I've been using this site religiously for a few weeks now and it's made a world of difference for me. It's tough to figure out when to review my mounds of flashcards on my own and this site has essentially taken that problem away. I'm very grateful.

My question is about programs like Anki. I know a lot of people on this site use them religiously, and I've not yet begun to do so. My tentative plan was to keep using my flashcards/recipe boxes (ghetto SRS system ) for my Japanese For Busy People book, as my answers are all still in kana, with no Kanji present. Then, once I finish RTK1, I was going to move to AJATT or 2001 Kanji Odyssey, and use Anki for that. I also haven't figured out how to type on my PC in Japanese yet, so I guess I'll need to figure that out.. This is a work laptop and I'm not sure I can install the required language packs or if I'll need to buy a new computer.. But I digress. Should I be using Anki or something right now, with all of my answers in kana for now, or should I finish RTK1 first and use an SRS once I'm done? I'd love to hear some opinions.

Thanks in advance!

--Shibo

I think most people are going to suggest finishing RTK before doing anything else (with the exception of setting up an audio immersion environment).
I think its generally better to learn vocabulary etc. in their kanji forms as:
You don't have to go back and 'relearn' it
You create more connections in your mind to the word, which reinforces learning.

I'll be honest and say I tried to do SRS with Pimsleur's introductory dialogues and met with problems. See, I wanted a complete sentence with proper Kanji where it should be. Problem was that I would run into Kanji that I haven't gotten to yet with RTK. What happens is those kanji I "learned" but I think I keep passing over the story meaning they're not sticking like they should when it comes to writing it out (same problem I have with "Fly" and "Precious").

Yes, from my experience, you probably want to just go straight RTK till you're 80 to 90% done (by done, I mean you have only 200 to 400 cards in the study stack but ALL of the initial reviews done). This way, a majority of the Kanji you'll run across already has been introduced.

Think of it in terms of College Semesters. Your first semester, you're doing 5 credit hours in Heisig Kanji (250 hours of study). This is you getting your stories together and reviewing (and writing) each and every kanji about 7 times or more.

The next two semesters you're doing basic Japanese Grammar, Structure, and Vocabulary (500 hours of study). Here, you can begin putting together sentences from Genki 1&2, Japanese for Everyone or Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar (I'm not so much for Japanese for Busy People). I recommend Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar based on personal experience with ALL four books.

If you start those next semesters too early, you're having to do either too much catch-up (learning Kanji ahead of time) or skipping out on Kanji you could be learning in context (missing valuable pronunciation and use training).

Guess the answer boils down to: Yeah, wait till you're almost done with RTK before starting with Japanese.

Well, I'm doing both, and it's not much of a problem because I'm not learning hugely difficult sentences or words yet. They are really basic, easy grammar sentences, and even if I don't know the kanji I can remember stuff. Lots of people learn kanji without heisig, maybe it's harder but you'll only be doing it for the few months it takes to complete rtk1. I just didn't want to wait to learn something useful. Maybe you'll be doing a hundred heisig cards a day as well as a hundred sentences, and then learning more kanji. Maybe that is three hours study a day. So if you have three hours a day you can do it. I really like discovering the heisig meaning of a kanji that i already know in context in a word. It's a little 'a-ha' moment.

Protip: Do what you want to do.

Nukemarine Wrote:I tried to do SRS with Pimsleur's introductory dialogues and met with problems.

This doesn't address your problem, but Pimsleurs courses are already based on an SRS pattern. Are you just wanting to practice the writing, or...?