Congrats everyone! ^_^

I'm at 508 after 2 and a half weeks This is my 1st time doing RTK, but my 50-millionth try at Japanese, so I'm really happy to have made it this far! That "reading" tool on this site is really keeping me motivated. I keep pasting random chunks of Japanese text in there, and more and more kanji are turning blue Makes me impatient to have them ALL turn blue haha XD

I started this January with total zero knowledge of Japanese. At the beginning I had enough time to learn, so it was fine. But later I had almost zero time for it (reconstruction of flat), so I tried to keep at least reviewing for about three months. Now I am proceeding very slowly (20 characters per week), but I've got to 500.

Well, I have to point out, that as English is not my native language, it's sometimes very hard for me to learn it from Heisig. There are some english words I never heard before and quite a lot I don't feel the exact meaning. My worst nightmare till now is trio "chastise, rebuke, admonish". Not only that I didn't know these words at all, but they have similar meaning and I still can't distinguish them.

Anyway, I am happy I am at 500 now :-)

dorban Wrote:Well, I have to point out, that as English is not my native language, it's sometimes very hard for me to learn it from Heisig. There are some english words I never heard before and quite a lot I don't feel the exact meaning. My worst nightmare till now is trio "chastise, rebuke, admonish". Not only that I didn't know these words at all, but they have similar meaning and I still can't distinguish them.

English isn't my native language, so many words are kind of hard too, so I can totally relate.

500 kanji, it feels good.

Congratulations and don't give up :3

dorban Wrote:My worst nightmare till now is trio "chastise, rebuke, admonish".

For cases like these you could resort to your native language, at least that's what I do. Why not define the problematic keywords as:
chastise -> trestat
rebuke -> pokárání
admonish -> napomínat

For me this would be:
chastise -> karać
rebuke -> nagana
admonish -> napominać

PS.
Good luck to the Czech team in Euro!

Inny Jan Wrote:Why not define the problematic keywords as:
chastise -> trestat
rebuke -> pokárání
admonish -> napomínat

Well, the problem is with translation. My dictionaries translate these three words into many different meanings. For instance for "rebuke" is first translation "napomínat" - you wrote "napomínat" for "admonish". For "chastise" is first translation "kárat". You wrote "(po)kárat" for "rebuke". That was pain to sort it out, but now it is moreless done.

Inny Jan Wrote:PS.
Good luck to the Czech team in Euro!

Thanks Jan. Shame, Polish team didn't get through. What I saw, Polish are sooo kind people during Euro and you were incredibly kind also after you lost - that's BIG THING.

And thanks dizzyS for kind words as well :-)

I'm at 508 now! On vacation though so I only got time to review those I've already been through. I have a 100 reviess to do though... Hopefully I'll go through them tonight... This is'nt looking too good

I'm doing this my own way (not the Heisig method, though I do make up stories).
I am now on my 489th kanji! Expecting to pass the 500 mark in a week or so!

Super happy!

Is anybody else not doing Heisig? If so, what are you doing?

On about 550 I suppose but I'm finding myself stuck a lot, I didn't find 500 much of a milestone. In the first 200 or so, getting 50 more kanji meant alot but now it feels like the only milestone left is finishing because I'm around 1/4 through now, and then I have to do RTK 3 of course.

You don't have to do RtK3. After doing RtK1 you should be able to learn kanji by yourself. And according to japaneselevelup.com, there are more unimportant than important kanji in RtK 3. 誰 is a good example of one which should have been in the first one, though.

I'm only at 800 or so, but I have learnt a few kanji outside my RtK study that I have encountered a lot in my Japanese studies which I took up a few after starting RtK. I mean, the standard ones like 行, 人, 僕, 私, 気 (this one is one of the last few hundreds you learn, and part of the word "genki" (元気)) and so on which you will probably find in your first few lessons in any textbook or learning site. :p

I thought I would not pass the 500 kanji mark until at least next week but I DID! I did it today! On and Kun readings down pat for 511 characters!

I've finally hit 500! It's been so hard the last couple of days. Just couldn't concentrate. Now I'm totally looking forward to starting Part 3 soon and letting my imagination run wild!

Whooo! 500 kanji mark in about 2 and a half weeks! Bring on the next 500!

Just hit 500 last week! I can hardly focus on anything else now. 1000 here I comeeeeeee!

First, I want to say congratulations to everyone that's hit the 500 mark. I didn't think I'd post about my milestone but reading these really got me pumped up.

I'm at 760 right now, with a retention rate of 99% (last full review was 5 missed out of 620). I feel really good about my reviews. I felt like giving up at the heart group, but I sat down and just rote memorized them and seem to be remembering them just fine. I do 70 a day, so I should be able to reach 1000 by Sunday! I'm very grateful for the stories people have posted. My imagination seems to be pretty sucky, seeing as I basically have to use the website exclusively to get stories. However, my reviewing makes up for that.

Thank you guys for the great atmosphere.

TheWumbologistt Wrote:First, I want to say congratulations to everyone that's hit the 500 mark. I didn't think I'd post about my milestone but reading these really got me pumped up.

I'm at 760 right now, with a retention rate of 99% (last full review was 5 missed out of 620). I feel really good about my reviews. I felt like giving up at the heart group, but I sat down and just rote memorized them and seem to be remembering them just fine. I do 70 a day, so I should be able to reach 1000 by Sunday! I'm very grateful for the stories people have posted. My imagination seems to be pretty sucky, seeing as I basically have to use the website exclusively to get stories. However, my reviewing makes up for that.

Thank you guys for the great atmosphere.

99% for real? :OOOO If you are doing this for the first day, then it's insane. And you can do 70 a day? Wow. I can barely do 50 a day before I get headaches and even after those 50 I have to spend whole evening learning most of them, because I forget them.

Anyway, as for me, I FINALLY did that, reached my first milestone, and even though it's a really small achievement, for me it's a huge step. And learning those kanji is getting more and more fun. I hope I will NOT give up until I learn all of those kanji and get much further into japanese. No, not hope.. I MUST NOT give up. Achievements like this helps with the motivation a lot. See you guys after ~2 weeks in the "Half way!" thread.

Good luck to everyone, stay motivated and eat well to increase your learning capacities!

Fragas Wrote:

TheWumbologistt Wrote:First, I want to say congratulations to everyone that's hit the 500 mark. I didn't think I'd post about my milestone but reading these really got me pumped up.

I'm at 760 right now, with a retention rate of 99% (last full review was 5 missed out of 620). I feel really good about my reviews. I felt like giving up at the heart group, but I sat down and just rote memorized them and seem to be remembering them just fine. I do 70 a day, so I should be able to reach 1000 by Sunday! I'm very grateful for the stories people have posted. My imagination seems to be pretty sucky, seeing as I basically have to use the website exclusively to get stories. However, my reviewing makes up for that.

Thank you guys for the great atmosphere.

99% for real? :OOOO If you are doing this for the first day, then it's insane. And you can do 70 a day? Wow. I can barely do 50 a day before I get headaches and even after those 50 I have to spend whole evening learning most of them, because I forget them.

Anyway, as for me, I FINALLY did that, reached my first milestone, and even though it's a really small achievement, for me it's a huge step. And learning those kanji is getting more and more fun. I hope I will NOT give up until I learn all of those kanji and get much further into japanese. No, not hope.. I MUST NOT give up. Achievements like this helps with the motivation a lot. See you guys after ~2 weeks in the "Half way!" thread.

Good luck to everyone, stay motivated and eat well to increase your learning capacities!

If this helps at all, I break them up into groups of 20 and watch an anime episode/listen to Japanese music before I do another set. It takes a while, but my head feels a lot better doing that than going at them 30+ at a time. I write it down while telling myself the story a couple times, and before I start a new set of twenty, I quickly review the previous twenty. Then, after I finish all 70 for the day, I go through them and write each one down in the back of my composition book, then finally finish with anki. The next day review involves anki reps and the reps from the website. If I have any trouble with some after all of that, I write it down in a list and practice them by rote memorization (this isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. I've already seen it quite a few times at this point and anki will take care of it if I still don't remember).

Picture of my comp of how I randomly write them while thinking of the story:
http://imgur.com//121xx

Then the back of my comp writing them in order after I finish 70:
http://imgur.com/am34D

So yeah, haha. In for a penny in for a pound I guess. I really hope this doesn't seem like I'm showing off. Just wanted to share how I'm doing it so maybe it could help you out some.


Congrats on hitting this milestone! When you get to the heart group, DON'T GIVE UP! It gets much easier after that group.

Failure can only happen if you allow it to be an option. Just keep at it every day. Good luck, and I'll see you in the half way thread!

I'm just hit 600 and will hit 700 in next few days.feel great and if I look back from day one It just little time by doing only 20-27 per day haha.I'll speed up by doing 30-40 per day.

I just finished lesson 19, which brings me to 508 kanji!
First of all, I never thought that I would actually make it this far. On the other side, I feel like I didn't get there fast enough. I was expecting to feel a lot more excited about reaching the milestone. I had made and printed myself two kanji posters, 1-250 and 251-500, looking at them since I started and telling myself I would celebrate when I finished them.

Let's keep going, and I'll find a little way to celebrate today.
Congrats to all of you guys for sticking to it!
ROAR!

Can I post her for my second round. I'm at 610 at around 100 per day. I let myself fall behind but being back in America it's easy to refocus on study.

Pausing in lesson 19 to post - after four days I'm FINALLY AT 500! ^.^

Hopefully I can hit 1000 before school starts since things will go so slowly then...

I just got to 300... ヽ(´▽｀；)/
It's not much but I feel good since I'm generally not the best at self teaching.

[RawToast]

pixel Wrote:I just got to 300... ヽ(´▽｀；)/
It's not much but I feel good since I'm generally not the best at self teaching.

I ain't much further at 374, lesson 15 (6th). I hope to report back on Sunday at 500+/lesson 19

Also decided to do RTK lite at +25 new a day at the same time (Anki controlling the new cards,) which has been a breeze. I find it easy to go to my phone to review (e.g. at work, train, etc.) but hard to pick up the book...

[RawToast]

514

be careful, 500 is where me and my friend both quit, without knowing that the other had quit. it becomes a pain in the ass around that time and it's hard make stories for some of these kanji. I'm just starting again after letting it sit for a year, and i'm at 663 now. be careful!

theadamie Wrote:be careful, 500 is where me and my friend both quit, without knowing that the other had quit. it becomes a pain in the ass around that time and it's hard make stories for some of these kanji. I'm just starting again after letting it sit for a year, and i'm at 663 now. be careful!

I can most definitely relate to that. I got to somewhere around 630 and just stopped doing it altogether. 500-600 Kanjis must be something like a turningpoint, where you either go through with it or don´t!

Now I´m just struggling to find the motivation to even start from anew! Goddammit why did I even stop!