I'll finish RTK1 in 2 weeks. What happens next? I'll try KO 2001, or the Assimil method with Anki and the famous "sentence mining" everybody's talking about but I wonder what will happen to all those kanjis I've learned in RTK1? I'm asking this because I know that some keywords don't represent accurately the meaning of the kanjis they are associated to, and I don't know if I should keep on reviewing RTK1 with the standard keywords.

In other words, should I add real sentences to Anki and review those sentences only (focusing on real words and pronunciation), or should I add real sentences and keep on reviewing RTK1 (with the keywords that could collide with the vocabulary I'm trying to learn)?

I think you should keep reviewing RTK1 too, for at least a few months until you are more secure with it.

In my experience, just reading mantained my kanji skills.

I can't write the whole RTK anymore, but I can read much more than RTK and write most of it. But I guess that depends of you.

If you are going to Japan and will need to write a lot, you should work harder than me.
My goal is not to become a Japanese novelist, it is simply fluency.
Even if I were to work in Japan, I think that most of what I'd write would be in English.

Kanji slip from your mind incredibly easily if you stop reviewing them. Of course, after they are all in box 8 (or if you're using Anki, all very mature), you can stop reviewing and just make sure you're using them in your Japanese. Even then, I think that the occasional review will be helpful, there will always be one or two which you wont rememeber.

And I definitely recommend Assimil. The number one complaint I hear about KO2001 is that you're dumped straight in the deep end. Right from the first kanji, the sentences are quite complex. Assimil teaches 1000 kanji, just like KO2001, but it starts from basic sentences, and progresses onwards. The downside is that for the first 20 lessons or so, the audio is ridiculously slow. It actually gets on my nerves. But it's a small price to pay!

Continue to review. Mark easy things easy, and your review load will decrease to the point where you can even switch to weekly review sessions if you're so inclined.

Next step is not a program of learning, but massive input. I like pre-compiled learning resources, but they're a supplement, not the main course. You need podcasts, audiobooks (little-kids' stories are great), manga, TV, etc, etc. Whatever strikes your fancy: and can read, hear, or watch anything no matter how immature.

Once you've create that climate, you can add learning resources. My experience is you need both for rapid improvement. I went Tae Kim (without sentences) to Core2000, which I think is a lot gentler than KO.

You certainly don't have to be harsh on yourself to make progress learning. Learning is painless, unobtrusive, and slow enough to escape your day-to-day notice. For those reasons, it's normal to feel stalled sometimes. Just do a little bit of study per day. As long as you're still doing some study and a lot of mindless music-player/TV-watching, you're in good shape.

Language acquisition is an instinct. There are plenty of well-documented cases in linguistic literature of adults acquiring second languages without any study at all. However, no one has ever acquired high proficiency in any language without putting in huge amounts of time hearing or seeing it--this is true for both natural and constructed languages. Take care of that, and the rest will follow.

Thank you all for your answers.

I'll keep on reviewing for a few months. After all, I still have a lot of kanjis in the first box, and I may study RTK3 slowly while doing sentences.

I've already read the 1st volume of the Assimil a few years ago, and even though I don't remember much, it should be faster now to use it as a sentences pack.

Quote:and a lot of mindless music-player/TV-watching

Well, it's something I'm ashamed to admit but, I have downloaded a few hundred podcasts but I have not listened to them, this is a good recomendation: mindless "AJATT" in the background while I work.