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!

oh wow, when I had just started doing rtk, I read a lot that after 500 or 1000 it gets a lot tougher and many quits, but the further I go, the more interesting the kanji gets and at 1400 kanji, where I am now, I'm just totally in love with this kanji learning. Ofc there are lessons where I fail like 70% of the cards, but few days after and I'm mostly quite ok with them. Creating those stories is such an awesome experience. ^.^ Just try to have some fun with those tiny pictures. Make them live, don't think about RTK as a burden, take it as an entertainment. RTK has become just like a relaxation for me after long day of school.

Fragas Wrote:

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!

oh wow, when I had just started doing rtk, I read a lot that after 500 or 1000 it gets a lot tougher and many quits, but the further I go, the more interesting the kanji gets and at 1400 kanji, where I am now, I'm just totally in love with this kanji learning. Ofc there are lessons where I fail like 70% of the cards, but few days after and I'm mostly quite ok with them. Creating those stories is such an awesome experience. ^.^ Just try to have some fun with those tiny pictures. Make them live, don't think about RTK as a burden, take it as an entertainment. RTK has become just like a relaxation for me after long day of school.

yea, with the weather nice like it is now i've been going down to the Kamagawa river here in Kyoto and studying, it is relaxing when i'm doing it outside. at the San-jo station there's a starbucks with a big terrace right on the river bank. so nice.

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

I was doing the Heisig method for a while but I realized that a majority of the Kanji I was learning was useless (eg in my classes and reading). So, I began to learn Kanji (still using this website) based off of the JLPT Kanji list. I feel that this is more efficient and satisfying. Imagine telling someone you know ~500漢字 but you don't even know the character for わたし!

Phreakster Wrote:

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

I was doing the Heisig method for a while but I realized that a majority of the Kanji I was learning was useless (eg in my classes and reading). So, I began to learn Kanji (still using this website) based off of the JLPT Kanji list. I feel that this is more efficient and satisfying. Imagine telling someone you know ~500漢字 but you don't even know the character for わたし!

I do that.

Technically just passed 500 but unfortunately have been very patchy with my rtking (been a bit hit and miss with it in general :/ ) over the last few months that I have around 90 reviews to go till I'm fully there... D:

Congrats to everyone who hit 500. I just wanted to reply to something real quick:

Phreakster Wrote:I was doing the Heisig method for a while but I realized that a majority of the Kanji I was learning was useless (eg in my classes and reading). So, I began to learn Kanji (still using this website) based off of the JLPT Kanji list. I feel that this is more efficient and satisfying. Imagine telling someone you know ~500漢字 but you don't even know the character for わたし!

私 is, as I assume you knew, part of RtK, and appropriately grouped with the other wheat radicals around chapter 26. I took RtK as being something done for long-term benefit. The assumption is that there will be a point in time when all the keywords and stroke order of the 2000+ Kanji will be known. Seeing RtK from this perspective the method of ordering based on radical patterns, as they are now, instead of Kanji frequency seems a non-issue. Perks like showing friends I can write 私　after completing the first 500 seems a flimsy reason to choose a different study program, but maybe that's just me. While some Kanji may seem useless, the day always comes when they pop up in native reading material, so calling them useless based on present use is a maybe, but keep potential future use in mind.

Yay, just hit 555/2200... I guess the hard part is coming up eh?

Without http://kanji.koohii.com/study, I would have a really hard time coming up with stories. If you are having a hard time making up your own stories, I suggest checking that out.

Almost broke.

Hi, I here am new.

And after ghosting the forums for a bit decided to pop out to post that I made it past 500!

JusenkyoGuide Wrote:Hi, I here am new.

And after ghosting the forums for a bit decided to pop out to post that I made it past 500!

Same here ! Today I am going to hit the 500 Mark ! doing steadily 20 kanji per day. : )

Hi all, newbie here. I started RTK a little over two weeks ago and I gotta say the results are pretty incredible. I never thought I'd be able to learn kanji so fast. I made it to 577 today but not as pumped as the original poster of this thread unfortunately. That ROOOOARR was there in the beginning but now I'm finding that doing more than 15 at a time is too much, and to keep up with my rhythm of 30 a day I have to break up my learning into 10-kanji sessions. Has anyone else had a slump like this?

But anyways, thanks to all the contributors who make this site as awesome as it is, congrats to everyone and let's all reach those 2000+ together

devilsbabe Wrote:That ROOOOARR was there in the beginning but now I'm finding that doing more than 15 at a time is too much, and to keep up with my rhythm of 30 a day I have to break up my learning into 10-kanji sessions. Has anyone else had a slump like this?

Are you using an SRS system to revise the learned kanji? I was averaging learning between 75-100 kanji a day, with two off days near the end, followed by a massive all day session which I learned the last 500 kanji. If you are using an SRS system it doesn't matter too much if you are "failing" or failing to initially remember kanji learned the day before, as with the SRS it will essentially continually reoccur, forcing you to hone your stories and re-enforce the neural connections.

A lot of people think it safer to take it slow but at a higher rate while the initial retention will be lower, you are actually covering reoccurring primitives a lot more, making a lot of the earlier learned kanji actually easier to remember, as a lot of them are literally involved in the later kanji; meaning in some instances when a later kanji is reviewed you are also re-enforcing the connection of a earlier kanji that is now part of the later kanji's make-up.

No need to go crazy break-neck speed, but the faster you finish the faster you get to use those kanji in context within your actual Nihongo studies- and this means, especially with sentences, that you will end up "reviewing" a lot of kanji from RtK, hundreds of times, over the course of a few hours or a week of study, without even really being aware of it.

Finally there

1-350 took me like 2 Years, 350 - 500 5 days. God how much I hated the Kanji with "Parade", "March" and "Thanksgiving"

19 days
508 kanji
91% correct answers in Anki
I feel a bit burned out right now, but I'm not giving up.

edkrak you're at a good pace but its not worth burning out over. Congrats on this far and to be honest the next 500 is the hardest step. It is worth it to keep going but if you ever feel over pressured try to look at your future reviews and cut back on the adding of new cards and just review for a couple days. I'd like to see you post in the halfway thread in January but take your time.

This little burn out is the effect of trying to speed up things by doing 70-80 kanjis a day for 2 days straight. But I realized it's counterproductive and optimal pace for me is something around 30 new kanji a day.

500 kanji!

Next goal: 1000 kanji.

Aaaand that's 500 Kanji learned! Yes, the progress I have made is clear and motivates me! Learning Japanese may be the first long-term project I will complete!

Except that currently, my brain wants to burst and quite a few kanjis slip out of my mind. So I think I'll simply spend the next week making sure the first 500 Kanji stick in my head before heading for the 1000!

Just finished adding card 508!

It took me half a month to make it here. My current boxes are (4+/3/2/1): 0/136/126/245

I suspect that I will be in review hell for the next week or so. Nevertheless, onwards with more cards!

Woho! 500 Kanji on the last day of the year. Good end and with the New Year the start of the next 500. The 2200 doesn't seem that unreachable anymore.

I'm on frame 612 I'm here to ROOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!

1828!! Almost there!

Just made it to 508 Blazed through two or three hundred in a few days at the start, and then slowed down a bunch for the rest. I had to take a couple days for just reviews before adding the last 100, so as to not get swamped.

Flashcard stats:
New / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4+
33, 175, 161, 137, 2

(The two kanji in box 5: 活 and 然, they're not even the ones I know the best...)

Wow, when i read the speed at which people reached 500, 1000 or even the whole 2042, i think i'm just f-ing dumb and slow. I just reached 500 like 15 minutes ago, and it took me about 1.5 month, 10 to 20 kanjis a day.
Maybe i'm taking too much time making up stories and making them alive (also the SRS reviewing and pseudo text mining (from textbooks like ASSIMIL and related) takes A LOOOOOT of time !!!).

Any advice how to speed up the process or make it easier anyone ? I'll be starting work next week and i don't know i will be able to handle it !

Actually I think that it is a very good pace. That way you won't burn out and have a high chance of actually finishing RTK. If you take your time with each card then it'll actually save time, as you learn it and have a clear story and won't have to review it again and again.

As far as I've noticed a lot of the "sprinters" quit when they miss reviews for a couple of days and are confronted with a thousand or more due cards in Anki.

Just my humble opinion.