Remembering the Hanzi, Heisig - Technique Confusion

[josh489]

I just wanted to clarify the actual technique the author proposes, as it seems a little backwards to me.

 

Am I right in saying you're meant to read the keyword and story a few times and link them together BEFORE looking at the character?  I've been looking at the character and trying to link it to the story which then links to the keyword?

 

Perhaps this is why I've only remembered about 60% so far..!?

[adamnhms]

For me, I would read the story and glance over at the word as I'm reading.  In the introduction of the book, the author states,

"The stories and plots you will meet in these pages are all drawn with words, there are no pictures or cartoons to control or limit the way your imagination handles the information provided.  There is no correct way of imagining; the sole criterion is that it work for you."  
 

From this, I believe the author is telling the reader that there is no set way to learn this, as long as the reader can link the character, meaning, and story together.  When I used this book, I eventually forgot all the stories and learned the meanings for all the characters.  Remember, this is a learning aid, so it's best to expose yourself to other materials as well.  Good luck!

[tysond]

You can look at the character all you want. The point is to link the character to the keyword VIA a story.

It's helpful if you can incorporate the composition of the character with the story.

For example - this is keyword "excite" 激. To remember this, I think of a white-water rafting date that I went on with a lady who was a boss (taskmaster) at the internet company Excite. I dropped my compass in the white-water and we got lost, which was Excite-ing indeed.

You can see the white 白 and the three drops of water, and the compass 方 which has been dropped in the white-water. There's my taskmaster lady friend from Excite on the right.

It's a very vivid scene for me, although no such event actually ever happened.

[wibr]

I think it depends on the direction you want to learn:

1. meaning -> character (for writing, usually harder i would say)

2. character -> meaning (for reading, easier)

 

1. There are several links you need to successfully remember the character:

meaning a-> keyword b-> story c-> keywords of components d-> characters of components e-> character

a) not part of Heisig

b) Connecting the keyword to the story is difficult. You should do something like taking the first image which pops into your head when you think of this keyword and use it to start the story, before you look at the components of the character! You don't have the components to help you recalling the story when you try to write the character, so i guess that might be one reason not to look at the character.

c) Identifying the keywords in the story is usually easy.

d) this is 1. again for the components

e) putting everything together shouldn't be too hard

 

2. like 1. but backwards

character a-> character components b-> component keywords c-> story d-> character keyword e-> meaning

a) easy

b) 2. for each component

c) So now you have at least two keywords to help you recalling the story, I think that makes it easier... still the hardest part though

d) easy if the story is good

e) not part of Heisig

 

Soon you will start skipping steps until you end up with the direct connection character <-> meaning, so the whole story part will fade away until you might need it again one day.

[josh489]

Thanks for your answers.  Am I being unrealistic to think that if I study this book for any hour daily, I may be able to browse chinese websites within a few months?

[tysond]

Assuming that you don't speak Chinese currently and your level is Beginner....

 

Navigate, yes.  Recognize some characters, yes. Do online shopping or make an account on Weibo, yes.

Get the gist of some sentences/parts of pages, yes.  Understand - only slowly with the help of dictionaries.

 

You might know 1000 or so characters by then, but still need to learn words, grammar and expressions in order to browse websites.  And real native speakers use more than 1000 characters.  

 

You could after a few months read graded readers that use most frequent characters and limited vocabulary.  

Still need to learn the sentence structures, expressions, grammar (not to mention pronunciation).