It's so far, I finished the book and the supplement. As I'm skimming through the posts in this thread, many say what I want to say.

First and most important point is: This site is a jewel. I don't know how many manhours of work are behind this but it's a marvel on all fronts. It works perfectly for its purpose -- reviewing the Kanji -- and even seamlessly accommodates characters not covered by the books! The design is smooth, it's just... amazing.

I want to wholeheartedly thank those who shared their stories. I was laughing like crazy so many times, and learned many kanjis in a matter of seconds. Also hints at related kanjis from out of RTK1 are super helpful.

Above all, I would like to thank Shibo (although he'll likely never read this) for his lewd, kinky, memorable stories (acquiesce! :-D).

I finished this monster in three months -- 20 kanjis a day with one single day missed. I've been learning Japanese for seven years and barely managed to remember the kanji for sun and dog (now exaggerating).

Anki is also a treat. I bought a smartphone because of this. :-)

I will now take a week's breather and then start learning vocabulary.

Now about a donation. How much would be appropriate? The short time I did after Heisig stopped providing plots and before I found this site, I spent like five minutes per Kanji to make up a story. With the book, I spent maybe one minute in average skimming though them and picking the one that fits my memory and the primitives I was using (often alternative -- Chuck Norris, pee, horny St. Bernard, ...). So I saved about four minutes per Kanji. That would be about 4x1500 minutes, that is 100 hours. If I would quote reasonable 20€ a hour, I'd have to donate 2000 Euro. That would be fair. I cannot affor this but it tells me just how great a value I got here.

I also hope my stories can help others. Sometimes, I believe I provided a better story than there was (e.g. for Both).

Thank you all once again my fellows.

I just finished RTK1 today, a whopping 13 months after I started.

I started doing RTK last summer a little before the holidays. I had signed up for a Japanese course at my high school and so I wanted to make sure I was prepared.

There probably isn't much I can say here that people haven't already said, but I feel obliged to express my gratitude: This website is a miracle sent from heaven! Thanks to the stories here I have saved so many precious hours, where if I hadn't discovered this site I would have probably quit or still be only halfway through because of the hazzle of having to make up your own story everytime, and for that I am eternally grateful.

The reason that it took me 13 months is simply because of high school. By the time the exams started rolling in I stopped doing my reviews entirely. When I finally finished I had 500+ reviews, which took me about a week, and from there on it was just forward. I was at about 1450 on the 28th of june when I started learning new kanji, and today, on the 27th of july, I've finally finished. Now I just need to do the supplementary kanji, which I will be learning at a slighly slower pace so that I can focus more on grammar.

I never had a specific amount of kanji that I would learn every day. I noticed one person who said he/she added 20 kanji per day and finished in 3 months. I'm very impressed by that. If I only added 20 per day I would simply get insane. It's difficult to explain, but in order for things to stay exciting for me they need to change or get altered in some way during their course. Some days I would add 20 a day, sometimes 4, sometimes 64 or whatever (although that many was rare). Also, the amount of kanji I would go through before "learning" them in anki would also change;

initially, about a year ago, I would learn, say, 20 kanji and then go through all of them at once in SRS. I then realised that it was getting too redundant, so I started learning just 5 or 3 at a time, then SRS, then another 5 or 3 etc. consecutively. Sometimes I would do 10 kanji, then do something else for another hour, and then 10 more. But I didn't stick with that method for a long time. I know it sounds weird, but it was what kept me motivated to keep going.

Also, Anki Emperor never hooked me. It's a great idea, tricking the brain into believing that your SRS'ing is contributing to something much greater than immediately apparent, but it didn't work for me. I'd wish it would have been more involving and "game" like. Maybe someone ought to develop such a thing.

My advice to people still going through RTK: The only thing that makes doing this difficult is the thought of wanting to finish NOW or very soon. You have to go through this at your own pace, not somebody else's. It takes some people 3 months (or less) and others years to finish it. Also, if you feel that you start getting really bored or frustrated with it, change it up a bit like I did, or be more creative. And if you're one of those who can keep adding a consistent amount of kanji every day and do your reviews, well then I salute you.

Thank you Fuaburisu, thank you RTK community and your lovely, charming, hilarious, scary, thought provoking and mind-blowingly brilliant stories, and congratulations to everybody who has already finished and to those soon-to-be Remembering The Kanji I veterans!

Rasmus

Errol246 Wrote:I just finished RTK1 today, a whopping 13 months after I started.

Congrats!

Errol246 Wrote:The only thing that makes doing this difficult is the thought of wanting to finish NOW or very soon. You have to go through this at your own pace, not somebody else's. It takes some people 3 months (or less) and others years to finish it. Also, if you feel that you start getting really bored or frustrated with it, change it up a bit like I did, or be more creative.

Quoted to highlight - such great advice.

Just finished!
It took 27 days for 2200 characters.

Thanks SO much to the fellow RTKers for the great stories!
I don't want to think how much more difficult the task would have been without them.

The forums are also a great source of motivation; it's an amazing community, I hope I'll be able to give back.

Now I'm going to take a couple of days off before starting RTK3!

Wow, killua that is quite a feat! What was your maximum for expired cards?

I think RTK3 is a good choice for you. You certainly seem ambitious enough. I've found it somewhat useful. I know I run into kanji outside RTK1 pretty often at least-- but I don't know the supplement, so I can't say how often you run into kanji outside RTK1+supplement. Outside RTK3 is rare, but seeing those just makes you want to learn them. RTK3 fosters a different kind of perspective. It's no longer about practicality--its about getting more obscure kanji street cred.

But I am wondering, are you working towards some sort of deadline? Or is this just the rate you are most comfortable with? At any rate, omedetou!

RTKを終えておめでとう！

I can't believe you want to do RTK3 almost straight away though

Haych Wrote:Wow, killua that is quite a feat! What was your maximum for expired cards?

Today I have 432 reviews and it's a record for me.

Haych Wrote:Outside RTK3 is rare, but seeing those just makes you want to learn them. RTK3 fosters a different kind of perspective. It's no longer about practicality--its about getting more obscure kanji street cred.

Someone pointed me to thecite's "RTK4"... While I am at it, I may just bring the count to ~3800.

Haych Wrote:But I am wondering, are you working towards some sort of deadline? Or is this just the rate you are most comfortable with? At any rate, omedetou!

As I said in another topic, I rarely studied for more than 3 hours per day and that was enough for ~300 reviews + ~100 new kanji. So it's not like I worked on it full time.

I see that there are people on the forums who finished it in 2 weeks.
That is impressive.
I assume you would get at least 600 reviews per day, which is brutal. You need great discipline and some serious timeboxing to pull it off.

Northern_Lord Wrote:RTKを終えておめでとう！

I can't believe you want to do RTK3 almost straight away though

Thanks!
Well, I would do it anyway eventually, so it's better to do it now that I gained momentum!

Congratulations, killua!

Haych Wrote:I know I run into kanji outside RTK1 pretty often at least-- but I don't know the supplement, so I can't say how often you run into kanji outside RTK1+supplement.

I looked over the supplement. Maybe it's just that I've been reading VNs that came out after the updated 常用 list, but I've seen most of those kanji. I'd guesstimate I've seen more "RTK4" kanji than non-supplement RTK3 kanji, though the difference isn't huge.

Just goes to show how dangerous the RTK addiction can be. I finished it in 14 days and even now I've recently decided to start it over only using Japanese keywords. There is something disturbingly relaxing about the act of writing kanji.

A handful of years ago I remember having to spend lunchtimes writing out inane repetitions of "I must not [etc, etc, etc.]" as a form of punishment from certain high school teachers. After a point you look at the words and begin to feel detached, lose meaning, and become an ugly smug of ink. With kanji for reasons I do not understand, even detached from context, reason or meaning, they are still interesting and you start to enjoy the strange imagery flowing about your head.

Drugs are bad, mkay.

Congrats!

killua Wrote:Now I'm going to take a couple of days off before starting RTK3!

I advice against that, since it'll take a while, depending on your pace, to encounter RTK3 Kanji and I think the higher priority is to bring the reviews count down now. Even if you're adventurous and will use materials that have not very common Kanji, you can add them as you find them. I think this will give you a head start in learning grammar and vocab which will probably decrease the risk of burnout.

These are my thoughts, maybe they don't fit you that much, most importantly in your Japanese learning journey is to develop the ability to decide which woks for you

Good luck!

killua Wrote:

Haych Wrote:Wow, killua that is quite a feat! What was your maximum for expired cards?

Today I have 432 reviews and it's a record for me.

Haych Wrote:Outside RTK3 is rare, but seeing those just makes you want to learn them. RTK3 fosters a different kind of perspective. It's no longer about practicality--its about getting more obscure kanji street cred.

Someone pointed me to thecite's "RTK4"... While I am at it, I may just bring the count to ~3800.

Haych Wrote:But I am wondering, are you working towards some sort of deadline? Or is this just the rate you are most comfortable with? At any rate, omedetou!

As I said in another topic, I rarely studied for more than 3 hours per day and that was enough for ~300 reviews + ~100 new kanji. So it's not like I worked on it full time.

I see that there are people on the forums who finished it in 2 weeks.
That is impressive.
I assume you would get at least 600 reviews per day, which is brutal. You need great discipline and some serious timeboxing to pull it off.

Northern_Lord Wrote:RTKを終えておめでとう！

I can't believe you want to do RTK3 almost straight away though

Thanks!
Well, I would do it anyway eventually, so it's better to do it now that I gained momentum!

Congrats. I'm going to finish it next week. Wish me luck Still 450 more to go xD.

127 left xD

I just finished RTK1!
It took me 34 days.

Now, I have to bring the number of reviews down to an acceptable level.
What should I do next? Start 2k or 6k deck? What do you think?
Does the 6k deck contain all entries in 2k deck?

pmnox Wrote:I just finished RTK1!
It took me 34 days.

And nearly three years of... mental preparation by way of forum membership? Congratulations! Was it worth the wait?

Yes, Core2k is a subset of Core6k.

pmnox Wrote:I just finished RTK1!
It took me 34 days.

Now, I have to bring the number of reviews down to an acceptable level.
What should I do next? Start 2k or 6k deck? What do you think?
Does the 6k deck contain all entries in 2k deck?

Congrats!

2k is within 6k.

As Tolstoy once said on an August 5th long ago, it's harmful to "learn notions which never would have occurred to us without an example".

With that said, I quote ja・ミニマル:

Quote:Use a Core 2000 Anki deck, which will spare the other Core sentences for a later phase. The Core series contains basic sentences with common words and high quality audio. It will cement your knowledge of sentence structures, refine your listening and pronunciation, and expand your foundational vocabulary.

Vempele Wrote:

pmnox Wrote:I just finished RTK1!
It took me 34 days.

And nearly three years of... mental preparation by way of forum membership? Congratulations! Was it worth the wait?

Yes, Core2k is a subset of Core6k.

Thanks.

This is my second attempt at learning Kanjis. 2-3 years ago I tried to use Henshall method for leaning kanjis, but I failed miserably. There were a few reasons for that. Henshall mnemonics where like:
役 397 move off with weapon in hand to do one's duty
薬 398 medicinal plant gives pleasure
由 399 there's a reason for derrick in field
油 400 liquid from field with derrick is oil
有 401 have meat in your hand
After studying like 500 kanjis I just had to give up. My failure rate for mature Kanjis was like 50% or so. Trying to remember sentence in another language was a major pain. Trying to remember someone else's mnemonics was a huge mistake. Henshall decided to group Kanjis by their reading, which made it harder even more confusing.

Well, this time I didn't repeat any of my previous mistakes and therefore I was able to learn all RtK 1 kanjis without any issues. By the time I started doing RtK 1 35 days ago I was already able to recognize about 40% of all Kanijs, which made the process easier.

I wish I did RtK1 instead of wasting time on Henshall method. :/

Aspiring Wrote:

pmnox Wrote:I just finished RTK1!
It took me 34 days.

Now, I have to bring the number of reviews down to an acceptable level.
What should I do next? Start 2k or 6k deck? What do you think?
Does the 6k deck contain all entries in 2k deck?

Congrats!

2k is within 6k.

As Tolstoy once said on an August 5th long ago, it's harmful to "learn notions which never would have occurred to us without an example".

With that said, I quote ja・ミニマル:

Quote:Use a Core 2000 Anki deck, which will spare the other Core sentences for a later phase. The Core series contains basic sentences with common words and high quality audio. It will cement your knowledge of sentence structures, refine your listening and pronunciation, and expand your foundational vocabulary.

Oh, I see. The first 2k words of core 6k is the core 2k deck. Thanks.

Thanks for the link. I completely agree that learning with examples is easier than learning words alone. While learning from RtK 1 I had to check the definition of the English keyword for almost every second Kanji. As I wouldn't be able to memorize the English keyword without knowing how it is used in the sentence. I'll read the ja・ミニマル webpage, it looks like it contains all the information that I need.

Thanks again xD.

WOOOOOOOOOOT
Today (well, technically, yesterday) I finally finished the first volume of RTK. \o/ Major, major thank you to Fabrice, this site, and all the users who posted fantabulous stories, I wouldn't have finished RTK before the end of the summer without you guys.
I think I'm gonna take a few days off from learning anything new, then start on Genki I.

Omedetou! Good work.

I just came back from my holidays.

Congratulations to pmnox and yayPanda28!

undead_saif Wrote:

killua Wrote:Now I'm going to take a couple of days off before starting RTK3!

I advice against that, since it'll take a while, depending on your pace, to encounter RTK3 Kanji and I think the higher priority is to bring the reviews count down now.

I see your point; I have not decided yet.

I'm aware that RTK3 is a huge overkill, expecially at this stage.
But as uisukii said, kanjis are becoming an addiction for me!

Finally made it.
There are still 154 Jouyou kanji left for me though.

Done.

Started 9/1/2013

Finished tonight 9/18/2013 a little after midnight.

I actually didn't plan to finish tonight but once I saw that the end was so close I sprinted hard. We shall see if I regret this during reviews. So far the max reviews for one day has been 500 or so. This was surprisingly fun as well. Time for a break before I start RTK3.

Congrats to everyone else who finished RTK1!

Wow, only 18 days?? That is some serious work.... Congrats!

shalazin Wrote:Done.

Started 9/1/2013

Finished tonight 9/18/2013 a little after midnight.

I actually didn't plan to finish tonight but once I saw that the end was so close I sprinted hard. We shall see if I regret this during reviews. So far the max reviews for one day has been 500 or so. This was surprisingly fun as well. Time for a break before I start RTK3.

Congrats to everyone else who finished RTK1!

Thats really impressive, may I ask whats your retention rate?

My retention rate for the first set of reviews was around 60-100% depending on the lesson and how well certain primitives stuck. The second set of reviews hasn't gone below 80% yet. Not sure about the third. I'm pretty sure my retention rate is going to take a hit over the next few days though since I went really fast this past week. We shall see...