Hi...my first post here.

Well I recently reached the 500 mark and have realised just how awesome this site is for finding geat stories. A lot of the stories are sticking really well.

Being 1/4 the way is a bit daunting after taking about a month to get this far, although it did not help that I had christmas in the middle of my studies.

Still I must push on!

Only a month? That's pretty good!
It took me a few months to get to 500.

Koos83 Wrote:Only a month? That's pretty good!
It took me a few months to get to 500.

It's all a matter of motivation and enthusiasm. I downed my first 220 characters in like 1 week (admittedly, knowing quite a handful of them prior to RTK), but my rate dropped later and I even had to stop somewhere around the middle.
Now, with only about 10% of RTK1 unstudied, I can't get enough kanji, and only keep resonable amount of intake to prevent my reviews from becoming overwhelming.

SugaHOLiC Wrote:It looks like I'm in need of some encouragement:

I started RKT in the beginning of this year. I had reached #1317 but I ran into a problem... Due to RTK boredom and my lack of motivation I stopped RTK in June and had plans to start up again in September, but school got in the way and I never could get back into it. Now, I have come to the conclusion that I NEED TO FINNISH RTK NO MATTER WHAT AND I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO FINISH. Since I have not studied in so long, and I know I forgot most of the Kanji I learned, I have started the process all over again. I'm moving at a slow, but steady rate of 10 per-day/other day. Whenever I feel like adding Kanji I'll do so but I review everyday. So far, since I just started a few days ago, I've only gotten up to #50 but I say that considering I'm proud of my progress.

I'm really disappointed in myself that I stopped RTK, esp since I was so into it, and it made me really upset what I became burnt out, but I was to finish really bad. To me, it is part of my future and where I see myself, so I need to keep going. I know I can do it this time, I will let nothing stop me. I need to look forward! One. Step. At. A. Time.

Kay

Come now, if you've been all the way to 1300, you should remember quite a bunch of characters, especially at the low frame numbers. Try studying for time rather thank for number of kanji. Some characters are hard, and some are practically free (ie 日、月、水、火、時). Don't be surprised if you can go well over 50characters/hour depending on how solid they were when you stopped.

unauthorized Wrote:

Koos83 Wrote:Only a month? That's pretty good!
It took me a few months to get to 500.

It's all a matter of motivation and enthusiasm. I downed my first 220 characters in like 1 week (admittedly, knowing quite a handful of them prior to RTK), but my rate dropped later and I even had to stop somewhere around the middle.
Now, with only about 10% of RTK1 unstudied, I can't get enough kanji, and only keep resonable amount of intake to prevent my reviews from becoming overwhelming.

Not just a matter of motivation and enthusiasm, also a matter of free time and energy. I was working fulltime when I did this, and anyone who has ever been a teacher knows you come home with no energy left. So even though I had the motivation and the enthusiasm, I also had the frustration of lacking the energy. Which is why I am trying to get to 1500 by the end of these holidays and hopefully be able to do 10 a day when I start work again.

Koos83 Wrote:Come now, if you've been all the way to 1300, you should remember quite a bunch of characters, especially at the low frame numbers. Try studying for time rather thank for number of kanji. Some characters are hard, and some are practically free (ie 日、月、水、火、時). Don't be surprised if you can go well over 50characters/hour depending on how solid they were when you stopped.

Thanks for the motivation. I'm figuring that I'll breeze through a lot of the Kanji as they come back to me, but I want to start slow for now and just work at it on my own pace. ^_^

Kay

Haha not exactly a quote by me. :lol: I was like: When did I say that??
It was unauthorized.

You *will* breeze through, and they *will* come back to you.

My first lapse with RTK was just before the 500 mark. It was before I discovered SRS or RevTK, so I was doing it all by hand, with flashcards and a graph paper notebook. Needless to say, I burned out quickly, and burned out hard. Didn't want to touch Heisig, even about it, for months. When I came back to it after finding this site, I was surprised at how much I retained.
Second time I lapsed was around that 1300 mark. That was an energy burnout. Pushed too hard, too fast; not enough attention to the stories. Ended up getting swamped with reviews and discouraged. But again, after I got my head straight it was easy to pick it up and move on. And I did move on, to finish RTK and start enjoying the actual study of Japanese.

The kanji will always be there. No point in feeling bad about what you should have done before, or thinking too hard about what you haven't done yet--that's wasted energy. Take that energy and use it to attack the problem at hand. Do what you can in the present moment, and move forward. You'll be there before you know it.

I've been working on RtK1 for a few weeks now, and I just passed #200... it seems to me I'm going at a much slower pace than most people here. I sometimes take as long as 10+ minutes thinking about a certain story/kanji in order to cement it in my mind. The good news, though, is that I seem to be remembering them all pretty darn well - much better than when I used to learn them by rote, anyways.

I'm so glad I found this website. It's nice to know that there are others out there using the RtK books. Good luck to everyone on their kanji learning ventures!

Don't worry; in the beginning it takes that long to get a story in your mind right; after a while you will breeze through. When I had just started I was exhausted after doing 25, now my record is 87 in one day (I've passed 1500).

Still, to me it feels like I've just started. XD I can't believe I'm over 3/4 already!

I got up to 900ish, had a 2 weeks break, had 300 expired and already about 80 failed, and now I have 100 failed and 230 expired. I feel so unmotivated to continue...

vinniram Wrote:I got up to 900ish, had a 2 weeks break, had 300 expired and already about 80 failed, and now I have 100 failed and 230 expired. I feel so unmotivated to continue...

Haha. You're lucky, I have 1013 expired and 445 failed... welcome to finishing RTK and then not keeping up with it.

vinniram Wrote:I got up to 900ish, had a 2 weeks break, had 300 expired and already about 80 failed, and now I have 100 failed and 230 expired. I feel so unmotivated to continue...

Take it in time frames rather than number of kanji. Focus on the expired ones first, get them out of the way. Say: I'll do this for 15 minutes (that will get about 50 or so out of the way). After you've got them all out of the way in a few days, tackle the failed ones, also for 15 minutes or so at a time. Gradually, you will catch up! Don't let it get even further behind; catch up to it now, finish it and then you'll have to review less and less afterwards.

So after months of irregular kanji binges, I've gotten into the rhythm again. This time, I'll see it through to the end! I just passed 900, and hope to hit the halfway mark this weekend.

Good luck everybody, you can make it!

Huh, looks like tonight might be my final night with RTK. Obviously not the final night of reviews, but final night of just straight-up going through the book. So yeah, need to get ready for the last 116 characters. The last two chapters are both kinda long ones, though. Hate that. I dug the visual break that short chapters would give.

For a couple of days, I did 130+... I think the highest was like, 170 something? So doing 116 in one day isn't awful at all. Still, it's the end of the book! If this is anything like a videogame (which it isn't), these oughta be the hardest 116 kanji! They probably won't be, though. I hope some interesting radicals show themselves, though there can't be too many left. I love renaming radicals, like flag -> pee, thread -> spiderman, shakuhachi -> "shakuhachi".

Can't wait for it to be done with. I kept getting sucked up into it, forgetting to eat dinner, staying up late, and then being unable to stand for any period of time in the morning for lack of sustenance. (I should've learned the first... second... third time?)


I need to stop procrastinating and get on it.

Long chapters? The last two chapters (lesson 55 and 56) have 20 and 17 kanji respectively. I am on those last two as well. Unfortunately (for the kanji) I have to work and I am getting a visitor today, so I'll try to do those 20 today but I don't think I'll manage the last 17 as well. But those will definitely be done tomorrow and then I'll have finished, by the end of January, as was my New Year's resolution!
I can't believe it. If there were no reviews, I'd probably fall deep into a 虚 (void).

Can't wait to post in the top thread of this forum... :O

I was a bit half-witted for a moment and misread the last chapter number, so I thought the last two chapters were 50 each. It was a pleasant surprise to see it otherwise, though.

I just got back from 3 months of traveling, sickness and finals. I restarted Heisig but I am back at the 700's. I find it quite boring to read the lessons again but I don't mind reviewing if I get the majority of them.

Koos83, That sounds liberating! I'm happy you were able to finish your goals in time.

rosenafglenn, I think the hardest lesson was the heart radical because when I got close to the ending I was just trying to get to the end instead of studying the actual characters. T_T Hopefully keeping it all in will come naturally to you.

rosenafglenn Wrote:I was a bit half-witted for a moment and misread the last chapter number, so I thought the last two chapters were 50 each. It was a pleasant surprise to see it otherwise, though.

Haha, it must have been a nice surprise to see it was much less!

It didn't change much (I still had to do 116 kanji; I was on the...fourth-to-last chapter?), but it was nice to see that I'd have three breaks instead of just one.

kazelee Wrote:We be like cheerleaders for each other.

Whenever I need encouragement, I just take a deep breath, relax, and look at yuki

@leosmith

0.0

She's got nothing on Mikie or Haruka. I'd post a link but... yeah.

For when that kanji just positively, absolutely refuses to stick (despite numerous story changes):

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4381/method1.png

I got this a while back, but put it off for a bit. Then exams started and I had no time. Only now have I started. Today at school I got from 1-44
They're getting harder but I'm able to keep up because of the Jame Heisig method.

Also to keep me motivated I watch Keyhole Tv (Japanese TV) and Play all games in Japanese (I.e Pokemon and Legend of Zelda)

Excellent! Don't let it affect your regular school work though.

Ah! I'm really glad I found out about this site, and about Heisig (through AJATT). To tell the truth, I've been wanting to learn Japanese since elementary school. I still have these old print-outs of the kana that I remember I always used to look at wistfully and think, "Man, I wish I knew how to read this". After having watched hundreds of hours of anime and read hundreds of manga (subbed and translated), last week I finally made a commitment to actually learning it. I bought myself a Japanese novel as incentive, haha. I started yesterday, and I'm on frame 50. I'm trying to get through 40-50 a day, as 45-ish seems to be my limit. Wish me luck!

(Also, does anyone want to be my learning buddy? We could talk about our progress/write to each other. It would really help me out, to have someone doing it with me. )

And does anyone else have a problem with atrocious handwriting? I can't for the life of me get my characters to look as good as the ones in the book or online. XD