I think RTK has definitely been good for me. I was doing Genki stuff and common words in Anki for a while before I tried it. Building up kanji knowledge the RTK way helps with not getting similar characters confused near as often, and not having to copy every time I write one.
You can get a lot of milage out of just reading the first bits about the method if you don’t want to go all in on flashcards.
But getting that strong familiarity with kanji makes it easier to learn new words and such, so earlier is probably better if you want to do it.
MaruMori has it’s own system for learning both the readings and the meanings, but I honestly skip them completely since I just ignore the stories made since they never help me remember them any better. I feel the best way to memorise a hard to figure out word is always a more personal story. For instance I had issues with the word “とにかく”, and the pre-made story wasn’t helpful. So I just imagined a mobster called Tony being dismissive going “anyway…”. And that helped me remember a lot better than the pre-made stories.
MaruMori does have a building of sorts for their words, but you need to sort of get in to them early to help make earlier meanings make sense of later meanings, so I’m far too deep to start them properly now which is another thing I can’t really jell with it fully. I guess it can work, but just not the way I use it.
MaruMori also doesn’t stay to a strict N5 list then N4, they do it based on what they think is more useful, and in terms of usefulness, it’s not always about word frequency, but about how a kanji you just picked up relates in words its used to indicate how it’s used. Like I learned 機体 in Japanese, despite hardly ever using that word in English. MaruMori also builds from base kanji into more and more complicated kanji, using older kanji as references to newer kanji in order to cement meanings of the strokes.
It’s not the best way to pick up Japanese vocabulary, but at the same time I don’t think there could ever be a realistic best scenario. So it works for what it is I guess.
How does MaruMori handle kanji?
I think RTK has definitely been good for me. I was doing Genki stuff and common words in Anki for a while before I tried it. Building up kanji knowledge the RTK way helps with not getting similar characters confused near as often, and not having to copy every time I write one.
You can get a lot of milage out of just reading the first bits about the method if you don’t want to go all in on flashcards.
But getting that strong familiarity with kanji makes it easier to learn new words and such, so earlier is probably better if you want to do it.
MaruMori has it’s own system for learning both the readings and the meanings, but I honestly skip them completely since I just ignore the stories made since they never help me remember them any better. I feel the best way to memorise a hard to figure out word is always a more personal story. For instance I had issues with the word “とにかく”, and the pre-made story wasn’t helpful. So I just imagined a mobster called Tony being dismissive going “anyway…”. And that helped me remember a lot better than the pre-made stories.
MaruMori does have a building of sorts for their words, but you need to sort of get in to them early to help make earlier meanings make sense of later meanings, so I’m far too deep to start them properly now which is another thing I can’t really jell with it fully. I guess it can work, but just not the way I use it.
MaruMori also doesn’t stay to a strict N5 list then N4, they do it based on what they think is more useful, and in terms of usefulness, it’s not always about word frequency, but about how a kanji you just picked up relates in words its used to indicate how it’s used. Like I learned 機体 in Japanese, despite hardly ever using that word in English. MaruMori also builds from base kanji into more and more complicated kanji, using older kanji as references to newer kanji in order to cement meanings of the strokes.
It’s not the best way to pick up Japanese vocabulary, but at the same time I don’t think there could ever be a realistic best scenario. So it works for what it is I guess.