Hey there, I'm new to this forum, and I came here originally to look for resources on helping me gain fluency in Japanese.  First off, I want to say that this forum has a lot of great information that pointed me to some great resources, thank you all for that.  Anyway, I was wondering if I could get some advice or comments on the approach I'm taking.

A little background of myself, I studied Japanese in college for 2 years 7-8 years ago, but afterwards, I didn't study at all.  About a month ago, I decided I wanted to pick it up again and get back to where I was and continue on and become even better.  I was able to pick back up a lot of the grammar, but I have lost a lot of vocabulary and almost all my kanji.  I was able to get around 200 kanji back just from memorization but it started getting harder and harder.  In any case, I would say I'm at a moderate intermediate level.

I've decided to start taking adult classes on the weekends to help with conversation and grammar skills.  I've also started going through Core2k+Anki for vocabulary and RTK+Anki for kanji memorization and recognition.  I have to say that I was impressed with the methodology when reviewing RTK on Anki.  I came upon the word span and was stuck for around 10 seconds, but then I remembered "day after day the span of our lives" and was able to produce the kanji.  That little victory boosted my confidence a little considering I've never seen that kanji before and was able to reproduce it after writing it once or twice.

My thought is I would use RTK to solidify my kanji recognization, use Core2k to build up vocabulary, and use workbooks/classroom study for grammar.  Then utilize all of that in gaining better listening, reading, and conversation skills by watching shows, reading books, and going to class.  Even though Heisig says that classroom study could interfere with kanji learning, my thinking is that since it is a somewhat casual class (not university), I think I will be able to partition them apart.  I also read that people recommend doing Core2k after RTK, but I feel like I need a larger vocabulary in order to progress with my Japanese skills in general.  I tried going through Tae Kim's grammar guide before, but I had a hard time memorizing the grammar without using it in conversation, so I don't think self-study for that is going to help me as much.  Also not having a teacher to correct me or answer questions made it difficult.

Anyway, I seem to be rambling, but I just wanted to get my thoughts down.  If you guys have any comments or advice, please go ahead.  Thanks.

Last edited by Pikarya (2012 September 12, 11:25 pm)