I'm about to order KO2001 in preparation of finishing RtK. Assuming I'm going to be using the shared spreadsheet to SRS the content, is the ebook or paper textbooks more useful to have?

I like the idea of having a paper book to carry around, but then I understand the ebook has audio - does the audio link in with the spreadsheet somehow?? I'd like to hear people's thoughts/preferences..

I wouldn't even reccomend it. Sure the kanji are in order and it's more efficient but god it is so boring. Heres an example sentence,

世論調査の結果、50%の人が21世紀は20世紀より良くなると持っている。

As the result of a public opinion poll shows, 50% of the people thinks that the 21st century will become better than the 20th century.

I couldn't care less about that. These boring sentences combined with audio recorded from the worlds most boring man made me quit about 1000 sentences in. If you want to do KO2001 then I would suggest the sentences from smart.fm in the KO2001 and Iknow thread (that's what I'm doing).

I definitely understand what bombpersons is talking about when he mentions the boringness of 2001KO's sentences (and yeah, that 世論調査 one is hilariously bad). Unfortunately, this is pretty much standard for any structured sentence approach, though. Personally, I find 2001KO's sentences to be a little more interesting and than those of Smart.fm, which seriously bore me (私はｘｘｘ、彼はｘｘｘ、など). At the very least, 2001KO uses a lot more varied grammar, which should make for great practice. Smart.fm (as far as I can tell) seems to stick with very simple structures, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as vocabulary is still the most important part of learning, but I sure didn't get a whole lot out of grammar practice out of the 2,000~ Smart.fm sentences I went through.

At any rate, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss 2001KO (like I did several months ago), even if the sentences tend to be a little on the dull side. Not that this helps the OP with his/her question, though!
My preference is the physical book, because I'm oldskool like that.

Firstly to answer your question: ebook, 100%

If you're studying like the majority of this forum (with an SRS) then you won't need or be able to take advantage of being able to carry a paperback around. You can't add items to an SRS when you're out and about without your computer.

To address the issue of boredom I think its mostly a personal thing. You know yourself, and you know whether or not you're likely to be bored by these type of progressive learner sentences. Having said that, I really don't think they are inherently boring. I was never bored by the KO sentences, because I found it exciting to be learning so quickly and because I could see the results coming in when I delved into real native material. I finished KO a few weeks back and have been mining Chrono Trigger and the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel since then. I don't find either of these sources any more interesting to review than KO to be honest. Its fun while you're playing or reading, but once its in the SRS they're just sentences in isolation in my opinion- neither boring nor exciting.

blackmacros, when you said you finished KO2001 do you mean the 1st two books or all three of them? (all 2001 kanji) i assume you mean the 1st two

Thanks for your replies!

Actually I found this ebook sample at the ko2001 website:

http://www.coscom.co.jp/ebook/2001kanji/...1-top.html

Is the ebook actually arranged like that? I'm asking because it's BRILLIANT! I now know all the readings for 大, also I love the way everything is explained and cross-referenced.

Also the audio guy doesn't sound boring to me; very fast yes, but not really boring..

Hashiriya: there isn't a 3rd book yet is there?

when i was saying "3rd book" i was referring to the last of the 常用漢字 compounds on the CD. no there is no actual book...
Edit: ah, i see that they are set up in Levels on the CD now, not books... i never noticed before lol oops so yeh i assume blackmacros only completed the 1st 1110 kanji on it

According to Coscom, the KO2001 Level 1 + level 2 (1110 kanji) cover 90% of Kanji that appear "in general documents".

So for Level 3 you'd be learning 891 kanji that are only used 10% of the time - not very efficient. Better to just dive into Japanese text, and learn readings as you encounter them.

Ebook (CD), definitely. Plus, they updated/upgraded it after I bought it and sent me a new copy for free!

Coscom rocks.

Related question about KO2001 that I didn't want to make a new topic for--aphasiac and others have mentioned a spreadsheet for KO2001 that's available if you can show that you've bought the book (at least that's my understanding). My ebook just came in the mail, so I was wondering who I'm supposed to contact about obtaining it. Thanks, and sorry for partially hijacking your topic aphasiac.

Hashiriya Wrote:blackmacros, when you said you finished KO2001 do you mean the 1st two books or all three of them? (all 2001 kanji) i assume you mean the 1st two

Yeah just the 1st two levels, the ones with sentences for them.

Blank go to here: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2419 this is far better than the old spreadsheet IMO

Sorry, I know this is only kinda sorta related to the topic, but who should I PM to get the community spreadsheet? Me haz proof of purchase.

Hashiriya, I think the KO2001 spreadsheet is still much better than SmartFM sentences. The vocab in KO2001 seems more incremental for some reason.

To me, the KO sentences are too long for SRS'ing. I only use it when there are no sentences for a word in iknow or if the sentences in iknow are too simple. However, I do find the book quite useful for reading before going to sleep since the sentences are quite boring lol.

RobotsAnger Wrote:To me, the KO sentences are too long for SRS'ing. I only use it when there are no sentences for a word in iknow or if the sentences in iknow are too simple. However, I do find the book quite useful for reading before going to sleep since the sentences are quite boring lol.

I have two decks. One is the smart.fm kanji odyssey lists, which I have set up for both reading and dictation since the sentences tend to be short and simple. The other one is simply the kanji odyssey sentences proper, which I only do reading for since they tend to be too long to write out and still maintain anything resembling progress.

On a sort of related note, the one problem I have with reviewing the KO2001 sentences is that all the audio files have several seconds of silence before the sound starts. Does anybody know if it's possible to mass edit that away, preferably in an automated fashion?

Mcjon01 Wrote:On a sort of related note, the one problem I have with reviewing the KO2001 sentences is that all the audio files have several seconds of silence before the sound starts. Does anybody know if it's possible to mass edit that away, preferably in an automated fashion?

Use sox from http://sox.sourceforge.net/. It is a command-line client that has a "silence" option to remove audio under a certain volume threshold from the beginning, ending or anywhere in-between.

I've bought the e-book. £32 at current exchange rates, and free delivery worldwide!

Should be here by the time I finish RtK (around September).