It's entirely applicable! Actually Heisig and Richardson make the observation that after you finish both books (3000 characters) you'll be able to approach Chin

It's entirely applicable! Actually Heisig and Richardson make the observation that after you finish both books (3000 characters) you'll be able to approach Chinese like a Japanese person would. Meaning that you'll have the knowledge of the characters, but still no knowledge on their pronunciation. Here's the section from the introduction of the book - https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2013/11/RH-S1-sample.pdf https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2013/11/RH-S1-sample.pd... > Those of us who come to the language as adults can gain a similar advantage by tying each of the character forms to a particular unit of pronunciation and meaning, a “key word” in English, that we already know. Before you dismiss the idea of affixing English words to Chinese characters out of hand, consider this: all the Chinese dialects, no matter how mutually unintelligible they are when spoken, use the same characters for writing. These characters convey the same meaning, no matter how they are pronounced. What is more, when the Japanese use Chinese characters, they assign them still other pronunciations. In other words, there is nothing in the nature of a character dictating that it must be verbalized one way or another. Unlike students coming to Chinese from an alphabetically written language, the Japanese already know the meaning and writing of a great many of the characters. By the time you finish this course, you will be in a position similar to theirs. Of course, you will eventually need to learn Chinese pronunciations, just as Japanese students do. But adding difficult and unfamiliar sounds to a solid knowledge of character forms is a much more manageable task than trying to memorize meaning, pronunciation, and writing all at the same time.