I'm at frame 1926 now.
Had to pause the last few days, was really busy and today and tomorrow I have to get the review pile down first. I hope to finish RTK1 by Sunday.

I had no internet for 2 weeks, so I had to work through the 2nd half of the book without this awesome site, but it worked out quite well.

Awesome news! You're coming up on the semi-finish line!

I just got back from like a week long break. I decided to build my first car and there were so many problems that it took up my whole thought process. Doing that and school distracted me from RTK for like a week or 2. Good thing i'm only up to like 850, and i only have 500 left to review. I almost thought I was a goner. After I finish up clearing out most of my review pile hopefully I can push through to at least 1500 before something like this happens again. Keep on keepin on people, it'll be worth it in the end.

I've just passed 1800, and I can see the end. Jesus Christ, I can't bloody wait. It's not that I'm sick of kanji or anything, it's just that it doesn't feel like I'm actually learning Japanese. But when I'm done - hopefully by the end of the month - I can finally start with the damned language again!

Having said that.....I left my copy of RTK at work, so I can't get it back 'til tomorrow. I feel utterly lost without it.

kazelee Wrote:

Ji_suss Wrote:Closing in on 600...did a big review after 500 to make it all stick, then a three day break before resuming.

That's around the number I first discovered this site. Have you been using this site the whole time?

LOL i just got your name

I started RTK a year ago and lost steam quite early. Was making my own cards. When I found this site in August, I started over. So i guess you can say I've been using it the whole time.

Re: my name: Hey, I'm just trying to suss out the Ji's! Any resemblance to deities real or imagined is entirely coincidental. ha ha

BTW My copies or RTK2 and 3 from Indigo Books were just delivered, so i guess I'm in it for the long haul!

I'm in it for the long haul!


I'll hold you to that

Remember: I know where you live... kinda... in a not really... sorta... type a... way.

Now at 617. It's taken about 5 weeks to get here from 350 or so... 300 to 400 was really hard, I think I found some of the primitives quite abstract and hard to work with. But busted through and it's been plain sailing since then! My aim is now to finish the book by the end of the year, so have to step up the pace a little bit...

After march, parade, Thanksgiving, quiver and other primitives...

Very happy to say I hit #400 today!

theasianpleaser Wrote:After march, parade, Thanksgiving, quiver and other primitives...

Very happy to say I hit #400 today!

Good job, those primitives sure are a pain... sort of makes me wonder why Heisig put them all in a row... I mean they are all similar so one way of thinking would be to get them all out of the way, but it would probably have been easier to keep them distinct by having them spaced out over the book.

theasianpleaser Wrote:After march, parade, Thanksgiving, quiver and other primitives...

Very happy to say I hit #400 today!

400 is right around that mark that causes a lot of resistance.

It's like that spot in running where you get a second wind. The most painful moment is right before you break through... then you just coast to the end.

kazelee Wrote:400 is right around that mark that causes a lot of resistance.

It's like that spot in running where you get a second wind. The most painful moment is right before you break through... then you just coast to the end.

That's so true. Around 400 I reviewed over and over again until I managed to finally get those characters in my head on a more permanent basis. And I just hit #500 today! After 400 I managed 100 kanji in a week since they are much easier to remember.

My brain gets tired from constant immersion and studying but it's awesome being able to understand so many more signs, notifications, etc.

Go kanji!!!!

theasianpleaser Wrote:

kazelee Wrote:400 is right around that mark that causes a lot of resistance.

It's like that spot in running where you get a second wind. The most painful moment is right before you break through... then you just coast to the end.

That's so true. Around 400 I reviewed over and over again until I managed to finally get those characters in my head on a more permanent basis. And I just hit #500 today! After 400 I managed 100 kanji in a week since they are much easier to remember.

My brain gets tired from constant immersion and studying but it's awesome being able to understand so many more signs, notifications, etc.

Go kanji!!!!

I'm counting on that second wind as I run my first marathon next weekend. Man, I hope that happens, cause after mile 18 or so it just sucks.

Once that's done with, I hope to be able to speed up a bit on my RtK study. I'm stuck in the mire of the 700s. Once it got to "crotch" it got a little easier though :-p

I'm only at 200. n_n;
I am trying a chapter a day though-I will eventually have to switch over to a smaller number.

Keep going theasianpleaser and gyuujuice... it does get a little easier after that point.

Just reached 864. Recognising a lot more text and signs around the place. Some chinese colleagues didn't believe I could recognise 800 kanji after 3 months and tried to test me... no problem. They took me more seriously after!

I got past the halfway point about a month ago, but then I stopped, moved to Japan, had a million things to do, etc. Now almost all of my cards are in the expired or failed stacks, and I lose the motivation to begin again when I see how big those orange review stacks are. On the bright side, I've noticed a huge improvement in my reading/writing speed and accuracy, even after only doing half of the first volume. Where do I begin? How do you stay motivated to keep going?

For me, motivation comes naturally after I read something and don't comprehend a large chunk of it. It reinforces in my mind my goals and I attack.

KristinHolly Wrote:I got past the halfway point about a month ago, but then I stopped, moved to Japan, had a million things to do, etc. Now almost all of my cards are in the expired or failed stacks, and I lose the motivation to begin again when I see how big those orange review stacks are. On the bright side, I've noticed a huge improvement in my reading/writing speed and accuracy, even after only doing half of the first volume. Where do I begin? How do you stay motivated to keep going?

Motivation and drive shouldn't be what sustains you through the process, rather, you should use your motivation and drive to set yourself up for success. This means you should put up a poster or victory board where you can mark your progress, then set a goal and maintain the habit.

My story was that the night before starting my method, I was totally fired up about learning the kanji. So I prepared all my materials, brought my whiteboard up from the garage, calculated how much I would do a day (fifty) and marked on the calender when I expected to finish.

Then I set a habit of getting up at the same time everyday and going swimming. I'd come in a review as much kanji as I could during breakfast. At 10:30 on the dot I would get started with kanji learning. I did this for forty of my fifty days. Not because I was totally fired up to do it, it was often incredibly hard for me to keep it up, but because I was in the habit. It was easier for me to continue because I was just so used to doing it.

My biggest motivation was that it's a finite task. There is an end, and the sooner you get to the end, the better. Unfortunately the rest of Japanese doesn't have this motivation going for it. My next finite goal is to finish KO.

915 today. Should hit the halfway mark by the end of the week.

Haven't seen too many status updates recently... hope people are too busy learning kanji!

395 婿bridegroom. One of the stranger stories I used.

警admonish, 討chastise, 諭rebuke are pretty hard to keep apart...the meanings are close. Wonder how people did it.

I'll admit I thought that admonition was positive in meaning. In fact I have the total opposite in mind. So when it came up and I found the real meaning, the conflicts between the two meaning I'd learned helped me out, though, this is one of the few that still bother me.

As for chastise and rebuke.

I picture chastising as like between a mother and child. Something critical but not too overbearing. It's critical but still a bit of warmth. Like "I'm saying these words for your own good, so you'd better make them stick in your mind."

I picture rebuke as like when a fiery preacher curses whomever or whatever. It's serious. Like I'll kill you serious. It has a lot of weight to it. It almost brings up feelings fear. It's extremely tense and passionate. It's like "I'll ***** cut you ***** idoit! Godddammit! I... will... *****... cut youuuuu... !"

Forgive the verbage, but keeping these feelings in mind are what helped me sort out these meaning. Thinking about the feeling and the situation are also what helps me keep other similar word separate.

Hmm, but "rebuke" is not really that violent. If anything, "chastise" is more severe: think of monks chastising their flesh by lashing themselves. "Admonish" has more of the sense of a warning, and also a hint of instruction. A lecturer might admonish his students to pay better attention if they want to pass the course. And "rebuke" is very close to admonish, except it's usually... hm, more personal. Admonishment is impersonal, whereas a rebuke has more feelings involved. You might be rebuked for being rude.

Here's how I associate them with kanji:
Admonish contains "awe" (both As)
Rebuke has "bu" in it, like the "butcher" primitive with the flesh and knives
Chastise I substitute "chastity", and the "glue" is what holds the chastity belt closed.

These are all contrived, but on the other hand they work for me. YMMV of course.

Quote:Hmm, but "rebuke" is not really that violent.

If you ever saw an insane evangelist you might think otherwise.

No matter. I was just illustrating a point.

Hey, I grew up in the land of insane evangelists... but what they do isn't rebuking. More like ranting. But as you say, no matter. I never used a saber to measure a lobster :-) The image is what counts.

Finally met a group of Japanese students at the local coffee shop, which is a rarity here in Alabama, and I think they've taken a liking to me lol. They've asked me out to dinner and then to play pool last night.

Anyways, they gave me a huge confidence boost. After hearing that I had learned over 1,200 Kanji in just 2 months they decided to sort of test my claim. Needless to say they were quite amazed as was I. In fact I was even writing Kanji that THEY couldn't identify lol. It was so reassuring to know that most of Heisigs keywords are in fact a darn accurate representation of the general idea that a native Japanese thinks of when seeing an individual Kanji. For almost every Kanji they wrote the keyword I stated was met with an almost immediate confirmation as being correct.

In fact one of the girls even got me to write down the name of the book and this website because SHE wants to try it out. If that doesn't say something I don't know what does.