I'm about 5 weeks into this project of going for the gold of Japanese fluency, and have some questions for those of you farther along. Briefly, my daily study system is AJATT (always listening to Japanese, on way to work, at home, while sleeping), reading several pages out of the textbook Japanese for Everyone, studying Heisig and using RTK as my Kanji SRS, and listening to JapanesePod101 podcasts. I was using Pimsleur at first, but then realized how it was a waste of time.

On to the SRS, I've been inputting phrases from my textbook and JapanesePod101 into it. At first, I was only inputting vocabulary, then I went on to sentences that pointed out important grammar points. Now that I am getting more into the podcasts, I am considering dropping the vocabulary portion of the SRS and focusing just on sentences. For example, my current method with JP101 is read the Lesson notes transcription, read the new vocabulary, input the vocabulary, input some of the sentences, and finally listen to the podcast until I can hear everything, down to every particle. This is very comprehensive, but sometimes it takes over 30 minutes per podcast. And I'm beginning to think that if I just input some sentences, and skip inputting vocabulary, that I will save myself time.

And then, I think to the new vocabulary in my textbook. I want to keep that info fresh in my mind as well, yet inputting a sentence for every vocab word does not seem necessary.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Search iknow for your vocab and put in an example sentence you like, or if you can't find any use Yahoo!辞書 and put in a sentence from there...

I find it much easier to learn words in sentences, the few vocab only cards I have, I fail quite often =(

I think vocabulary must be your main concern after finishing RTK.
But its much nicer to learn it with sentences (and reviews are lighter).

Don't worry too much about your listening.
Don't try to listen to every sound. It's too tiring.

Just do it a lot, with natural speed audio. Search for a TV show of your interest that has a lot of dialogues. Tiger & Dragon is a nice one, for instance.

It takes 2-3 months to get used to the speed, but then you'll be free to enjoy natural audio.

Finish RTK as soon as possible. And don't worry if in the end, you forget a hundred or so kanji's. In my opinion, the most important thing about doing RTK is that the kanji's are no longer distant, and you gain the ability to distinguish the kanji's from each other.

Focus on reading a lot. Do this as early as possible.
http://chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/
It's a site where people ask questions, about anything. Read up on it NOW. You'll be able to see what exactly is the Japanese that Japanese people use.

For Tiger and Dragon script go here:
http://dramanote.seesaa.net/

Focus on sentences that you will probably use when talking to Japanese people or be asked by Japanese people/
なんで日本語を勉強していますか？
日本に行ったことがある？
Ｅｔｃ．．
Ｕｓｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｓｉｔｅ
http://www.alc.co.jp

Ｉｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｗａｎｔ　ｔｏ　ｌｅａｒｎ　ｖｏｃａｂｕｌａｒｙ　ｗｉｔｈｏｕｔ　ｉｔ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ａ　ｓｅｎｔｅｎｃｅ，　ｔｈｅｎ　ｆｏｃｕｓ　ｏｎ　ｎｏｕｎｓ．　Ｄｏｇｓ，　ｃａｔ，　ｐｅｎ，　ｅｔｃ．．．．

mr_hans_moleman Wrote:Ｕｓｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｓｉｔｅ
http://www.alc.co.jp

No, do not. The sentences on that site aren't natural Japanese, very bad source for mining. Feel free to use it for cross referencing when you see a new word but don't study using it.

Also, I would advice against using Tiger & Dragon if you're a beginner. The Japanese is a bit odd and convoluted, especially the stories because of how rakugo works. It's a great show though.

I like Tiger & Dragon exactly because that. After getting used to its convoluted Japanese, you'll feel more comfortable when you watch other, more "normal", shows.

It's like training in gravity stronger than Earth's in Dragon Ball Z.

It's true that there are unnatural sentences in that site, but don't let that stop you.
Besides, don't focus on complete sentences. If you want to learn how to be able to create Japanese sentences, read a lot of Japanese. But if it's for an SRS, use shorts sentences like this:

連続殺人を追い詰める
= track down a serial killer

Now if you doubt that it's unnatural, google it and you will find lots of examples.
This way, you won't have to worry about where it's unnatural or not.