ive got the first heisig rth book, as well as hoenig's book , and trying to decide which to go with (i assume should only use one of them).

anyone currently using either?

I am using Heisig because it covers more characters (3000 characters between book 1 and 2)

I also recommend reading over the introduction to Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters (see Google Books), to get ideas for using mnemonics to learn the pronunciation. I use their system for memorizing pronunciation as I study Heisig.

thanks lechuan. i got about 1000 characters into heisig, but started to dislike it cuz i found it too be time consuming to make up your own mnemonic-stories. also, at that time the second book wasnt out yet.

i actually like hoenig's book better, though you are right- now with the second book out heisig covers more. and also, it seems more people are studying heisig than hoenig- so maybe easier to get help with stories?

Another thing to consider is that since you've already memorized 1000 Heisig keywords, it may mess you up having to learn a new set of keywords with Heisig. (I had learned about 300 characters with Tuttle's learning chinese characters, but switched to Heisig because it had more characters. It was rather annoying (and sometimes confusing) trying to 'forget' the keywords that I had previously learned that are different in Heisig.

It may be harder to come up with stories, but I'd also argue that it's more likely to stick if you made it up yourself. I found the stories easier to make up as I got practice at it.

I started with Heisig's book, but found out that Hoenig's book is much better. Don't care too much about the number of characters, 2180 instead of 3000. Heisig includes a lot of words that you'll never need to read or write. After you know all the components of characters and how to create good mnemonics you can learn characters yourself (and in Heisig's book you'll have to do so for 60% of all characters), so better don't decide on that figure.
Also, Heisig has a strong Japanese background and started with his books for learning Kanji. That sometimes leads to inappropriate definitions and components that others wouldn't call components or radicals. I haven't found such issues in Hoenig's book.

I'm using Heisig for Traditional Chinese and have done nothing for several months, so it will be interesting to see how many characters I remember. As far as Heisig doing Kanji first, the Chinese version was completely redone and the first 1000 characters were chosen based on the work of Timothy Richardson and included characters based on their Chinese frequencies. This was continued for the remaining characters. Also there are no definitions in Heisig, just keywords. The keywords do not necessarily correspond to the most common meanings of the character.

I dread getting to the part where I have to make up my own stories, so I'll have to look at Hoenig.

Chacun à son goût.

decided to go with the hoenig book.

lechuan- thanks for your comments, and i have heard others say they think the words stick better for them if they make the stories themselves, but i really disliked that part of the heisig book. i started having to think too much trying to fit a quick story for a character, and for me it took time away from the important part of rememering the character itself.

also, though i got up to near character 1000 in heisigs book, it was a couple years ago and ive forgotten most of his mnemonics (and the characters) by now.

dennis- not sure that hoenig does traditional characters; the book i have is simplified characters.

Good decision :-)

I've asked Nick to replace all the default skritter definitions with the Hoenig definitions by sending him an Excel file.
If you like, I can also send you the file. So you don't need to change manually for more than 2000 characters.

thanks michel- i think i would like that, but if it is not too much trouble, could you briefly explain to me how i download the file. sorry for the stupid question, i know it is probably a simple procedure i should already know...

Wow, I can't believe I waited years for RSH2, with its 10% story coverage, and Hoenig has stories for everything. @_@

I've uploaded the excel file here:
www.michelsiekendiek.com/hoenig.xlsx

I've created it from the Anki file the author offers on his website.

Unfortunately, skritter does not have an import feature for definitions. But if you send the skritter guys the list they can run a script to replace the default definitions with the Hoenig definitions. It might be better to send a text file:
www.michelsiekendiek.com/hoenig.txt

I've put an "H: " in front each definition that helps me to distinguish it from default skritter definitions.

thanks again michel. very helpful!