Finally finished RTK and i feel EPIC!!!!! Took me a month and 12 days.
I think i can finally sleep tonight (>*-*<)

18 days? 42 days? Whoaaa, we got some speedy RTK graduates here. Congratulations to you both, Shalazin and KanjiGI1234! I expect you both went so fast because you're eager to hop to the next phase, eh?

Woohoo! Done! It took me A YEAR almost exactly. Thanks so much to everyone for all the stories--you are all creative, generous and/or fairly disturbed individuals. (And I will be making a donation tomorrow to this site.)

Nice work Zinny!おめでとう！ Welcome to the forums.

I just finished!
3 months, or more accurately, 87 days.
Gonna go eat some sushi now~

Congrats! Hope that sushi tasted great.

10/05/2013 12:12 PM
Finally!

I was hoping to finish in three months, but it ended up taking about 7-8.
I'm really impressed by those who finish within a few weeks. I would never have been able to do that while still doing reviews and keeping my forgotten stack empty.

Time to go to Bookoff!

Congrats Hexerein, deltac. おつかれさま！

And today I also finished! It took me about 7 months to do it.

This was my second try. Back in 2010 I tried but gave up at 400. That was a waste of time that made me value more all my efforts during this second try.

In short, I studied on average 10 kanji per week day + 15 kanji on weekend days. I skipped adding new kanjis for a handful of days, but I nearly never missed reviewing. In all these months I must have skipped one or two days of review only. That shows commitment! I have a retention rate of about 90% for mature cards (I use Anki). So all in all I am extremely happy!

I did something that I don't recall having seen in this forum someone else doing. I doubled my Anki deck by including all cards in the kanji -> keyword direction. Yes, I know that Heisig advocates keyword -> kanji only and that he claims that the association in the reversed direction "will be taken care of on its own". But I did not trust that at all, mainly because I know how crappy my memory is. Therefore, reviewing flashcards in Anki took, and takes, me double time (and cards) when compared to anyone else. Nowadays I have daily reviews of up to 300 cards a day; that's a lot. But I don't mind, because the assurance of knowing that I can actually function in both directions is very rewarding.

This website has changed and sped up my whole study. I too am going to make a donation to Fabrice (and also to Damien from Anki). I do value awesome programs when I see them (being a Linux user just exacerbated this feeling for me!).

Next step: Tae Kim's Guide to Learn Japanese. And in a mid-term future I conceive covering RTK 3. But only after I can master the basics in Japanese.

Congratulations to all!

Congratulations^^

bigoten Wrote:I did something that I don't recall having seen in this forum someone else doing. I doubled my Anki deck by including all cards in the kanji -> keyword direction. Yes, I know that Heisig advocates keyword -> kanji only and that he claims that the association in the reversed direction "will be taken care of on its own". But I did not trust that at all, mainly because I know how crappy my memory is. Therefore, reviewing flashcards in Anki took, and takes, me double time (and cards) when compared to anyone else. Nowadays I have daily reviews of up to 300 cards a day; that's a lot. But I don't mind, because the assurance of knowing that I can actually function in both directions is very rewarding.

In hindsight I wish I did this. I come across kanji in words that I recognize and it's no problem but I can't recall the kanji meaning for the life of me. So I changed the format of my cards from kanji -> keyword.

Congrats though!

Long time reader, first time poster, etc. etc. Finished up the 4th ed. RtK kanji earlier today. It's been a long journey, one in which I nearly quit a few times but managed to stick with it. How long did it take?

Two years.

Seriously - I finished up two days shy of my 2 year anniversary on this quest. It's more than a little embarrassing that my kanji-learned-per-day average is less than 3 but I'm nonetheless pleased that I was able to complete it. I didn't start doing this initially out of a quest to learn Japanese but rather as an interesting memory exercise - my anti-Alzheimer's strategy is what I told people.

However, at some point the propect of actually using this as a first step in being able to read Japanese became very appealing and was the motivating factor that pushed me to the end. As such, I expect to become more active on this site regarding next steps. My immediate next goals are to learn hirigana and finish up with the RtK 6th ed. kanji. Beyond that, I'm not sure where I need to go. Any thoughts or ideas are most welcome.

Best regards to all RtK learners. If I can do it, I have no doubt that you can too.

hardingt Wrote:Long time reader, first time poster, etc. etc. Finished up the 4th ed. RtK kanji earlier today. It's been a long journey, one in which I nearly quit a few times but managed to stick with it. How long did it take?

Two years.

Seriously - I finished up two days shy of my 2 year anniversary on this quest. It's more than a little embarrassing that my kanji-learned-per-day average is less than 3 but I'm nonetheless pleased that I was able to complete it. I didn't start doing this initially out of a quest to learn Japanese but rather as an interesting memory exercise - my anti-Alzheimer's strategy is what I told people.

However, at some point the propect of actually using this as a first step in being able to read Japanese became very appealing and was the motivating factor that pushed me to the end. As such, I expect to become more active on this site regarding next steps. My immediate next goals are to learn hirigana and finish up with the RtK 6th ed. kanji. Beyond that, I'm not sure where I need to go. Any thoughts or ideas are most welcome.

Best regards to all RtK learners. If I can do it, I have no doubt that you can too.

Well first off congratulations. RTK isn't for the average person, it takes a lot of dedication to work through it.

If I were you right now I would not worry about the rest of the kanji in the 6th ed. Since kanji don't look like a bunch of lines anymore, and you can attach some basic keywords to kanji you recognize, you are ready to start learning japanese.

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4943&page=1

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=5110

^Those are some good links to get started. There are a ton of great threads on the forum that will address most, if not all of the questions you may have.

hardingt Wrote:However, at some point the propect of actually using this as a first step in being able to read Japanese became very appealing and was the motivating factor that pushed me to the end. As such, I expect to become more active on this site regarding next steps. My immediate next goals are to learn hirigana and finish up with the RtK 6th ed. kanji. Beyond that, I'm not sure where I need to go. Any thoughts or ideas are most welcome.
[...]

Congrats!
Learning Hiragana and katakana is a good way to start.
After, or simultaneously - whatever floats your boat - watch any shows you find interesting, subs or not, whichever you prefer. (This helps you become familiar with sounds and other aspects of language that are beyond my scope of reasoning)
Build your vocabulary. 2000 words is considered a solid foundation. Core6k is an available option.
Finally, read books/anything pertaining to Japanese study. Grammar/novels/whatever seems like a good fit. Novels and manga will be difficult as it is anytime you enter a new field of interest/study. Get your hands on anything you might like, start with easier materials and gradually work your way into more difficult texts. (Continue listening/acquiring vocab)
It will take a while to achieve results - the quote "a journey of 1000 miles starts with one step" is pertinent. As with any hobby, you must gradually acquire and refine your knowledge.

"As long as you're having fun, that's the key. The moment it becomes a grind, it's over." -Barry Gibb
"What I lack in talent, I compensate with my willingness to grind it out. That's the secret of my life." -Guy Kawasaki

Motivation, attitude, and paradigms are unique to the individual. The learner may "study" by having fun. He reads or listens to whatever seems interesting and he follows his intuition. The opposite way of thinking is a focused, determined mindset where the student systematically works to achieve a goal he has in sight. He might mix and match fun and work to achieve flow. (This is definitely an over-simplification. These ideas are stolen from The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education, Ajatt, JALUP, The Way of Zen, and darkjapanese)

The links provided by ryanjmack are also useful.

Thanks much for the kind words and links. I will read these today. I forgot to mention that one of my other short-term goals is to go through the entire Nukemarine guide thread!

First: I finished today, November 10th.

Second:
@hardingt - That's really amazing. That you would keep at this for two years is indeed a feat. Congratulations on finishing.

@bigoten - Congrats on finishing. I see we have very different ways adding new Kanji. I would add bulks of 100 one day or 50 two days and then spend the next 2-3 weeks digesting it, whereas you added 10 and 15 per day. I think your way is better in the long run, especially considering the number of reviews. But in order to keep my motivation running I really felt the need to see a lot of progress for each time.

Whereas my own time spent is considered:
I started in the middle of february. With a pause lasting from Mars to May, I've spent 7 whole months on this.

1/4th - February 26th
1/2 - July 10th at 15:26
3/4 - August 1st - 17:13

During this time I have discovered that grammar and vocabulary are the parts of Japanese I enjoy most studying.
However those are the parts of Japanese I just haven't had the energy to pursue while pursuing this project, so, in contrast to some other people here, I really have hated this project since I got halfway. But I recognize it as the best way for me to make a fundament on which I can build my vocabulary, so that's why I kept at it.

The road ahead:
Now that I can finally do what I want the most, I will continue with A dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar and audio lessons at japanesepod101, as well as core 2000.

Congratulations to all finishing prior to me.

I finally finished RTK I as well. It took me a little under 13 months. The main reason for this was my bad time management and the threat of failing my college exams, so I had to put RTK on hold twice.. Getting back to it in the middle of summer turned out to be quite difficult, so I took almost a two month brake. But what counts is that it's finally done.

It sure feels great : )

FINISHED! Took me a month and 11 days, woohooooo

Finished!

It took me 3 months to get through it all but I'm so glad I did, Japanese writing no longer looks like mice with inky feet have been running around on a piece of paper.

The beginners Japanese classes I've been doing also ended this week, next term isn't until February so I have some time to burn. Next I'll be going through Tae Kim, being more active on lang-8 and getting a deck for anki (core 2000 seems popular). I'll also try to read a bit of manga or some fairytales, but I doubt I'll get far with that until my grammar and vocab improve. I'll keep up reviewing my kanji of course, for as long as it seems useful.

I'd like to thank ファブリス, it would have been a lot harder to do this without you, and also thanks Gomtuu for the 6th edition converter, I probably wouldn't have figured out how to use this site with the 6th edition on my own.

Congrats to everyone who finished before me, and good luck to those still going! If I can do it, so can you!

Congratulations, RoyalBlue!
Congratulation sparky!
Congratulations Ombry!
Well done, guys. Completing RTK and doing lots of reviewing is a huge testimony to the will power of everyone here. I think it's amazing to see how many actually succeeds.
I wish you the best of luck in their continued reviewing of all of these Kanji.

Since I find it pretty interesting I'll use the oportunity to share some of my personal "stats" now that 3 weeks has passed since I finished RTK too, in hopes that someone else will share similar "stats" here.
*Right now the daily reviews are starting to normalize. The days after completing I had about 200 reviews, but now reviews are oscillating down towards 60/70 reviews/day.
*Currently, 84% of my cards are in the "old" category, meaning it's more than a month until I see them again between one review and the next.
*My retention rate for old cards is not that good for the moment. (82% this month). Probably because my last bulk of cards counted 130, and I have a tendency of mixing new cards with old, as well as forgetting some old cards when I learn many new.
*In total I have done 24 thousand reviews over the last 7-8 months. This counts 86 hours of reviewing.
*My average time per card is probably around 14 seconds if we don't include time spent reviewing cards for the first time.

Finished !

Oh, and hello everyone, this is my first time posting in the forum - for some reasons, I wanted it to be for this very special occasion =)

I finished RTK1 after exactly 135 days. During this time, I did 18903 reviews for a total of 108 hours.

I averaged at around 140 reviews / day which took approximately 48 minutes to complete on average.

So far I'm pretty proud to say that my retention rate hovers at around 92 % +, and even though I'm pretty certain that the last sprint I did to finish the last few chapters might bring this figures down a slight notch (I added 150 cards in two days, something I never even came close to doing before xD), I'm feeling good !

I just wanted to thank everyone here, for all the stories I picked up along the way. Now I can proudly say that I've got a little bit of you fine gals and guys in my anki decks . I'm really glad I discovered this website, it was a tremendous help for when I simply couldn't come up with a good story.

Doing Heisig was not always fun - sometimes I had to drag myself to the computer to add new kanjis to my deck, but I managed never to miss a single day of review. Adding stories was the most tiresome part of the process for me - especially at first, when I wasn't sure what kind of stories would stick.

But as the journey progressed, I learned that with the incredible power of the SRS, I shouldn't have had worried too much - If Heisig says it is important to create a strong mental image for every single kanji, it's because the poor guy seems blissfully unaware of the existence of SRS programs. I nearly spilled my drink on the keyboard when I saw the page in the book where he gives instructions to create physical flashcards (like, cut from paper and all). But I'm just teasing here ; Heisig's method is truely wonderful, and I can't thank him enough for demystifying the kanjis(he, that would be a great subtitle for the book), and making me love them -

I still took the advice mostly to heart, and I came up (often with the help of this fine website) with good, funny, sad, and my favorite, absurd stories, some of which still make me smile today.

So thank you all again for your contribution. Without everyone out there, the journey wouldn't have been nearly as smooth.

Well, actually, the journey is only starting isn't it ?

Congratulations to everyone who finished / will finish RTK soon or in the future - It's well worth the time and dedication you put into it. Do your reviews every single day, and the kanjis will stick quite naturally. Don't fret too much over your stories - even if it sucks, the SRS will make up for it.

Good luck and have fun on your journey !

Yay! Yay! Hooray! Just finished. I took 129 days and finished a whole day before my self-imposed deadline.

I couldn't have done it without my trusty Heisig Progress spreadsheet... oh and of course all you guys and your great stories.



This ends a pretty epic week for me - I started it by getting engaged, Christmas was in the middle, and now ended it by getting to 'Sign of the Truly Wonderful Snake'. Vale thingemy, indeed.

All the best everyone! I'll be around for a while yet doing reviews, so see you round!

Congratulations - and I love the graph!

Diomira, Congrats! Any advice for people going through RTK1 since you just finished? What are you planning on doing next? Happy New Year!

Thanks Japisfun25 and Rusty!

Regarding advice: Everyone is different, so I'm not sure whether my experience will be applicable to others, but I can tell you a few things that worked for me. My routine for learning kanji each day went like this:

1. Learn about 20 new characters. I did this by sitting down with the Heisig book in front of me and a screen with the RevTK study pages at the side. For each character, I read others' stories, find one that suits me (either an original one or someone else's) then write it in pencil into the book. 20 per day seemed a sustainable amount.

2. Quick revision of new characters by practising recognition and writing. I'd do this via an ipad app I have called Kanji LS - highly recommended. I go through the characters I've just learned in the Heisig book and enter them into a new 'set' in KanjiLS. The app tests you on writing the character which you then compare stroke-for-stroke with either a computer or hand-written version. REALLY helpful for writing practice.

3. Load the new kanji as new cards into the RevTK flashcard set.

4. Revise outstanding cards in the RevTK set. Fail any you don't have completely accurate recollection of. You're not getting marked on it; it's better to fail them and repeat them tomorrow.

----
As for stories: my advice is to choose really concrete, specific, visualisable things for primitive element meanings. E.g. instead of 'heavy' for a primitive, use 'heavy vehicle' as in a massive articulated truck or something.

(Good examples of really bad stories are the thousands of ones where people use phallic symbols for everything, not because they're lewd but because they are dumb. All the stories that are versions of 'I *poked* her with my "*bamboo*"'; "I *touched* her with my *hardened* appendage" etc etc are never going to help anyone remember anything. If you absolutely need to reference your dick, pick a primitive, allocate it the meaning 'penis', and only use that meaning for that primitive... and save the rest of us from having to read through ten thousand lame stories.)

The other thing that really helped me was making actual images every now and then. It made me realise the difference between a concrete, visualisable image (good) and a kind of fuzzy concept (bad).

Also, to get a sense of continuing progress, set up a spreadsheet like I did! Otherwise you kind of get lost in the 1200-character mark and feel like you're never going to make it...

---

As for what's next - (1) keep reviewing kanji, (2) start learning 'proper' Japanese, which I may either do from the textbook I have, or Tae Kim's guide, or both. Will probably work out how to use Anki and start building up a sentence deck.

Hope some of this is helpful to someone!

This site has been hugely helpful to me, so thanks to everyone who has posted mnemonics, stories, personal accounts, discussions, links, tips, advice etc that I've benefitted from.