Reading this thread gave me strength to keep going.
I've been doing RTK since May, and I decided since the beginning I was going to do it in a slow pace to avoid burnout. But even so it failed. Between uni classes, other activities and sleeping, I lost all the motivation I had in the beginning. I almost stopped adding new ones, specially these month of October. But I never stopped reviewing, and that made a complete difference when I went to add new kanji. Today I reached 1400 =w=

This was probably said already, but to give my contribute:

• if you're tired, stop and go to do something else.
• don't focus only on RTK. I was doing it and that was one of the reasons I failed. Since I'll probably try the AJATT approach after this, I started doing some easy sentences with kanji I already know, just for fun, because this way it feels I'm actually doing something (I know that RTK is something, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it to those who are tired of it)
• Don't stick to only a way to do this or that. I may do it an-AJATT(?) way (I know that here some people despise the guy =A=) or I may do other way, depending what fits better. Everyone is different and should stick to the method one because someone says it's freaking bad or it's great!
• read this thread - full of useful advice

Well, I'm super excited today because I managed to get from a pile-up of 1,300+ reviews (two months of total stoppage, thanks Minecraft) to zero in about a month! I was afraid I was going to have to start over completely, but it all comes back to you easier than you'd think--and I'd only done two months of semi-hardcore studying before I stopped.

Could not have been possible without this site. The system AND the community <3

Only 11 cards left to do. Spent over 5 hours today on Anki. My boss is not going to be pleased The knowledge that the next review circle begins in 70 minutes is killing me.

It's going to be worth it in a couple of months though.. at least I hope it..

[Zgarbas]

What on Earth do you spend 5 hours on in Anki? Does anything even stick?

RTK reviews. I write every Kanji with a pen, so it takes a couple of seconds more than usual.

I'm learning 25 - 60 Kanji per day, depending on how much time I have, so the reviews pile up, but they stick. I have faith in Anki regarding that.

Zgarbas Wrote:What on Earth do you spend 5 hours on in Anki? Does anything even stick?

How are your writing skills, Zgarbas?

[Zgarbas]

They're ok, I guess? I spend months not practicing and losing my touch, then about a month before exam season I pick up writing again. Still a few weeks left before that happens.

Didn't realize the 5 hours involve anki+writing practice+whatnot . Thought it was 5 hours of sheer srsing, which sounded really unproductive. Is cool.

OK, I'm working on it for myself! I've done several failed rounds of kanji SRS'ing, but this time I want to own it!

Basically, I'm aiming for reviewing 7 days a week, with 5 days a week of studying each new lesson. Hopefully, this prevents the cards from piling up too much in an overwhelming way, and I can keep reviewing and let the SRS decide when I need to review for me!

Frame 370 here. Started two weeks ago.

beneficii Wrote:OK, I'm working on it for myself! I've done several failed rounds of kanji SRS'ing, but this time I want to own it!

Basically, I'm aiming for reviewing 7 days a week, with 5 days a week of studying each new lesson. Hopefully, this prevents the cards from piling up too much in an overwhelming way, and I can keep reviewing and let the SRS decide when I need to review for me!

Fortunately Anki is a habit after a time. In the first 2 weeks I had to remind myself to do it, but now when I see a clock and it's around 20:00 my first thought is "Oops, it's Anki time"

It's funny that while I haven't missed a day since I started (60 days), my Anki shows I have studied 61/60 days. I must have superpowers.

Just passed 400 and for me it's starting to get hard. Finding that I'm forgetting simple Kanji that I had thought I new.

For anyone worried about having hit the "pause" button: I've been hovering around #1950 (using the sixth edition) for a couple of months now - so close to the end, and yet having trouble getting on to those last few lessons.

This isn't the first time I've hit a mental wall going through RTK, far from it - the same thing happened around 800, 1500, and 1700. What I did was keep reviewing - it doesn't take long and after a few days those card numbers go down.

Don't get hung up on failed cards, chuck 'em back into SRS or suspend them until you're ready. Be ready to look at your story again if they're really not sticking (took me too long to work that one out. We all have to use what we learn along the way about what makes a kanji memorable for us. I've learnt that the shorter the story behind an image, the more likely it will stick for me ...)

I'm just about ready to push on again (and would agree with those who caution against trying to bite off too much too fast at the beginning or the end; telling myself I would do 50/day for the last 300 effectively sent me into passive-aggressive mode for weeks <g>). I'll get there in the end, and so will you. I can see the advantages of getting those RTK cards into the mature stacks quickly and thence onto the real business of learning Japanese, but the message of this post is simple: if the express lane isn't for you, don't let the pace set there put you off the trip altogether if your own life or temperament dictates that progress is slower. See a temporary pause for what it is, accept that you mightn't add new cards for a while, and try not to let reviews build for more than a few days - and even if you do, the pile will get manageable again if you just chip away at it, targeting the newest cards first. Have faith in the process, just keep swimming, and after we've finished RTK, we can trust that language exposure will eventually do the rest.

Hang in there, and see you in the finishing thread!

Sorry for posting serially, but I left the killer app moment out of the above musings, which is this: I've just come back from a short holiday in Japan, and while simple orthographic familiarity with most of the RTK kanji is a million miles short of literacy in Japanese (and none of us doing Heisig kid ourselves otherwise), recognizing so many characters and their associated keyword was enormous fun and often downright useful. It was great to be able to look at a sign for giddily expensive winter Hokkaido mangoes and have a pretty good idea of what 完熟 might mean, or to recognize subway stations (and "translate", however roughly, their names) even without knowing the pronounciation or Romaji, and even where the context of individual kanji was a bit of a puzzle it usefully expanded my mind to the reality of multiple meanings and connotations. Bonus: while I regularly "push" when a door says "pull" in English and vice versa, something about 押 and 引 seems to skip the verbal channel completely and communicate directly with the motor neurones, and for once in my life I seemed to get it right first time, every time :-).

Again, none of us have any illusions about how much more there is to Japanese than RTK (supermarket labels nearly did my head in, while my non-reading friend was usually quicker to identify contents from the pictures), but RTK absolutely made a wonderful experience that much more wonderful ....

Hi guys! I still have over 700 cards left to reach the 2042 goal. I feel so slow. I have been learning Kanji for three months now and I do my reviews daily. I do stories and imagine it as I write it but sometimes it is disappointing when I fail a mature card. Sometimes I see a kanji in the wild which I know is already a matured card but I cannot recall it instantly. I just know I know it...like it is in the tip of my tongue. This is happening even though I am not rushing it at all. Is this normal? I am thinking why not rush it and do immersion asap?

bimspramirez Wrote:Hi guys! I still have over 700 cards left to reach the 2042 goal. I feel so slow. I have been learning Kanji for three months now and I do my reviews daily. I do stories and imagine it as I write it but sometimes it is disappointing when I fail a mature card. Sometimes I see a kanji in the wild which I know is already a matured card but I cannot recall it instantly. I just know I know it...like it is in the tip of my tongue. This is happening even though I am not rushing it at all. Is this normal? I am thinking why not rush it and do immersion asap?

Hey! Don't worry! I have that happen to me sometimes^^ It'll get better with time.
I think that RTK is already very quick, so there's no need to rush things more than is comfortable for you. Spend time on creating a vivid image, it'll save time in the long run, even though I'm sure on here and around you there are people who seem to be way ahead of you in the "Japanese game", remember, there are those behind you too. Everyone starts and finishes at their own speed^^.



For those of you finger-writing your cards, I found that my reviews were much easier if I wrote the kanji out once when reviewing, rather than writing it in the air or imagining it.

For those who have big reviews to do, don't give up! I took a break over xmas, and ended up with over 1300 cards due... It wasn't pretty, but I got through them (while adding 15 new cards a day), and I've finished RTK1+ supplement kanji now^^

ktcgx Wrote:Hey! Don't worry! I have that happen to me sometimes^^ It'll get better with time.
I think that RTK is already very quick, so there's no need to rush things more than is comfortable for you. Spend time on creating a vivid image, it'll save time in the long run, even though I'm sure on here and around you there are people who seem to be way ahead of you in the "Japanese game", remember, there are those behind you too. Everyone starts and finishes at their own speed^^.

Hi! Thanks for the encouragement! ^^ I know this is just one of those "downs" in my Nihongo journey.

I already slapped my face few days ago. LOL I am back with motivation and now in "I don't care if I fail a card because perfecting anki reviews is not my final goal" mode.

Today I felt like not doing kanji. I forced myself to, and passed part 1. As someone else on this forum said, it was like taking 2.5 mg of top-notch cocaine
I suddenly want to do nothing but kanji. It's pretty incredible.
Anyone on the forum who just wakes up and doesn't want to do kanji, force yourself to do 4-5. You might get your motivation back!

Hirakana Wrote:Today I felt like not doing kanji. I forced myself to, and passed part 1. As someone else on this forum said, it was like taking 2.5 mg of top-notch cocaine
I suddenly want to do nothing but kanji. It's pretty incredible.
Anyone on the forum who just wakes up and doesn't want to do kanji, force yourself to do 4-5. You might get your motivation back!

Yay Hirakana way to go!! I'm glad you're making such good progress

Thanks, zurisu
I'm at 300 now.

It's 2014 and Doraemon is being censored and localized (IE. censored) in America.
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/05/12/do...-detailed/

What this means is that maybe learning Japanese isn't a waste of time after all. If you want to get the original Doraemon (or anything else) experience, then continue learning the origin language.

Besides, you can learn Chinese after you finish Japanese.

First Post. Hello everyone, I'm currently on 1300 and I've really been feeling the grind lately, reading this thread has really helped rekindle my motivation. Thanks everyone :p

tAiLdVaIlN Wrote:First Post. Hello everyone, I'm currently on 1300 and I've really been feeling the grind lately, reading this thread has really helped rekindle my motivation. Thanks everyone :p

Don't give up!

I remember when I reached 1,500 I kept thinking, I'm so SICK of doing RTK!

Those last 500 were really hard to get through. Just put out of your mind how close you are to the end and keep plugging away and one day you'll hit sign of the snake (if you're using the 5th edition of RTK1) and realize you're done.

What kept me motivated to finish was the fact that even after doing 1,500 I still kept encountering kanji sprinkled here and there in my readers that I had never seen before.

It's an amazing feeling to be done and definitely worth the effort! Now there are no more unfamiliar kanji sprinkled around in my readers!

tAiLdVaIlN Wrote:First Post. Hello everyone, I'm currently on 1300 and I've really been feeling the grind lately, reading this thread has really helped rekindle my motivation. Thanks everyone :p

Have you been doing anything else besides RTK?

For myself, when I got to around 1600 I started looking through Tae Kim's grammar guide (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar), and it was really encouraging to be able to recognise a lot of the Kanji used in the examples.

Woodgar Wrote:

tAiLdVaIlN Wrote:First Post. Hello everyone, I'm currently on 1300 and I've really been feeling the grind lately, reading this thread has really helped rekindle my motivation. Thanks everyone :p

Have you been doing anything else besides RTK?

For myself, when I got to around 1600 I started looking through Tae Kim's grammar guide (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar), and it was really encouraging to be able to recognise a lot of the Kanji used in the examples.

Did you finish RTK1?

john555 Wrote:Did you finish RTK1?

Sure did, and I'd recommend anyone to do so.

It's just it can become extremely tedious after a while, and it's easy to start doubting whether it's worth it or not. Doing something like going through the early stages of a grammar guide helps you to see the advantage of something like RTK, as you can concentrate on the grammar points themselves instead of having to distinguish what kanji is what.

Personally opinion, of course.