I'm not sure what to do at this point. The past month and a half I've tried doing RTK over Anki but it hasn't been working for me at all. I can't keep motivation to do it, and it seems quite dull to me? Truthfully, it seems like a chore to do it and I don't really like that.

Does anyone have tips or other ways to go through kanji? Or do you think I could jump into grammar structure and vocab and learn kanji on the way? I'm really not sure and input would be really helpful at this point. I feel like I'm on my way to nowhere.

I'm in a similar position. I have around 500 kanji reviews at this point (I took a really long break.... :-). I'm at around 1400 kanji. I rarely feel like using Anki. I think it's a great program, but I'm in a rut.

What I do is I force myself to do reviews in tiny chunks. Try to just do reviews maximum 30 minutes a day, in 5 to 10 min chunks. After that review chunk, then take a break and do something else. You can even set a timer to remind yourself you should do some reviews again. This way, you know you are done after 30 min total, and 30 min is not that much time at all.

I also bought a couple Japanese Graded Reader series, which are expensive, but I really like them. Try reading some Japanese at your own level. It made me feel really good about myself! (here are some free suggestions: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4133). You might try the Hiragana Times hiragana blog, because the articles are extremely short.

I also enjoy thumbing through my textbook, so I've been learning new vocab and doing exercises from that to keep me going. But since I'm sick of Anki right now, I'm not putting all the vocab in there until I'm ready.

I suggest getting your reviews under control a little at a time. Then, slowly start adding more cards (just 5-10 a day to start). There's no harm in going slowly. You could even do 5 cards a day and take it really easy while learning some grammar and vocab too. By the time you finish RTK, you'll probably finish your textbook at the same time.

Don't push yourself too hard, otherwise you'll burn out. But you may need to force yourself a bit to get going :-).

And another option: RTK may just not be for you. Try another kanji method.

EDIT: Something else that has helped me do reviews faster: If you can't remember a kanji after 10 secs, just fail the card and move on. Go back later and relearn all your failed cards.

Try searching RTK lite (RTKlite?) in the forums: it's a selection of the 1000 most frequent RTK kanji: once you've done that there will be no problem to learn vocab fast. And if you ever feel the need to complete RTK later, feel free to resume. A lot of people don't do RTK after all, they just learn to break down kanji, and learn them one by one as they encounter them.

Kanji knowledge isn't required to start learning grammar though, you should get to it (using the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar for example).

How much Japanese are you exposing yourself to daily? When I was doing RTK, it was constantly seeing the kanji I was learning that gave me the motivation to power through those 2200 characters. Watching live Japanese TV and "reading" Japanese tweets were a big help to me, but any native material that's throwing text at you will work.

@Jishera I've been trying to do reviews slower and slower. (a.k.a pacing myself) but I can't even have anki open for long. It's a dread, even if I have nothing to do I can't bring myself to actually use it.
I'd actually like to go about Kanji another way..? But I don't know any. The only thing that comes to my mind is start on grammar and vocab and pick up any kanji along the way.

@EratiK I might try RTK lite. It seems like less of a big mess for me. For getting into grammar guides I have a few resources already. Genki, Tae Kim, a few particle books, Imabi & all those other resources in that one thread.
Though, Tae Kim is great to many people. I've tried it a while ago, but I was having a little hard time following. (Mainly due to my lack of knowledge of grammar terms.) I'm not sure if you'd be able to answer this, but should I use Tae Kim or Imabi?

@Hirata Um, I'm not sure what you'd consider a reasonable amount. I'm constantly browsing Pixiv and drawr daily. Most of the time I have j-pop music on as well. I'm rarely on twitter, but when I am I do follow some utaites. Of course their tweets inspire me a lot, but when it comes to actually getting to the work, I lose all motivation.
I'm really pumped to learn grammar and vocab, but kanji over and over and over is something that I can't see past.

It pays off. Go through the pain now and in 6 months time you will be pleased that you did.

Sorry, I don't know much about any of these ressources. Apparently there used to be a RTK lite shared deck in Anki (I wouldn't know, since the old version can't connect to the server any longer), you should check it out. More info:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...5#pid14605

EDIT: new link

Link doesn't show anything. I'll try finding the deck in Anki in a bit. Mine as well give it another try I guess. (Not to mention it's about my 3rd time trying over a span of 2 years.)

Anyone have suggestions on learning from .. just writing it down over and over? I feel like that might work a bit better for me. Maybe I'll just constantly write them down as I go.

There are textbooks that teach Kanji: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-ke...mozilla-20

What Japanese level are you at? You could always invest in a good textbook like Genki, Japanese for Everybody or Minna no Nihongo. When I first started out, I used Japanese for Everybody, and they would very gradually get you used to reading kanji. They would start introducing new words using the kanji, at first with furigana, and then after seeing the word 2-3 times, they would take the furigana away. It's a very painless way to ease yourself into kanji.
After that, you could try a book like Kanji Odyssey or Kanji in Context, but I would only recommend those after you have a good vocabulary and grammar base to work from.
You could also go through Core 2k and then Core 6k, writing out the kanji as you do your reviews. Honestly though, the premade decks do get a bit boring after a while.
You could try reading some simple manga, kids stories or graded readers once you get your basic vocab and grammar down. Write down any unknown vocab/kanji, and then enter those into Anki, or write them down into a notebook (or both).
You could also use a kanji book that uses pictographs to help cement them in your memory.
There are a lot of people who like to say that RTK is the only way you can properly learn kanji. I think those people don't understand that some people have different learning styles, and what worked for them (RTK) does not necessarily work for others. The fact that you say that you're dreading this method, and that you're finding it very dull may mean that it may not be for you. There's no harm in going the more 'traditional' route of writing (a lot), and learning the kanji through exposure in textbooks and native material. Just experiment, be open to different methods of learning, and have fun.

undead_saif Wrote:There are textbooks that teach Kanji: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-ke...mozilla-20

This book looks like it has an interesting approach:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Key-To-Kanji-C...ords=kanji

Edit:

In reading the reviews it seems that one person using Heisig uses this book as a supplement for ideas/ways to approach difficult kanji, while another person switched from Heisig to this book when he/she found that the RTK approach wasn't working for them.

I personally like Heisig's method but think it might be fun to take a look through this and see what the etymologies are.

Btw, a long time ago I tried Kenneth Henshall's "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters" but even though it contained all 1,945 Joyo kanji I found that the book didn't help me as the mnemonics weren't vivid enough and the calligraphy was so poor that it was painful to look at.

So even though this new book only has the Kyoiku kanji imo it looks superior to Henshall's book.

Alright well, I've been trying to work out your solutions.
I've downloaded RTK lite and have been doing it for only two days now. (20 new cards/reviews takes me about 40 minutes.. I think.)
I've been writing them each out for a bit & have been trying to get the stories to stick. I feel like I'm doing o.k right now, but not the best I could be doing. I really hope it sticks to my mind as I keep going.

Shall I start Tae Kim/Imabi right away.. or should I wait till I do a little more? Or .. when I finish?
I really want to jump into grammar, but I feel like it might be too much.