I hit the 500 mark today, and I'm so into it! That's better than 1-in-4 now!! I am an invincible juggernaut of kanji learnery. Kanji are but weakly little rhumatoid nothings unable to resist the might of the tsunami of motivation that is me! ALL YOUR KANJI ARE BELONG TO US!!! ROOOOOARRRR...

But seriously, folks, am I the only one who gets these big surging rushes of (probably self-deluded) motivational euphoria when I reach a "milestone" frame number? It's such a high! I remember when I hit 250, I felt like I'd just taken a gram and a half of top notch cocaine...do I need treatment?

It makes me feel good to hit milestones as well. This is my second time through the book and hitting those milestones feels just as good the second time around. The milestones come quicker as I'm already familiar with the kanji, but still feels great. Keep up the excellent work.

Well, I prefer to celebrate when I learn a hundred in a day, like on the weekends. It's as Humpty Dumpty said, we must make words do what we say, and pay them appropriately.

I hit 1500 recently, at 1600 now and the motivation is really shining through I've upped my daily learning from 20 to 40 characters at this pace I'll be finished in 2 weeks

Milestones are great, that's another reason why I love this site the progress chart.

Congratulations!
Just hit Kanji 2000 fifteen minutes ago. My third try in three years, and finally I'm about to conquer all these Kanjis.

Yeah, hitting the milestones a second or third time just feels as good. And I can't wait for RTK3. You do feel invincible while studying kanjis the Heisig way.

Congratulations! I think 500 is a biggy, that shows you're really using the Heisig method correctly. Anyone could brute force their way to a 100 or so by just rote memorization, but to get to 500 means you've got the tools to go the distance.

I *definitely* get pumped about each milestone. I'll hit 1800 tomorrow, and can smell #2042 (sign of the snake, I peeked) just over the horizon.

im finaly back at the 1300 point where i was when i stopped the heisig method for a year, it feels good that it toke not that much effort, shows that even after a year forgetting things its easy to re-learn them.

AndamanIslander Wrote:I remember when I hit 250, I felt like I'd just taken a gram and a half of top notch cocaine...do I need treatment?

Only if you snort the book.

Yep its good hitting milestones isn't it.

I found the push from 500 to 700 to be difficult, I guess because that's when Heisig's stories really ran out and it takes some getting used to. After that it was easy, until the last few chapters.

For me it was like:

1000 - Yay, its all downhill from here.
1500 - Yes! There's no way I won't finish this now.
1800 - Oh cr*p these are some hard chapters near the end.
2042 - Euphoria .

2042...it's like my New Jerusalem. The promise that gets me out of bed in the morning. A promised land so enticing yet so far away.

I'm so sad, I haven't reached the 500 kanjis milestone yet, I only have 497 today More seriously, I don't visualize milestones as a big thing because I feel that it would distract me from my first real milestone : finishing the first book, but it sure helps when I need some motivation

I reached frame 508 today, so I'm also past the 500 mark. It feels good, but my real milestone is finishing the book ofcourse. Like Shmurk, I do not want to cling to milestones too much, since it tends to remind me of how many I still have to do. I just try to keep momentum by doing at least some kanji everyday. I'll reach the end of the book eventually

I broke 500 recently too. Hit a tough patch around the 400 mark. I definitely had to learn how to pace myself. But once you get in a good flow, I really like this method of learning. See you at 1000.

I hit a slump around 400-500 also, but once I got up to about 600, It feels like things have really started to kick into high gear. Once heisig stopped writing stories for all the kanji, I just seem to move a lot faster now. I guess maybe I was spending a lot of time focusing on his stories and analyzing what he had written about them. I guess now that I don't have to do that, I can just find a story I like, and move on a lot quicker. I'm just about to finish the longest chapter in the book (the one with 130 kanji), and this feels like it will be the big moment for me, as it will all be downhill from here

vosmiura Wrote:I found the push from 500 to 700 to be difficult, I guess because that's when Heisig's stories really ran out and it takes some getting used to. After that it was easy, until the last few chapters.

I noticed the same and was stuck for a loooooong while somewhere between the frames 650 - 700. Now I finally got the tempo back and passed 800 a couple of days ago. That huge chapter of 130 characters was quite a hurdle for me but now it's getting easier again.
Finally reached the downhill! Weee!!! ^_^

One day I'll think "Hey, almost 800... it's going faster than expected..." and another moment I'll think "Not even half way through..." ...

But I think it is a matter of time now, not "will I ever actually finish this?" ...

I just received my first Japanese book (book, no manga) and while I can't read it yet (it does have furigana on some things, but only on some...) it's the best motivation I've had in a while. I will be able to read it someday, I have to. That's my goal for now

Almost through the huge 130-kanji-lesson! (will do that today)

I absolutely loved this page:

http://kanji.koohii.com/progress.php

I'm the kind of guy that refuses to put down a book except at the end of a chapter, so my milestones were the lessons. I felt that surge of giddiness every time I took care of another lesson box. RTK can be really satisfying at times

akrodha Wrote:I'm the kind of guy that refuses to put down a book except at the end of a chapter, so my milestones were the lessons. I felt that surge of giddiness every time I took care of another lesson box. RTK can be really satisfying at times

I read you there!
The lesson boxes are one of the greatest motivational tools for me too. While "another 1200" might sound a bit overwhelming "another 60 (or whatever)" sound more like something you can handle. And reaching the goal gives the warm fuzzy feeling every time!

Zarxrax Wrote:I hit a slump around 400-500 also, but once I got up to about 600, It feels like things have really started to kick into high gear. Once heisig stopped writing stories for all the kanji, I just seem to move a lot faster now. I guess maybe I was spending a lot of time focusing on his stories and analyzing what he had written about them. I guess now that I don't have to do that, I can just find a story I like, and move on a lot quicker. I'm just about to finish the longest chapter in the book (the one with 130 kanji), and this feels like it will be the big moment for me, as it will all be downhill from here

We have a lot in common. I just finished the long 130 kanji chapter this morning, so it looks like we are at exactly the same point. I also feel that I move faster now that Heisig has stopped writing stories for me.

I lagged a bit around 600 or so. The chapter with all the "heart" kanjis was tough for me because all of the keywords were so abstract that it was hard for me to make up good stories for them. Once I hit "hands" and "fingers" it got a lot easier. Severed fingers are so easy to work with

Also, I'm starting to enjoy the *process* more and more... I always loved those weird scribbles (aka 'kanji') but now I'm just astonished by the logic behind some characters. I'm happy when I reach new primitives to work with and just... yeah... really enjoy it all. Creating stories, recognizing more and more kanji when reading something - it's only getting better so far.

The first part was hard, I struggled with the stories and most of all 'images' so much... But I'm also getting better at 'seeing' things in my thoughts. This does create some weird situations at times though When I imagine something in images when it's just really... awkward.

Keep going everyone

500 was great! just passed 600... ^_^ 1000 doesn't seem so far away!!

Congrats on reaching 500--I felt the same way.

I motivate myself by concentrating on reaching the nearest hundred. I'm about to hit 900. From there, 1000.

Hey, I started this thread back in February and I'm hitting 1000 today!

Double-ROOOOOOOARRRR with a backflip and a cherry on top!!

Here's what I find...

I've stopped thinking about it. I don't question the process, or how fast or easy it's gotten, or how long it takes or will take or might take. None of that.

I just do it. Out of pure, routine-driven habit. It's part of my routine. Alarm, breakfast, shower, kanji, out-the-door for work. I don't feel like it takes any more motivation or self-discipline than remembering to shave each day. A groove.

I'm not going fast. (Then, I do just half-an-hour a day.) But I *know* I will finish. In fact, I strongly suspect I will blow past 2042 and straight into RTK3 kanjis, because I dread the thought of having this little part of my routine taken away.

Slow and steady wins the race...

I feel like a lot of people in these forums post about how good RTK is for learning to remember things in general, or for imagination, or whatever. But I find that what it's really taught me is habit formation: that you *can* form a habit on purpose, and once you have it's harder to stop than to keep going. Now *that's* valuable.

Roar from me, hit 500

Let's hear it for the devil's metal, swords, spears and other POINTED things!

Roarrr! 577!

Lets aim for the 1000 now!