20+ a day and since starting a few days ago i’ve noticed that when i read japanese and listen to japanese i’m paying attention to individual readings far more than i ever did before even though i literally just started learning them.

[@TwistZero]

The video I wish I've had seen sooner. While I still use my book (since it's in portuguese, and some keywords are different), I hop on kanji koohii an awful lot because of how useful it is. Thank goodness it allows you to edit the keyword though.

[@TwistZero]

Should also say that the mobile app "Kanji Ryokucha" enables you to do the kanji koohii SRS anywhere on your phone, as it stores info offline and syncs with the actual site when you get online. It also has the custom review option. Only real problem with this app is that in order to get it you need to download a shitty app store first.

[@jaydashnine]

thank you, I really appreciate this as a poor student trying to learn Japanese without spending too much

[@英語わかりません]

Hows it going?

[@MMM-rw6bl]

I like how the emoji on the thumbnail has the same color scheme as the book lol Though I think most of these are pretty great resources, I feel like it's kinda inconvenient to use the sources without the book because it feels like the book is a full view of a painting, and the other sources are little specific dots of a painting. I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but I want to get the book anyway just to try it. Thank you for the video though! It gave me some more resources

[@vera-vf4we]

Nah, I totally get what you mean! These resources are great for working *with* the book, too, so works out either way. Good luck with your studies! :)

[@toastedtarts4044]

I've heard that analogy too. It makes sense to me.

[@renansouza2195]

Just when I thought all heroes wear capes haha gurl I don't have words to thank you !! You saved me a lot of money !!! 😍❤️💜

[@suez6409]

Just finished RTK a couple weeks ago and these resources helped sooooooo much (particularly RTK search and kanji koohi) !! Thank you!

[@joesavag]

Thank you for the rtk and koohii references. Saved me the headache of heisig's piss poor mnemonics. Dude gave up halfway through his book and threw around primitives at you with zero mnemonics.

[@sazukegu]

It's clearly stated in the book that from x point on, you should have learned how to create your own stories. Or would you rather need a RTK book to learn kanji for the rest of your life? There aren't just 2 thousand of them, you know.

[@joesavag]

@@sazukeguJLPT N3 and on, the kanji on and kun readings often starts getting irrelevant and thrown out the window. You’re better off just learning words. I stopped learning any rtk stories after around 300 kanji

[@sazukegu]

My point is that you were bashing on a intentional "feature?" of the book. Sounded intellectually desonest. The point of RTK, I think, is to teach you how to get around with kanji after the book "course"

[@artoftosia]

Wow thanks so much for all these free materials!!!

[@funstuff5789]

You forget to mention the "All in One Kanji Deck (Heisig's RTK Order, 6th edition)" Anki deck. It has the complete kanji from RTK1 and RTK3 plus a shit load of additional info, like the meanings from Jisho which compliment the RTK keywords which are often weird and should be replaced, then there are examples with which you can understand the concepts and contexts of a kanji, frequency number of the top 2500 kanji (these make up 99,9% of kanji used in newspapers), the top 2 stories from Koohii for inspiration for mnemonics, components of a kanji besides radicals (i.e. other kanji) and some other stuff. You just need to rearrange it (i.e. the HTML and reimport it in the order you need it, e.g. RTK index number or frequency) to suit your current learning goal and maybe add the Kanji Stroke Order font and you'll save yourself loads of time.

[@vera-vf4we]

I didn't want to include specific Anki decks because I think that stuff is pretty personal, tbh. I lean towards the "the best cards are the cards you make yourself" camp, and I side with Matt v. Japan in thinking that flashcards should be fairly minimal, since whose actually reading all that extra info? Definitely not me. My RTK deck is a modified version of "MatthewHawkins.co | BritVSJapan's Super Simple RTK Deck". My cards just feature the keyword, kanji, number, lesson, a note section (where i'll clarify if i need to, say if something is a primitive, or write the yomi just for funsies), and a sentence. I wouldn't have it any other way when it comes to RTK.

[@popers1328]

RTK Search does let you search by keyword, but I understand why you might miss it. Remove the /rtk1-v6 from the link and it'll take you to the main page where you can search.

[@CHRISSKA]

thank you, i never knew rtk search even existed, i was dealing with kanjikoohii being slow for a long time, much better for looking up a single character real quick

[@deddrz2549]

does seem good, but I almost prefer the original book in the way that it gives you less information. I know for a fact that putting the on-yomi and kun-yomi there would more than likely just overwhelm me with how much I need to learn, so I think the minimalist approach of just telling me the keyword and the little story(which I can ignore if I find a better way to remember it myself). more informative does not always equal more useful, as the more info you are given, the harder it is to just recall what you actually need when you need it. I also like the lesson format, as having them separated into lessons has made it easier to set apart specific goals to reach each day. To each their own, but I think the problems Heisig's book that these alternatives 'fix' aren't necessarily problems, at least not to everybody's learning process. Though I will say, these will probably be good secondary resources the further I get into it, for things such as extra stories, and as these are all built on the same method they are all probably pretty good, and more options are always good for different learners. The dictionary will probably be the most useful one to me, as it's the only one that has information that's impossible to access just from the book, as while his keywords are useful and are meant to be only 1 word and not have any duplicates, it's no mystery that some will be off from the true definition, as well as anki for a more organized approach to making sure you remember previous kanji without just writing them all.

[@gerhardgeising7526]

Cool video. i use the same resources although i bought the book, but i agree you don’t need it. Also there is a search function in rtk search on the start page, by keyword. Also you can search via google and add rtk and you’ll get to the rtk search site. I would add to the list of necessities: something like rikaikun. It’s an add-on for chrome, or firefox that adds the function of japanese translation just by hovering over the kanji with your mouse, it shows you the meaning, reading and more information that you can configure. An absolute must have for anyone learning japanese.

[@talson3001]

Thank you so much for these resources! I wouldn’t have found these amazing websites without your vid.

[@eienryucho6648]

This video had such a good vibe to it. It felt like you were a friend recommending these to us in your own house where we're hanging out. Plus points for being asmr material too

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

Words can't express how grateful I am for this video.

[@tristanrujano]

Thankyou for the helpful video!! I didn’t realize I already use some of these. So I don’t really need the book.

[@FringeMD]

wow thank you for these resources

[@LEARNJAPANESEWITHZEESHAN]

Wonderful Information shared Thank you very much

[@gapedandamazed6988]

In my case I'm not trying to blind myself while learning anything. I'd take books over anything that includes technology as I know I'll get distracted or lose focus one way or another. Only grammar explanations since I am the exact opposite when reading about grammar as opposed to watching about it

[@brentbaranoski615]

I strongly recommend handwriting the kanji to remember them. Writing is important.

[@MrApaHotel]

I'm using the Anki deck "Heisig's RTK 6th Edition- Stories, Stroke diagrams, Readings " + Kanji koohi + pdf (but I only have a pdf of the 5th edition). That rtkelements looks like a good complement.

[@kokonut5498]

nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2012/12/RK-1-6th-edition-sample.pdf Sorry If you already know all the 2200 kanjis but I will post this link for future reference

[@toffeekun1717]

YOU'RE LITERALLY THE BEST! THANK YOU😁😁😁

[@IkePaz]

beautiful resources, thank you

[@JulesKo]

Thank you so much for introducing this to us!

[@nikonikosensei6682]

You don’t have to, but you should buy the book at some point (to support the author who gave all of us this amazing way to learn kanji).

[@johnmchugh9100]

Yes, we need to support content creators. Of all people, a KZbinr should understand this concept...

[@cryptomancer.]

the first website does have a search bar on a slightly different url: hochanh. github. io/rtk/ the website is built as an interface to a github respository (omnipresent version control system for programming)

[@rachaels7427]

Great job Vera! And thanks so much for all the great info!

[@linhdanluu7992]

You and me share a lot of opinions and methods. Thanks a lot for those great resources

[@DANGJOS]

You're right about that Jisho website. I will write a Kanji character with the correct stroke order, and sometimes, it *still* doesn't come up! Thanks for the suggestion; I'll definitely look into the app version.

[@khqlifq]

Life saver♥

[@quiche6936]

thanku for making this video so helpful! :)

[@malcolmmcgrath9344]

Thank you for the information it was very very useful.

[@akabanekarma3153]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us i was struggling learning kanji and this helped me so much 💯

[@tonsfocus]

Really appreciate this video. You just saved me from plunking a bunch of $ down for the books. やぱり！

[@Unintelligentful]

My only issue with this, is you compare ‘Heisig’ with other ‘stories’ - You can’t mix and match his method with others because his method focusses on consistency. You lose this consistency if you start dabbling in other resources. You either go all out at first and refine it later, or you’re in for a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.

[@yuan1906]

Not sure if the reason they made the strokes in different color is because it helps people remember what they are writing. It helps a lot though

[@scienslime9288]

Why does she seem like she’s on the verge of crying the entire video

[@vera-vf4we]

It's probably my vocal fry, and that I'm not entirely comfortable in front of a camera. It takes awhile for that to happen.

[@saint_victor8]

I appreciate this video greatly! thank you, as I just got rtk books for christmas and am although I will make use of them I am glad to find this so early on. 2 questions if anyone has time to help a homie... 1. As im so new to kanji, how do I check keywords in jisho? Is it that I just find the kanji and see what they call the keyword? 2. I saw another suggestion to make your keywords actual japanese words. That sounds incredibly smart as you would doing japanese with japanese and getting away from oversimplified english keys. but how would I go about this being so new? I.E. I dont have enough japanese to find the word that would work, is it even worth it? thank you if you find the time.

[@agonzalez1482]

Not OP but I'm 10% into this book and I love it. 1.Keywords will give you the kanji through the search most of the time, but you can also search by radical! Because of this book's method, you are getting very familiar with the radicals and stroke numbers, so it shouldn't be difficult at all. 2. I understand where this suggestion is coming from, but I think not having the vocabulary will add to the frustration because now you need to know two things instead of one. For your second question, if you have the time and are actively studying/consuming Japanese media I recommend you keep a separate Anki deck for vocab whenever you find words and/or phrases with the kanji you are already familiar with, so that way you can start practicing the readings and it's meaning. For example, once you get to RTK #134 you learn 川, so now you can add 石川 to your vocab deck with the reading "Ishikawa". This is the name of a prefecture but also a common last name, which I saw in episode 7 of Horimiya the other day in one of the character's jacket (his name). I recommend that it is vocab that you see or come across, that way it is easier to recall.

[@フレデリックアクア]

Yeah it is helpful thanks for showing it to us now we had an idea where to go to learn kanji.! And One more thing that I love on this video..... That Anohana OST's : Secret Base ❤ my god that improves a lot to my listening and comprehending the kanji that she's tackling.. REALLY LOVE THE VIDEO!

[@matthewblankenship7274]

I know I’m late but have you been using this to learn kanji? If so does it work?

[@0Sildar0]

Thank you, these are really good recomendations

[@macedonskyua]

Interesting info, tnx!

[@matheusfromm5955]

Hello from Brazil ! I started to learn Japanese two months ago ...! I am using Anki to help me.

[@sinom]

Jisho does not have an official App! There is an app called JSho but that isn't officially affiliated with the website

[@undeniablySomeGuy]

If you're reading "Remembering the Kanji" you're not reading it just to get all the information. What you're reading it for is the presentation and efficiency; the structure. Obviously all the information and more can be found on any topic because the internet exists.

[@vera-vf4we]

Watch the video. The point is not to say "the internet exists, and there's kanji on the internet, so obviously don't buy the book", but rather "there're resources that've directly copied RTK onto a more accessible online platform/that better support exactly what RTK is trying to do, and they're free!". I bought the book. After a few chapters, I stopped referencing the book entirely because these free, online resources proved so complete. Of course, the book should be supported, buy it if you want, but it's certainly not necessary.

[@imbritish]

12:03 Which app are you referring to, specifically? According the Jisho team, they haven't had the time or resources to build an app yet.

[@anonfinally1692]

Hi, don't know if anyone told you this before but your giggles and short laughs are really contagious.

[@timcrnkovic8991]

The reason that Kanji Koohii does not have Heisig's stories is obvious, and they state so themselves - it would be an illegal violation of copyright. The RTK search is a good resource except that it's organized backwards. Instead of using the keyword as an index to produce the character, they do it the incorrect way.

[@toshchakfox]

Yes! Yes! Thank you for the tips vera! Working with pdf is such a pain. Plus the guilt of not paying for the book is unpleasant (*cough* *cough* who cares *cough*).

[@princesspeace1997]

I just picked a random character , and it wind up being pick up and someone story was Try PICKING UP a girl by trying to FIT your FINGER in you know what… let me know how that works.

I usually just google "keyword heisig" and everything useful shows up. I use RTK Search and RTK Elements mostly, and RTK Elements is very useful to me, because it really helps with new primitives.

[@strongindependentblackwoma1887]

something similar to anki is memrise.....i'm only using it because is more easy to use than anki, in anki you can create your own flashcards.....i should move to anki!!!

[@beatraad]

Pretty scummy to make a video explicitly about how to get a paid product without paying for it. Time and effort went into RTK. The selection of characters; the order to introduce them; the mnemonics to remember them with. Surely that should be rewarded? The least you could have done would be to suggest people buy it anyway, even a second hand copy, if they can at all afford it.

[@OldBrainPlasticity]

I could get behind this if it weren't for the fact that the author and publisher very much know about these resources since most of them are older than the new edition, but haven't done anything to take them down or said anything against them, so apparently even they don't care.

[@beatraad]

@@OldBrainPlasticity Just because someone doesn’t defend their copyright, doesn’t mean any rights are waived. It’s just a way of rationalizing stealing, basically.

[@jap2164]

Amazing video! The Anohana music hit me like a truck :

[@vera-vf4we]

Thank you! Anohana is such a great anime 😭

[@encapsulatio]

Ah yes truck-kun is like the Anime/Manga Multiverse equivalent of Thanos.

[@wiktorwolf8381]

Thank youu

[@jasonschuchardt7624]

Presumably kanji koohii doesn't include Heisig's stories and what he has to say is that that'd probably be a copyright violation.

[@mementomori7160]

Do I hear ending from anohana in the background?

[@xydoublehelix2924]

ぶっかけ what is this keyword thing ur talking about @ 11 min What's Primitives? in the Heisig list they say, Primitives = baseball, for the 9th Kanji. Like the old use of that Kanji that is not used anymore?

[@vera-vf4we]

"ぶっかけ"? Look up a video on what precisely RTK is. That'll likely answer you questions better than I could.

[@xydoublehelix2924]

@@vera-vf4we thank you

[@swj.vs1]

THERE IS A SEARCH FUNCTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

[@hisodesu1]

Very good, thank you

[@lilidzholi9714]

I use a book Kanji&Kana I bought for 5 dollars + app called Japanese ( with red icon) I think it is not enough. You got to have a text where you can learn kanji, just searching on the dictionary will not help ! at least buy a book and translate it

[@Privatechannel-m1u]

But how to spell

[@reelkyrie]

Thanks :)

[@iracingtf5051]

Please buy the book anyway to support them.

[@saultrejo6563]

This girl is kinda weird...I like it 👍

[@nikkichan13]

try downloading takoboto. very nice dictionary

[@FeelinGoode]

Thank you

[@battenburg6089]

I got RTK for Hiragana and Katakana, which I used, learned them all in about 3 weeks. That was fine. But when I moved onto RTK for Kanji, I was confused to the fact it doesn't actually show you how to pronounce said kanji, nor even showing the Hiragana counterpart. Very confusing. why this wouldn't be included.

[@vera-vf4we]

It doesn't show you a hiragana counterpart because there are usually multiple ways of saying the kanji. It's called onyomi and kunyomi. For example, 国 (country) can be くに or こく. For a lot of kanji it's more than two variants. That said a lot of other books do include the onyomi and kunyomi and it would be nice if RTK did as well.

[@battenburg6089]

@@vera-vf4we Yeah I realised this as watched another video on Kanji, as some such as "日" change depending on where it is in a sentence. I think I'll use the book as a guidance later on, as my Japanese friends mentioned it would be easier to learn via Kanji you'd see in every day life, such as weekdays, numbers and so on. Thanks for the reply.

[@azmanahmad2820]

i m looking to learn Kanji....but i found out that you re hot....😁😁🙏🙏gomenasaiii

[@wingsgamingfans5850]

No one is actually buying it tho lol. Most broke people just download it. You can also pair it with anki

[@drl_324]

Is there a similar one for Mandarin characters?

[@kaioocarvalho]

Yes, Remembering the Hanzi.

[@lobeXII]

found this video on Japanese kanji learning then saw that this a "beauty/make-up channel", lol (to be fair you do look really pretty). Good luck on your language journey though, I'm still on mine. : )

[@Toumakawa]

more japanese videos 👍

[@burntt999]

People still buy books? I have 3 copies i just downloaded just to see which one had better quality.. oh i guess its called pirating.. sounds strange when your talking about a book..

[@vinhill1456]

Or how about you support the author that you're stealing from? The level of ignorence of this is painful.

[@fienevandijk7224]

999 views

[@PunchMSX]

or, OR.... I could actually respect the fucking author's work and buy the book.

[@TheLongestConfidence]

That rtk search site is just piracy. It's literally reprinting the content from the book. Terrible.

[@red2]

You don't need RTK Search if you have a good Anki deck anyway. Just get a good Anki deck and edit the HTML template to show what you want to show and add an extra field for your own stories. Now everything is on your phone and no need for the internet.

[@vera-vf4we]

For people who don't have the book to reference back to, how will they know what a "good deck" entails? The whole point of recommending sites like these is because they're really nice, convenient, *free* reference points. No one should be using *just* RTK Search or *just* Kanji Koohii* - they're references, that's all.

[@red2]

@@vera-vf4we They dont need the book.. they go to Ankiweb and look at the decks you can downloaded. They can download and examine 3 or 4 decks and make a choice by previewing the output on the website.

[@vera-vf4we]

Look, I recommended RTK Search primarily for the stories and animated stroke order. Not sure why you're fighting so hard against that, especially since I also spoke about the necessity of anki in the video (and also talked about how I personally used it *alongside anki*). Just because you think RTK Search is useless doesn't mean others will. I'm not gunna sit here and argue with you about why RTK Search is a valid resource for people who a) don't have the book and/or b) have anki. I already know that it is. You're cool to have your own opinion about it but I don't know what's inspiring you to take such a needless stand about it here. Peace ✌🏻