JapanNewbie

In case anyone’s interested in checking out RTK, Heisig offer’s a sample of the first book, going through maybe 200 characters: http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK4-00.pdf
~~~
There’s also a sample of Remembering the Kana: http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/ miscPublications/pdf/Remembering_the_Kana/RK-Hiragana_sample.pdf

I dunno if I go for the whole “making stories to go with kanji” thing. I figure it makes sense that if you use it, you’ll remember it, so just make more opportunities for yourself to write kanji – like write out your sentences for IJ =P instead of typing them. I’ve been pained for years by the fact that I constantly learn, forget, learn, forget with kanji. Right now I’m simply trying to be more conscious of kanji when I read it – instead of just glancing at it long enough to comprehend the meaning (which isn’t very long), focusing on the different sections and writing it in my head. (^_^);

Michael, your project sounds totally cool! Have you thought about blogging it? Maybe one hardcore kanji example per post? The blog could serve as advertising for the flash card program. You could even make actual flash cards, which you could sell through an online store like Yahoo! or eBay.

Regardless, if you do make a program, you should definitely see if you can make it work on handheld gaming systems, because that would be really convenient for your likely target demographic ;)

Learning Kanji with the radicals is better anyway. That way you have not to memorize each stroke, but only what radicals you need and in which order.

@harvey
Oh, I actually wanted to support you. Sorry if it looked like I wanted to suggest another learning method ._.

I hadn’t thought about blogging it, but that’s a great idea. I’m not sure how many kanji nuts are out there, but maybe even some of the less insane people could benefit from it too. ^_^

As for the flashcard program, I’m planning to do it in Flash Lite, so it should be suitable for a number of small devices.

———

Who am I? No one particularly well-known, though some may remember me from my fabulous performance in The Pelican Brief (man in blue shirt going down an escalator). I don’t have a blog, except for a small stub that I set up for a friend who’s studying English, but I’m an active poster on a few blogs, most written by Japanese people. I work in a number of areas, pretty much whatever hobby of mine turns out to be profitable this week, so sometimes that will be programming, other times it might be photography or translation or something else. I’m married to a wonderful woman from Japan, and a few years ago I became a Japanese citizen, which made for the unusual situation of having to apply for a work visa in my native USA when we came here last year. Frankly, I’m surprised they granted it. Well, while it’s interesting being an alien in America, I’m looking forward to being back in Japan after my wife finishes up a commitment here. In Japan I’m involved in a number of activities: primaily working with my father-in-law in his business, but also helping to found an unusual English school (no, not to teach unusual English ^_^), trying to support various community projects, and a few handfuls of other things.

Anyway, that’s me in a nutshell.