Hey everyone. I've been working on KO2001 for about a month now, and finished RtK about 2 months ago. In the past 2 weeks or so, I've encountered an interesting (yet annoying) problem.

In the simplest terms I can put: I dread my RtK reviews everyday. I lost the enjoyment factor even when I was still working through the book. About 2 months out from RtK, I'm still working with about 25-40 reviews a day, which isn't bad for me. However, I've noticed that ever since doing KO2001 my retention rates on my RtK reviews have dropped since what I was doing before. I was averaging 85-95% throughout most of the book and even during the last month (when I had consistent 50-90 reviews/day), but anymore, I'm struggling to pull in 75-90% nowadays (with 25-40 reviews/day). One thing I have noticed though is that any of the kanji that I've already studied in KO2001, I remember almost instantly on RtK come review time.

Long story short, I'm just curious if anyone else has experienced something like this before. It's a bit frustrating, and I'm aware that my lack of enjoyment with RtK reviews is probably the major reason why I forget kanji. Just wanted to hear anyone's thoughts on the matter, and any suggestions anyone may have.

Before it gets mentioned. I'm not going to give up RtK reviews either. As one of my goals is to be able to keep a journal and write somewhat decently one day, I figure 20-30mins a day reviewing RtK won't kill me.

I too have had the same problem with dreading my reviews after finishing. I don't really have a solution other than it's the very first thing I do in the morning after showering. Doing it then makes it feel like just something I do when getting ready for the day rather than dreading coming home to it after work. It also separates it from my japanese study time so that it's easier for me to look forward to and enjoy the study time at the end of the day.

I dunno, I quit reviewing individual RTK a month I think after finishing, (but I spent 6 months [on and off] doing RTK, so). I just focused purely on sentences to learn readings/grammar, and continued to write out kanji/recall the story for those I was fuzzy on (as I came across them in sentences). Yeah, sometimes a kanji won't show up for a while, but relearning is pretty easy, especially in context.

If you went through RTK more quickly and have less of them in the more mature stacks, perhaps you can just review the cards in the early stacks until they mature and leave the later stacks for sentences only.

Edit: And obviously, the reason I'm recommending this is because it worked very well for me, saved me tonnes of time and I have zero problems with kanji. That's the benefit of going from RTK-->KO2001/smart.fm for readings, they reinforce one another.

You might want to consider JRTK - replacing your English keywords with Japanese. You can search the forum for "Japanese keywords" or "JRTK". Wrightak has a web page about his version here:

http://wrightak.googlepages.com/afterrtk1

This is the list of 'results' at the bottom of the page describing what he felt he gained from the Japanese keywords, and I've definitely found all of it to be true for me:

--

* When I hear Japanese being spoken, I often will unconsciously visualise the associated kanji. This did not happen when I was reviewing with English keywords.
* I can often guess the pronunciation of new words that contain kanji I know.
* I can now talk to Japanese people about the kanji I know how to write by using the Japanese prompt.
* I can now honestly say (to potential employers etc.) exactly how many kanji I can write.
* I rarely have to look up kanji by radical or stroke count because I can usually type at least one pronunciation into my electronic dictionary or my pc.
* No more frustrating confusion with the English keywords that have similar meanings
* No more frustration with English keywords I didn't agree with e.g. town = 村, village = 町 ???

--

I've been using a similar method with my own vocabulary keywords and sentences and have found it to be very satisfying. The front of my cards show the keyword (if it is a compound, the reading of the desired kanji is in blue), a sentence in kanji with the keyword in kana, and a Japanese definition of the keyword. The back shows the kanji, the keyword in kanji, and the sentence including furigana. I get my sentences from the Tanuki Corpus, which is great because it also includes a Japanese definition for each of some 5,000-7,000 vocabulary words. I'm still reviewing the English keywords until I finish this deck (at which point I'd be happy to share it), but I am definitely looking forward to moving on.

Timeboxing is key. I just started doing this last week and it's changed my motivation for the better. Now instead of saying, "Let me do 50 reviews a day," I say, "Let me do 5 minutes now, 5 minutes later, and maybe 5 more minutes if I'm free."

Pros:
+Get more done by being more focused on how many you can get done in 5 minutes.
+Feel better about each completed session.
+Enjoy it more.

Cons:
-None.

I might take the advice of changing the key words to Japanese, but I have to read into it more. If you really want to keep doing what you're doing, all you need to do is timebox.

P.S. You never want to give up on your RTK reviews, so I think it's awesome you want to keep reviewing. You just need to find more ways to enjoy it. Timeboxing, like I mentioned, helps. Are you listening to Japanese media while you study? I also recommend this, as the music/podcasts/TV shows provide some nice passive listening.

@Delina
Thanks for the suggestion regarding Japanese keywords. Sounds very interesting and I'll have to keep it mind.

@TheVinster I do use timeboxing for my RtK. I usually try to break it into 10 min chunks and it usually takes me about 2- 10minute periods to do 40ish reviews. I'm a lot slower than a bunch of people who blaze through their RtK reviews but I write each kanji down, and usually end up erasing or rewriting once or twice because I don't feel satisfied with how it looks yet

Also, it depends on the mood I'm in whether I listen to music or not. I usually do with RtK because it's not too taxing mentally, but sometimes I need to turn it off because I just end up focusing more on the music than trying to remember kanji.

Thanks for the tips!

Offshore Wrote:@Delina
Thanks for the suggestion regarding Japanese keywords. Sounds very interesting and I'll have to keep it mind.

I have just done this and I must say it feels much better. RTK reviews feel more connected to my KO2001 reviews. I suspended my entire RTK deck and slowly am replacing keywords with Japanese ones.