Do RTK3 at the same time. Just add 5~10 a day.
2009-03-04, 4:59 pm
2009-03-06, 4:52 pm
Well, I found my copy of RTK3 (under a stack of other, also unread, books), so it's off to the races.
2009-03-06, 5:50 pm
Catch me if you can! I am on 2627 but only doing 5 a day now that I am spending so much time on iknow :-)
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2009-03-08, 11:36 pm
I have finished it while living in Japan as an exchange student!
Used up (almost) every week day for 4 months, not including vacations.
And now I have finished RTK1!
On-Yomi, here I come!
Oh, and here are video's of me in Japan as an exchange student!
http://jp.youtube.com/user/mesqueeb
-Mesqueeb
Used up (almost) every week day for 4 months, not including vacations.
And now I have finished RTK1!
On-Yomi, here I come!
Oh, and here are video's of me in Japan as an exchange student!
http://jp.youtube.com/user/mesqueeb
-Mesqueeb
2009-03-11, 3:28 am
3/11/09, 5:27 P.M.
The Bunker
Dragon Ash on my stereo
Just finished reviewing the final frames, and I gotta say, it does feel pretty awesome.
Mad love to everyone for support and incredible stories; I don't even want to imagine how much harder it would have been without them.
Now for the novels, the grammar, the real Japanese. Not to mention Box 4...
The Bunker
Dragon Ash on my stereo
Just finished reviewing the final frames, and I gotta say, it does feel pretty awesome.
Mad love to everyone for support and incredible stories; I don't even want to imagine how much harder it would have been without them.
Now for the novels, the grammar, the real Japanese. Not to mention Box 4...
2009-03-11, 8:23 am
Well it is about 8 weeks since I "finished" RTK1 and in my Anki deck I have two thirds of the kanji through to mature and am on about 50 - 70 reviews per day. And a really strange thing has happened, I just love my daily kanji reviews, I find them to be really good fun! Now that I know the RTK1 set (plus maybe another hundred I picked up here and there) pretty well the act of reviewing is actually like a daily meditation or something.
Since finishing RTK1 I have worked through みんなの日本語 book one which pre RTK I had flirted with on numerous occasions, but never learned propperly; this time I have put pretty much all of it into Anki and feel like I know the whole book quite well. However, what I would say is that whilst my reading and typing (handwriting is a different matter) is definitely infinitely improved, maybe my speaking (and perhaps listening) is not a whole lot better. I'm planning on doing maybe another 4 months of 'passive' input before I start to try to work on production.
What I would say to anyone who's just finishing RTK and who's level of Japanese is around beginner is that MNN is an excellent book to work through by yourself: there are tons of sentences to work with and the book is very well structured so you see vocabulary just about enough and you also get a lot of examples of sentence patterns and grammar examples. I think in the whole first book there were only two or three sentences that I couldn't translate from the accompanying grammar book. The down side to MNN is that it is very formal, a bit dull and perhaps doesn't use a huge variety of words in its questions and examples. But don't let that put you off, it will give you a decent grounding in Japanese grammar and a good basic vocabulary. Also, despite what some people might say about formal speach sounding funny to native speakers, all of my Japanese friends are just really pleased that I'm trying to learn their language, so even if I speak to them like they are my boss they couldn't care less.
Whatever you do, this dictionary is absolutely awesome: http://wakan.manga.cz/
Oh and props to everyone who's just finished RTK1 and those still working on it, keep it up!
Since finishing RTK1 I have worked through みんなの日本語 book one which pre RTK I had flirted with on numerous occasions, but never learned propperly; this time I have put pretty much all of it into Anki and feel like I know the whole book quite well. However, what I would say is that whilst my reading and typing (handwriting is a different matter) is definitely infinitely improved, maybe my speaking (and perhaps listening) is not a whole lot better. I'm planning on doing maybe another 4 months of 'passive' input before I start to try to work on production.
What I would say to anyone who's just finishing RTK and who's level of Japanese is around beginner is that MNN is an excellent book to work through by yourself: there are tons of sentences to work with and the book is very well structured so you see vocabulary just about enough and you also get a lot of examples of sentence patterns and grammar examples. I think in the whole first book there were only two or three sentences that I couldn't translate from the accompanying grammar book. The down side to MNN is that it is very formal, a bit dull and perhaps doesn't use a huge variety of words in its questions and examples. But don't let that put you off, it will give you a decent grounding in Japanese grammar and a good basic vocabulary. Also, despite what some people might say about formal speach sounding funny to native speakers, all of my Japanese friends are just really pleased that I'm trying to learn their language, so even if I speak to them like they are my boss they couldn't care less.
Whatever you do, this dictionary is absolutely awesome: http://wakan.manga.cz/
Oh and props to everyone who's just finished RTK1 and those still working on it, keep it up!
2009-03-17, 7:14 am
Ah finished. I started RTK on Halloween... scary!
5 months of tears, laughter, cursing Heisig's mistakes, being grateful for Reviewing the Kanji, and far too many Mr.T stories. And I loved every second of it. Here's to the next 2042!
5 months of tears, laughter, cursing Heisig's mistakes, being grateful for Reviewing the Kanji, and far too many Mr.T stories. And I loved every second of it. Here's to the next 2042!
2009-03-21, 11:36 am
Yay, just did it 
Started on 19th of February, finished today, never thought Heisig's method was this fast :B
RTK3, here I come!
Started on 19th of February, finished today, never thought Heisig's method was this fast :B
RTK3, here I come!
2009-03-21, 7:43 pm
OMGOSH. YALL. I AM A KANJIBEAST. BWAHAHAHAHA! Watch me EVOLVE!!!!!!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST FINISHED RTK. HOLY COW. I'm hyperventilating. Woosaa. Woosaa. I think I just peed myself. I FINALLY FINISHD AND I CAN LEARN REAL JAPANESE. RAAAAAAAAAARRRGHAHAHAHADHFASDASHFASHFASHDFasdhkfjerwhzcvxkn,.vmzxn.,cvmnawk.ejsozdfkjvh.zcx,vn.,zxn v.,jarwhe;liofshdlkja. Dude. I am so excited. I think I'm gonna go run around the block like 40 times! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wow. Thank you so much for all the support guys. Your stories were so awesome and hilarious. And, Fabrice, I love you man
Thank you so much for this website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST FINISHED RTK. HOLY COW. I'm hyperventilating. Woosaa. Woosaa. I think I just peed myself. I FINALLY FINISHD AND I CAN LEARN REAL JAPANESE. RAAAAAAAAAARRRGHAHAHAHADHFASDASHFASHFASHDFasdhkfjerwhzcvxkn,.vmzxn.,cvmnawk.ejsozdfkjvh.zcx,vn.,zxn v.,jarwhe;liofshdlkja. Dude. I am so excited. I think I'm gonna go run around the block like 40 times! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wow. Thank you so much for all the support guys. Your stories were so awesome and hilarious. And, Fabrice, I love you man
Thank you so much for this website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2009-03-21, 8:43 pm
Congratulations igordesu. Haha, I like your enthusiasm. Konfu, wow, that's incredibly fast. Congrats to you and everyone else.
I finished RTK1 for the second time a few days ago. I did it in 3.5 months in 2007 and 9.5 months this time. After I finished it the first time, I was up to 200 reviews per day and absolutely hated it. I just gave up doing Japanese completely for a year or so.
Since finishing it the second time around, I'm doing less than 100 reviews per day so it's much better. I have a terrible time recognizing kanji though. Keyword to kanji is okay, but when I see kanji I can rarely remember what they mean.
Anyway, thanks for all the stories everyone! I used almost none of my own.
I finished RTK1 for the second time a few days ago. I did it in 3.5 months in 2007 and 9.5 months this time. After I finished it the first time, I was up to 200 reviews per day and absolutely hated it. I just gave up doing Japanese completely for a year or so.
Since finishing it the second time around, I'm doing less than 100 reviews per day so it's much better. I have a terrible time recognizing kanji though. Keyword to kanji is okay, but when I see kanji I can rarely remember what they mean.
Anyway, thanks for all the stories everyone! I used almost none of my own.
2009-03-21, 8:58 pm
Congratulations, fluxcapacitor. Just don't give up on Japanese (again)! In my experience, finishing RTK is an exciting personal achievement, but when you finally become literate is when you'll feel the real excitement. Best of luck in your studies.
2009-03-21, 9:09 pm
#fluxcapacitor
I have the same problem with recognizing kanjis. To get better at this I bought the kanji poster. Then I go through a row every day, where I look at the Heisig-primitives in each kanji to deduce the keyword. That has greatly improved my ability to recognize the keywords of kanjis.
I have the same problem with recognizing kanjis. To get better at this I bought the kanji poster. Then I go through a row every day, where I look at the Heisig-primitives in each kanji to deduce the keyword. That has greatly improved my ability to recognize the keywords of kanjis.
Edited: 2009-03-21, 9:09 pm
2009-03-21, 11:04 pm
YES!
*Stands victoriously with foot on top of RTK1*
Took me 7 months, but I think that's not too shabby.
Thanks everyone for all of your stories!!! This would have been SOOOOO much harder without you! I hope I contributed a few that helped.
*Stands victoriously with foot on top of RTK1*
Took me 7 months, but I think that's not too shabby.
Thanks everyone for all of your stories!!! This would have been SOOOOO much harder without you! I hope I contributed a few that helped.
2009-03-22, 1:53 am
YES! YES! YES! 巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳巳! I will NEVER forget the Sign of the Snake -- been seeing it in the distance like a beacon, oh except for that huge KANJI BEAST igordesu BLOCKING THE VIEW. I first spotted his taillights weeks ago and have been chasing him, gaining on him...... 200 behind (dim pinpoints of red) 150 behind, 100 behind, 50 behind... then he stepped on the gas and made it here before me, but I am just HOURS behind, sliding into home base in a big cloud of dust, mixing metaphors like crazy and feeling exhausted and elated.
THANKS SO MUCH to everyone whose stories I have copied, adapted, modified and read for inspiration. THANK YOU Fabrice! This site is fabulous! THANKS to Igordesu for being my rival (BTW I loved your Black Lagoon story in the final stretch). Special SHOUT OUT to the Twitter circle who have been tweeting encouragement, especially EntropyRules, burritolingus, distefam, irongoddess.... THANK YOU Bryan_Saxton for getting the Twitter circle going...
I'm now getting up to move the marker on my WR Kanji poster to the end, and my husband is making me a Roofing Nail (new drink we invented last week, Rusty Nail + Finnish Jellona liqueur -- has sort of tarry flavor).
Cheers to the class of March 09!!!
THANKS SO MUCH to everyone whose stories I have copied, adapted, modified and read for inspiration. THANK YOU Fabrice! This site is fabulous! THANKS to Igordesu for being my rival (BTW I loved your Black Lagoon story in the final stretch). Special SHOUT OUT to the Twitter circle who have been tweeting encouragement, especially EntropyRules, burritolingus, distefam, irongoddess.... THANK YOU Bryan_Saxton for getting the Twitter circle going...
I'm now getting up to move the marker on my WR Kanji poster to the end, and my husband is making me a Roofing Nail (new drink we invented last week, Rusty Nail + Finnish Jellona liqueur -- has sort of tarry flavor).
Cheers to the class of March 09!!!
2009-03-22, 1:57 am
Wow, that's four of us who finished today: Speed demon Konfu, Kanji Beast igordesu, Standing victorious decals, and me slurping on a big Roofing Nail.
Edited: 2009-03-27, 12:55 am
2009-03-22, 4:00 am
A red letter weekend to be sure.
Congratulations to everyone who finished up!
Congratulations to everyone who finished up!
2009-03-22, 4:29 am
Grats to all y'all! Was exciting watching the race via Twitter over the past few weeks. Now get ready for the real goodies - and don't you dare neglect your RTK reviews!
2009-03-22, 9:41 pm
@Harrow: CONGRATULATIONS. You IS DA BOMB! Racing you really was encouraging. Like, if we wouldn't have raced, I probably wouldn't be finished right now So, thanks. Now we can all race to fluency
So, thanks. Now we can all race to fluency
2009-03-23, 12:05 am
Thanks, everyone! Based on igordesu constant referrals to KANJIBEAST I've decided to change my signature kanji to one of my favorite beasts: 熊 Bears are associated with both ability and attitude, and like eating roast flesh with two spoons... in fact, they are happy to elbow their way forward to do so. What's not to like there?
I go started on Lammers' Japanese the Manga Way today, and otherwise am going to just review for a while before I tackle RTK2 or RTK3. Maybe do the Kana book, too, which I bought from Amazon last week.
I go started on Lammers' Japanese the Manga Way today, and otherwise am going to just review for a while before I tackle RTK2 or RTK3. Maybe do the Kana book, too, which I bought from Amazon last week.
2009-03-26, 11:18 am
Yay!, just finished ^^ ...
Took me about 2 month's or so, mostly doing 40 a day, sometimes less sometimes more, but just about 40
...
Now its just review review review for a while till im not reviewing like 150~ a day like i am now ...
Think im gonna start on iKnow to build up vocabulary, or maybe take the Pure and SemiPure groups in RKT2 first, dunno really ... ill take some time to think of that ;P ...
Anyway, yay me >_< ...
And gratz to all that have finished before I did here ;> ...
Took me about 2 month's or so, mostly doing 40 a day, sometimes less sometimes more, but just about 40
... Now its just review review review for a while till im not reviewing like 150~ a day like i am now
...Think im gonna start on iKnow to build up vocabulary, or maybe take the Pure and SemiPure groups in RKT2 first, dunno really ... ill take some time to think of that ;P ...
Anyway, yay me >_< ...
And gratz to all that have finished before I did here ;> ...