I finished RTK a few months back, and in fairly quick time.

Life turned around and dealt my studies a death blow. My piles went haywire and it was impossible to pick back up, even with some free time.

I finally have some time that I can dedicate to my reviews daily again and have decided to start again from scratch, everything at ZERO.

It is going MUCH quicker the second time around since so far it seems that i know everything already ( which i should )

I will post in the 500, halfway threads etc, and in the completion thread after my second time around

How many other people have been plagued like this and had to restart either after finishing, or being very close to it?

That's tough. I'm not very far along so I can't really relate... I'm assuming you can probably breathe through the first few hundred or so?

yeah the first half will probably be no problem at all ^^ but i know that the second half which had much less reviews completed and was more difficult will be a little more challenging ^^

Finish, again, quickly. When you are over with the Kanji you realize, well, that you don't know really much Japanese, if at all. Doing Rtk1 made me feel good because it was easy, I was doing "something", I was definitely working for that goal but after you are finished there is no pre-made plan with three steps to follow, everything from the moment you finish is blurred and vague, sentences, grammar, both, tae kim, this and that, so is more of trial and error than a Rtk1 like infallible plan.

jorgebucaran Wrote:Finish, again, quickly. When you are over with the Kanji you realize, well, that you don't know really much Japanese, if at all. Doing Rtk1 made me feel good because it was easy, I was doing "something", I was definitely working for that goal but after you are finished there is no pre-made plan with three steps to follow, everything from the moment you finish is blurred and vague, sentences, grammar, both, tae kim, this and that, so is more of trial and error than a Rtk1 like infallible plan.

So pretty much exactly what I'm doing ^^ Then drive through this Basic text again as fast as possible and move on with intermediate studies >< The REAL fun stuff

Make sure to use Japanese keywords the second time around. That way it's not a total duplication of effort.

Dustin_Calgary Wrote:I finished RTK a few months back, and in fairly quick time.
[...]
It is going MUCH quicker the second time around since so far it seems that i know everything already ( which i should )
[...]
How many other people have been plagued like this and had to restart either after finishing, or being very close to it?

I think you will find a split between the people who wish you speedy luck and those who roll their eyes and say "you never finished the first time". Some count finished as reading the 2042nd kanji, some count finished as having 1500+ in the 5th box or higher.

Regardless of how quickly you put all the cards into the SRS, you can't speed up intervals. Putting them in quickly ensures daily reviews of hundreds plus for months on end, so here's hoping you don't short circuit again!

Since you already saw all the kanji at least once, if your Japanese is beyond the beginner level, you might want to consider going through it with Japanese keywords instead and slowing the pace down to 10-20 a day (since you'll be doing vocab words). That's what I'd do.

Dustin_Calgary Wrote:

jorgebucaran Wrote:Finish, again, quickly. When you are over with the Kanji you realize, well, that you don't know really much Japanese, if at all. Doing Rtk1 made me feel good because it was easy, I was doing "something", I was definitely working for that goal but after you are finished there is no pre-made plan with three steps to follow, everything from the moment you finish is blurred and vague, sentences, grammar, both, tae kim, this and that, so is more of trial and error than a Rtk1 like infallible plan.

So pretty much exactly what I'm doing ^^ Then drive through this Basic text again as fast as possible and move on with intermediate studies >< The REAL fun stuff

Ditto.

Yep, I didn't review for 6 months, I said I'd see the kanji in sentences anyway - but I was slowly forgetting how to write even the most basic of characters. I started up again 100 a day, and I would not recommend going 100 a day xD Keep it at 20-30 a day (shouldn't take too long, assuming you still have all your stories) - keep Heisig as a side project to actual Japanese.

Weird that this thread has been posted. I just started over with RTK1 yesterday. After I finished it I reviewed for about 3 months after wards and then quit. Now 4 months later I regret it tremendously. I attempted to start back with the Movie Method but honestly it was too much effort as this redue is now simply going to be a "side project". My other SRS goals come first (which is KO2001 at the moment), RTK cards second.

The other factor is that I'm now doing it in Anki. My lack of Japanese language support on my internet computer at work (FBI security BS that made no sense at all) was one of the main factors with me stopping my reviews on this site. Now that I use my netbook for all my studying it will keep everything together in Anki and on one computer, finally. Of course funny enough today one of our computer admins said that she now has "approval" to download the Japanese language pack. Go figure lol.

As I side note it is amazing how good the Heisig method really is. I've added about 250 cards in the past two days, 200 of those cards today, and it was a breeze. Of course a lot of them I couldn't recall from blank memory but as soon as I saw them for the first time almost all of the pieces fell back together instantly. I don't even think I'm going to need much in the way of solid "stories" any more. It's just as Heisig says in the book. After a while the stories will just "fall away" (I think that is how he puts it) and it seems that is exactly the case.

俺も here, too. It took me quite some time to get into a regular habit of SRSing, so... shortly after I finished RTK, my reviews seriously dwindled until the situation was critical enough to (as Squintox says) cause me to forget how to write even many basic kanji. Now that I SRS quite regularly, it's not a big deal anymore, so I chose to reset my good ol' Heisig deck and "start over" - though I prefer calling it a "refresher course" as I didn't touch the book again, rather, just my Anki deck. It really worked wonders, and I flew through the first quarter with little effort. After that point, I needed a bit more reminding in order to solidify these things back into my memory, but seldom would I see a kanji that I wouldn't flip over and go, "Oh, duh, THAT'S what it is".

I'm thinking of going Japanese keyword now, assuming Anki doesn't give me more grief about importing spreadsheets (which is what prevented me from doing so sooner).

And welcome back to the journey, Dustin!

I got to about 1200 a year ago and just couldn't go on. I was using SuperMemo on an ancient handheld and just looking at the thing made me feel sick. Of course, I still wanted to finish RTK1, but I wasn't sure how I was going to achieve it as this point. In about November I heard about Anki and liked it immediately. As well as enjoying the obvious improvements in utility, I found it "friendly" and undepressing (unlike SM).

I started over again in mid-November and steamed through the half I'd already done, and although the remaining characters were a struggle at times, I finished RTK1 about a month ago, and I'm now watching my daily reviews slide down to a virtually trivial numbers, and I'm now starting to build up my sentence collection.

I might mention that I suffer from ADHD-I and find study and recall extremely difficult. Without the tools and methods that we are all familiar with here, the task would have been impossible for me.

Prepared to be called a liar. 10 years from now, people will talk with you, hear ADHD-I and say "youuu?? nooooo."
Ahhaua. Good job!

mentat_kgs Wrote:Prepared to be called a liar. 10 years from now, people will talk with you, hear ADHD-I and say "youuu?? nooooo."
Ahhaua. Good job!

I'll look forward to that (mind you, I'm not looking forward to being 63, which is how old I'll be). At the moment it's more like "Oh I wondered why you were so weird!". I jest, of course.

These days I can't recall anything unless I study it in the SRS. I wonder if Anki is helping or hurting my overall memory. ^_-

nest0r Wrote:These days I can't recall anything unless I study it in the SRS. I wonder if Anki is helping or hurting my overall memory. ^_-

I guess the answer relies on whether or not you remember anything about your life before anki... ::doo dwee dooo duuu:: that'd make a good twilight zone.

Well personally my memory is still pretty good, but really nothing compares to the efficiency of an SRS unless there is a serious emotional attachment involved ( shock fear etc. )

It sure changes the way you think about memory though....

So far so good with the second run, going amazingly easily, the first time around did it's job, this simple refresher will have me ready for "REAL" studying in no time ^^

I actually didn't begin using SRS till after I obtained my Bachelor's degree--ever since then, it's almost like I'm applying for grad school just so I can experience the magic of using an SRS for 'orthodox' academic study.

As for memory, I can't tell if my pre-Anki memory is foggy because of overdependence on SRSing, or if if Anki is holding off some kind of early onset Alzheimer's induced by ah, past improprieties.

Hey Dustin and Activeaero, I'm in the same boat. Like Active, i got to about 1300 and stalled, life got in the way, etc. But truth be told, I'm also very lazy!!!

So I'm starting over too. Changed my username to start fresh. Goal is 20-30 every day, no excuses, get the damn thing out of the way. See you later in the "Finished RTK please congratulate me thread!"

LaLoche Wrote:Hey Dustin and Activeaero, I'm in the same boat. Like Active, i got to about 1300 and stalled, life got in the way, etc. But truth be told, I'm also very lazy!!!

I already completed RTK1 the first time, didn't stall at any number. Yeah, nit picky to point that out but when you complete it you'll feel the same way lol.

Good luck.

I stalled at 1300 as well. I kept my up reviews though, and when I got over it I continued on.

1300 ish seems to be quite the hump, I remember having a big push at that end as well!

It's amazing how such a simple system really can compound on you to the point of seeming almost overwhelming.

2000 doesn't seem THAT daunting until you are a few hundred in, then at just under half it seems impossible.
Hit the halfway mark, doesn't seem too bad, then 1300 there is still the huge mental barrier, and sheer review numbers make a lot of people quit.

Once you make it to 1500 or so it seemed all downhill, 1300 being the last LARGE hump for me.

Good luck to the rest of you doing a repeat performance along with me ^^

I am over 1800 now and couldn't imagine quiting. I think once you get this far, you'll see the effort and realize you must not stop. I rely totally on anki for my studies and haven't noticed any walls as some mentioned - other than forgetting a grip of old cards and marching on, which is the normal process of mass-learning new concepts.

In any case, good luck and don't stop.

Well I never hit a wall either, i successfully completed it on the first try, but there were a few stretches that I could definitely see as being a wall, and just from seeing where a lot of people seem to have difficulty, it's easy to find them.

1800? you're as good as gone, Good Job ^^

I've done RTK1 twice. I did 20 kanji per day the first time around. I didn't take any days off. By the end, I was sick of it. Soon after I finished, I quit learning Japanese for about a year. The second time around I only did 10-13 kanji per day, and took a lot of days off. I thought the slower pace was better.