KristinHolly Wrote:Cameron, that's such a nice idea! I've been using your kanji wallpaper for my desktop, too. Thank you for putting this together; it's one more reason to push through the book sooner rather than later.

Oh wow, someone actually uses my wallpapers? After reading what you wrote I decided to post up some new ones which you can check out here:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid33432

I'm up to 214 in less than two weeks. Not too bad I think ?

cameron_en Wrote:

KristinHolly Wrote:Cameron, that's such a nice idea! I've been using your kanji wallpaper for my desktop, too. Thank you for putting this together; it's one more reason to push through the book sooner rather than later.

Oh wow, someone actually uses my wallpapers? After reading what you wrote I decided to post up some new ones which you can check out here:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid33432

I'm using your kanji wallpaper -- the 1280x1024 2042 version. I might change to the 3007 version once I transition from book RTK1 to RTK3.

TerryS Wrote:

askayscha Wrote:So far I can probably confidently write and identify the meanings of 200 kanji.
I am not proud of myself, yet.
I miss out too many days due to exam pressure GCSE's... I am not dedicating my time to KANJI! I feel crap seeing all you guys succeed and stick your head in there and do it while I sit here and do....nothing.

My plan at the beginning was to do 30 a day, and be finished in 52 days, not working out at the moment, I either can't find the time, or I am just not bothered to do them. I know I have to do them, and that those reps have to be done. But after a tough day at work, school, exams, I can't bring myself to sit down and do it. I try to compensate by keeping my audio input as japanese as possible.

Someone tell me what a failure I am and I will study harder!

(time of the months, boys. red carpet.)

No, you are not a failure, but I have some advice (being a student myself):

1) You will not be able to do any kanji at all some days. It sucks, but you are not lazy, so just suck it up.

2) Do even a few kanji or just come here and do review when you can. It will help you retain and you will feel better.

3) A day you have time off, do 25 kanji once in a while if you can.

4) Don't worry about days you can't do any. It will happen, but you will still learn your kanji. Don't compare yourself to others.

thanks Terry.
I am trying to catch up, I'm on the mid 300's now.
THANKS AGAIN! :D

plumage Wrote:askayacha, is it at all possible to tweak your schedule so you go to bed a little earlier, get up a little earlier, and do your rtk before classes? I tend to do my rtk before work in the morning, and it keeps me regular. On days when I'm not able to do it in the morning, I am more likely to blow it off entirely or to have a really bad time with remembering late in the evening or whatever, when I'm tired. I'm also more likely to maybe just do reviews/fails and not add new cards.

This is actually really good advice. Doing my RTK in the morning has really helped me.

well, i havent added any kanji in what feels like forever...probably over a month. same with reviews...i was realllly behind...but just now i finally caught up. now i'm working on failed pile/adding new cards...again. that probably doesn't seem like much "progress" but i'm pretty proud that im getting back on track.

Hey guys how are your stacks going? I'm at 300 kanji right now and slowing down because my failed stack is getting higher and I can't get rid of these bad stories i've already nailed into my head ><" I keep making the same mistakes and its very discouraging. Today i bought myself a manga fpr encouragementso I flicked through n felt happy to know i can recognise some kanji =D Next few days i'm taking a break and just going to work on my failed stack for a while...solidify what i know before moving on further =(

I'm trying what i can to avoid burn out early on ><"

btw i feel i'm doing something wrong....is it ok that my stack sort of looks pyramidal. stack one is 38, stack 2 is 156 and stack 3 is 61. When i used to keep adding cards stack one was the second highest. =/ I should be getting progressively better instead shouldnt i? -.-'

You are doing great Flocon. It seems you are doing much better than I did. How is your fail rate? How many are you adding/day?

My pass rate was allmost never above 80%, generaly around the ~60%, and, in the end, it turned out ok.

The trick is ignore what takes your motivation away and focus on the good things. Never let your pace down.

FloconDeNeige Wrote:I'm trying what i can to avoid burn out early on ><"

IMO working through a burnout is key to building the kind of mental toughness it will take to defeat the quest for Japanese fluency. Doing something when it is the last thing in the world you want to do is how you make something a habit instead of just a "thing" that you do. Look at burnout as a challenge. The more you fight through it the easier it becomes to fight through the next time. It also works in reverse. The more you give in to burnout because you think you need to "take a break" the easier it is for you to make excuses the next time.

Flocon, i recommend my own technique: Always clear your failed pile before you go to bed. NEVER let it build up. As long as your stories are decent you don't have to rework them, just visualize them clearer.

mentat_kgs
Thanks! my fail rate changes all the time pretty drastically. At one session it was 27% other times its as high as 100% but my most common would be 60-80something% everytime.

activeaero Wrote:IMO working through a burnout is key to building the kind of mental toughness it will take to defeat the quest for Japanese fluency. Doing something when it is the last thing in the world you want to do is how you make something a habit instead of just a "thing" that you do. Look at burnout as a challenge. The more you fight through it the easier it becomes to fight through the next time. It also works in reverse. The more you give in to burnout because you think you need to "take a break" the easier it is for you to make excuses the next time.

You know what? i've never looked at it like that before =O! It actually makes a lot of sense o.O"

Tobberoth
Ah yes I did that for a while. tried clearing away my pile but then i left it until it got to as high as 50 and I figured enough is enough -.-' I'm actually slowly shaving it down to size, because i read some stories but don't put it into the learned pile yet until i come back a hour or at the end of the day and be able to recall it. It might not be a suggested method but sometimes when i learn it the first time i'm hardly concentrating ><" I'm a little ADD like that

-------
Guys I think you've helped me avoid the procrastination I never saw coming.
<3
many thanks
mwa!

I just started today. Well, a few hours ago. [It's okay, I don't believe in sleep! And I had a... few... shots of espresso.] [Heehee, it's 4 am!] [Oh fork, it's 4 am. ]

I am *just a bit* motivated; my parents are thinking of a trip to Japan for Spring Break [about 3.5 months from now]. I've always been into Japanese, and had a flirtation with it two years ago. I kept my materials from then, and I've kept it in the back of my head, too. So when they brought up the idea, I immediately went 'Oh, crepe! YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW JAPANESE!', and decided to start learning again. Went to how-to-learn-any-language, from there to AJATT, and from there to here. Checked out the book's samples, ordered it, got started.

I just charged through the first 94 kanji in this manner: Write down all the kanji from a section on notecards; the front has the keyword and a CONDENSED/EDITED story on it [HUNDRED: ONE + WHITE; SUN'S SPAN is from HORIZON to HORIZON; freudian SWORD and MOUTH; etc], and the back has the kanji and the stroke order. Then I put them in again in Anki. I go over the flashcards from kword-> kanji, writing down the kanji and checking to be sure I'm correct; then I do the same with Anki. For 100 kanji, this took about 3 or 4 hours, but with oodles of slacking. Need to stop that.

Even in the flashcard go-round, I seem to be accurate [on one occasion, I miss-wrote Sword as Blade, and thus added an extra mark; I put parts in the wrong position on occasion, but not often; etc]; on the Anki go-round, I've only missed 2 out of the hundred so far every other I can either recall the entire mnemonic, [even without looking at the hint] and start writing within a second, or within a few seconds I've got it figured out. I suppose I'll be continuing at this clip; after all, school gets out on break this week, so I'll have plenty of time. I might even speed up for a bit, since I will have -no-obligations, and I suspect my rate will drop when I have to make stories. My goal, at least, is to be over halfway by the New Year, and preferably FINISHED, or nearly-so. So about 110 a day from now on. Well, a little more, since I can't go past 274 on Monday [my physical copy will arrive Tuesday afternoon]

It happens that I have a couple of children's books [in kana, with a little tiny bit of kanji], magazines [some fashion, cosmode, gothic & lolita], origami manuals [!?!], and manga [Legend of Zelda, Doraemon], and a number of textbooks/aids, so I suppose the day I finish, I'm going to begin sentence-mining.

The only thing I've got to worry about, I guess, would be burn-out. Though I've found the first 100 or so kanji enjoyable, and kinda fun [I giggled like an idiot about the Shellfish], and I'm a little sad to have to cut myself off [but I need to keep a steady pace], I suppose burn-out is a distinct possibility. I think I can ward it off by also doing a little bit of reading/looking-at some of the stuff I have, [especially that LoZ manga, I recall it being above my abilities two years ago, but I think the kanji work will remedy that] and realizing that I'm DEFINITELY making progress.

I suppose this was mostly to get my thoughts sorted out. I think it's reasonable... Heh.

I had a dip last few days. While reviewing I got really low percentages and I didn't get any new kanji in my head. I felt quite bad about it. But lukily now I'm going as fast as I used to again!
I think my lack of sleep was to blame.
419 kanji (1623 to go ^^)

You've just jumped a difficult hurdle. KUDOOS

Broke through number 1000 today! /patontheback

cloudstrife543 Wrote:Broke through number 1000 today! /patontheback

Keep up the good work almost there!! the rest will be easy

Daaaaayummmmm, this is already helping, and I'm only at 274 [as of last night... this morning... Um, would midnight be yesterday or today?]. I have a Legend of Zelda manga, and I actually recognized some of the kanji. It was AWESOME. I was super excited. Then I had to stop translated and put it away 'cause I was in class. ^^; heh.

I just started playing FFXII in Japanese, and it's definitely getting me motivated to start working on the kanji hardcore again (I've been slacking ), since I have a lot of free time until January when college starts back up for me.

Currently on 290, and I hope to break 300 by the end of today. The more I do this, the more possible Heisig's method seems.

1300 today... but wow motivation is dropping and I don't feel like working hours on Heisig everyday

etpan Wrote:1300 today... but wow motivation is dropping and I don't feel like working hours on Heisig everyday

Nah you cant give up now your at 1300 its all downhill from there your past half way

So close etpan. Best of luck to you.

etpan Wrote:1300 today... but wow motivation is dropping and I don't feel like working hours on Heisig everyday

It was the same for me, around 1300 is probably the worst part. Far to go, not fun anymore, quite a bit of reviews everyday... guh. If I remember correctly, the majority of the kanji in that part are boring too.

But keep going! In 200 kanji you'll hit 1500 and THAT'S when motivation hits you. After 1500, i did 40 new kanji every day, before I barely did 20.

take a week off. it feels great. do reviews everyday, but make sure you do not stress over not adding any new cards. after the week is up you'll want to add many cards...this is a great feeling. but afterwards, reward yourself with single days off, once a week. Looking back on the process, I still cannot believe I did reviews everyday for 6 months. Only three times did I go more than a few days without doing reviews. That is actually crazy to think about. But i went many, many, many days where I didn't add anything. It took just shy of 6 months for me to complete, but I am also a Ph.D. student, and have a lot of other things going on. I recommend keeping your life diverse.

Tobberoth Wrote:

etpan Wrote:1300 today... but wow motivation is dropping and I don't feel like working hours on Heisig everyday

It was the same for me, around 1300 is probably the worst part. Far to go, not fun anymore, quite a bit of reviews everyday... guh. If I remember correctly, the majority of the kanji in that part are boring too.

But keep going! In 200 kanji you'll hit 1500 and THAT'S when motivation hits you. After 1500, i did 40 new kanji every day, before I barely did 20.

Exactly the same experience that i had hit a wall at 1300 took me absolutely ages to get to 1500 once their I gained my motivation back and was doing as many as I could each day.