Hey All,

I started RTK around the end of September and got amazed as I'm sure most people who start at how fast I was progressing, but then the time came to go to University to study Computer Science and I've not studied Kanji at all in the last three weeks but I'm starting again after the rush of the first few weeks here.

If only I has as much time as I had over the summer I can't imagine what frame number I'd be at now, even after only 3 weeks without studying.

Just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with having to study something you are formally studying (ie a University Degree) with Kanji in their spare time?

I'm in the same situation as I started studying Japanese at the end of August almost at the same time as starting graduate school. I initially had much less work so I powered through as much kanji as possible but now that it is much more intense I've needed to make sacrifices.

For me the most important thing has been that I am constantly enjoying it. If it would be more practical to do something but I don't feel like doing it then I don't. That's the beauty of teaching yourself. Personally, if I have a couple minutes between classes I would much rather learn a couple new sentences from Harry Potter () than study kanji. Of course, I make sure to stay caught up on my reviews by doing them when I wake up, but I still think that doing something you enjoy trumps being practical all the time in this case.

edit: I just realized that I didn't really answer you're question completely. What I was trying to say is that there is always extra time that can be put towards learning Japanese and it's much easier to make time for something when you enjoy it.

I think one of the secrets to finishing RTK is maintaining some kind of consistency.
Just a few kanji a day is all you need. It may seem like very little, but over time it adds up. Even 2 or 3 kanji a day is enough.

Even with hectic schedules, I find that an easy solution is to wake up a little earlier and use that time to study kanji. You have to be disciplined and not make any excuses or ever get lazy.

It's harder studying later in the day, since you can never predict what you schedule will be like. But if you can study your kanji at the beginning of the day, then you can at least guarantee that you'll be able to put in some study time.

chamcham Wrote:I think one of the secrets to finishing RTK is maintaining some kind of consistency.
Just a few kanji a day is all you need. It may seem like very little, but over time it adds up. Even 2 or 3 kanji a day is enough.

Very true: slow and steady wins the race, and I'm sure there are a myriad of Chinese proverbs on this topic.

Slow down: it's wholly understandable why you can't go at full speed, but you must ensure that you keep moving, however slowly it might be.

At the very least, always review your kanji. Now I always write the kanji down during my review so it's time consuming but even 100 kanji does not take that long (studying on the other hand is more time consuming, as it should be). You may not add in new kanji, but reinforcing the ones you've taken time to learn is still a good use of time.

When I wasn't at Uni I was going through 20 new kanji a day now it's down to 5 a day in addition to reviewing expired cards, I'm still enjoying it though, I actually think being in a formal learning environment all the time adds to the motivation factor.

I actually review after a day of lectures now instead of in the morning, since most of my days finish at 5 I always have a set time to sit down with Kanji instead of a the variable that is waking up in the morning.

BUT I'm studying only Kanji right now, nothing else, even though this is the advised method I was doing fine studying through Genki II and RTK but since I've got here it's just been easier to fit RTK into my day, I guess my plan of continuing the AJATT method is no longer feasible

Oh well, bring on Summer 08, lots of free time

Same thing happened to me, but I've picked my game up again.

I've been doing 30+ (up to maybe 50 at most) a day for about 5 days again. I also reviewed all of them again (made a copy of my anki deck, but with all the cards as new). I was at 395, so that review took up a day and a half.

Things I've noticed; If you have to stay at school in between classes at all, use that time.

If you have any easy/light lecture classes, sit in the back, and start cranking away stories.

To make reviews easier, go to the practice page generator and print out pages of the keywords you're doing currently/just did. Then, if you ride the bus around or have some easy down time, pull out the page and just start trying to go through it mentally. This is a really informal and easy way to review and takes up less time.

While reviewing your old cards, if you find some too difficult to remember, DON'T spend all your time trying to create a better story/reviewing it constantly. Although it's important to review, you should be trying to learn new kanji mostly. If you have a kanji that's hard to remember, it's story can be perfected after you learn all the kanji. By all means, if a better story just comes naturally and quickly, use it, but don't waste 10 minutes on a kanji you already made a story for. Don't review it 5 times a day either, that isn't going to help.

Spend time reviewing, but don't stress over cards you forget often. Just keep reviewing them once a day/every few days until you'll get them. If the story is just horrible, it could probably use some changing, but not all stories make kanji as easy to remember as 士.

sutebun Wrote:Same thing happened to me, but I've picked my game up again.

I've been doing 30+ (up to maybe 50 at most) a day for about 5 days again. I also reviewed all of them again (made a copy of my anki deck, but with all the cards as new). I was at 395, so that review took up a day and a half.

Things I've noticed; If you have to stay at school in between classes at all, use that time.

If you have any easy/light lecture classes, sit in the back, and start cranking away stories.

To make reviews easier, go to the practice page generator and print out pages of the keywords you're doing currently/just did. Then, if you ride the bus around or have some easy down time, pull out the page and just start trying to go through it mentally. This is a really informal and easy way to review and takes up less time.

While reviewing your old cards, if you find some too difficult to remember, DON'T spend all your time trying to create a better story/reviewing it constantly. Although it's important to review, you should be trying to learn new kanji mostly. If you have a kanji that's hard to remember, it's story can be perfected after you learn all the kanji. By all means, if a better story just comes naturally and quickly, use it, but don't waste 10 minutes on a kanji you already made a story for. Don't review it 5 times a day either, that isn't going to help.

Spend time reviewing, but don't stress over cards you forget often. Just keep reviewing them once a day/every few days until you'll get them. If the story is just horrible, it could probably use some changing, but not all stories make kanji as easy to remember as 士.

Practice page generator?!?! Please direct me to this good sir.

meolox Wrote:Practice page generator?!?! Please direct me to this good sir.

May news archive

synewave Wrote:

meolox Wrote:Practice page generator?!?! Please direct me to this good sir.

May news archive

Thanks, too bad I didn't know about this earlier.

I hadn't heard about that one either, but now it's saved in my
del.icio.us Bookmark Manager

I would recommend carrying your book everywhere with you and studying during every second of free time you have. It took me about 2 months to go through RTK doing this, including about a month and a half at university. I was studying kanji walking to class (you don't have to look like too big of a nerd. just glance down at the book, remember the primitives, create a story while you walk, and repeat), waiting in lines at store, riding on the bus, 5 minutes before class, etc etc. Anytime and everytime. 5 minutes here + minutes there turns into 1 kanji here, 1 kanji there, which if done everyday reallllly adds up. I was getting anywhere from 5-20 kanji a day without ever specifically sitting down with the intent to study.

It's also a good ice breaker. I've had a lot of people talk to me about it and made friends with some Japanese people and people interested in Japanese/Chinese just by them seeing me studying kanji.

Reviewing is definitely crucial though and I kept up with my expired cards everyday, writing down every single kanji on graph paper during review sessions. It'll save time in the long run to review correctly.