Here is the quick version:

I've been doing core 2k since January and am only at step 4. I went at a horrible pace.

I've been watching a lot of anime and movies and game-play footage and vlogs and just a bunch of stuff in Japanese as well as podcasts hoping that it would improve my Japanese, and it has to an extent, I can hear all the separate parts of the words and everything I just don't understand most of what I see/hear.

I read this blog post about a guy who conquered the 2145 or so joyo kanji in 90 days. Going at 25 kanji a day.

This blitz type study method works well for me. The slow and steady was never really my thing.

I have 5 days left until I finish step 4 of core 2k.

When I finish I will start going at a pace of 25 a day and finish in 48, lets say 50 days, I have a job and school so I might miss a day or two.

I basically do nothing but review all day, I'll spend like 2 hours tops on anki reviewing and adding the new cards every day, that seems to be my limit. And just have the sheet with todays words on it and review it every few minutes throughout the rest on my day. I know it's only for 50 days so I can forgo everything else just to finish this.

I need two questions answered.

1. How many of the joyo kanji are covered in cokre 2k, how many in core 6k?

2. What tips do you have for motivation/ anything that will help me focus all day?
ANY TIPS AT ALL are IMMENSELY appreciated


Also I noticed that studying other things like grammar and just reading all types of other stuff is just easier when I know the kanji that is why I am focusing only on this at first. I'll do something similar latter for the grammar and listening and speaking.

Again Thanks in advance for any and all help

instrumental music in the background is a must. i personally listen to this: http://rainwave.cc/

The rest relies just on an iron will to get through it no matter what.

Everything is easier when you know a lot of kanji. It's the exact same way as it would be if you memorized music scales etc. before learning to play the guitar. Things just make more sense.

I'm 97.35% sure all the joyo kanji are covered through rtk1 and supplement. But do your research. As for for core i use the deck compiled by Nukethemarine and it has around ~1650 unique kanji.

According to my kanji stats in Anki, the RtK1 deck (ver. 6 = supplement included) does indeed cover every single joyo kanji along with about 7% of the jinmeiyo kanji and a few extra besides those.

[Zgarbas]

Keep in mind that "conquering" kanjis is subjective. Lots of people finish RTK in less than 3 months, which means they can recognize/write all the joyo kanjis and assign them a basic meaning. However Kanjis are a complex thing and you will rarely ever truly learn everything about one (I am still surprised by new readings for 上, a kanji I thought I conquered years ago). Basically, as time goes by you will keep adding layers of information to everything you know about kanji .

Also, 2 hours for core2k only? How do you do your reviews? That seems way too much.

[ファブリス]

EasyJapanezy Wrote:I read this blog post about a guy who conquered the 2145 or so joyo kanji in 90 days. Going at 25 kanji a day.

Please keep in mind those are odd cases. For most people *who are motivated and disciplined* to maintain the daily study routine, six months is a much more realistic estimate. I took nine months but had a few breaks.

Six months is still very good. That's an average 10-15 kanji a day.

You'll find on this forum many people took up to a year, which is OK. You can take a slower pace and do a little bit of grammer and vocab by the side.

I stopped learning new characters after 2 months, so I 'finished', but I still feel the pain on my reviews, it's best to set a realistic estimate of time e.g. 3 months to 6 months if you want to be quick about it and work out how many kanji you need to learn daily.

Hashiriya Wrote:instrumental music in the background is a must. i personally listen to this: http://rainwave.cc/

The rest relies just on an iron will to get through it no matter what.

Thank you so much for that link I have been looking for something like that for I don't know how long.

And yea the iron will thing is probably just what I'll have to do, I want it bad enough so I should make it.

Zgarbas Wrote:Lots of people finish RTK in less than 3 months, which means they can recognize/write all the joyo kanjis and assign them a basic meaning. However Kanjis are a complex thing and you will rarely ever truly learn everything about one (I am still surprised by new readings for 上, a kanji I thought I conquered years ago). Basically, as time goes by you will keep adding layers of information to everything you know about kanji .

Also, 2 hours for core2k only? How do you do your reviews? That seems way too much.

That's what I'm hopping for, just a basic foundation to build on as time goes on. But I feel like I can't really move on to grammar and other things before I finish this.

Also the 2 hour thing, I've let the reviews build up in the past and it takes like 2 hours to have to review all the cards from the beginning. But on a daily basis it never takes longer than 20 minutes.

That's why I want to rush it, because I can do it and because the more I review them the better they stick and the easier and faster the reviews happen.

And for the realistic thing, it works for some people but I've been trying all year to stick to a realistic schedule and it has gotten me to step 4 after 9 months so maybe it's time to try something new