Your approach sounds pretty similar to my process thus far.  I've learned about 1500 kanji, and am currently around lesson 12 of Pimsleur II.  It's taken me 20 months or so to get this far, but I'm pretty casual about the whole thing - there'll be weeks or months where I just barely keep up with my reviews and don't learn any new kanji at all, and don't pick up the iPod. 

I knew a tiny bit of Japanese before I started (mostly ちょっと待ってください) while I frantically urged my Japanese-speaking wife to come bail me out).  I've found that Pimsleur helps me feel like I'm actually learning the language, while RTK feels like building a real foundation for long-term learning.

I'm now at the point where I'm starting to review sentences.  Pimsleur is a good place for me to start (since I know how to pronounce them, what they mean), but it's sometimes hard to figure out how to write them properly.  There's a list on the web:  http://www.epochrypha.com/japanese/phra … tences.txt for Pimsleur I, but it doesn't have much beyond that, and I can't vouch for it's accuracy.  My longer term plan is to type in some sentences, make some educated guesses about the appropriate kanji, and send off to some of my Japanese friends for proofreading. 

I don't have much to add on timing and strategies for remembering - I study at night, try to make my stories as vivid as possible, and then review in the morning.  I'm usually somewhere between 65 and 85 percent most of the time, which I'm satisfied with as long as I keep moving kanji out of my failed stack with some frequency.

I suggest you just listen to Japanesepod101, use their sentences and then put it into your SRS. I used to listen to Pimsleur too, a while ago. But, it's just too easy. It seems to me that Pimsleur is good for 'getting your feet wet' but with all that kanji that you know, you should just dive right in. But if you still want to do Pimsleur, I suggest that you think of it as ONE of the many things you are doing to learn Japanese. Hope that helps

Last edited by mr_hans_moleman (2008 May 12, 3:33 pm)

I've just examined japanesepod101 and listened to the first begginer, intermediate and advanced lesson. I found out that intermediate level was made exacly for me.
Tks again, hans.

Hey Hans, I've been working my way through Pimsleur slowly over the past 6 months. While I agree that Pimsleur I is fairly easy, I think the difficulty does increase over time. I'm on lesson 55 of 90 at the moment. How far did you get in Pimsleur? My plan is to get through the 90 lessons in Pims and then move to jpod101.
(edit: typo ~_~)

Last edited by Shibo (2008 May 13, 9:38 am)

I think I stopped around lesson 55. You should try japanesepod101 even though you have yet to finish pimsleur. Jpod will help you reinforce what you learn in pimsleur. Anyways, pimsleur takes you only 30 minutes a day. That should be one of the many ways you study Japanese. Just don't be afraid to move forward, even though you don't yet feel comfortable.

Today: 44 of 80: 55%
It is getting lower and lower. I'm getting really confused on what should I do.

Yeah, thinking more on that, the "discracting" idea worked great in the weekend. My job environment is kinda different. The problem is I have a lot of free time during weekdays too, but the slices are short. I'm reducing the number of kanji to 20/day and examine better the results.
Another thing I'm noticing is that the quality of my sleep influences the quality of my review.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you right, but it sounds like you are putting too much emphasis on the SRS and not enough on imaginative memory.  Using an SRS is good (I use Pimsleur too--and I use a similar schedule when I learn new vocabulary).  But it sounds to me like you are missing on one of the main points of Heisig if you rely on the SRS so much that you are not using your imaginative memory. 
Many Japanese kids learn kanji by writing them over and over again.  If they used a good SRS they could learn them more quickly, but they would still be writing them over and over again. 
When I was learning kanji, I would write (or pick) a story.  Then I would wait at least until the next day before quizzing myself the first time.  If I couldn't remember the kanji after one day, it was a BIG flag to me that my story wasn't good enough or that I need to spend more time imagining it. 
I find that the kanji with the more vivid the story, the easier it is to remember it.  On the other hand, the ones that I just pump through my SRS, end up easily forgotten after they get to the third, fourth, etc, stack. 
So  by taking time in the begining to make a good story, you can save time in the end.

Thanks Laner36, though I had already read it. My advice was based on the fact that mentat was combining work and kanji, and not 'something similar to kanji' and kanji as the article suggests one to do.

Apart from that, great advice about putting more emphasis on imaginative memory.

Last edited by roderik (2008 May 16, 3:24 am)

Roderik, I'm sorry for not following your advice, but I have a hard deadline for learning japanese. I study at work, at home, everywhere. AJATT ftw!

Don't feel bad about using the more outrageous stories on the site. The more outrageous, the better. Logic helps some, but nothing helps like a basic emotional appeal to your primal instincts.

Also, for some primitives, don't hesitate to turn them into favorite characters from whatever. I did that with "State of Mind," "Fingers," "Person," and "Thread," because otherwise I would have thrown myself off of a cliff. I also did it to the sideways "Eye" radical... that became a Cylon for me. Other people use cyclops. Is it "pure?" Hell no. But RTK isn't about being pure. It's about being effective. I didn't do it as much as I went on with the book, but for that stretch of about 800 or so kanji, that saved my butt.

Today, saturday: 54 of 72. 75% remembered.
huhul!