Hello everyone,

First, thank you for the extremely helpful site. I've just recently come across it, and I'm already amazed by all the great resources and advice.

I'm in the last couple chapters of RTK1, and I was hoping someone could give me a little advice about how to continue.

Do you recommend moving on to RTK2? If so, is it the kind of thing you can do SRS with? I've used menmosyne for RTK1, and I definitely want to continue with SRS if I can.

I know I really need to improve my vocabulary. I've heard the core 2000 and 6000 lists are good, and I'd like to try learning them with anki. I'm wondering, what do you think is the best format for the cards? I downloaded one deck that has just the kanji on the front and the kana, English, and an example sentence on the back. Do you think that's an effective way to study? Or should I be doing English -> Japanese instead?

Thanks for any help with this! It's much appreciated.

You can ignore the part about RTK2. I've found some great threads discussing different ways to approach it.

Any advice about the best way to format cards (kanji > kana/English, English > Japanese, etc.) for vocabulary study (specifically, the core 6000 deck) would still be appreciated. Thanks!

I did the shared JLPT anki deck (~8k vocab) over 2-3 months. Question is in Kanji, answer is Kana/Definition. Just get through them as fast as you can to get a decent vocab base for reading. I think deep understanding only comes through constant use (as opposed to SRS), so I really think it's quantity over quality rules as far as Anki is concerned. Leave exposure to bake in the knowledge.

Thanks for the advice. That's helpful.

I'm guessing either the JLPT or Core 6000 deck would be good for me, since my current vocab level is extremely low.

Does that JLPT deck have example sentences built in? Or is the answer only kana/definition?

Thanks again for the help.

What's your general level of Japanese?

Did you just finish rtk and that's it?

I've also studied some grammar. I've done a couple beginner books, including Genki 1, and I'm about a third of the way through Genki 2. I've rarely systematically studied vocab; I mostly just know what I've come across in everyday life or in textbooks.

Oh and one more anki vocab question to add:

If I'm using the Core 6000 deck, is there a way to make it start with the Core 2000 Step 1, followed by Step 2, etc.? I just tried it out, and it started with Step 3 I believe. Or if I use the full JLPT deck, is there a way to make it go by the JLPT levels?

Sorry if this is obvious. I'm totally new to anki.

Thanks!

Ok then.

Personally I think you might be better off finishing genki 2 before starting core. Once you start core make sure to not neglect the grammar. I'd start srsing jlpt grammar books starting with N4.

thenewpollution Wrote:Oh and one more anki vocab question to add:

If I'm using the Core 6000 deck, is there a way to make it start with the Core 2000 Step 1, followed by Step 2, etc.? I just tried it out, and it started with Step 3 I believe. Or if I use the full JLPT deck, is there a way to make it go by the JLPT levels?

Sorry if this is obvious. I'm totally new to anki.

Thanks!

You can suspend everything in anki and buy some separate vocab reference books. Unsuspend core cards as you go through these books and make your own cards for words not covered in core or whichever premade deck you are studying.

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated!

Yeah, I won't neglect grammar. I was actually thinking of doing Tae Kim or using the beginning grammar dictionary next for grammar, though JLPT books sound good too.

So is there no way to suspend all cards tagged as a certain level? In the 'notes' section of each card it says "Japanese core step 1/2/3/etc." I'm guessing you can't control what comes up based on that? That'd be convenient.

Anyway, I might take your advice and hold off on these big vocab decks, but I just want to know how to control what comes up if it's possible.

Apparently the Pure groups from RTK2 are useful, but it put me to sleep when I was trying to go through that. So that's something to consider.

I'm a fan of Nukemarine's Core2k/6k shared Anki decks. It's in a fairly reasonable order, but it might be difficult if your going in knowing nothing. I'd just focus on the vocab word, the sentence it has is a bonus.

Ah, so NukeMarine's version automatically brings up cards in a decent order? Where can I find that deck? I didn't see it in the shared decks on anki.

thenewpollution Wrote:I know I really need to improve my vocabulary. I've heard the core 2000 and 6000 lists are good, and I'd like to try learning them with anki. I'm wondering, what do you think is the best format for the cards? I downloaded one deck that has just the kanji on the front and the kana, English, and an example sentence on the back. Do you think that's an effective way to study? Or should I be doing English -> Japanese instead?

I do Japanese -> English only unless it's a word I know I'm going to need to say, then I do both ways. In the beginning I was doing a lot both ways but now it's 95% Japanese -> Eng only.

Re: the ordering, check the deck tags... hopefully they are tagged by core level, if so you can suspend everything, and unsuspend the levels you want as you go.

(to do this go to the browser and filter by tag - then select all and suspend / unsuspend)

thenewpollution Wrote:So is there no way to suspend all cards tagged as a certain level? In the 'notes' section of each card it says "Japanese core step 1/2/3/etc." I'm guessing you can't control what comes up based on that? That'd be convenient.

Anyway, I might take your advice and hold off on these big vocab decks, but I just want to know how to control what comes up if it's possible.

Use Anki's search function to control this.

For example.

1. Suspend everything
2. Search "Japanese core step 1"
3. Select all of those
4. Add an appropriate tag
5. Repeat for step 2, 3, etc
6. Un-suspend what you want to study

You can also experiment with the study options so that you only study certain tags.

Sorry if this makes no sense.

Great, thanks so much everyone. That all makes perfect sense, and I totally get how to suspend and unsuspend categories now. Sorry for all the questions; I'm sure I'll get the hang of anki soon.

thenewpollution Wrote:Ah, so NukeMarine's version automatically brings up cards in a decent order? Where can I find that deck? I didn't see it in the shared decks on anki.

File > Download > Shared Deck
Then type in "Core 2k/6k". Then start with Beginner. Nukemarine split things up to save on bandwidth. It's fairly easy to merge the other cards in as you need them.

You can get all the media in this thread here.
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=5110

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

The tags seem like a very convenient way to control the order in which you study things. I'm having trouble with one thing though... is there any way to add the same tag to a bunch of cards at once (the deck I'd like to use doesn't have any tags). Even if I highlight a group, when I type in the tag I want to add to them, it only adds it to one. Any way around this? Sorry if this is obvious, but so far I don't get it.

thenewpollution Wrote:Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

The tags seem like a very convenient way to control the order in which you study things. I'm having trouble with one thing though... is there any way to add the same tag to a bunch of cards at once (the deck I'd like to use doesn't have any tags). Even if I highlight a group, when I type in the tag I want to add to them, it only adds it to one. Any way around this? Sorry if this is obvious, but so far I don't get it.

What version of anki are you using, and what are the exact steps you use when adding tags?

I have always selected my cards, hit the +tag icon on the screen and added the tag as prompted ( remember no spaces or they will be separate tags ) This has always resulted in the cards selected all being tagged properly.

P.S. I used the core 2000 deck posted that has the most downloads, this deck has both kanji to reading and kana to kanji cards ( you can delete all of the kana to kanji cards if you like by selecting the dictation tag, and deleting all. )

This deck already has core2k sorted from steps 1 through 10 including tags, and the cards are ordered from 1-200 in each step so you can go through this deck in the exact order it was made. It also uses the same media as the other decks.

Good luck

Ahhh, I knew it was a stupid question. I get it now. Thank you very much for the quick response!

thenewpollution Wrote:Ahhh, I knew it was a stupid question. I get it now. Thank you very much for the quick response!

No problem

Glad to be useful around here from time to time, ( I am amazed I have almost 300 posts )