Altaira
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2012-01-10
Posts: 27
I first started my journey of Japanese learning January 2012. I learned Hiragana and Katakana. I went through Season 1 at Textfugu. I then spent seven long months on RTK 1. I practiced writing the kanji every day on Skritter. I moved on to sentences with some Core decks on Anki. I have many Japanese apps on my iPhone and iPad.
Here it is only a few months later and I'd say I have forgotten (probably more than) 50% of the kanji I *thought* I had learned. I tried Genki and was bored out of my mind. Textfugu does the kanji in a different way than RTK and I now find the studies there confusing. The kanji amnesia has really affected the rate I learn vocab. I had thought finishing RTK would help, but not for me.
I feel very discouraged at my slow progress and kanji amnesia. I still do some kind of study every day. Plus Japanese films, anime, music and podcasts.
I am starting over. (Not with RTK, I couldn't go through that again.) I think I want to focus more on speech and listening as that seems easier for me.
I do want to add that this site and forum have been great assets. So many posts here have helped me.
So, have many folks here had to start over one or more times. Or, am I just memory-challenged?
Last edited by Altaira (2012 September 25, 2:35 pm)
Twice. I stopped once in the mid-90s, then made another run at it around 2004 and stopped again.
On the up side, I've been back at it now for five months, and thanks to the various methods discussed on this site, I've made more progress, more quickly, than I ever have in my two previous attempts to learn the language. I'm reading and speaking now at a much higher level than I ever was.
So, hang in there. It gets better. 
EDIT: Re-reading this, it seems like you mean you never stopped studying, but that you forgot the kanji you had learned with RTK along the way. Were you drilling them every day in an SRS after you had formally completed? You do forget them over time if you don't keep them active through some technique like SRS or massive immersion. (I use KanjiBox for this.)
This is true whether you use RTK or some other method to learn the kanji, I think. You're trying to keep over 2,000 facts - plus thousands of ancillary facts regarding pronunciation and meaning - in your head. That's not easy without daily exposure.
Last edited by gaiaslastlaugh (2012 September 25, 3:15 pm)
Adent
Member
From: California
Registered: 2012-07-10
Posts: 12
When I hear someone say that they finished RTK and now they forgot all the kanji it blows my mind. Your not supposed to stop doing RTK until you can read a novel without picking up a dictionary. Once your at that level then you can stop reviewing RTK.
Also, not all is lost. Just start reviewing RTK again. Everything you learned is still rolling around in your head. What SRS where you using? If you have a million reviews waiting for you just do 50 a day till your caught up. Don't throw away everything you learned with RTK.
Last edited by Adent (2012 September 26, 4:20 am)
Woodgar
Member
From: England
Registered: 2012-01-30
Posts: 33
My primary interest by a very long margin is to read Japanese, rather than produce it myself.
To that end, once I'd "finished" RTK using the usual method of keyword to kanji, I downloaded an RTK ANKI deck and turned it from a production deck into a recognition deck. It meant starting again from the point of view of the SRS, but the fact that I can very rapidly run through the reps doesn't make this a problem. Also, I'm not overly strict on whether I recall the exact English keyword for the given kanji, just that I'm close enough in terms of general meaning and intent.
As Adent said, you're not supposed to just stop with RTK the moment you complete the book, but you're supposed to carry on until you really don't need it any more.
callmedodge
Member
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2012-02-06
Posts: 69
Personally, I think too much emphasis is put on RTK. Initially it helped me understand the subtle differences between kanji but it soon began to take up too much of my time - I am living in Japan and need to learn how to communicate, not right a bunch of kanji - a skill which I learned from RTK and useful nonetheless. I dropped RTK after about 2 or 3 months, halfway through, to focus on learning words and grammar instead and this approach worked for me so much better.
The initial boost RTK gave me was a help but constant immersion is all I needed to learn the words I use on a daily basis. I can read a good portion of mails sent to me in work and I haven`t touched RTK in 4 months - only been studying for 10. Find out what works for you but what people say about immersion is right, it`s the key.
Altaira
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2012-01-10
Posts: 27
Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I was feeling rather whiny that day. (Insomnia doesn't help.)
gaiaslastlaugh - KanjiBox is great. I remember about 80% when I use that app. However, when I run across some kanji in sentences, it's almost like I've never seen them before. I did SRS using Skritter. I also used the RTK app for reviews.
Adent wrote:
Your not supposed to stop doing RTK until you can read a novel without picking up a dictionary.
I didn't know that. When I finished, I never wanted to look at that book again. I wanted to move on to sentences and grammar.
RTK *was* helpful to learn how to recognize and break down kanji. Yet, I still feel like I did something wrong. Went too slow or too fast. One thing that throws me off are the various fonts used for kanji. I need to get used to different ones. I don't think Heisig mentioned that fonts could be a problem. I have seen it mentioned in other books.
On the bright side, I renewed Skritter and they have a nice iOS app for reviewing kanji and vocab that has gotten me interested again.
Again, thanks for the replies!
breakies
Member
From: France
Registered: 2009-07-17
Posts: 46
I'm constantly restarting to learn japanese because I haven't found a method I'm motivated enough to finish it:
-I did RTK. I had two big stops, finishing it in two years. I've stopped the reviews and I've 1300 to review on ~2300...so terrible 
-I've listened to some lessons on JPOD 101 : I listened to some seasons. My subsription is finished and I didin't renew. I had a good time on it thogh, don't know if I'll come back again.
-I'm on Textfugu, but didn't give me enough motivation to finish more than two seasons.
-I've started Genki, but first lesson discourages me, already knew all of it, not motiating enough .__.
-I've read pages on Tae Kim but finally gave up.
I've also two books in my native language you're not familiar with, but also not motivating.
Trouble is now I'm not a newbie anymore (all books and methods for newbie are annoying in the start for me), but I don't scratch JLPT5 level .__.
About Core 1k and all, I'm admirative in front of people who have the courage to learn so much vocabulary dryly. I've tried but I can't....
So, for you, only twice ? Don't worry, there's worst
I would advice not to do like me, find one method and not scatter like I'm doing.
Last edited by breakies (2012 October 01, 2:44 pm)
