>>17
"Way to miss the point. The thread in question is not about "how to use 屈する to decode 窮屈 and 理屈", it's about how unreliable it is to guess the meanings of words with only the knowledge of the meanings of the individual characters that make up the word."
That's what studying vocabulary is for. Are you telling me you rather learn the whole word and not the parts that make it up? Are you saying its useless to know the seperate meanings? I hope not. The title says "how to remember the meaning and writing of kanji" and that is exactly what it gives. Not kanji compounds. I don't know who started the argument that Heisig lets them decode every word ever made with kanji but I won't fight that battle.
As I said, there are always exceptions to using the meaning of one kanji to understand compounds. Those good clues are all I need. After I look up the word, which I will always be doing to learn the readings, I'll find out the correct definition. As theres no single kanji for nuclear, they must make up something new (like all technologies that need to be named). Now when i come across compounds that have no connection with their singular kanji meaning, I simply add the whole word to my vocab if I so choose to learn it.
"You're still spending the exact same amount of time learning the kanji as a normal learner would. The only difference is that you first learn the English meanings and the kanji themselves, and after that the readings."
Exactly! Divide and Conquer. I said it saved time because I was forgetting the characters I learned by rote. I was looking for a way out and 2 weeks of my time was little in exchange for keeping the kanji in my head. Instead of rewriting characters now, I enjoy reading and watching Japanese media and learning that way.
"And I really don't believe Chinese people learn "50 new characters at best". You're also forgetting kokkun, or "characters that have been given meanings in Japanese different from their original Chinese meanings," as Wikipedia states."
Those hundreds of wasei kanji are rarely used (probably only by uptight authors), with only a few being important. Again, a small number made up of the same primitives to remember. A distinct advantage over the gaijin with no eye for chinese characters. (side note: I knew the meanings for most of the commonly used 国字 via Heisig)
With those kokkun, the Chinese can just attach a new meaning to the old characters. Anyways, I think your focusing too much on Chinese problems, and not Heisig. I only brought in the Chinese because they have the advantage Heisig didn't (for 常用漢字). If your goal is to remember those rarely used characters, more power to you. I am now conviently in the same spot that the Chinese are when they want to learn Japanese (at least to be a functional adult).
"You're also conveniently ignoring the hard-to-dodge arguments made in the thread by looking at the big picture instead."
What are the arguments, as I pretty much glossed over the threads that were attacking the lone Heisig user. BTW, how do you do those quotes? I'm a newbie at this textboard stuff.