There is a lot of people I think using KO on this site, and there have been a ton of projects (spreadsheets, Iknow, etc) using it. I know a lot of people on this site bought the books, and I have even heard news that there is a book 3 in the works (which was not the case about a year ago when I checked).

I am wondering how people are doing progress thru the books? I got thru book one in about 6 months, but really stalled out on book two. However, now that there are voice recordings to go with the book, I have found new motivation to get thru book two-my goal is two finish in 3 months-no excuses!

I know its working cause just having finished book one has enabled me to do so much with my Japanese, I can't wait to knock out book two and await book three.

I am interested in hearing from others about KO progress- Have you completed it? moved away from it? Ready for book 3? etc?

Great thread!

Personally I'm about to finish RTK, and I'm definitely going to buy the KO2001 series. I'm really eager to hear about peoples progress, how much time they've spent, what results they're getting etc.

I hope this is the right place to ask, but since there are probably going to be a lot of KO2001 experienced people writing here, I'm wondering how long it took you guys to finish the book(s), and for how long you studied each day.
I'm probably going to dedicate 2 - 2 1/2 hours of study time (incl. reviews).
The way I'm doing RTK, and it's going really well, is to have a set goal of kanji each day, and a set goal on when I'm going to finish it. Because of these goals, I've been able to motivate myself much more, and I've never had some of the so-called "dead-locks". Maybe I'm just lucky, but I do think it has to do with clear goals, and the fact that you get that "winner feeling" when you've reached todays goal.
Can I expect to do the same thing with KO2001? Or is it a whole different ballgame? And if I can, with 2 - 2 1/2 hours of study time - what would be a realistic goal? I know it's individual, but in a couple of weeks I'll start digging into this, and since I've gotten extremely good advice from you guys before, I thought it was worth a shot once more, hehe! =)

Thanks!
Z

I've had KO2001 for around ~1.5 months now. Since just after I finished RtK. Unfortunately the first 3 or 4 weeks of that was during my exam period so I was only able to go through around 5 kanji a day (and some days not at all).

Now I'm on holidays I've been going through at 20 to 25 kanji a day. I'm at kanji 315 right now and I should be finished with the 1st book in 10 or so days. I plan to finish the 2nd book soon after that (at the same pace) so that I will have completed RtK, Tae Kim and KO2001 in the first 4 months of my Japanese studies.

Btw Zorlee, at this pace my reviews take around 1.5 to 2 hrs every day and I review between 200 and 400 cards each day. And then it takes me 2 or 3 hours (I don't really pay attention to how long this takes me, so I'm not too sure) to add and review the 20 new kanji I add per day.

Wow, blackmacros - I give you thumbs up!!

Well things have been going very very slowly :/

I'm only at kanji 269 for almost a month and a half.

Normally, I do 20 new sentence a day in anki (but anki statistics tell me I have only really done 18.3/day over the last month). I don't use every sentence from KO2k1, only those that have something I didn't know before (an average of 1.5~2 per kanji, maybe) but I also use many sentences from other sources unrelated to my KO progress.

Adding sentences to my anki deck takes me about an hour for 20 sentences. Reviews average to 45-60 min a day. I try to add as many as I can on Sundays as it's hard enough to keep up with the reviews during the week without having to add too many new cards as well but adding sentences for 4-5 hours straight is really boring.

So I'm really not satisfied by my speed, I'd like to be able to do at least 30 a day but that doesn't seem too realistic. I wish I had free time like blackmarcos

Codexus Wrote:So I'm really not satisfied by my speed, I'd like to be able to do at least 30 a day but that doesn't seem too realistic. I wish I had free time like blackmarcos

Heh. Ahhh the life of a uni student. I've heard too many people lament not having used their (huge amounts of) spare time at Uni productively. I am determined to make the most of it!

I'm going through it slowly as well. I'm currently at 255 and I started KO on April 8th. Sometimes I didn't add new cards for a week but now with the audio as well, I'm going at a far faster rate. Also, I'm doing both production and recognition but I might drop production if I find myself slacking again. Hopefully that won't happen. In any case, I've been very pleased with the results of KO2001. I can definitely read and understand a lot more in terms of just browsing the internet. My goal is to finish the first book before September.

I finished RTK1 in September last year, then did something like the movie method for on-yomi. I then started KO about 1 month ago and am almost through. Around Kanji 900 now. The first book was quite easy for me (I should mention, that I was not a beginner when I started RTK1).
I have a full-time job, so I can't go on as fast as I want to, but I definitely feel that I made quite a progress thanks to the 2 books
Even my output is getting better although I only do recognition for now.

After that I probably want to focus on grammar for a while, but then I want to do Kanji in Context next

chochajin Wrote:After that I probably want to focus on grammar for a while, but then I want to do Kanji in Context next

I keep hearing that people what to do KIC after KO, but from what I have seen KIC doesnt contain anything KO doesnt have. correct me if Im wrong?

chocajin, if your looking for a good grammar book, Read Real Japanese is pretty sweet. I have been playing with it, and plan to hit it harder after KO

Well, I have both books here KO and KiC and if I compare those 2, then there are definitely some differences.
The sentences in KiC are longer and use more complicated grammar. KiC has quite a lot of kanji compounds that don't show up in KO at all plus KO ends after 1100 Kanji. I don't intend to use the CD and I don't wanna wait for a possible book 3 to come out.

I know the Read Real Japanese books, thanks for the rec, though
I guess I'll start from scratch with A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and work my way through all three books up to the Advanced one.
Not sure if that's what I really want yet, but I'll see once I try

I'm currently on #390 after 3 months and 4 days. I thought I was going to be able to knock out the first book in 2 months flat after powering through half of it in the the first month but then I started getting slammed with reviews. Honestly though I guess my pace isn't that bad considering I work 40hrs per week and am taking 20hrs per semester of classes. You guys that are just university students......well, I pretty much hate you lol.

zazen666 Wrote:

chochajin Wrote:After that I probably want to focus on grammar for a while, but then I want to do Kanji in Context next

I keep hearing that people what to do KIC after KO, but from what I have seen KIC doesnt contain anything KO doesnt have. correct me if Im wrong?

KIC is supposed to include more compounds than KO, and also goes up through all the jouyou kanji. It also uses higher level grammar.

I finished KO Vol 1 at the end of last year. About 2 months ago I started using Reibun de Manabu Kanji to Kotoba (2kyuu). There was nothing wrong with KO except I realized that it didn't didn't cover a lot of the JLPT 2kyuu kanji & compounds, so that's why I switched.

I'm approaching half way in RdM, and I've learned quite a lot of compounds that were not in KO. It's quite good the way RdM groups the kanji by on-readings.

I recently did a few chapters of KIC also. I realized that it's not quite the monster I had expected. Difficulty wise it's at the same level as RdM for most sentences; 3kyuu with a few 2kyuu points here & there. Also, while the KIC reference book sure has a lot of compounds in it, the KIC workbooks don't have that many example sentences. Some compounds are treated with short expressions, and some not at all I think.

Anyhow, I am sticking with RdM because I think it has very good coverage of the compounds needed for 2kyuu. I'll take at least 2 more months. After that I plan to go through KIC, or maybe Tanuki and add only sentences that feature compounds not found in RdM.

I'm up to Kanji 360 right now in KO and just recently I'm starting to find that I am increasingly able to correctly guess the readings of many new compounds I encounter. There's definitely been a noticeable leap in ability in the last 100 or so kanji.

For those of you doin KO so fast, how many reviews are you getting per day? It must be around 200 or more. I do 30 sentences a day and I get around 100+ reviews includign the 30 new from the previous day.

Yes exactly. I get usually a little bit over 200 reviews per day. I try to finish those before I have to leave for work and sometimes I have time to do a few new sentences as well

vosmiura Wrote:

zazen666 Wrote:

chochajin Wrote:After that I probably want to focus on grammar for a while, but then I want to do Kanji in Context next

I keep hearing that people what to do KIC after KO, but from what I have seen KIC doesnt contain anything KO doesnt have. correct me if Im wrong?

KIC is supposed to include more compounds than KO, and also goes up through all the jouyou kanji. It also uses higher level grammar.

I finished KO Vol 1 at the end of last year. About 2 months ago I started using Reibun de Manabu Kanji to Kotoba (2kyuu). There was nothing wrong with KO except I realized that it didn't didn't cover a lot of the JLPT 2kyuu kanji & compounds, so that's why I switched.

I'm approaching half way in RdM, and I've learned quite a lot of compounds that were not in KO. It's quite good the way RdM groups the kanji by on-readings.

I recently did a few chapters of KIC also. I realized that it's not quite the monster I had expected. Difficulty wise it's at the same level as RdM for most sentences; 3kyuu with a few 2kyuu points here & there. Also, while the KIC reference book sure has a lot of compounds in it, the KIC workbooks don't have that many example sentences. Some compounds are treated with short expressions, and some not at all I think.

Anyhow, I am sticking with RdM because I think it has very good coverage of the compounds needed for 2kyuu. I'll take at least 2 more months. After that I plan to go through KIC, or maybe Tanuki and add only sentences that feature compounds not found in RdM.

Kanji in Context doesn't give every compound the sentence treatment-- especially the older and rarer compounds, but the most useful words are usually covered and introduced silently into future sentences, even if the workbook material for that specific lesson contained no mention of the compound in question.

Kanji in Context also covers far more readings than Kanji Odyssey-- which usually gives you a single on-yomi and the kun-yomi and then puts a black or white diamond next to kanji with other readings that you should research on your own.

If you're a beginner, go through book 1 or 2 of Kanji Odyssey and then move on to Kanji in Context. If you're intermediate or advanced, go straight to Kanji in Context as it covers a lot more material than KO in the end.

Well, I might have to check out KIC, of KO3 isnt out by then.
What other books are up there with KIC, or might be good to tackle after KO2001 do you guys think?

If you've finished both volumes of KO then might as well do KIK workbook 2. It's only about 800 sentences so it's very short.