WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! OH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! CHUCK NORISSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

3 months labour paid>>>>>>>>>now have I reached NIRVANA!!!!

Just finished RTK 1 just now. The sign of the snake indeed became my sign of achivement. I did tried doing RTK 1 back on November 2011 and gave up until I found this site I decided to take up learning the joyo kanji.Would have not done it without you all!!! Thx Dr.Heisig!!!

ありがとございます！！！(with a sincere japanese low bow)

Well it's still the begining to Japanese proficiency but we all here has eliminated one of the big bosses in are way to master the Japanese Language(The 漢字）

Well on the mean time i'll keep on reviewing. . .

Congratulatons to the recent finishers!!

Wednesday 1:12a.m. Done! 2042!

Finally finished took eight months, but it was worth it. And now vocabulary&grammar, in the meantime some reviewing I neglected in the past. Great feeling to learn 2000+ kanjis in such a short time.

Congratulations to the new graduates, now the real fun starts

Finished the book today. It took me 3 months and change, but I'm finally done. Or at least, done with new cards. I still plan to keep doing reviews indefinitely to retain my knowledge.

Good job!

Finally done, started september last year while studying japanese full time at my university.

time for some vocab!

gingerale Wrote:

Done... FINALLY!! It took me 9 months, 9 months of inconsistent studying and crying alone late night in the bed to finally get through the 6th ed. Hell yeah!!

So, I do wonder what I should do now. I've got 2214 kanji in mnemosyne and up until recently I thought I'd just do RtK 3 as well, because, why not, it's such a logical system. But I just can't take it anymore and 2214 should be enough for now. I might just finish Japanese the Manga Way and Tae Kim and probably do Core6k. Yeah, Core6k sounds doable, 10k is like 万 and that is too hardcore.

1 year of studying Japanese and I'm still illiterate and can't talk at all, quite impressive.

Helltrixz Wrote:

gingerale Wrote:

Done... FINALLY!! It took me 9 months, 9 months of inconsistent studying and crying alone late night in the bed to finally get through the 6th ed. Hell yeah!!

So, I do wonder what I should do now. I've got 2214 kanji in mnemosyne and up until recently I thought I'd just do RtK 3 as well, because, why not, it's such a logical system. But I just can't take it anymore and 2214 should be enough for now. I might just finish Japanese the Manga Way and Tae Kim and probably do Core6k. Yeah, Core6k sounds doable, 10k is like 万 and that is too hardcore.

1 year of studying Japanese and I'm still illiterate and can't talk at all, quite impressive.

When I finished RTK1 I did reviews for a awhile...and then put it aside. When it came to assigning "readings" to the various kanji, I realized that it would help if I brought to the table a decent sized existing knowledge of vocabulary on a phonetic basis. (Even in RTK2 I think there's a chapter based on vocabulary "you already probably know" i.e., phonetically). I'm working through a couple of textbooks phonetically right now. When I'm finished with them I'll return to kanji study (this will take the form of studying reading passages, written in kanji and kana, in which I already know most of the vocabulary phonetically).

It's pointless to "learn kanji" if you don't know much grammar or vocabulary ahead of time. You need some type of foundation first. Think of kanji as a sort of shorthand to represent the sounds of the language. You have to know the sounds first. It helps to know the compounds phonetically before you start associating them with their kanji. At least, that's what I've found in my own studies.

I finished RTK 1 6th ed. yesterday, staying up until midnight working toward the "sign of the snake". It took me nine months. At first I learned about 25 frames a day, then quickly dropped to 20. Later, I dropped to 10 frames a day, but then in April or May I realized I should probably move a little faster, so I did 17 a day. For the last about 13 lessons, I did a lesson a day. Now I (mostly) know those 2200 kanji, but can't read (almost) a single word in Japanese... I can guess the meaning but that's about it. So, I'm going to start (kind of, I was actually so excited about getting it in the mail that I did lesson 1 earlier) Genki I today, and hopefully that'll send me down the road to Japanese literacy.

john555 Wrote:It's pointless to "learn kanji" if you don't know much grammar or vocabulary ahead of time. You need some type of foundation first. Think of kanji as a sort of shorthand to represent the sounds of the language. You have to know the sounds first. It helps to know the compounds phonetically before you start associating them with their kanji. At least, that's what I've found in my own studies.

I see it a bit differently. I had to learn the kanji as a foundation to build upon - to be able to study Japanese at all. I tried your way a year ago and quickly hit a brick wall when I couldn't even look up any words I encountered.

So, I tried Core6k now... it is rather challenging since even the simplest sentences contain multiple kanji with readings I don't know. I think I'll just go through the sentences and carefully listen to the pronunciation, try to remember readings and simply ignore it if I fail a card and move on.

I also just bought Skyrim for pc, should be fun! It reminds me a bit of learning English almost 20 years ago. I didn't even really comprehend where this alien language is being spoken, but I still tried reading a manual on how to fly an A-10, tried to understand how tyre pressure works in Grand Prix 2, failed to understand what a puncture is and then played Little Big Adventure 2 getting stuck all the time because I didn't understand what the NPCs were telling me.

Finished! And in Japan too, although I'm going home next week...

I have a stack of Kanji books ready to go. With my class in Ireland we used Basic Kanji Vol One and here in Japan, Kanji Master N5. Both great books/series so I will definitely continue with those. I have Basic Kanji Vol 1 & 2 which is about 500 kanji, and I'll take home Kanji Master N5, N4 and N3 since I won't be coming back until at least 2016.

I also have Kanji in Context which I'm sure will be my bible, and I'm sure like RTK a companion for life! And of course I will be buying RTK2 to see what Mr. Heisig has to say on the subject. There will be a lot of overlap in all these kanji books but the more overlap and reinforcement the better!

When I get back to Ireland my goal will be to keep working through the Kanji Master books at the rate we have been here (4 kanji a day, four times a week so 16 kanji a week) and to try to do one chapter of Basic Kanji a week, like I said the more overlap the better! And of course I will be slowly but surely climbing the mountain of Kanji in Context.

I'll be taking the JLPT N5 in December. Kanji aside I have completed Genki 1 and Minna no Nihgono 1, both excellent textbooks in their own way, so I will be continuing with Genki 2 and Minna no Nihongo 2 and work towards taking the N4 at the end of next year.

I'M FINALLY DONE! After 10 months of school-related interruptions and a final cramming of 600 in 3 weeks, I have reached the sign of the snake. Thank you all for your stories! I couldn't have done it without you! 2200 baby!

Finally finished RtK1 yesterday, after about four months of grinding.
What a feeling, to have finally reached the end of that book!
For now I'll keep up the reviews and jump on doing vocab and grammar.
I should get on with my graded readers too.
Congratz to all who recently finished as well!

Finished RTK 1 + Supplement Today! Started in the end of June with a goal of finishing before the fall semester, then changed that to before my birthday(24th). Now I'm just going to relax until then and do reviews, then start Core 2k/6k afterwards.

Forgot to say congrats to everyone else as well, your stories were amazing. Best of luck in your future studies

I finished RTK 1 (6th edition) earlier today!~

Congratulations to everyone who finished before me, and early congratulations to all who finish afterwards.

First time poster but long time lurker. Added my last cards today!!

Thanks for all the advice and tips and great stories on this site, probably I couldn't have finished without it.

Whooop!
Finished RTK1 6th edition today. It sure took me a while. One full restart, two long pauses... But I got there in the end, and that's all that matters.
This site is amazing, though it's a shame I discovered it at the later stages of my studies. Thanks to all of you for your stories!
Congrats to my fellow kanji scholars!

Congrats to all. I just wrapped up 6th ed today, and boy is the gloom story depressing.

jeffberhow Wrote:Congrats to all. I just wrapped up 6th ed today, and boy is the gloom story depressing.

That one was the 'final boss' of RTK1.

Finally after my 3rd attempt at this book, it is time to post in this thread . In never imagined I would ever finish this book since I stopped studying altogether about 6 years ago. This time it has taken me exactly 102 days to finish the book (6th edition) and boy did it get hard in the end to keep up with the reviews. I did kanji to keyword at the same time, so twice the amount of reviews. I also made the mistake of limiting the amount of reviews I did each day in Anki near the end, however, this made my fail rate rise exponentially... But I made it, so happy! I will now spend a few days to get the huge reviewload down a bit before I focus on future projects.

I could not have done it without this site and all the fabulous stories, which made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion, thanks everyone for sharing.

Now that this hurdle is finally taken, I can focus on studying "real" japanese and am really looking forward to it, no stopping now.

Also, congratulations to those who finished before me, and those still to come, you can do it!

Congratulations on joining the "select group" made up of those who have completed RTK1.

Just like "only four men in the world really understood what it was like to be The Beatles", only those who have completed RTK1 can really understand how it feels.

Finally I'm completed RTK1 today (18/Oct/14). As for me who not good with English! it did take me awhile and a lot more effort, but I still done it in around 4 month. my study kanji drop from 20 to 10 per day when I'm reaching 1800 kanji to the last of the RTK sign of the snake but still I keeping study and I'm complete ^^v.
- BTW congratulations to everyone who reach your goal with RTK1. Thank for your hard work.

Congratulations to everyone who finished RTK1 since the last time I posted here. Well done!