I've a few less than 300 kanji left to finish RTK I, but I'm stuck in that awful place of: wishing that it were ALREADY done ... why ISN"T it already done ... it SHOULD already be done ... etc. So instead of bearing down on studies to actually finish RTK I, I find myself giving in more and more to the temptation to read the forum, check out websites mentioned in it, and generally use up a lot of time that should be used to get the job done. When I'm not being too bad I still do my reviews first and then scramble later in the day (night) to get my daily quota of new stories done.

I am tempted to force myself back on track by doubling my daily load of 25 kanji per day (and cut my 12 days left down to 6) but I'm creating (or borrowing) fairly memorable stories at my current rate of 25 per day and have a high rate of accurate recall, so I don't want to mess this up just to make a mad dash to the finish line (which really isn't a finish line is it ... it's more the beginning of review, making sure I have all 2042 down as correctly as is humanly possible, and then going on to RTK III and the review and assimilation of all 3007 kanji and then on to all the other kanji that I will encounter).

Anybody else experience this? Any words of wisdom? Of encouragement?

Thanks.

Well.. I'm having a similiar problem too.. I'm stuck at Frame 620. My excuse is that I have been too busy lately.. I'll soon be back on track thought. Without this site I would be back in the beginning of the book a couple months from now thought..

(So, again: Great job Fabrice!)

All I can say is, keep going. Try not to fell so desperate to finish quickly; just focus on successfully doing it. Even if you have to cut your daily load down to 12 to give yourself a break, make sure you get at least 10 in in the course of the day.

I agree. Just keep at it. Even if you only finish 5 in a day it's ok. Keep pushing forward. On some days you'll probably do a lot more. In fact, maybe it's better to not even worry about how many you do in a day. You'll eventually reach before you know it.

Also, keep in mind that finishing RTK is only the beginning. Plan to review RTK by doing frequent(maybe daily) quizzes and also by reading.

Anyway, good luck. Hope to see you in the "Yay! I finished RTK!" thread sometime soon......

I'm not nearly as far along as you, but something that helps me along when I'm procrastinating is just looking up words and compounds that use the kanji I'm about to learn. No thinking or memorizing, just getting familiar with the character and its connotations and picking up words you may have encountered already that use it. Besides being a more productive way to procrastinate, I find that getting a little "friendly" with the characters beforehand makes it easier to switch into Heisig-mode and start coming up with stories.

Chadokoro_K Wrote:Anybody else experience this? Any words of wisdom? Of encouragement?

No words of wisdom, but I stalled at about 1900. I kind of felt like I was done (although I wasn't) and wanted to get on with readings, compounds, etc.

I got totally out of the habit of adding new cards which made it even harder to sit down and get it done (in fact, I've still not completed the last chapter!). So if I was doing it again, I would prefer to just keep adding cards at a constant rate.

Good luck getting through.

C'mon, finish. All the cool kids are doing it! You want to be cool, don't you? ^_^

I found the last few hundred to be brutally hard to finish as well. I spent more time counting how many more I had left and mapping out various schedules than actually studying them. It was just that there was so few left.... why are they not done?!

I found it really helpful to use the check your progress link and focus not on how many kanji were left in total but on how many i had to clear the next lesson. Even if it took me a few days baby steps were the way to go. I was also lucky and had a few trips planned so I deliberately left everything else to do at home so I had nothing to do except study kanji on the train. I crashed through a few dozen that way.

I started carrying around lists of the next 20 or so that I had to do and used small moments at school or waiting in line to make my stories for one or two. Anything other than sitting down and doing sets at a time. Just couldn't do it. I also had a reward planned (my Japanese PS2) I actually finished the last 10 sitting outside the store before I bought it Ganbarre!

I'm also in this predicament. I tell myself that I'll clear my 700+ reviews before I learn anymore...but I feel I should just keep learning and ignore the reviews for now.

Tell yourself you'll just learn two more, or you'll just review five.

The hardest part is starting. If you can trick yourself to start, then you're all set; before you know it, you'd have done much more.

[ファブリス]

Chadokoro_K, 25 kanji a day is already a lot, imho. Why not relax the pace now and do just 10 a day. If you've got only 300 left, then you'll be done in a month. Don't be too hard on yourself. Or try to do a minimum of 1 each day, chances are after the first one is down, you'll keep on doing a few more each day

Whatever you do, keep up with the reviews. Once you let the orange cards accumulate, you are on a slippery slope toward never finishing.

Another point to think about (which I'm living), when you get that 2042nd kanji in the first box, you still have to get them ALL into the 4th box. No failed kanji and no expired kanji. That is my next milestone, and I'm convinced that having too many expired kanji to review in a day is the kiss-of-death. With an aggressive pace, you might get them IN, but then they will be boom-a-rang-ing back as expired kanji, just when you'll be hard pressed to review them all. Well, at least that's where I've stumbled. Your Mileage May Vary. I hope so. But at least think about it.

Chadokoro_K: I am EXACTLY in the same boat as you. I'm at Frame 1756, but I want to be done already, damnit! I recently downloaded Anki, and now I'm having too much fun adding vocabulary cards. My motivation for finishing up RTK is starting to dwindle.

But I've started so many things in life but always gave up halfway through. There's a Japanese language book that I've been meaning to work through entirely for the past several years. There's a fun origami book which I've only worked halfway through. Not to mention the many novels and books I've started to read but never finished.

But writing this post is pepping me up! You know, you and I are pretty damn close to finishing. Just 10 more lessons and all 2042 kanji are in the bag! For once, this will be a project that I will not abandon or push off for later.

Hope you feel the same way.

Chadokoro_K: Agh, my fault for introducing Anki!

Don't let it slip. I so wish I was in the same position, but... I'm 1000 frames behind you . I already love the way when I open my Kanji Learner's Dictionary on just about every page there are Kanji I learned by RTK.

wow

me being at only 577 kanji, I couldn't imagine anyone having problems finishing when already so far along! I'd think I'd be more motivated than ever to just finish things up in that case. But I did read your post, and it does make sense I guess.

Maybe you should try to remember how you felt when you just started or when you were not even halfway through? How motivated you were to reach your goals. Think about the effort you already put in relative to the amount of time still needed to get it done!

don't be silly now, get it over with

[ファブリス]

Also think of something to treat yourself to when you complete the book!

300? Piece of cake! I finished 1219 today. Goody for me!

I actually don't use this site. I read the forum now and then for motivation. It was taking forever to reach 1200. All my fault, though. I use flashcard software so I don't have to be on-line and the first two batches of kanji I imported, I didn't include numbers. My third batch started at 1027 and I added numbers and it was so much easier to manage that I took all the kanji and numbered them, but HAD TO START FROM SCRATCH! Yep, card no. 1. :o So, then it was a race to catch up to where I ACTUALLY WAS. And now I'm FINALLY back on track.

I was losing my motivation, having started from square one again and just today asked a friend of mine not to let me slack off. I usually go a chapter at a time. Write the stories and when I'm done, review. Anything from the pool or box one is a freebie, but I'm strict after that. I'm recognizing kanji like crazy these days and it feels good. And if it feels good, do it!

What's that Chinese saying...It doesn't matter how slow you go as long as you don't stop.

終わりまで頑張りましょう！

Thanks to all for your words of encouragement, strategies, and experiences.

I know it seems strange to those closer to the beginning of their journey through RTK I, but it is just that awful phenomenon of working on something that takes a lot of time and effort... the closer you get to finishing, the more unbearable it becomes to sit through what is necessary to finish it (happened when I was working on my thesis, too).

The general consensus seems to be NOT to double up my daily quota and race toward the finish line but to slow down my pace and enjoy the process more. This will ensure that I don't get swamped with too many kanji for review all at once down the line.

Actually I got very busy with life several months ago, stopped making new stories for three months at #1400 and then ... shudder ... stopped reviewing. It took me a month to review all 1400 kanji to the point where I could begin learning new kanji. So I KNOW I don't want to slack off on reviews ever again!

I like the idea of doing just one or two stories at a time several times throughout the day, rather than a large set at one sitting. (I will definitely carry a paper list with me to work on throughout the day.) And I agree that writing just one story can get the ball rolling so that I want to write more. I also like the idea of focusing on just the next lesson... on finishing it in baby steps over several days if need be. With this in mind I did just one story to get me started this morning and then did five more to take me to the end of lesson 45. Hurray! (Much more productive than web-browsing or counting how many kanji are left and charting out schedules and dates to finish by. Something I'm also guilty of doing to excess.)

I will still aim for a daily quota of 25 (approx a lesson a day), but won't sweat it as long as I've done a minimum of 10 new kanji spread out through the course of the day AND have done ALL of my reviews. (A month more to finish max isn't so bad, I guess.)

I will begin each day by looking at this page of encouragement and advice. When my minimum of 10 new kanji and ALL of my daily review are done I will ask myself whether I want to shoot for 15 more new kanji, finish a lesson, or read the forum -- but I won't allow myself to act on any of the fun-looking software (like Anki) out there until I've written a story for all 2042. I will also think up an extra nice reward for finishing RTK I.

In the meantime I will keep watch on akrohda's progress. Akrodha, I'm going to keep up with you. Let's join that cool kid gang. 頑張りましょう！

It's all your fault! Right after I replied to this thread I found the Anki thread. It seems really cool and I'm tired of lugging my pc everywhere. I joined a gym last month so that slowed up my studies cause I used to study in that block of time, but now I sweat. So access from the cell seems right timely. I'm debating on whether to shift my studies over to Anki or not. That would be starting from scratch yet a aTHIRD time!There are no timed reviews in Memory Lifter, the program I'm using, just a gradual lengthening of time due to the boxes and the sizes I designated.

BTW, I lost nearly 5kg in May, yippee for me! Nothing like goal setting!

Chadokoro_K - as you've already done RTK1 before doesn't that make it easier?

Are you using many of your previous stories or ones from the site?

As for your reward when you're done...how about "treating" yourself to a Japanese novel!

Yes I finished RTK I about 15 years ago but didn't follow up and had another unsuccessful go at it 4 or 5 years ago. I've been in the USA for 10 years now. When I left Japan I really only had about 800-900 kanji down solidly--both reading and writing. (Not RTK I order.) So I am very encouraged that I am at #1775 and have approx a 95% accuracy rate...something I've never had before for this many kanji!

I remember a few of my old stories, and I only wrote down a small percentage of them on cards from the big yellow (not blue, that's how old it is) box, so the vast majority I have to create all over again. Also, many of them weren't proper stories but just the elements strung together. I encourage everyone to make proper stories and document them--just in case. Once I've created stories for all 2042 kanji, I plan to use Fabrice's suggestion from another post to meditate on them as part of my review. Hopefully this will flesh them out even more!

As for making vs borrowing stories...it has been about 50-50 for the last several hundred. It is a little difficult to borrow stories outright because I am altering my keywords to a set of core meanings for each kanji where appropriate. (This better fits the way my brain works when it encounters kanji in text, but it IS a lot more work.)

What really makes things easier is this fantastic website...being able to pull up and cross-reference things electronically, spaced repetition for review, seeing other people's approach to story-making, and especially the creative personification of primitives (Bender the crafty robot, Socrates, Fingers the thief, Shrek, etc) something I wish Heisig had done a lot more of.

And yes, I think that reading a Japanese novel will make an excellent reward. But maybe I'll get a nice relaxing Zen shiatsu as well!

Hehe yeah! Let's kick RTK's ass!

I tried to look for your progress here on this website but I'm guessing you use another program or something else to review. Anyway feel free to look at my progress. Knowing that you're keeping watch on me gives me the motivation to continue further.

(That and my birthday is coming at the end of the month... hmm... what better birthday present than to have RTK 1 completed...)

Chadokoro_K, adrodha, I am totally with you guys. Got stuck around the 1800 mark about 6 months ago and it seemed to take forever to clear the ongoing cycle of expired and failed kanji after that break in my review schedule. Caught up eventually and managed to add up to 1977 but life stuff got a bit on top of me recently and the orange stacks are growing again. I HAVE LESS THAN 100 TO GO!!! WHEN, OH WHEN, WILL IT END?!!!! :mad:

So, this post is a kind of self-kick-up-the-ass (pause, odd image). I will clear my expired stacks TONIGHT (on reflection there are 656 cards - gulp), er, TOMORROW (at the absolute latest) and following that I will make stories for at least 5 new kanji every day. RTKers, bear ye witness to this statement! So, I am keeping an eye on both akrodha and Chadokoro_K for your posts in the "I finished RTK1 please congratulate me" thread, and would greatly appreciate it if you (and whoever else is interested and/or has way too much time on their hands) would do the same for me!

fiminor, I've got your profile bookmarked:

http://kanji.koohii.com/showprofile.php?user=fiminor

I'm waiting for that Kanji Count to reach 2042!

And Chadokoro_K, I found yours too. Are you updating it?

akrodha and fiminor,

I'll be watching you both and now you can watch my numbers too, if you like.

(I usually review elsewhere but did a review today so that the system will keep my numbers updated.)

Here are all of our profiles:
http://kanji.koohii.com/showprofile.php?user=fiminor
http://kanji.koohii.com/showprofile.php?user=akrodha
http://kanji.koohii.com/showprofile.php?...hadokoro_K

(Whew, nothing like being watched as a motivating factor!)

I'm right behind you both. C'mon lets get these kanji counts to 2042!
I can't wait to read all of our posts in the "I finished RTK1, please congratulate me" thread. (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=95)