I'm just a few days away from completing RTK 1, and I'm writing to request advice on what to do next.

By way of background, I live in the US, and I've been to Japan only once, though I do hope to return to visit again. My primary interest is in reading Japanese, as I hope to use it conjunction with my work -- I write about international affairs, among other things. (For similar reasons, I'd eventually like to learn to read Mandarin as well.) So I'd like to be able to read newspapers and more formal governmental documents, though it certainly would be great to be able to read literature and manga too. As a secondary matter, I'd also be interested in learning to understand spoken Japanese, but that would be more for fun, so that I can watch movies or listen to songs or play games or whatever. Likewise, it'd be nice to learn to speak and write, but it's not as high a priority for me as reading.

I have been studying Japanese almost full-time since last fall, although I only started RTK1 a couple months ago. Thus far I've worked through all of Genki 1, all of the iPhone app (really an e-book) "Human Japanese," all of "Japanese Sentences for Extensive Communication," most of Tae Kim's grammar website (just getting to the "advanced" topics now), some of Hasegawa's "Elementary Japanese," and about half of "Japanese the Manga Way." I've also read a few of the "Graded Readers," though I'm having trouble finding any more of these pricey little books. I've worked through some of Miller's graded "Japanese Reader" -- helpful, if not the most user-friendly thing. I've got the Kodansha learner's Kanji dictionary as well as the basic grammar dictionary from the Japan Times, the latter being surprisingly helpful. I also have a few books I haven't started yet, including Genki 2 and Kanji in Context, plus a couple of introductions to Japanese literature that are too high-level for me right now.

For all this work, my reading level is still pretty basic. I have no trouble with the easy graded readers, but I struggle with manga (say, Naruto) or newspapers or literature. That said, RTK 1 has helped more than I could have dreamed. It's not the kanji that stumps me when reading a newspaper or Naruto; it's the darned hiragana soup. My vocabulary isn't large enough to handle it yet, and while I've studied grammar extensively, understanding and studying are two different things. I suppose I need vocabulary above all, ideally in the context of sentences to help me cement grammar.

Anyway, I'm wondering what to do next. I'm inclined to go ahead with Genki 2, and to finish Japanese the Manga Way, which is great fun. But as this is a near-full-time thing for me (at least through the summer), I have the time also for SRS-style study coupled with some sort of computer-based learning, like KO2001 or Core 2000. And I guess that's my ultimate question here: which of these two would be best for me? I've spent a couple hours with Core 2000, and it's kinda fun, but I don't know if it's the most efficient way to proceed. I haven't done much with KO 2001 other than to look at a few of the samples available, so I know even less about that.

Also, I have some more specific questions about each. (Apologies for the length of this post!)

1. Is smart.fm (the iKnow Flash-based app) synonymous with Core 2000?

2. Is Core 2000/smart.fm free, or will it eventually require money? (I don't mind paying for either or both if need be.)

3. For someone with my interests, is KO2001 best done as an e-book, or by using the book?

4. If I were to use one or both in conjunction with Anki, how do I go about doing this? Do you do your smart.fm study and then go back and review it in Anki? Do you just work through Core2000 or KO2001 first, then review them in Anki (after you've completed them)?

5. Is either system compatible with an iPhone/iPad? I'll be away from a PC for 3 weeks in July but will have an iPad and iPhone with me. I couldn't get iKnow to work on my iPhone, presumably because it uses Flash. Then again, maybe I could finish with it before July?

6. Finally, once again, the ultimate question: given my interests, which do you recommend I pursue next, Core 2000 or KO2001?

Many thanks!

First, a little info on what I'm doing so you can see where I'm coming from.
I finished RTK1 about a year ago and have been doing (alternating between really)
the Anki decks for Japanese RTK, Core 2000 (Which I know most of, so mostly for okurigana/writing review) , Ko2001, and Core 6000(mostly business vocabulary I wasn't familiar with) for a few months. I find the overlap between them helps me review/remember words.

1. Is smart.fm (the iKnow Flash-based app) synonymous with Core 2000?

Smart.fm is a website with professionally made and user-made lists.
Core 2000 is one of the professionally made lists, but it's also available as an Anki deck. (Personally, I dislike Smart.fm's way of quizzing so I prefer Anki.)

2. Is Core 2000/smart.fm free, or will it eventually require money? (I don't mind paying for either or both if need be.)

Currently Smart.fm is free. I don't know if they have plans to monetize the site. The Core 2000 Anki deck will always be free however.

3. For someone with my interests, is KO2001 best done as an e-book, or by using the book?

I prefer the Anki deck and have never used the book...

4. If I were to use one or both in conjunction with Anki, how do I go about doing this? Do you do your smart.fm study and then go back and review it in Anki? Do you just work through Core2000 or KO2001 first, then review them in Anki (after you've completed them)?

You could do that. Although using the Anki deck alone might be easier if you prefer Anki. Try both ways to see which one you like better.

5. Is either system compatible with an iPhone/iPad? I'll be away from a PC for 3 weeks in July but will have an iPad and iPhone with me. I couldn't get iKnow to work on my iPhone, presumably because it uses Flash. Then again, maybe I could finish with it before July?

Both Anki and Smart.fm have iphone versions.
6. Finally, once again, the ultimate question: given my interests, which do you recommend I pursue next, Core 2000 or KO2001?

Hmm... Core 2000 (and especially Core 6000) have a lot of business vocabulary but it's given in a pretty random order. KO2001 has less vocabulary but is sorted by Kanji.
I've heard of Kore, Core 2000 sorted by KO2001's kanji order but haven't used it.
I'd say try both but Core 2000 might work better with your goals... I found KO2001 easier though because of the sorted kanji.

Thanks for that thorough reply, Bokusenou. I guess I'll continue with Core 2000 for a little while, then, and see how it goes. I did look at the smart.fm iPhone app, and it doesn't look like it's fully-featured yet. You can get your words and sentences into the app, but it doesn't include smart.fm's quiz feature, at least not yet.

I also looked at the CosCom website for KO2001 and was a bit puzzled about how to order. I didn't see a "shopping cart" or anything. I assume that's the only place to buy it, no?

Anyway, thanks again. Does anyone else have any advice on how I should proceed, given my interests?

If people are worried about the ordering of core 6000 or KO2001 isn't there a deck sorting algorithm somewhere on the forums? I'm not sure if it works on core 6000 but I've used it on KO2001 to sort it in terms of frequency, so it is easy all the way through and its really working. I'm seeing the same kanji and even some words over and over in the first 50-60 reviews and finding I remember these words much easier.