I am currently holding 500 cards I learned last year for now more than one month and not learning any new. As I am very busy now it takes 15 minutes every day just to review these cards. I am glad I did not learn any new cards in last month as review process is also sometimes annoying and takes some effort. Do you sometimes hold your level and not learning new cards?

I was, due to laziness. Now I do try and add at least a little everyday (even if it's only 1!)
Of course, I forgot to do that last night due to drinking. Blah.

I had to do it, many times, or I would not manage my reviews.

No, I add new cards every day. Every time a new box is opened, your review pile becomes a lot bigger, so waiting won't really help you lower your reviews, it's a very very temporary measure. The best way of keeping daily reviews low is to get done quickly.

In the days were I have VERY little time, I add 10 new cards. Other days, I add 20. At the moment, I have 80 reviews a day, I hope to get done before that hits 100.

I generally add first, think later. That is, I tend to stay ignorant of how much work I give myself. Just me, though.

The kanji you have already learned form your base. You continue on from there. Sure, its frustrating to not add new kanji for a while and to feel you are making no progress. It's also disheartening to get too far ahead of yourself, trip, fall and end up relearning hundreds of kanji all over again.
Your first priority is reviewing kanji and clearing your failed pile. If you still have time and energy after that, add new ones.

If you're talking about RTK cards then you shouldn't be taking too many breaks, because it's a finite amount. The faster they are in the box, the less reviews you will have to do.

If you're talking about sentences, then I add lots everyday, too many perhaps. I'm averaging 700 new cards a month plus reviews which are about 150 to 200 a day. Recently I've realised that this can't and shouldn't be sustained, so I'm setting myself somewhat of a finishing line. The plan is to do all of KO, I'm at about the 600 out of 1100 mark, readd the heisig as Japanese keywords, and then I won't add anymore, just read a lot and wait for the reviews to get really low. Then I might add more.

Of course I started French last week so I'm adding about 50 a day to that deck too. I was wondering if polyglots have totally mixed decks, some cards Arabic, some Spanish, etc?

I agree too with the "the faster the better" motto. It was my motto. I just couldn't follow it that well. ^_^

I have been holding at about 1600 cards for several months now -- I'm studying for the JLPT and am devoting more time to learning readings for the Kanji I know, grammar, and other things.

I agree in principle that the more Kanji for which we can learn the general meaning, the better. But I rather doubt that pausing at any stage -- provided you keep the learned Kanji in memory--can be of any harm at all.

In the end, the goal is to read Japanese not just to finish Heisig.

Good luck everyone!

phauna Wrote:Of course I started French last week so I'm adding about 50 a day to that deck too. I was wondering if polyglots have totally mixed decks, some cards Arabic, some Spanish, etc?

Now that you mention it, I've been studying Spanish since August. I have about 2000 cards in that deck.

Do you think it would be a good idea just to start adding Japanese sentences to the same deck once I'm done with RTK1?

jameserb Wrote:I have been holding at about 1600 cards for several months now -- I'm studying for the JLPT and am devoting more time to learning readings for the Kanji I know, grammar, and other things.

I agree in principle that the more Kanji for which we can learn the general meaning, the better. But I rather doubt that pausing at any stage -- provided you keep the learned Kanji in memory--can be of any harm at all.

In the end, the goal is to read Japanese not just to finish Heisig.

Good luck everyone!

There's no harm, other than larger amounts of reviews as you go, unless you pause for a very considerable time. I also would probably recommend you to finish RtK instead of what you're doing. TONS of important JLPT kanji are introduced in those last 400 (If I'm not incorrect, 馬 is part of the last chapter, and it's required for JLPT4.)

"If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward."

In keeping with "Don't break the chain," I try to move forward every day, because skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

Terhorst Wrote:"If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward."

Only if you're against the current of the river. You might actually be with the current if you're reading Japanese or listening to Japanese all the time.

playadom Wrote:Only if you're against the current of the river. You might actually be with the current if you're reading Japanese or listening to Japanese all the time.

It is like a river, and the current of that river is moving away from a goal it takes consistent applied effort to achieve. The direction of the current doesn't change. You can't float along with it to your goal. The current is why people say, "Use it or lose it."

The longer you work only to maintain your position, the harder and harder it will be to start making progress again because you have no momentum, and the easier and easier it will be to get distracted, discouraged, frustrated, stop paying attention, lose ground, or start after some other goal instead. This human tendency is just one aspect of the current.

So yes, it's true that diligently paddling forward in other areas like reading and listening will eventually bring you to fluency without RTK, but somehow I doubt that someone who doesn't have time for RTK has time to do it the harder way...

Terhorst Wrote:"If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward."

That's just what I was a gonna post.

Terhorst Wrote:

playadom Wrote:Only if you're against the current of the river. You might actually be with the current if you're reading Japanese or listening to Japanese all the time.

It is like a river, and the current of that river is moving away from a goal it takes consistent applied effort to achieve. The direction of the current doesn't change. You can't float along with it to your goal. The current is why people say, "Use it or lose it."

The longer you work only to maintain your position, the harder and harder it will be to start making progress again because you have no momentum, and the easier and easier it will be to get distracted, discouraged, frustrated, stop paying attention, lose ground, or start after some other goal instead. This human tendency is just one aspect of the current.

So yes, it's true that diligently paddling forward in other areas like reading and listening will eventually bring you to fluency without RTK, but somehow I doubt that someone who doesn't have time for RTK has time to do it the harder way...

So then if RTK gets you there faster, is it really a paddle? Seems more like a motor to me...

Although in all seriousness, I agree with this philosophy.

The main problem is that rtk is boring and far removed from real Japanese study, so it's really hard to get motivation. Once you're finished, though, and see the result and start learning actual Japanese, then you will have all the motivation in the world.

phauna Wrote:The main problem is that rtk is boring and far removed from real Japanese study, so it's really hard to get motivation. Once you're finished, though, and see the result and start learning actual Japanese, then you will have all the motivation in the world.

So then it's like putting your canoe on a truck and driving uphill alongside a hard section of river, until you get to the big ocean of Japanese...

I tend to use the "Just Do It" mindset. I add exactly 30 new cards every day and review 200+ cards, this takes around 4 hours but I can always make time for kanji. You can either sit around, watching TV, making excuses as to why you can't do it, or you can just get it done. Skipping one day of review is bad, this could lead to a second day of skipping, then a third, maybe a fourth, until your review list is way outta control. I have let my review list grow to about 700, and trying to get through a mammoth list like that is pretty painful.

So I hate to sound cliche` but... just do it.

Wow, the forum doesn't let you do much with regards to special characters..

cameron_en Wrote:Just Do It

My favorite way to put it is:

Do it.
Do it right.
Do it right now.

If you've been reviewing these same cards for a month on this website, they shouldn't show up much anymore. Once they're in the last two boxes, it seems like you could just start adding a few a day at a comfortable level without worrying about the reviews.

Thanks for your replies. They help me very much. After a month reviewing I am happy that I learned all these 500 cards very well. My time for daily reviewing went down from 30 minutes first days to now less than 3 minutes! Which makes room for learning new cards. You also must consider, that after a year "reviewing" kanjis is meant often actually "relearning" them again. That takes some time. I am happy that I took this approach and am beginning now to constantly learn new kanjis.

i was in your boat, i hit ~600 kanji before uni started, for 3-4 months i have not touched reviewing.

I come back and see that i have 599 cards in review. Atm im at 300 with about 60 failed kanji.

I think my 'break' was a good thing. Made me realise how shit house some of my stories really were, and with a slightly deeper insight in kanji readings and such, im really beginning to see how relevant some keywords are, and how useless some are. That alone makes me happy.

liosama Wrote:i hit ~600 kanji before uni started, for 3-4 months i have not touched reviewing.

I come back and see that i have 599 cards in review.

At least you still 'know' 1 kanji.