ryuudou Wrote:Do RTK-lite while you finish DoBJG since you already started it.

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm indicates that you shouldn't be trying to learn words when you don't understand kanji, so it's up to you if you want to trade that efficiency away.

RtK helps you understand the structure of the kanji (which is why I agree with your point). It also helps you misunderstand what they mean. Learning words is how you unlearn the latter and actually start to understand kanji in the conventional sense.

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MelonBerry Wrote:Could I get some suggestions?

There are two approaches that I would suggest to improve your production.

First is based on repeated exposure to a comprehensible input. With this approach you repeatedly read and listen to texts that you can understand – like listening to your favourite song or watching a movie. Since this is a repeated exposure (we are talking about tens of times of listening to the same thing), with time you will remember (ie. be able to recall at ease and produce) most frequently used patterns, or even complete sentences - like 日本語では、かもしれません、でしょう、警察によると、ＡやＢが、夜時に行くと, etc. (BTW, already suggested practice of sentence patters falls into this approach.)

Second approach is more “analytical” one. Here you are studying rules of grammar not only to understand them but also to be able to produce them. For this I would recommend cloze deletes on sentences from your grammar book, for example:
En: This house is not only beautiful but also cheap.
Jp clozed: このうちは[...]。
Jp full: このうちはきれいなではなくて安い。

At the extreme you can memorise formation rules for a given grammar point (ではなくて from the example).

You still will find it difficult to string those patterns together into a coherent sentence, like どこに行けばこの本が手に入るのか but this can only be improved by active practice – Lang-8 is a good option here. Other possibility is self-talk.

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Arupan Wrote:Did you see this example in a book?

It looks like I missed だけ - definite fail in Anki

But see DoBJG, 63rd printing, p.98.

The exact text of this key sentence is:
このうちはきれいなだけで（は）なくとても安い。

(（は） is optional but still grammatically correct.)

The English equivalent that is provided there reads:
This house is not only beautiful but it is also inexpensive.

EDIT1:
Added だけ.

EDIT2:
Aren't you doing anything but reading posts on this forum?

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Arupan Wrote:What's DoBJG?

"Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui.

I think "uchi" may be slightly more feminine, so maybe that"s why they used it, to convey that the speaker is female?

Although, now that I think about it... I think "uchi" is relatively common here...

Ahh, with a new reply. (Sorry). I feel like I'm going to go through Tae Kim's guide one more time. I'm on twitter and I've followed quite a few Japanese speakers so it's actually really fun to read their tweets !

So Tae Kim (for the 2nd time) + Core 2k/6k + ADOBJG (occasionally)
Previously I just read Tae Kim through once and called it at that. Then started to read ADOBJG without actually producing anything. (Writing sentences down or doing the deck at the same time) so I'm going to fix those a bit. Due to schoolwork I never have the energy to put much into Japanese, but I want to change that. And I think I will.