stoked Wrote:

frlmarty Wrote:

stoked Wrote:My kanjis are so ugly it seriously ***** hurts my eyes... *sigh*

fishing for compliments, eh? ;-)

?

They are NOT so ugly it would ***** hurg my eyes at all! ;-)

sure I do write.

I awarded myself with this:
http://www.tombowusa.com/CraftDetail.aspx?sku=10002

made in japan :-D

it's fun because it is sort of a an "instant brush".

Personally I'm a fan of Sakura's Pigma line.

(Also of JetPens, but the link is intended to be an example rather than an endorsement)

~J

woodwojr Wrote:Personally I'm a fan of Sakura's Pigma line.

(Also of JetPens, but the link is intended to be an example rather than an endorsement)

~J

oh, they do look nice!

maybe its worth this risc:
(Shipping outside the US)
"Delivery is Not Guaranteed. Please wait 45 calendar days from shipment date but no more than 75 days after shipment date before initiating a lost package inquiry."

EnjukuBlack Wrote:(For those of you that don't know yet, having characters that look liked they've been printed from a computer are not desirable.)

A bit subjective, don't you think? I have been complimented on my kanji writing because it's so damn easy to read, cause I make it look like the characters you see in the RTK1 book.

If you think they're saying that to be nice, then you might be right, but it's impossible to determine unless you put them up to a lie detector test.

I think the claim you made will vary a lot who you talk to. Some people in the US / Canada like cursive more, some like printing more.

smujohnson Wrote:A bit subjective, don't you think? I have been complimented on my kanji writing because it's so damn easy to read, cause I make it look like the characters you see in the RTK1 book.

If you think they're saying that to be nice, then you might be right, but it's impossible to determine unless you put them up to a lie detector test.

I think the claim you made will vary a lot who you talk to. Some people in the US / Canada like cursive more, some like printing more.

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Cursive and print are both different types of handwriting. Having handwriting that looks like computer text is akin to someone writing English with Times New Roman font.

I'm going for the non-computery, more-brushy style, myself. I know penji exists, but I haven't taken a single glance at anything related to learning to write in that style. I'll make it through the day somehow.

A few cram-school atendees have perfect cursive that makes me jealous, but in general, kids learning english in Japan often start out with handwriting that looks like courier new or arial. It's clean and easy to read, but sometimes the balance is off, and it just looks really unnatural. I make sure to tell them how much cleaner and easier it is to read than my english handwriting. In all cases, it's just a byproduct of copying the perfect examples in whichever textbook, and trying your best to get it right when you're just not used to it. Nothing for any of us to worry about.

1) I always trace with my finger if I don't have paper around me.

2) To be fluent as possible. (I hope everyone strives for the full mile.) I may not ever be "native" but I can reach fluency. (I define fluency as: Able to express one's complex thoughts and feelings without much difficulty and to understand another person's view without an conscious effort.) That isn't impossible.

3) I am going to buy myself some Japanese DVD's when I am finished! (Some for Book 1 Some for book 2 and after book 3 I might splurge a little. ) Also I am going to buy that cool but expensive poster with all the kanji on it when I finish 500. (For me that has been a goal for sometime and it shares some importance. I also hide everything English in my room and post newspapers and magazines on my walls. )

1. I write both wrong and right, but I don't write easy kanji.

2. Just like what you said, "I want to be able to speak, read, and write Japanese better than a college-educated young adult".

3.My motivations: My love to languages, all of them, my interest in Japanese culture, Manga and drama, learning japanese is a cool achievement and I don't want the language to be a barrier in my career in japan (yeah, that's what I'm aiming for ), well I don't know about postgraduate education in Japan, but if it's possible I will definitely take a Master's and a Doctorate degrees, but as I said I don't have a clue

1: Yeah, I always write them, even if I guess the wrong kanji. I feel that by doing this, I will get a better "flow" for writing the characters, and of course they will look better as I continue my studies. I think it's a better way to measure if you really did remember the kanji, since you have the kanji written down, and not just an image in your head, which you can kinda "cheat" with. Of course, there are characters with similar meanings, but personally, I don't like that "excuse".

2: Fluency. I know it's a pretty vague term, but to me that means being able to both read and pronounce everything I come across, and also to not have any difficulties speaking/listening. I also have this idea that it would be awesome to work in Japan for some international company, but the chances are pretty slim, so instead of getting my hopes up over it, I'll try to just keep it as a thought in the back of my head for the time being. I also have to finish my studies before there's a chance of me going to Japan, so it's still a long road ahead.

3: My most inspirational source is the AJATT blog. I can read only a small fraction of a post, and there will be a very high chance that I regain the motivation (if my motivation is low at the time). Lately I've had some troubles getting new kanji entered into Anki, which I just recently transferred all my stories into the RTK deck that comes with anki, and modified it slightly to assist with some of the more weird keywords etc. This has gotten my hopes up abit for ever completing the book. (I've been stuck at around the 8-900 mark. Hopefully that will improve once I pass 1000 ^_^)
It's also very inspiring to continue when you see a character you know appear in a text, and you go all "HEY, I know that character (Only by meaning though.. ).".
To add some further pushing points, I'm planning on getting some light novels (in Japanese of course) that I've seen the anime of. Only when I'm done with RTK1 and have started doing sentences though. (That's the pulling point :O)

TL;DR version:
1: Yes.
2: Fluency.
3: AJATT blog posts for the most part.

1: It's funny, I just started to do this yesterday. I wanted to try something new, tracing them in my mind was all, but I kinda wanted to see my results at the same time. When I learn them I write them down. I only write them down again if I fail.

2: To be able to talk like the announcer guy from Ninja Warrior ("He looks fine, however, the deep, dark depths of his eyes betray his disappointment." J/k, but seriously, I'd like to reach a level in which I can understand/respond to mostly anything thrown at me. It's going to take a lot of hard work, but seriously, I refuse to be beaten by a bunch of 4 year old Japanese kids >!

3: Well I got to Kanji fram 720 something in a week and then I kinda just stopped, it's been a month since then and I've only gone up to 892 . However, I've really picked it up since just yesterday. I saw the Chinese v Japanese difficulty thread and for some reason the Tak v Tobberoth thing really fired me up again...haha, is that weird or what?

1. I always write them. The new ones and the old ones, everytime.

2. I want to read japanese the same way as I read english and spanish. That's my main goal.

3. My main source of motivation is my progress. I've been doing much better than what I expected and that makes me want to continue and never stop.

1. Always - my handwriting in any language is awful, but by writing these Kanji over and over, I not only remember them better, but I think they are getting more readable.
2. I'm not much of one for conversation, so my ambitions have always been focussed on comprehension - being able to understand what I might hear and read. But ultimately, I would like to be "fluent" (whatever that means).
3. My motivation comes only from my own desire to succeed, although the example set by other people in places like this doesn't hurt.

I write every Kanji I review, helps to remember them I think ...
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/256/k...loseup.jpg
Looks something like that, they are neither pretty nor the right size but they are there and helps me remember ...

Also nice to do when you learn ...
I learn new ones in clusters of 10 basicly ...

1. 10 New Kanji's, 10 New Stories (either selfmade or stolen), Writing each of em just once.
2. Then I quick review them in KanjiGym Light (google it). Writing them once again here.
3. Then I add them to RTK so they become <Untested>

Repeat 3-4 times a day. (depending on how much time i have available)

The day after they move them from <Untested> to Stack 1?(One Review)

Works pretty good for me atleast I usually get 90-100% accuracy..

---------------

To Question 2... I guess I want to be fluent at some point, im not in THAT much of a hurry.. Learning Japanese is a better hobby than my previous one though, "full-time" wow raider (18-24 6days a week), this is much more flexible

---------------

To Question 3... My motivation is comes from wanting to understand the different Media's I enjoy in Japanese... Like when I got interrested in Anime I really loved it, but I was REALLY annoying that i couldnt understand the langauge. Not fun depending on the Sub's. Subs also conceals some of the cultural expressions and such, so you sometimes gotta know some Japanese to get the humor... My interrest in the langauge have grown larger than my interrest in Anime though, think its a facinating langauge, its so well structures in my eyes there are very few spoken irregularities compared to other languaged (cept for the Kanji Reading)...

1. I always write the kanji. My handwriting is craptacular, no matter what language I'm writing in. But it just seems common sense to me. Besides, it looks cool. Like some secret code or something.

2. I want to be fluent on every level.

3. I am irrationally obsessed with learning languages. I speak fluent Spanish. I live in Little Saigon which is right next to Koreatown, and have learned some Vietnamese, and have taught myself some Korean (I LOVE k-drama). With the Japanese, I'd love to be able to read the continuation of 12 Kingdoms, or Saiunkoku Monogatari, or Crimson Hero without waiting for the English translations. That's my motivation. And like my response to #1 - I think it just sounds cool. Except for Vietnamese. That's purely functional since all my neighbors are Vietnamese. Phonetically, tonal languages just sound goofy to me.

Question 1. I write it once each review. If I do happen to fail it, I check what I mixed up (most often a keyword) and then rewrite it correctly five times.

Question 2. Literacy, Fluency, and Marketability.

Question 3. The people I have met here and the hospitality I have felt during my time here. Intellectual challenge unlike any I have every tried.

1. Always write the kanji. That's the whole point of doing the RtK, isn't it.

2. Basically I want to get to about the same level of proficiency I've reached in English.
- Be able to read Japanese at a level where reading novels doesn't seem any more difficult in Japanese than in French or English.
- Be able to understand spoken Japanese to that same extent.
- Be able to express myself on the internet (forums, chats) so that, while I may not quite pass for a native speaker, at least my writing won't be difficult to understand or feel very unnatural.

Perfect spoken fluency is not as important to me. (I don't even know if I'll ever get to visit Japan even once)

3. Finishing RtK was mostly a matter of deciding to do it and sticking to that no matter what. Staying motivated after I finished the book was much more difficult...