Hey guys.

I finished RTK1 a while back and then I learned the alphabet and I was all excited for smart.fm; but when I went there I just looked at the sentences and thought "Wow! Whats all this gibberish!?" (a little discouraging after you spend all that time learning all the characters...)

And so I started doing the vocabulary section and learning word by word...
I'm not really sure if this is the right way.. It kinda goes against the AJATT idea of learning in context (though I hoping it's more of a temporary thing to get to a comfortable level for the sentences). Should I just suck it up, dive into the sentences and pick them apart word by word with a dictionary? (I'd imagine this is slow at first...)

And do any of you use the iKnow? or should I really be using Anki?

Thanks in advance! =)

I would use Anki personally, because it's updated regularly and you can use it offline (you can back up your decks online too, and review them from a webpage too).

I'm assuming you've only done RTK1 and learnt the hiragana and katakana, in which case your Japanese level can be considered beginner. As such, I would make sure that you are using sentences that suit your level i.e. make sure (if you are using smart.fm for instance) that you are indeed studying the most basic decks first.

Because your vocab will be quite small to begin with, I would say it's best not to dive into hundreds of sentences containing loads of different words - instead start off with basic words like "this, that, what, do..." etc. and build on that, slowly introducing newer and more complicated words into your smart.fm/Anki deck.

I would also read Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar (although probably it is best to read it when you see a grammar structure you don't understand - if you just read through the whole site having never encountered unknown grammar structures, I think you will end up confusing yourself).

I know the AJATT website has a starter sentence pack, which you might find a helpful starter. When I first started building my deck, I had studied using Genki and I just took example sentences from there as it had a nice pace. Nowadays I pillage mostly websites and manga.

That's just my thoughts, hope there is something helpful there for you - best of luck.

Oh, okay. So I should start with just simple words (looks like there is a whole section with just words on smart.fm)

The first sentence is

運動会で一位になったよ。
うんどうかい で いち い に なった よ 。
I wouldn't even know where to start with that...

Maybe I'll look into KO2001. =)

Thanks for the advice.. Learning sentences seems a lot harder than RTK1 =S

georgative Wrote:Oh, okay. So I should start with just simple words (looks like there is a whole section with just words on smart.fm)

The first sentence is

運動会で一位になったよ。
うんどうかい で いち い に なった よ 。
I wouldn't even know where to start with that...

Maybe I'll look into KO2001. =)

Thanks for the advice.. Learning sentences seems a lot harder than RTK1 =S

Read through Tae Kim's Japanese Guide to Japanese and that sentence should be easy

from a person who has done studied 7000+ items on smart.fm... i highly recommend using Anki... there is no better long-term memorization tool out there than Anki... smart.fm will cram a lout in your head, but after time goes by, you'll start to forget things where Anki keeps the memories strong. KO2001 is highly recommended...

I would also vote for anki and KO2001, both are doing wonders for my Japanese reading ability.

+1 on KO20010, although be prepared to delete and/or laugh at some of the more weird sentences.