brilliant way to learn vocab/kanji readings (in context too!) http://www.readthekanji.com

Brilliant website and very easy to use for fast, efficient vocabulary learning. So far with it im finding im learning to read lots of new words and how to instinctively select the correct reading of a kanji in a new kanji word I havent seen but know the kanji's readings. Because the vocab is also in sentences you're being exposed to grammar and context aswell. These can also be mined into your SRS.

I managed to get through the JLPT4 deck in 2 - 3 days and have moved on to the JLPT 3 deck which im going to complete in another few... the JLPT 2 deck is 3500 cards (compared with 3 which is 570 and 4 which is like 350) so that one will take a bit more time but I estimated at 4 hours per day It could be done in 14 days... and again the JLPT1 deck is this time 2,500 could be done circa 10 days? But who knows... Im going to give it a go and see if I can complete all 4 decks in just under a month having an approximate vocab of say... 6000 - 7000 words? Of course this will be passive vocab for the most part until it migrates into the active register through exposure but im already finding it to be a huge help in terms of literacy.

I dont see it often talked about on these forums and I feel its such an amazing tool...

Anyways after my first little taste of it I can sense it has great potential as a study tool so my main focus now that i've completed RTK is to complete all 4 JLPT decks on readthekanji (RdTK?)... the time frame for this im estimating is 1 month.

Here goes nothing...

meh

im not convinced by this site, i kind of like what its getting at but i feel time spent on your srs would be time better spent. Too much exposure to english too, it might be useful for sentence mining if you want to use those kinds of sentences though... but those sentences can be found elsewhere and i would rather find my own sentences that interest me.

WeTsTICK Wrote:im not convinced by this site, i kind of like what its getting at but i feel time spent on your srs would be time better spent. Too much exposure to english too, it might be useful for sentence mining if you want to use those kinds of sentences though... but those sentences can be found elsewhere and i would rather find my own sentences that interest me.

Ya, it's not perfect, but you can turn off the English translations and sentences so you only see the Japanese on the front of the card. One thing that I do like about the site is that it allows you to mix up JLPT levels so that I can have some difficult vocabulary and refreshing easy stuff flowing around (until I'm done with them). Additionally, I also like how many characters have been put in asking specifically regarding each reading the character. Basically, I have no time at the moment to build my own deck (hope to soon), so I am enjoying this for the time being.

However, I don't suggest going overboard on speeding through the higher level (1 & 2) decks because your retention rate may not be so high after they become green cards and don't show up so often.

*edit
It's also good to familiarize yourself with the vocab within the sentence so that when it shows up later, but that's just me.

I agree, like i said, i like the idea but hmm... It has some nice features, and yeh you can really personalise it a lot, which is cool.

WeTsTICK Wrote:I agree, like i said, i like the idea but hmm... It has some nice features, and yeh you can really personalise it a lot, which is cool.

Ya, eventually it's best to move to one's own deck. Second hand decks just are not the same as personalized decks when sentences and vocabulary are concerned, in my opinion.

I think it's good if you want to study for JLPT. I tried jlpt3 last year and failed it, so I'm going to give it another shot this year. I'm currently putting all the vocab into my anki deck, so I can built up my vocabulary. I'm actually surprised at how many words I'm coming across which I didn't know (or just barely knew).

mezbup Wrote:I dont see it often talked about on these forums and I feel its such an amazing tool...

It was first announced on this forum. It's best posted about a few times.

But seriously... What's to talk about? It is what it is. There's no real discussions to be had.

Does anybody know where the sentences from readthekanji.com come from?

Do they come from the Tanaka Corpus? 英辞郎? Somewhere else?

I'm not really sure what to say about this site. It takes a while to check your answers and whenever I do it with JLPT1/2 vocab lists all I get is words with 人 in them until I eventually get bored of waiting for it to finish checking my answers and quit.

[Katsuo]

Sebastian Wrote:Does anybody know where the sentences from readthekanji.com come from?

Do they come from the Tanaka Corpus? 英辞郎? Somewhere else?

I checked a few. They were all from the Tanaka Corpus.

yeah i know its not the be all and end all but then again its not meant to be... but I say if its going to give me a leg up much like heisig did then sure... why the hell not? Im planning on mining sentences only from native sources though so I've decided not to use it for sentences (or perhaps KO2001 I may mine from)... My main objective with RdTK though is to gain a greater fimiliarity with kanji and vocab to give myself a sort of head start... and hey its working so far.

I'm too lazy to make a login to check this out, but I can't imagine myself ever returning to using an online website for studying. Not only would it be slower than a local application, it would require internet access and my 'deck' is only there as long as the webmaster decides to keep the site around.

That said, the screenshots look like they have some nice visualization and tallying of the kanji you know from compounds. Someone should try to reimplement it in the form of an Anki plugin.

Agreed w/ Jarvik.

yeah thats fair enough... doesnt really bug me... I think an offline version is being considered or planned but having it online benefits me actually in a funny way because I often have trouble dropping off to sleep at night so I access it with my iphone from bed and voila I can knock off a few hundreds cards and afterwards I fall asleep within 10 mins.

The speed sometimes bugs me when it takes a few seconds to check the answer but 9 times out of 10 its pretty quick. So its not a real issue form me.

I think it provides a great visual on your kanji knowledge but you have to be committed to going through every deck to even make use of that really... As you say a feature like this in Anki would be extremely worthwhile... it would make it very easy to see where you're knowledge has holes in it and thus fill them in

You can pretty much use an offline version already with Anki. Download the JLPT vocabulary deck and set it so you have to type the answer in. Or is there a feature readthekanji.com has that I'm forgetting about?

Nii87 Wrote:Or is there a feature readthekanji.com has that I'm forgetting about?

A fancy colour chart of the Kanji you know?

readthekanji's SRS is a bit better for straight drilling than Anki is... Anki is far better for long term retention and I use it for sentences and grammar.

As for progress...

I blitzed the first 2 decks in less than a week and I'm finding it was a big boost to my vocab! I hear lots of words now and through context recognize either the word or meaning and often this solidifies it and brings it into my active vocab... its almost like getting a christmas present you really wanted. Haha... Another thing im finding is that as I become more familiar with kanji and their readings when I hear new words in a given context sometimes I find that the word gets broken down into possible kanji from the readings and then a possible meaning from the assumed kanji... (this is only when its fairly obvious to me which kanji is probably being used) so i go look it up and voila! I was right! Now THAT is cool... I guess it'll happen more and more once i've completed the other 2 decks...

I'm enjoying using this site again recently.

Because you set it by JLPT levels its kind of a pain because so many words are released at each stage but when the level is right it's a really good tool. I just use it as a straight up test of the reading, so I set it to only display the kanji unless it's one where the reading depends on the context.

As for this vs. anki, with doing vocab and rtk on anki for me it's good to use something different.