*1st of all, I’m momentarily not using an SRS as a kanji storage facility. I’m using a flashcard program called Pauker (http://pauker.sourceforge.net/) which also has an assistant utility Minipauker, a java-based mobile phone application which allows you to transfer flashcards to your phone and review them away from your PC. I’ll probably shift to a proper SRS (to be reminded when I need to do a review) soon, or I’ll just mimic the algorithm and continue using Pauker.

Tools you will need:
-An SRS tool, flashcard based or similar (You can use Pauker too)
-A PC kanji dictionary (which allows you to c/p kanji into the SRS) – Jishop is probably the best there is: http://jishop-software.com/ It’s not free, but you can download a trial (or pay the full price – I did, it’s worth it. Otherwise I’m sure you know how to use warez forums, but I didn’t say that).
-A pdf copy of Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji

The Method
———-
Have the SRS, kanji dictionary and RTK running. Read the RTK, come up with a summarized story. Write the kanji out (once at least-develops your handwriting). C/p kanji from the dictionary into SRS, save the card. Repeat.

How long it takes to do this?
———————–
I did some calculations and here’s what I got:
>Time to read and understand the paragraph in RTK (on average) – 10 s
>Time to generate a shorter version of the paragraph – 20 s
>Write the kanji out NICELY (I do twice) – 8 s
>Find and c/p the kanji from the dictionary into the SRS – from 10 to 70s (depending if the dictionary has that kanji entry under the name Heisig used)
>Write your story down in the SRS,(optimize), and save it – 30s

Total for learning a single kanji:
1min 18s (dictionary has the entry) – 2min 18s (dictionary hasn’t got the entry)

Which leaves calculating how much it’s going to take to learn my daily batch of 50 (100 on the weekends).
Daily
68s*50=3900s=1h 5min; OR; 138s*50=6900=2h 5min
which means, to learn 2042 kanji, it takes:
2 x 50 kanji x 68s (or 138s) x 20.42 (from 2042 kanji) / 3600 (to get it in hours) =38.57h or 78.28h.

I hope that was well number-crunched. And so on, calculating months and days, deducting coffee breaks, showers etc… The essential calculation is here.

But, you see, this should firstly be an enjoyable process, not a rat race. You should try to maximize your learning potential by sacrificing time. As Khatz’s software development triangle says, you can’t get both quality and speed if you’re not inputting enough time into it. So, take this calculation as a reference to manipulate your schedule better. If you’re working with a different method (which, I imagine, cannot be THAT much of a contrast) you can compare your results and perhaps optimize.

I’m looking forward to not getting stoned by the angry crowds for this performance

The readings do depend a lot on context. Let me try some examples:

With the one you gave, 大. In a word such as 大切, the readings for both are the On readings (taiたい/setsuせつ respectively). Same goes for 大丈夫 (daiだい/jouじょう/buぶ). If you’ll notice, the readings there are almost the same. Almost but not quite. たい was changed to だい. Technically, they ARE the same, but there’s two small lines (dakuten) in the latter. That will pretty much depend on the word. As for the reading ‘ookii,’ that is a Kun reading. The only time that really applies is in the word 大きい, in which 大 only reads おお and the rest is in the hiragana (okurigana). That, in turn, is used in words such as 大きすぎます and others.

Other readings: the kanji 出 can be read shutsuしゅつ and 発 can be read hatsuはつ.
What happens when you put them together? The つ becomes っ and the は becomes ぱ, making 出発 read しゅっぱつ, not しゅつはつ.

Confusing? Gets better with exposure (sentences). I’m not an expert by the way, just beginning-intermediate-ish? Kanji is one of the easier concepts to me in some ways.

By the way… my RTK1 is on order and should be here next week (curse Amazon’s Super Saver shipping!! So slow!!)

So do you think it is considered cheating to use pinyin in the stories/question section of kanji SRS or shld i still use english stories instead so i can throw away all chinese mind stuff away?

Thanks so much!

Also, let me get this straight, what everyone is doing on here is learning the meaning of every kanji before learning the Japanese readings associated with the kanji, eg learning that 一　means ‘one’, without also learning that it means ‘ichi’ or ‘hito(tsu)’.

“#1 Do you need to go the other way (kanji to keyword)? Dr. Heisig would say “no” and I would tend to agree with the sensei.” from the queries part of this article

what do you mean with kanji to keyword?

So for my case, a different language, I could use SRS initially for Arabic vocabulary by doing English –> Arabic…but when I begin sentences I should do Arabic –> English (and eventually Arabic – Arabic)?

”You would be better off learning 500 kanji and then just reading, rather than using RTK”,

uh-oh?

I am a bit confused. I was flipping through RTK book 1 yesterday and I saw a large amount of English. It seemed to give the English equivalent for the Kanji.
Correct me if I am wrong, I do not want to invest in a book that will cause more harm than good. I spent five years studying Spanish on a SpanishEnglish textbook.
I purchased some children’s books here in Japan for learning the Kanji, and learning that way is so easy! Complete with pictures and no English. But if Heisig is ABSOLUTELY, HANDS DOWN the best way to go – then of course I will purchase his book. It is just the fact that I don’t want the English equivalent of the Kanji – - ever.

Also, any reccommendations for electronic, handheld dictionaries that are only Japanese/// a.k.a. No English? thanks.

However, whenever i put three texts in e.g.

DEMENTIA

A SICKNESS that makes you mentally DODGY (which would be white, hence
the “invisible” part as i just highlight it to see)

And the last box contains the Kanji for it (癡)

And basically i can’t split it into three seperate boxes. I have
editied the fields in the “deck properties”, and it shows up as three
seperate, but when physically starting the reviewing, only two boxes
appear.

I apologise for this being so long, but i couldn’t find the solution
anywhere. Thanks in advance, and i sorry if it is something simple im
missing out on here.

read above