In the summer, when I had endless amounts of time to study Kanji, I was going at about 50 per day at one point, which seemed like a decent enough speed for me. But I was never very good at remembering the images, so when reviewing, I found I would often have to fail a new kanji about three or four times before I could pass it past the second pile. Because so many kanjis were stacking up, I would have to spend around two hours a day reviewing, which seems like a long time. Now that summer is over, I don't have time for things like that.

My initial plan for when school began was to go at about 25 kanji/day. Unfortunately, I now have only about an hour to study each day, due to my busy schedule. I CAN pull off 25 in an hour, but not thoroughly, and the images will be very unclear. That means that I will likely have to fail it several times before I can pass it into one of the higher piles, and because I am not relying so much on the mental image, I am sure to forget it anyway in a matter of time. I'm at around the 550th frame, so I have a lot of reviews to do. Too many to keep up, in fact.

That's right. If it takes me around two hours per day to review the expired kanji I get per day, I only have time to review around a half of that in the one hour. Since I only finish one half, the next time I invariably find myself with more. So I'm not getting rid of the expired stacks, they're increasing. And guess what else? I don't have time to learn any Kanji.

I would love to learn 25 per day, but that just isn't possible for me. Also, when I do manage to learn a few kanjis, the images are so unclear in my mind that they simply fade away in a matter of time. Therefore, I rely on the constant reviewing of them for them to stick in my mind. If I could really, really remember the kanji, then I wouldn't have much of a reviewing problem. But my brain just isn't good at making images. I wish I could improve its ability.

So right now, I'm at a standstill, because I'm spending my hour reviewing kanji rather than learning them. I'm pretty sure that the reviews are necessary, because without them, I would never remember the new kanji I learn.

I need someone to give me some ideas about what I should do. Any tips for remembering kanji? Any ideas for improving visualization? I think improving that ability would be best for me at this point, because when I imagine something, it isn't a picture. It's more of an idea. And that really isn't going to help me, I'm sure. The thing is, I've never really had to create mental images in the past, so my skills at that are terrible. As a result, I'm struggling with the kanji.

If anyone could give me some ideas about what to do, I would be grateful.

Yep, just one hour isn't probably enough to proceed at 50 a day and kill those oranges off.... my advice would be to just split your hour in half, 30 mins new kanji, 30 mins review.. you'll get there eventually.. just don't give up!! がんばれ！

It shouldn't be such a struggle to remember the kanji. I think you are doing something wrong. Everyone is good enough at making images, even a 6 year old. I would suggest buying a general book on trained memory. I used "The Memory Book" which you can get for a few dollars, but there are any number of good books. Once you have a better idea of what trained memory is all about, you should make faster progress.

If you are having that much trouble with the Kanji that are already in your stack, you shouldn't be adding any new ones until you've learned the ones you have. I'd recommend just spending an hour reviewing until you are getting at least 80% correct. At that point, the number of cards to review will start dropping and you will be able to devote some of the hour to new cards while still doing a complete review. Make sure to think hard about the stories of missed Kanji. If you find that you already have too many cards that you just don't know, you shouldn't be afraid to remove them from the stack.

Good luck,

Mike

Hmm, I should have read a little more carefully perhaps.. only at 500 kanji and having hours of reviews to do everyday doesn't sound right.. When you get to the latter stages things might start getting a little bit crazy and getting through the oranges will definitely get tougher, but you shouldn't have so much yet.

I still think dedicating some time to new kanji is a good thing even if you have oranges waiting to be reviewed. I always seemed to find that if I could just keep going, it was a great motivator to me.

AryllWind Wrote:I need someone to give me some ideas about what I should do. Any tips for remembering kanji? Any ideas for improving visualization? I think improving that ability would be best for me at this point, because when I imagine something, it isn't a picture. It's more of an idea. And that really isn't going to help me, I'm sure. The thing is, I've never really had to create mental images in the past, so my skills at that are terrible. As a result, I'm struggling with the kanji.

Well, this is definitely the problem right here. You need to create stories that are truly memorable. Doing 50 a day that could easily be 2-3 hours for me. There are lots of threads on how to make stories more memorable already on this forum.

Another suggestion would be to have Fabrice reset your account and start from scratch. Go through them one by one and figure out which ones will need a new more memorable story and which ones you can keep.

Maybe writing down the stories, drawing pictures, or brainstorming on paper could help you visualize.
Do you have that much trouble with the provided stories?

Could you maybe give an example of a kanji that you have problems with and what kind of story you are using to remember it? Maybe we can then give you some pointers to help out.

My only real advice for improving visualization is to just keep doing the program. I remember back in the 400-500 range, I was still remembering the Kanji using the actual words of the mnemonics, and that it took me forever to trudge through them. Now that I'm at 800 or so, though, vivid images just sort of pop into my mind without my even trying to conjure them. I can usually get through 10-30 (on days I actually study -_-) in around half an hour to forty-five minutes, including times when I get bored and start surfing the internet. Granted, I'm cheating, since I never actually create stories on my own from the primitives. I just find a pre-made story that resonates with me, strip it down to it's core idea, then build it back up however my mind sees fit.

But yeah, it's more important to review than to study new cards. That way, even if you aren't moving forwards, at least you aren't backsliding. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you barely have any cards expiring on a given day, and you can use that extra time to bog yourself down with new cards.