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Started for the first time yesterday - blazen - 2010-09-21
Hello everyone. I've been learning Japanese on and off over the last year of self study. I have gotten my hiragana and katakana down and roughly 100 or so kanji. That is when I found out about Heisig and Koohii and AJATT and all those wonderful little websites and wanted to ask a few questions and maybe you can give me some tips.
I have been going at a rate of 30-40 a day so far. I know slower means more time to review=better retention but should I have a set rate. 35 a day everyday. Or should It be loose like it is now? (I'm on 60 right now)
For my SRS right now I'm using Ankimini on my ipod. Is that sufficient or should I be using the program on my PC to get the benefits of white text and italics and whatever.
I'm currently taking a class in university right now.(I know I know I figured that I have to be there anyways and it would be an easy credit and I would get exposure and meet other learners. I'm really far ahead right now actually.) Will this impact my studying at all?
For the kanji I already know can I add those or should I wait until I come across them in the book?
Oh wow I've asked a lot of questions and I'm sure I have more but I'll post this right now as it is. Thanks for reading this Wall of text.
Started for the first time yesterday - kainzero - 2010-09-21
Do as many as you feel comfortable with.
If you do 80/day, sometimes you'll have review days of 200. If you can handle that then it's all good. I used blocks of time and sessions per day (30min/1hr, one in the morning/one at night) instead of characters per day. If I had extra time I would add more cards.
All the other questions you asked are kinda nitpicky. No, your class will not hinder your progress. Ankimini or Anki or this website or Supermemo are all fine as long as you can read, write, and understand. I would only add cards according to RTK, not according to class. (I constantly see 私 as "I" or "Me," but in RTK it's listed as "private," which does make sense with 私立 or 私用、 so just flow with RTK for now.)
Good luck! =)
Started for the first time yesterday - EratiK - 2010-09-22
A set number of kanji is better for establishing a routine, but since you're only beginning, your brain is not trained to the task yet, so you'll have to wait to reach a sort of plateau (for some people it's twenty, for others, a hundred, just wait and see) that feels confortable (if it starts feeling too straining, you're on the verge of burning out).
kainzero pretty much answered the rest.
See ya, and good luck!
Started for the first time yesterday - zachandhobbes - 2010-09-22
All I can say is don't get too eager and start adding many cards.
It starts taking up so much time that you don't like doing it anymore. I started doing lesson by lesson, which were about 20-30. Then I amped up at 500 and did 50 a night, and my reviews piled on and on. I got sick of it and lost consistency and my average was less than if I had done 20-30 a night anyway.
Now I'm burning out because I have SAT and Bio AP to study for now, so I'm just gonna add a few a day.
So, don't do what I did
Started for the first time yesterday - tenken3 - 2010-09-22
Yep, it's better to do it right the first time, spend the time to really build up solid stories rather than speeding through it now and losing them all or getting them mixed up down the line.
Started for the first time yesterday - blazen - 2010-09-22
Alright I had a question of what to do after I'm done adding cards and doing reps for the day. That was answered. (DON'T ADD MORE) So instead I'll ask. What do I do to keep the learning hype up other than passive listening or something. When I'm done for the day I still want to keep going you know? Or was that the eagerness I was warned about?
I also read on this site about stories and that you shouldn't alter your beginning stories because they are what you know and you should just alter them. If I create my own stories from the start. Will I run into the problem of "I didn't use heisig stories during the beginning and now i'm stuck" or will it be better for me later on because I won't be trying to remember some story I found boring? Right now I'm using my own stories.
So far I'm only using the book as a reference guide and a place to put a bookmark for encouragement is there a better way to use it?
I also have a white board and when I do my reps I try to write it out on the whiteboard. Should I be doing that or would that count for that repetition thing that Heisig doesn't want me to do.
Great advice thanks everyone again! ( got to 100 today! Now I can count in 3 digits my progress)
Started for the first time yesterday - EratiK - 2010-09-22
No, no, no, you ARE supposed to write as you review, it's part of the routine. Just don't write 50 of the same one (like I did before RTK).
Even at the start, I rarely used Heisig stories, except for the obvious ones (but I used a lot from this site (revelation is still one of my best memories)), so no problem here. Just keep it simple. You can also change the name of the starred primitives, but don't change the (regular) keywords.
And if you're eager, keep going (I remember the first 800 went like a breeze). Just remember that it's better to be steady than to rush (hare vs turtle). The routine will take you through the hardest times later on.
Anyway, in my opinion, it's above 50 kanji.day-1 that reviews really accumulate. But this doesn't really get problematic until you reach the first thousand. So don't bother, go. You'll learn to rep more quickly as time goes by.