Hi all! This is my first post in this forum. I am hoping to get some advice on balancing typical Japanese study methods (reading native materials, Anki reviews, JLPT prep. books, simulated immersion, etc) with RTK1.

I've been studying Japanese for about 2.5 years now, though the past year is when I really decided that attaining Japanese fluency is a must for me. For the past year have been I've using Anki and adding the top 2k words/example sentences in my Japanese frequency dictionary as well as any vocab, kanji, and grammar I didn't already have down cold from Genki. I've also been writing on lang-8 and skyping on italki for an average of 15-20 hours of Japanese per week. I'm extremely happy with my progress this past year. I recently started going through the 新完全マスターJLPT N2 books, but have realized that I'm hitting a brick wall with my Anki kanji reviews. This has led me to RTK.

I initially planned on forgoing all my other study methods (except passive listening/jdrama) in order to get through RTK in 2-3 months after which I would return to my Anki deck and JLPT books. Heisig seems to advise against combining RTK with traditional kanji study methods.

Even after 1 week of doing ONLY RTK, I feel that the absence of reading Japanese and speaking it aloud will be detrimental after the 2-3 months it will take to complete RTK. I'm now thinking about spreading out RTK over a longer period to allow time each week to continue with my other study methods/Anki deck.

Has anyone else picked up RTK while at an intermediate/advanced level? How did you go about incorporating it into your other study methods? Any suggestions would be much appreciated =)

Hi, QTmoto.

First, are you planning on doing only RTK 1, or 1+3?

I started RTK in the beginning, but, even though I've already finished it, I neglected my reviews, and it shows. So I'm basically reviewing them again, almost from scratch. I'm also an intermediate learner. My advice to you: spread the reviews out, and keep doing what you are doing. Progress is very important. Even though there are times when I stopped doing any active studying and just passively listened and watched without necessarily seeing any setbacks, I didn't really improve, either. So if it has been working well for you, and judging from your post, it very much has, don't stop now.

Sometimes re-starting your studies after a break is the biggest hurdle, rather than just plugging along from the get go.

Or you could do your RTK in 2-3 months. If you're only doing RTK 1 then 2-3 months is very doable and you can also do Anki reviews, or read, write journals, skype, etc. The only difference is that you're going to scale down the intensity somewhat, but not all that much.

Whichever route you decide on, at least keep reviewing and going over what you've already covered, if you're not going to be introducing additional material. But don't stop completely.

Hope that answered your question.

I was at an intermediate level when I picked up RTK. (I narrowly failed JLPTN2 before and narrowly passed JLPTN2 after picking up RTK, iirc. Anyway around that 'barely N2' level when I did.)

I just took RTK straight, making a lot of my own stories, occasionally using the site's stories or Heisig's stories. I did a lot of audio practice and kana-only or very lightly kanji reading practice in deference to Heisig's advice.

In retrospect, I think as someone who already can read Japanese somewhat, and already knows Japanese somewhat, you shouldn't worry about that so much. Just go from the beginning with Japanese keywords instead of English - you should already have a previously known vocabulary word for most kanji, and it shouldn't be hard to add a vocabulary word for some that you don't.

I went through RTK1 first with English keywords and then am reworking my deck with Japanese keywords, which feels pretty darn inefficient.

If you search around there should be at least one premade Anki deck with Japanese keywords for RTK1, but I didn't find it useful - as much as possible I want my keyword to be a word I already know, or a word that is a really good keyword for the kanji, or ideally both at the same time. Nobody else's list of words can match my personal vocabulary and personal 'story ideas' for kanji keywords.

Fwiw, my format for japanese keyword cards looks like,
Front: 世界いち番
Back: 一、世界一番: #1 in the world
(and then a triple-size stroke-order font of the key kanji.)

I don't actually have a card for いち, I suspended all the numbers, heh, but that's the idea. The English translation is kinda just-in-case. You never know what seems obvious now that you might forget later.

YMMV, as always.

It's worth reading and taking to heart the intro to RTK. Do it in English straight and as fast as a possible. Write them don on paper every time you answer the Anki deck/ use a flip card.

So many of the stories to these are plays on the English keywords that, and making up the stories takes so much time, that it is not worth trying to reinvent the wheel.

The goal is not to learn to read, but to come to be able to write and know ~2000 kanji. Once you do that, eveything about Japanese changes. SO don't do anything, especially trying to find Japanese use for the kanji first time through.

As a side note, English keyword mean that Chinese is just easy.

I appreciate all the helpful feedback! It's encouraging to be reminded that everyone finds their own groove/methods that work for them.

For the time being I am planning on going through RTK1 only. Given the different feedback, and what I was originally leaning towards, I am going to try spreading out my RTK studies so I can simultaneously continue with my existing Anki deck. I agree restarting that aspect of my study 2-3 months from now will be much more difficult than continuing it in a toned down manner. Given my work schedule, RTK in this manner will likely take me ~5 months which is longer than desired, but I don't like the idea of dropping my other study methods as they've been quite helpful to this point. Nothing is set in stone though, and I will modify as I need to along the way.

SomeCallMeChris - Thank you for your detailed explanation/example of using Japanese keywords. I can see the worth in this, however given my work/life schedule I don't see myself having the time to devote to this task. Nevertheless, thank you and good luck on your RTK reboot!

Woodsei and kapalama - Thank you as well. Your advice seems to resonate with my gut feeling about how to proceed with RTK.

I don't have any specific advice, but I think it's a mistake to stop maintaining knowledge that you've spent so much time learning. Of course it would be easier to learn the second time, but forgetting and relearning is less efficient than just continuing your anki reviews while studying RTK. I think Heisig's recommendation for not mixing other methods with RTK is overblown, but decent advice for beginners. You aren't a beginner, so I doubt your situation is what he had in mind when he wrote that.

yogert909 Wrote:I don't have any specific advice, but I think it's a mistake to stop maintaining knowledge that you've spent so much time learning. Of course it would be easier to learn the second time, but forgetting and relearning is less efficient than just continuing your anki reviews while studying RTK. I think Heisig's recommendation for not mixing other methods with RTK is overblown, but decent advice for beginners. You aren't a beginner, so I doubt your situation is what he had in mind when he wrote that.

The point of what he is saying is that coming to an intuitive grasp on how Kanji fit together, get abbreiaviated/simplifed only comes once you have 2000 kanji banging around in there. Until you pack them all in you are trying to learn kanji/reading and vocab which basically stops forward progress dead.

I spoke nothing but Japanese, could read and write the forms I used every day, but until I discovered RTK (and more importantly this site) Kanji did not stick. And that's with me just attaching new Kanji to words I could already use.

Watching me process and learn new Kanji has impressed even Japanese people with its logic. As they said "Why didn't we learn Kanji this way? It's not fair."