Now, I wouldn't sneak into the "I'm finished" thread for this 準功, but I just hit the half way mark in RtK1!

Rewarded myself with a copy of Heisig's RtKana. Taking a few days off adding new kanji to properly learn the kana (I memorized them by brute force about a year ago, but need to refresh, and suspect that with the Heisig method I'll do a better job this time). I'll keep up reviewing my current stacks even during the short break; plenty enough horror stories shared here about letting the expired cards build up.

Thanks to everyone for all the great stories that have helped me get this far!

Congrats and keep up the good work. Believe me, the reward for completing RTK1 is so much better than you think it is. Ask anyone here who has finished it already.

Ganbatte

Congrats! Don't leave the learning waiting too long though! It is easier to stay in the groove than to get in the groove.

Glass of Kanji half FULL...Sweet!

Good to here news from the middle. The end seems far, far away.

頑張って！

Congrats! The half-way mark is where I had the most trouble. The orange piles start getting bigger and bigger everyday. So keep it up! It's worth it.

I'm only at 710, should be halfway by the end of December with a estimated completion time of April '08 which will also be the 1 year anniversary of me starting studying Japanese seriously, should be a nice reward

vosmiura Wrote:Congrats! Don't leave the learning waiting too long though! It is easier to stay in the groove than to get in the groove.

You know, I started feeling nervous about this as soon as I wrote that. I've been promising myself a little break for kana when I hit 1022 kanji, but now that the time comes I'm really afraid of loosing momentum. So...

Got 10 hirigana nailed last night...and another 24 kanji cards in my shirt pocket right now. :/

Around 1000, I really thought `Hey I can do this!!` But around 1300 to 1500 I really started to burn ourt. Hang in there, keep on top of the failed kanji, and keeping adding, even if only 5-10 kanji a day. You`ll get over the hump and and it will all be gravy after that!

What worked for me is just staying consistent. Doing all my outstanding reviews every day, followed by learning twenty-something new ones.

After 1000, 1500 didn't seem to take long. Well... about 25 days, but since I just made it a rule to study every day, I made progress just as sure as the sun rises .

However when I had a few very busy days at work, I was too tired to study any new kanji. I just did all my reviews on those days. Getting back into learning more was harder after even a short break.

Congrats on the half-way mark! Keep going now!

I started last week after finding this site and I just finished lesson 14 [323]. I've been doing two lessons a day -- sure hope I can maintain that pace, but I definitely intend to finish one way or another. Too many years of treading water without an effective review system!

I'll admit to some advantage here. I started out (mumble) years ago with "Read Japanerse Today" as I was heading off to Japan for a couple of years and that plus a good dose of immersion gave me a real boost. When I left I was at the point where I could puzzle my way through newspapers, but without an organized study system I didn't have all the Joyo down -- too many holes in my knowledge. And over the last few years I've misplaced quite a few kanji.

I don't know how many times I did the first half dozen chapters of RTK1. Having found this site and Anki I figured it was about time to get back in gear.

[ファブリス]

Congrats guys! Keep it going, trust me RtK1 time won't be wasted, just you wait

Thanks very much ファブリス. Okagesamade!

Seriously, the reviews offered by this site increase the liklihood of finishing RTK1 and gaining actual Japanese literacy by several orders of magnitude.

352

Congrats! Keep it up!

I actually got to 1300 before having to take a massive break. I was reviewing all the needed kanji daily along with learning 50 new ones. I then had a complete concentration lapse for whatever reason and I struggled to review 10 a day. I carried on learning new kanji, expired ones built up, I delayed on the blue ones (to awful effect) and was soon well over 1000 deep in expiries/fails. I've been spending the last month or so clawing my way back out (at the expense of learning new ones) and it's been really tough. But I'm FINALLY managing to fight the mountain and turn them into greens.

Only problem being I haven't touched the actual book in way too long. I'm tempted to pick it up again but I may as well push all the expiries down to the 4th column now that's I've got this far.

Failed cards need addressing just like the ones that you haven't yet learned at all. The difference is that if you give them attention early before they slip out of your mind completely, you will learn them quicker.

I failed a lot too, but I always went through them every day. I may have failed some of them 3, 4, 5 times but eventually they stuck. 15 minutes per day is my usual review time during which I look up over my stories of anything that I get wrong. Its usually no more than a handful.

I just hit the halfway mark today too. It's nice to read everybody's comments about how they got through the book. I have had RTK for about 3 years but it's only this term at school (I'm in an intensive intermediate Japanese course at university) that I really had the motivation to finish it. My goal is to have the book done by Dec 31st, which may or may not be possible since I have finals this month.

Good luck everybody!

i remember i was around 1300 and hit a big wall, i quited remembering the kanji for a year doing other things, in retro-spect a bad thing!
learn from mine mistake and keep going.
now im back again at 950 and espect to hit the half way mark soon.

it is intresting that stories come back even after al that time, even if mine where a bit shallow, when the "person" part comes up i will fly trough it

Just hit 1000 kanji. Been looking forward for ages to making this my first forum post, thanks for starting the thread! Feels absolutely fantastic. Huge thank you to everyone for their brilliant stories. Bring on the next 1000!

がんばりましょう！

Finished lesson 27 today. Means I got half the Kanji down. Posting here is just some kind of small reward for myself.

I started on the 27th of February. At my current rate I should be finished around April 25th to April 29th. I hope I can keep it up that way. Anyway, as I understand, many people find the Kanji from 1000-1200 difficult. Guess I'll have to see how good I'll do.

Off to another 1000 then.

Congradulations!

I just finished RTK1 a bit ago, and I think on the whole, the second half was a little easier, although my rate of card addition did drop a bit because I was spending more time on reviews of the cards I had learned already.

So, keep pushing! If you made it this far, you can do it.

Halfway there!

1000 in the 4+ column.
another 500+ in the hopper

ain't nothing but a kanJI thing baby

dwhitman Wrote:Congradulations!

I always wonder why people insist on turning the mid-t into a d. It makes the word sound horrible. Is it a pun on "graduation"?

Granted, the spelling is wrong, but that is the actual pronunciation, at least in the U.S. Or, now that I think about it, I guess it is more "congrajulations."

I finally made it past the halfway point! Hooray, umbrella!

I've been chasing this goal for weeks now, but it took me forever to get through the really long chapters. (Thus I have 887 in the 4+ stack already.) I rewarded myself with a Kanji Poster. Thanks, Paddy!