I just started my RTK1 two days ago. I'm doing a 30/day program. It's just so trippy that I can remember all 60 keywords and kanji I've encountered thus far.

I've been studying Japanese off and on for 5 years. The kanji reps that I did with Genki and similar books before this were so agonizing, remembering all the readings, stroke order, and what they looked like was impossible. I think the max I've learned in those four years was like 150+ kanji, those were quickly forgotten by next day.

Remembering what the kanji look like and their keywords is a godsend. If only I found this sooner, I wouldn't have killed my fighting spirit. But now I'm hungry for Japanese again, which if you know me is surprising. Thanks to everyone on this website, you've helped this lost soul without knowing it!

I know where your coming from. In the past I had no success in a language I was trying to learn before I ever started japanese. I couldn't get anywhere with it and soon gave up. But for japanese I've finally gotten far and I'm not stopping.

RTK is a godsend. It made my life so easy in relating to kanji. I could recognize it/write it. And now I have the ability to read it. It's the smartest way to learn the kanji(by separating the tasks)

Even though I've completed RTK1 + RTK3 quite a while ago, I still find it hard to believe that I know thousands of characters. Still tickles a little bit to write them out during reviews.

I remember when I was going through RTK1 though, all I could think of this method was "Memory Exploit"

I thought this thread was about stalkers, and possibly that topic on "Japanese Lovers."

What a misleading title!

On topic...
I feel that what RTK does well is that it tells you all the parts of what makes up Kanji and teaches you in a systematic order. That was the most useful thing for me.

I thought this thread was about ahibba knowing everything there is to know about buonaparte. ;p

Lol sorry for the thread name, just what I was feeling after 60 kanji got ninja'd into my brain

So many people still give me a hard time about rtk


2 years ago i I got through the book, but missed a few days of reviews cause of a whole bunch of overnight 12 hour work days and raising kids.

Since I was doing 100+/day (some days 200) this quickly added up to almost 1500 overdue reviews that I never recovered from.

Almost 2 years later I decided to do a quick runthrough again now that I am at home with a busted femur ( hip surgery as a result of getting smacked off my tri bike by a car ) and I love how easy this second round is.

My worst review day thus far has been 92% and I started doing core2k and recognize a fair deal of the kanji. The only ones I get wrong are ones I can't remember the components for! ( the later ones that I didn't have a chance to review much )

RTK has made my studying so much easier and I consider it a VITAL component to my regiment

Yeah I get how you feel, moving/stress/school/family drama just take a toll on my Japanese.
If you don't mind me asking, how do you guys get into the zone? What type of music/environment do you create(not talking about immersion). What techniques do you do to get in the zone or get hyped up when everything around you is chaos. Right now I just put head phones on and try to make everything around me disappear except for my pen/rtkbook/anki. Sometimes it's not enough.

For getting in the zone usually I can just brew up some green tea, open up my notebook and get to it. If things get REAL bad then I blast music as loud as possible and tell people to leave me alone :p

Work/kids/wife/life can get in the way, but even when I DO get to it, the INTERNET can be a real distraction.


Thing that works best for me is competetiveness, either working alongside someone, trying to outdo them, or just keeping yourself accountable to others with similar goals can make a huge difference in getting "done"

If it's possible to get myself closed in a room it's easiest to do my reviews without music or other distractions, but if I am in a shared room, sometimes blasting the music is the best thing to do.

Now if only you could tunnel vision with some goggles or something and virtually eliminate ALL outside distractions

Lol thanks for the advice!

Is green tea preferred or does it help you concentrate better than other teas? I usually drink middle eastern tea(habit I picked up while traveling in Turkey lol). Oh and what music do you blast lol?

I'm not really sure who I can out do in RTK only doing 30/day. Most of the people I've studied Japanese with or studied with in general don't have the same drive I do. They say they want something so bad, but they don't put the effort in to get results they think they should have(very confusing I know). I haven't found a friend that takes me to the next level yet.

Well if anyone wants to have a conversation about Japanese or in Japanese(not the best speaker but would love to speak someone), my email/im is thebxbomber@hotmail.com

I just drink green tea cause of the yummy taste and it has anti-oxidants and stuff so it's much better for me than all the pepsi I used to drink >.>

I'm sure any tea is good though!

As far as music goes, I will put on anything Japanese that I have since it get's me inthe Japanese "mood" more that way. The more upbeat the better ( summon teeny j-pop parapapa groups LOL )

As far as friends with drive it's easier to find people online than it is in our offline worlds.

The one good friend with similar goals who also followed the methods that I use kind of bailed on being social at all let alone keeping up with each others studies >< Sites like this give us a healthy number of people to keep up with though

I don't know if it's still possible to see the members list and how many kanji they've added on the RevTK site, but when I was studying RTK1 what I heard people do was pick someone from the members list that had approximately the same amount of kanji added as you, and then try to beat them every day. If they are going too slow for you, pick someone else, if they're going too fast; pick someone else or pick up the pace.