I haven't mastered all the previous ones yes, so should I pause here and perfect them like he recommends? Or just keep pushing forward?

I'd keep pushing on, let the SRS take care of cementing them in your memory.

That would depend.

A lot of people here will tell you that learning the kanji is a chore, and that you have to keep adding as much cards as you can each day without caring about fail rates, for the SRS will take care of them for you in time.

As for me, I'm really enjoying learning the kanji, and I'm taking it slow. I add 1 lesson at a time. If the lesson was really short or easy, I will add another one, then wait for my box 1 to empty (usually 3-4 days), repeat.
It may be slow as opposed to adding 20 kanji a day, but I'm happy with that pace and have a strong memory of the kanji in my deck before adding new material, and thus my fail rate is really low.

So in the end, it all comes to how you want to study the kanji and what feels the right way for you.

I you are not in a rush or anything to get kanji done then I would say to take your time and review over the ones you previously learn. You can let the SRS do its work but more power to you if you take time and review the ones you previously entered in.
I know that when I am fully confident in all the previous kanji I learned and can easily learn new ones. For some reason it is a motivation boost to have a better grasp of the previous kanji.

It's smarter to keep entering kanji, from a memory standpoint as well. As you enter new kanji into the system, you get more kanji sharing primitives, giving more exposure to those. The workload is higher but there's no such thing as "mastering" the kanji you've entered. With an SRS and good stories, you should always have about 90% retention regardless. Waiting is thus just a waste of time.

I would only recommend waiting if you have entered a LOT of kanji every day and have gotten to the point where your daily reviews are much higher than you would like. Otherwise, keep going. You won't know the kanji better just because you ignored to enter new ones.

LegionOfDeicide Wrote:I you are not in a rush or anything to get kanji done then I would say to take your time and review over the ones you previously learn. You can let the SRS do its work but more power to you if you take time and review the ones you previously entered in.
I know that when I am fully confident in all the previous kanji I learned and can easily learn new ones. For some reason it is a motivation boost to have a better grasp of the previous kanji.

I definitely agree, go at your own pace. However, there's no reason (that I see) to pick out any particular lesson to pause on. Pause when you need it, otherwise be the tortoise. B)

I'm with Tobberoth here. In my opinion, when learning languages it's always bad to stop and review until you've "mastered" what you have learned so far. It's much better to continue and expose yourself to more information that will reinforce what you have learned so far. The SRS will take care of any holes left in your knowledge.

I failed the majority of the lesson 10 & 11 (I can't remember exactly but I think it was something like I got around ten and missed somewhere around 40)...

Is that okay to keep pushing with, or is that lower than normal?

isharabash Wrote:I failed the majority of the lesson 10 & 11 (I can't remember exactly but I think it was something like I got around ten and missed somewhere around 40)...

Is that okay to keep pushing with, or is that lower than normal?

If your retention is below 70%, you should be worried. Remember though, just because it "feels" you did bad on your reviews doesn't mean you actually did fail that many, it usually feels worse than it is.

However, if you got below 70% retention, that simply means you spent too little time making the stories/images etc memorable. Remember, just because a lesson is long doesn't mean you can cut corners. When you create a story or an image, make sure the story will stick, that it's memorable enough. If you fail tons of kanji from the same chapter, it's probable that you're not remembering the primitives well enough. Try changing the primitives into characters or something else which sticks better in your mind, that will let you create better stories/images for all of those kanji.

There are many possible reasons for a less than usual retention rate.

Being tired or lacking a little sleep has surprisingly important consequences. Being demotivated because learning kanji has become a routine and the fun factor is gone is also a factor.

Getting less than 70% doesn't necessarily mean you're doing anything wrong. You should trust your own judgment over statistics.

Just do whatever you're comfortable with, but do a little a day... whether that be adding new cards or reviewing, just so long as you don't stop, you should be fine. If I add a ton of cards at once, I usually take a few days to really focus on learning those before adding more. I know that in the end, the SRS will take care of it, but it feels more encouraging to work on a set at a time, ya know?

so should I pause here and perfect them like he recommends?

You should re-read that... since actually pausing isn't to perfect'em,
it is to learn how to tackle your mistakes in the material you should already know and essentially the very simple material.

unchi

Pause? That another word for stop, isn't it? I might slow down, but I don't think I'd pause. A body at rest tends to ...

I just did a review which had a bunch of that lesson in it... (previously I had threw all my failed kanji in the learned pile,, to give it one more shot)

I think I can say it is a primitive thing, I didn't know two of the primitives and only got 56% (this also had kanji from previous lessons)

Thankfully I don't have a lot on my plate tonight (high school is a major time waster) so I'll go over that lesson again and spend more time with each kanji. What do you guys think of kanji gym as well?

Also, is there a way to print each failed kanji with it's story, for review/learning on the go? Some of Hesig's stories are... outdated (I have an older copy of the book).

どもありがと

I remember getting to that point, and thinking, "Awww, man!"

But do it. It won't take long. Get them down. Close your eyes and visualize on the ones you miss, and you'll be moving forward in a day or two.

kanjiwarrior Wrote:Anki says that I'm at about 65-68% retention.

However think about this, I add 30 new cards a day. Because they are new to me, I fail about 25 of those cards. So if I'm failing 25 cards every day it looks pretty bad, but it's really not. There is no way I'm going to remember 30 cards I just added. At best I remember about 4-5 of those cards, the rest I have to refine the stories a bit, I need to see the cards 1-2 more times. My reviews I know almost all of them, the ones I don't know SRS takes care of that and I look at the story see if it needs rewording spend a minute or two on that card, then when it comes up in a few minutes I remember it and hit hard so it comes up in 8-12 hours, the next day I can hit "good" because I remember it fairly well by then. If I don't when it comes up in a few days, well I fail it and start over with that card, eventually it sticks (even if I have to keep rewording that story till it does) Anki is assuming every card is something I "should" know, but that's not how I review new cards. I add them as fast as I can then I start reviews. I only remember the ones that I added where the story was really good, the rest need refining or just more review to get the image down. Sometimes I was just lazy and didn't visualize very well... just saying the story, which can work for some Kanji (especially if it is worded really well) but not for others.

I know that eventually a day is gonna come (in fact I know the exact date) when I won't be adding so many each day, and probably for a while will add no new kanji cards at all because I'll be finished with RTK and for a while, won't have new kanji to add. I'm sure my % will skyrocket then. I also realize that I'll be reviewing kanji like this for years to come. And lastly I want to get past RTK and start doing sentences, which will be another layer of reinforcement for Kanji.

That's odd... personally I added 40 cards each day in the end. Read them in the book and created stories/images and put them on the site. The day after, I reviewed the blue pile and I almost always had 90%+ retention. Not saying that you're doing anything bad etc, as long as you don't fail the reviews later it doesn't matter (just what you're saying) but I'm kind of wondering how you're adding the kanji if your retention is that bad. Do you simply put them in the system and make up stories as you review them the first time or something like that? According to the supermemo site, you should be able to recall a fact you memorized at least 3 days after the introduction of said fact, as long as you actively memorized it.

I think I am not spending enough time on each character...

I missed nearly every word in lesson 10, so I'm redoing it, little by little.

I think the best way for me will be to do about 5 kanji every hour or two throughout the day, instead of a whole lesson at the end of the day, when my brain is ready to shut down...

I need summer to get here so I can study study study!