About what level would the Core 2000 prepare you for? I`m being forced by my company into doing JPLT4 this July and my vocab is absolutely abysmal. I`m about halfway through RTK so I will not be finishing it in time. Unfortunately I`ve been forced into learning basic Japanese and doing RTK at the same time as I am living here and need to communicate.

Anywho. I haven`t seen anywhere if Core 2000 is enough or not. Any help would be great!

Core 2000 should be enough. But make sure to run through a bunch of practice tests too.

I ran through the sample one`s for LV5 a couple of months back with no problem. But yeah, I`ll do that too. Thank you!

About 1300 of the Core 2k words are covered by just the first 555 kanji of 2k1KO. It's possible to do just those Kanji from RTK then go on to vocabulary from Core2k. Combined with Tae Kim's beginner and essentials section, you should have N4 covered with no problem.

Assuming you learn 15 kanji an hours, not doing 1500 Kanji at the start gives you a 100 head start.

Thank you for your help! I noticed your sticky thread, Nukemarine, and it`s fantastic! Hero is not the right word.

What`s 2k1KO though? I figure it`s something related to the Core2k?

Currently hitting a slump. Just looked at the JLPT4 sample questions and there are no compound kanji`s in them which I`ve spent the last two weeks learning. I find the pure hiragana style counterintuitive and annoying because I tend to rely on the Kanji to remember the meanings and the readings, which is a flaw in itself I know.

Also, is it just me or are some of the Core2k sentences just ridiculous at times. There are some things in there that I could just never imagine saying.

callmedodge Wrote:What`s 2k1KO though? I figure it`s something related to the Core2k?

It's referring to 2001.Kanji.Odyssey, also referred to as KO (Kanji Odyssey), a resource for learning vocabulary. It's pretty decent. You can look at the examples on the site. The book/disc has 3100+ example sentences that are voiced, and a lot more vocab (although the vocab is really just a list and probably not that useful alone). It's praised for having a very good ordering of vocabulary (by the kanji that appears in them), so you'll find some decks floating around that have had their vocabulary sorted by their kanji in the same order that they appear in KO. The sentences in KO can get very long, and sometimes have as many as 3 unknown words early on. For some people, that's a deal breaker, since reviews take way too long and it's hard to learn three new words at once. On the other hand, you get to practice the words that you're supposed to be learning all throughout the deck, which is a plus, but it's probably not the best idea for an SRS (it violates the minimum information principle). A good solution is to use the simple sentences from Core2k/6k, which has the bonus of also being voiced and being accompanied with a fancy image for the first 2k.

callmedodge Wrote:Currently hitting a slump. Just looked at the JLPT4 sample questions and there are no compound kanji`s in them which I`ve spent the last two weeks learning. I find the pure hiragana style counterintuitive and annoying because I tend to rely on the Kanji to remember the meanings and the readings, which is a flaw in itself I know.

I think we can call this Heisig's Dilemma. I tried playing a game with mostly hiragana, thinking that since it's targeted at a younger age group, it'd have easy vocabulary and I'd understand it more. Nope.

callmedodge Wrote:Also, is it just me or are some of the Core2k sentences just ridiculous at times. There are some things in there that I could just never imagine saying.

You should see the KO sentences! I think we had a whole thread for that.

/hijacks the thread

I was wondering where learning core6k(or 10k) vocab and reading the dictionary of basic+intermediate japanese grammar (+ memorizing the grammar points via exposure) would leave me in the JLPT scale? I'd just like to know where I am standing to take the correct JLPT test later on (I plan on skipping the first couple grades at least).

Betelgeuzah Wrote:/hijacks the thread

I was wondering where learning core6k(or 10k) vocab and reading the dictionary of basic+intermediate japanese grammar (+ memorizing the grammar points via exposure) would leave me in the JLPT scale? I'd just like to know where I am standing to take the correct JLPT test later on (I plan on skipping the first couple grades at least).

Somewhere close to N2.