Hi,
I read a little about Heisig, that he proposes to think up little storys to remember characters. Can you guys tell more about it? How is that going? Is it good and does it make a big difference? What is your experience?

I went through most of the whole book (Chinese simplified version) before I even started adding words. I used pictures/mnemonics for most of the book, but have since forgotten most of them and just remember the characters. So I'd have to say it works.

Of course you could get into the debate whether or not learning characters is as useful as just learning words from the start. For me, it helps me pick up new words, relate and remember them much better.

I haven't finished the book but I have a very bad memory to start with and feel that without mnemonics learning kanji would be impossible (Note: This wasn't the first way I tried to tackle kanji). So I highly recommend it.

However it is slow going. It takes me a lot of time to think of new mnemonics. Also I find for me it is better for me to go slow because it is really important my understanding of the primitives (every new character can be a primitive) is rock solid before moving on to the bigger words and characters they are contained in.

You probably have a few common big questions that I will try to answer.

1. Does it reduce the time needed to learn the Kanji?
short answer (Yes)
Long answer (If you have a good photographic memory then no.)

2. Can it be completed in the time Heisig says?
short answer (Yes)
Long answer (Not if you are creating all of your own mnemonics and not if you are dyslexic or have a really bad memory and not if you try to live a normal life "no all Heisig all the time".)

3. Many say learning Kanji in context is the best and fastest way to go but the Heisig method is the exact opposite how can they both be right?
short answer (you can do them both but start with Heisig)
long answer (The Hesig method has a couple advantages over the Kanji in context method. #1 It is much better for learning how write kanji. #2 It keeps you from confusing similar looking characters. But the kanji in context method also has some advantages. #1 It teaches you how to read the kanji which Heisig doesn't cover. #2 The context is needed to know what reading to use (different situations call for different readings).

I am not sure about the second book but after I finish the first I plan on giving it a try.

I went through both the Simplified and Traditional books and found that they helped me a great deal. I think that the strength of the method is really that he orders the characters in such a way that you start with characters that are often used as components in other characters, and gives you concrete mental images to remember those characters/components. Then, as characters become more complex, you will find that instead of trying to remember the 17 strokes that make up the character, you just have to remember the two or three component parts.

Note about mnemonic creation:
I try to order the primitives in my mnemonic in the order I will be writing them so I don't have to think so hard about there locations.

I tried it when I first started learning Japanese, but I found learning kanji with no practical use very difficult. I've developed my own mnemonic system, but it builds off radicals and other kanji (and of course, stories like Heisgn).

My favorite example is 濡れる. You have water, rain, and a claw/hand at the bottom. The second I saw the kanji, I had the perfect story from hentai. :P

Then there are kanji like 盛ん, where I just forced memorized it into my vocab. Thankfully it shows up often in written work, so it's hard to forget.

So I guess you can say I use some of the Heisgn method, but not completely. I think learning radicals is a good enough foundation to learn most other kanji.

I've heard that it's more useful for Japanese kanji than for Chinese Hanzi. That's merely unreliable anecdotal testimony, however.

I haven't used Heisig specifically, but the general technique works great. You should look at some of the mnemonics that other Skritter users have come up with; they can be very helpful, especially when you are learning a new character.

James

I need to do more with mnemonics, but I feel like I need to learn more radicals first to make sensible stories that reinforce other elements of Chinese. And I'm not sure if I'm asking the right question, but is there a good list somewhere of the radicals with an "alternate" version (e.g., water, hand, bamboo, heart)?

Check under the Other Official lists under the Vocab Lists page, there is one titled Radicals where the first few subsets are very helpful for what your describing/looking for - radicals plus their compressed variants. I've done the first 4 and found them very helpful in understanding the potential why's of character composition (although sometimes one must still just rely on rote memory!).

(First of all: I learn Chinese.)

So basically Heisig's method is to explain the simple parts of a character to build up to new characters and so to build and build until complicated words imerge?

Would that be an example:

If you wafe a knife 刀 you are able to with your mouth 口 to tell people to get together 召. If you get people get together at a bright, sunny day 日, some truth can be seen clearly and it understood as obvious 昭. Obvious thinks that are bright as fire 灬 are - well - bright, shiny and reflext 照. A reflekting slice 片 is a photography 照片.

That is the way I learn. If I see a new word or character I break it down. If I have truble remembering it, I break it down to the last stroke. And then I build the single meanings back together to the big meaning. (I hope that did make sense.)

Is that what Heisig does?

Yes, basically it does two things. One as you mentioned, it groups characters by radicals and builds upon them. The second is it tries to help develop mnemonics for the characters.

Does the help (the second thing) help? Meaning: Should I buy the stuff?

If you are looking to Heisig to help provide stories, I think that you would be disappointed, however, if you want help breaking characters up into a consistent set of primitives, I think Heisig could be helpful.

When I mention primitives, an example would be the character, 番. The Heisig keyword is TRY. However, the book states that when the characters is used as a primitive (component) in another character, the character should be thought of as 'fertilizer'.

Then the next character listed is 翻, and has the keywords 'turn over', but as far as remembering the character, you are only given the words for the component pieces, in this case, 'fertilizer' and 'feathers'; coming up with the story is up to you.

I just got the Heisig book for traditional characters and now that I get the technique I believe it will help. One advantage of the book is that it gives an idea of how the stories should be constructed to be effective.The characters are grouped so that learning one character gives you several with very little extra effort.

It's somewhat like having a superset of radicals that are used for all parts of each character. A story is composed that includes all the parts. Weird stories are encouraged.

I'm not sure how to go about adding pronunciation and definition. I guess you may just have to review until you encounter a character from the book. The book is organized to facilitate memorization of the way to write a character. The book is mostly composed of the 1000 most frequently used characters, but they are not ordered by frequency.

Forgive for repeating what has already been said.

Denis, I think saying that Heisig provides you with a 'superset of radicals' is a really good way of describing it, and is what I think of as one of the big strengths of Heisig's methodology.

mykal, you gave an example with characters which I'm sure helps to understand the method. I think the method is best practiced to understand what it's all about.

Now that I've used it a bit, it's sort of weird having a keyword bring a story into memory and then the character. The reverse is even odder as most of the process seems to be unconscious.