I use Core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary
My card layout is recognition

Japanese word with Kanji > reading & english meaning

I have done 1,053 as of today. I actually did rushed a little bit since in the beginning there were so many words I already know so I just click easy making my reviews piled up.I also have finished RTK 1 and do still review it.I am now wanting to go in the steady pace and have some questions.

1. Is 50 new cards every day okay? I wish to go like 75 everyday but is it possible to retain them?

2.How many cards should I limit to review.....Should I limit them to a certain number or just input 999999 so I will do all reviews that are due during that day.

3. After finishing Core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary I would like to move on to Core 2k/6k/10K Further Optimized PIC/SOUND/PITCH ACCENT v23(https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/702754122). I heard this decks has some duplicate cards.....does it? And would doing this be that useful in a sense these words will appear commonly when reading japanese materials.

4. I heard people don't rely anymore of Heisig's keywords when learning the core2/6k since its just like memorizing 2042 japanese alphabets. But me my self when seeing a words like 図書館 I tend to think of what keywords do they comprise of then remember it. But some words wont really click when I do this . So I tend to rely on the kanji pronunciation. So is it okay if I still use heisigs keywords if not is there any other approaches I can take?

Is it okay to learn 50 new words every day? 75?

It depends on you. This will put you at several hundreds of reviews every day in not too long. If you have enough time and as long as you have a decent retention, there is nothing stopping you.
I tried combining hard university studies with learning 35 words a day about a month ago. I found that it drained me of energy, and also I had shit retention. This improved when I went over to 20 words a day and doing both production and recognition cards instead of just production (which is what you are doing).
(currently I am doing 350 cards per day + new cards)

"How many cards should I limit to review.":
Again, depends on you. If you don't want to do more than a set number of reviews each day, then set some sort of limit. If you want to finish all reveiws, just set it high. Not a big deal.

3. I personally hated this deck. It introduces words like 何とか、何しろ、なんとなく、どうも、どうにか right after each other. The problem is that some of them have very similar meanings and for me it's impossible to keep them apart if they come so close to each other. This is of course a problem that arises from the fact that this deck sorts vocab items close to each other by what kanji they use.

Other than that my only general complaint on Core6000 is that they introduce a million words with almost exacty the same English keywords. For example 高等、高度、高級、上級 which all four have (amongst others) the English keyword "high level". (My worst nightmare in the whole world would be learning these words by the i+1 deck that I discussed above)
Another disadvantage about Core6000 is their maniac obsession with financial vocabulary. I mean, who needs to know the words for sales, business, finacial, finance, public finance, economy, head of department, etc. in their first month of learning Japanese? It's rediculous! I'm a normal guy, I don't attend business school. I don't give a scheiße about the difference between finance and business.

4. Of course.

Slow and steady beats everything. Even if you can manage to learn 50 new words a day it means nothing once you end up burning out and quitting. Say what you will but with 50 new words a day the chances of this happening are higher than if you limited yourself to 20 words a day or so.

For me it doesn't really matter that words have similar meanings. I don't have to get them 100% right in Anki anyway, getting close to the goal is enough. Whatever nuance I am missing or have gotten wrong will be corrected when I start reading real Japanese anyhow. I just end up putting them all in the same general "box" which actually makes them easier to learn.

The financial vocabulary on the other hand is easy to suspend & ignore, so I don't think it's a disadvantage at all.

As someone who just finished Core 10k a few days ago, here's what the last few weeks of adding 50+ cards daily looked like:
[Weeks before completion] = approx. total # cards
3 = 900 cards + 50 new cards
2 = 1000 cards + 50 new cards
1 = 1100 cards + 50 new cards.

I was spending 2-3 hours daily, just flipping through Anki reviews. Of course, this is probably close to the upper bound, but just be aware that this is a possible scenario.

I have about 80% retention on mature cards. Honestly, do fewer flashcards and diversify activities more. Even if it's 20-30 day, you'll end up with more time to spend on grammar, listening, reading, etc., which helps a lot more than just doing Anki alone.

One thing about the deck - it's an amazing starting tool. Yes, there are a lot of similar words but I found it amusing how many words there were for judgement/decision. And then stuff like "vehicle free promenade" and "upper case letter" are supposed to be frequently used gave me a laugh.

I didn't limit my reviews. I don't really understand the point of it (besides obviously limiting your time in Anki, which is good if you can't spare the time). If a card is due, then it's due, right? And if you don't review it, you're losing some of the benefits of SRS, IMO.

As for Heisig...to be honest, I did half the book, and then dumped it. Since you've already finished it, you might as well use what you can. Honestly, you'll see the words so often, you'll just start to pick it up unconsciously. One "trick" I do is to make mental images of each compound, and make a story, or just separate them.

Kuzunoha13 Wrote:One thing about the deck - it's an amazing starting tool. Yes, there are a lot of similar words but I found it amusing how many words there were for judgement/decision.

I noticed that too. So far, words relating to that word is the most I've seen. I can't tell the damn difference and I don't care. As long as I know it. The second most frequently appearing homonyms would probably be variations of status/circumstance, and various forms of words relating to management.

It's not a secret but the Core series is so obviously derived from newspapers. The beginning was filled with business terms (management, profit, trade etc), then it moved to political terms (prime minister, political power, democracy etc) then it moved to where I currently am: legal terms (the decision/judgment words really came in force here + plaintiff, defendant, lawsuit, appeal, compensation etc). Maybe sport terms will be next. I think it took a while into the Core series before I even saw [kana]mahou[/kana], the first word I would see in anime or video games.

One other thing I noticed is that so far, there weren't as many x-y-x-y words as I was expecting. You know words like tokidoki, korokoro and surusuru. I know these words are indispensable in the language but I'm guessing they don't show up as much in newspapers so if one wanted a well-rounded knowledge of the language, then Core might have a deficit of these kinds of words.

Kuzunoha13 Wrote:And then stuff like "vehicle free promenade" and "upper case letter" are supposed to be frequently used gave me a laugh.

If Core is a representation of the 10,000 most frequently used words in Japanese, then a few of those words do seem strange to me. I can't remember any examples at the moment. Thankfully I only rarely feel that sentiment so Core doesn't feel like a waste of time.

Kuzunoha13 Wrote:As someone who just finished Core 10k a few days ago, here's what the last few weeks of adding 50+ cards daily looked like:
[Weeks before completion] = approx. total # cards
3 = 900 cards + 50 new cards
2 = 1000 cards + 50 new cards
1 = 1100 cards + 50 new cards.

I was spending 2-3 hours daily, just flipping through Anki reviews. Of course, this is probably close to the upper bound, but just be aware that this is a possible scenario.

I average around 25-50 cards a day + about 200 to 300 reviews (if I did a bunch of new cards the previous few days) a day. I always do new cards multiple times on the first day (for example I see a new card, then I'll see that same card 5 minutes later, then 2 hours or whatever later, then again the next day). I don't do 100 or more new cards like I did with Core 6000 though because Core6k is easier. I can divide and conquer Core6k 100 new cards a day. I can't do the same for Core10k. I nearly always finish the reviews before I do a new card (or do some new cards in the middle and at the end). On a good day, it takes me 10-15 minutes to go through 100 reviews. I aim to guess the reading/meaning in 10 seconds or less. Or 20 seconds if I'm going easy on myself. On a bad day, my mind wonders and I take longer. If it is quiet, I can do it faster. If there are car and people noises, then it goes slower. If the distractions are too loud, then I just stop doing Core. Unless it is Core 6000 (my Core 6k and Core4k are separated decks) then I am familiar enough to do Core 6k in good speed, even with distractions.

My biggest strength right now is probably guessing at readings of new vocab, although some of the non-standard readings that are popping up recently are quite annoying (like 黒子 - try guessing the reading, you'll be wrong. Try to guess the meaning too, you'll be wrong again). However, I still suck at guessing most meanings of new vocab unless the combination of Kanji is so obvious that the meaning can be guessed easily.

I thought I would stop at Core 6000 but I continued with Core 10,000. I would definitely stop at 10k though. 10k has given me a very nice bank of words to work with. After 10k, I'll go continue my vocab quest alone. Also I already had about 2000 of my own custom made vocab decks so in total, I should have 12,000 words at the end. Plenty enough for native material finally.

I do have a complaint: I'm using Ankidroid and it says that I have 1000+ new cards left so I have nearly no idea how much I have left. My milestone will be when that 1000+ turns into 999.

Thx for all the wonderful advices.They sure have quelled my doubts.

So what I'm doing now is doing 75-100 new cards + all due reveiws everyday. Im gonna pile my reviews but I don't mind for I have lots of time to spare.I may have a burnout but I want to finish Core as fast as possible and review those words that are really hard.I am also still reveiwing RTK 1 usong this website and maybe Ill stop next month.I also have read native japanese(with the use of computer dictionaries) materials for a long while so I wont have to really worry of grammar. Also I heard the first 2000 will be a pain but after that would be a breeze.Sure glad to hear that.

As to regarding those business terms I'll probably would to them as you never know you might need them.I have also decided after Core 2/6 k I'll most probably do some sentence and word mining from native reading material.

Say what you like about the Core6k but it does contain some valuable cultural information.

For example, the Japanese tend to injure their fingers a lot.

Useful to know if you plan to visit.