Ooo I didn't know about that... looks really interesting! I checked out their site but they didn't have a lot of information. I guess first you have to get in touch with one of the participating universities and see what kind of summer programs they're offering?

basically for both the summer visit and the postdoc program i had to find the host myself (but there is no need for a particular "summer program" at the university, and it can be any public university i think). then you go through the research institution in your own country (CNRS for me in France, maybe DAAD in Germany) and ask them for details on how to apply.
i have to warn you though, as for research, both the summer visit and the postdoc weren't great in my case. i think for the summer period it doesn't matter much, as it is short and is more to give you a taste of life and university in japan. but for the postdoc it might be a problem if you don't have much to show for one or tow years abroad (i mean a problem for your later career). in other words depending on your host professor, you may get to collaborate a lot and build nice contacts for later on, or you may be on your own (i was mostly on my own). one thing i might recommend when contacting host professors is to insist on that aspect if you feel it is important and also maybe favor host professors who have had an experience living abroad for a few years (if they did a postdoc in the US for example).
but i don't want to scare you away:
* i had a great time anyway (life in kyoto rules).
* it really depends on the lab you end up in (i knew a few other people in the same programs and everyone had different experiences).
* i would do it again anytime, and now that i have a position in france i will try to go back to japan in a few years with their "invitation" fellowship.

Finished today! I started just as soon as the 5th edition was released. Learning period: 6/13 - 8/8. Less than two months. I usually don't count a lesson learned until a couple days of review, but I finished the book today, good enough.

It wasn't fun doing this while taking summer classes (not Japanese related). I'm beat. I think I'm going to skip RTK2 for Kanji in Context. I may do RTK3 though. I'm going to take 2nd year Japanese to continue my normal studies next semester.

That's pretty quick! Japanese becomes so much more accessible once you get through RTK1. Hope you enjoy your 2nd year course.

Congrats! I finished RTK1 quickly also. It was rough, but well worth it I believe.

I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just finished!!!!!!
from 17 may 2007 to 10 august 2007.
I thought they would never end, But It's worth the effort :-)
After a break I'll start until the 3007.
Also I'm waiting for remembering the Hanzi to come out :-)

I just finished my story for #2042... and the index cards barely fit in two shoeboxes. XD

So I guess I'm finished with the hard part of book one. Now much much more reviewing to do, so I can totally own these little linguistic pokemon. I haven't used the review on this site as much as I've used Twinkle and my index cards, but the stories here have saved me numerous times.

I can't thank you guys enough for your hard work and help, even if you didn't know you were helping me. Special thanks to Wzafran for keeping a blog of his progress doing 100 a day. It motivated me to keep chugging away. Thanks. I also want to thank whoever it was on the board who mentioned AJATT. I'm probably going to go that path with some sort of mix of that (sentences on Anki), volume 2, while going through the kanji in vol. 3 (which should arrive tomorrow in CD form).

Started Tuesday, July 10th.
Finished Thursday, August 16th.

Whee. You guys rock!

ding 2042!!!

I registered way back in May 2006 but didn't really get into the RTK system at the time.

it wasn't until spring 2007 that I really got started...I got up to about #700 in may...but then took a couple months off because I was traveling back an forth to America. In July, I got back to it . When my summer vacation started I was around #1000 and in the last several weeks I finished off the second half of the book ^__^.

/gratz

well done John. welcome to the club!

Congratulations everybody!

I finished RTK1 today. It took me about 6 months. I had several ill-conceived experiments with learning actual Japanese before completing RTK1 which delayed my progress some. Now it feels good to be moving on to the next phase with RTK1 under my belt.

I really appreciate Heisig's brilliant method, this wonderful site that Fabrice created, and everyone who submitted stories. Before RTK1, kanji were just a bunch of squiggly lines, each character nearly indistinguishable from the next. Now, each character tells a story -- and often a rather amusing one at that thanks to everyone who contributed to this site.

After a few days of reviewing the kana and gathering some movies, music, and other Japanese resources, I plan to continue my studies with Khatzumoto's AJATT method. My goal will be to add 10-15 sentences per day to my SRS (probably Twinkle +/- Anki), a rate that would bring me to the 10,000 sentence mark in about 2 years.

Again, thanks, and best of luck to everyone in their studies!

jreaves Wrote:Before RTK1, kanji were just a bunch of squiggly lines, each character nearly indistinguishable from the next.

They're still a bunch of squiggly lines =) But now you can write said squiggly lines ^__^

Aaahhh, what a great feeling. I added number 2042 yesterday.

I'd like to thank Fabrice once again, and also some of the people who have entered stories for most of the kanji. I don't have a very good imagination and I've used a lot of shared stories.

To those still going through it, bon courage!

Just added 2042 and wanted to express my gratitude to Fabrice for this site and to all the people whose stories helped me out whenever I got stumped. I've also been going through Assimil Japanese concurrently and will continue with that, adding all the sentences for each lesson into an SRS as I go.

sheetz, congrats! Sounds like you've already moved on to the next step.

And sorry I missed your post nyquil. Welcome to the club.

I can remember the Kanji when I see the keyword by reading the notes scribed. If that's the case then, I'm done. I can remember all the keywords when I see the kanji. Remembering the kanji from keyword, read the notes I wrtoe down. Great! I'm finished with it and ready to move onto the next book.

Congrats lankydan! If you've studied them all, then you're done with RTK1. We're all far from "done" with kanji though. Good luck with your next studies!

WTG lankydan. Glad to see you've joined our ranks.

Thanks for the support dingomick and JimmySeal. You guys keep at it.

Just read the notes you took on each kanji and you'll be fine. It's that simple?!

Anyway, I've started the kanji in Book 3 from those printable flash cards you can download and applying the same principles to learning. In my opinion, the pronunciation of the kanji takes care of itself with relative ease once you know the meaning and writing. I use a few compounds to help hang onto the kanji that have the appropriate vocabulary to the story.

Is there any book on "Remembering the Japanese Grammar"?

Ha, ha. Grammar isn't systematic like kanji, so no.

Way to go!

Yahoo! I did it I added my final cards today for RTK vol 1, have no expired cards and no failed cards left! Although I'm ecstatic right now I'm also feeling like I've still a long way to go. Just reading a few articles in Japanese, I've already come across a dozen or so kanji not found in Vol. 1. Before I was thinking no way in hell am I doing vol 3 but, now, who knows? Maybe it should be put on the horizon. But vol 2 takes precedence!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this site. It made the process so much easier than doing it alone (which I painfully did in 2001). Of the many reasons why this site is so great, the two biggest ones for me are: 1) seeing a visual, graphical representation of the number of accomplished/expired kanji (this was sooooo motivating! and a feature lacking in almost every other SRS out there) and 2) being able to read other members stories (thank you to all who have shared!). Without these two features I never would have finished. A third reason I love this site is the active forums. I'll keep coming back to read them and while I'm here I'd might as well review the expired kanji so they don't pile up!

It's too early for beer now but later this evening I'll be saying 乾杯!

Hey everyone!
Got something to say..
Today I finished the book!

Luckily, the last thing I did was googleing that "Valeant benefici, Poenas dent malefici!" found in the last pages.
Thanks to that I found this page, because some of you had been talking about the quote in this forum. Thanks for that!

Ive been reading about this databased reviewing-system and I already love it!
Felt great putting in 2042 new cards, and Im ready to go!

Have been working a bit with the paper cards but now Im gonna try this for awhile, I really love the review-system! Cause a thing that has confused me a bit before in reviewing is "when should i repeat, and which cards?".
Here, with "expired cards" and all that, that gets easy!

Big thanks to the one who made all this!

Edit: Btw, would it be possible to review the kanjis of book 3 on this site too? As for me, a question for the future but still.

Murten - If I'm not mistaken, there are kanji in here up to # 3000 or so. I'm not quite there yet, obviously, but if you are - go for it!