Dude!please don't quit!Japanese sure takes a lot of effort and time and dedication,but its not that difficult...In 6 months i have mastered katakana/hiragana,finished RTK1,studied most of japanese grammer and learned about 400 words from Core 2000,And now i can actually freaking READ!!!,Its not as difficult as everyone says,at least give it another try or find something fun to do like watching anime for a while until you can get back to study mode.

I'm at 1583.

Suddenly my retention rate has dropped dramatically. I seem to have forgotten everything. Terrible feeling.

Anyone noticed anything like that?

I was fine until now. It's very depressing... Feels like my brain has melted.

Here are my Anki stats:

Correct Answers:
Mature cards: 91.2% (423 of 464)
Young cards: 77.6% (6396 of 8240)
First-seen cards: 71.4% (1075 of 1505)

Any comments are very welcome...

@truando: I suppose i know that feeling and just let me say here once again that forgetting is just so natural! (especially with kanjis we are absolutely unsurrounded and isolated from) I had this when i reached 1200/1300 or so, when i recognised i knew the last 600 Kanjis just too well and the rest seemed so.. vague, brain stew. The only thing that sort of helped me out of this drama ("Oh my gosh, i wasted my time so far, what a pity, was Heisig the right and best choice for me?" Such questions popping up..) was: Revising. Search for the actual problem, the core causing trouble (and maybe you discover a special chapter) and start revising the trouble-causing kanjis or even whole -- for you -- difficult chapters. That's what i did and hey, I'm at 2005 now. Coming to the end I'm sort of "preparing myself mentally" for this huge developement and progress (for me within an age of 17!). I want to enjoy this moment, so delicate~

You'll get it, i know it.

truando wrote:

RE the collateral research - I kind of enjoy that, and it helps me find the right feeling for the Kanji. I changed quite a few of them, it really helps me. I guess it doesn't really matter now that I'm 450 from the end.

I see what you mean, my stuff was looking up the etymology, I'd better to look up the compounds, it would have been more useful. But keep it short.

Anyway, thanks again to both of you. EratiK - always a morale-booster!

Just finish the damn thing already!

P.S.: I don't remember which one of you had Heisig's email, but could you please ask him when "Remembering The Hanzi 2" is going to be published? It's for a good cause. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: it's cool, rcloud did it.

Last edited by EratiK (2010 October 20, 2:22 pm)

I'm not as high as you guys but I just reached 250! Feeling like a boss of kanji. I'm treating myself with a kanji poster from kanjiposter.com! I hope it gets here tomorrow or Monday.I navigate websites and I'm like "I know that one, I know that one" every other kanji and its like holding a lantern in the darkness. Soon I'll have a lamp and then someone will turn on the damn light. Roughly 1/8th of the way WOOO!

I am definitely needing some motivation now.  I didn't find this site until i was about 180 in and just added them all at the same time (big mistake).  Now at around 250 I am buried in reviews and have decided to stop adding new ones until I get all these into the 3 or 4 reviews done.  It is a trudge for sure, but it has to be done or that huge review stack and low retention rate is going to destroy my morale.  Still though I never thought I could possibly learn this fast! (and I have only been doing 10 new ones a day).

aaroncp wrote:

I am definitely needing some motivation now.  I didn't find this site until i was about 180 in and just added them all at the same time (big mistake).  Now at around 250 I am buried in reviews and have decided to stop adding new ones until I get all these into the 3 or 4 reviews done.  It is a trudge for sure, but it has to be done or that huge review stack and low retention rate is going to destroy my morale.  Still though I never thought I could possibly learn this fast! (and I have only been doing 10 new ones a day).

Have you considered removing them? You can take them off and then add them back on 25 at a time, everyday. Depending on how fast you study new ones, you should catch up fairly fast. It ought to drop your reviews down to something a bit more managable.

Or do what I do, only do 30 or so reviews at a time. Come back two or three times a day if you have a lot, and just do them in pieces.

Just a question...

I've done around 250 kanji now, and I must honestly say that I'm not enjoying this book.
Reading tons of stories to memorize characters and their english keywords is just plain boring, and it's affecting my progress.

Is this normal? Am I supposed to be having a blast with this book because of the playful method?
I know that Heisig is by far the best method out there to learn kanji, but it's still just... Boring.

.... Yeah. Sorry for being a partypooper. :I

Steffan wrote:

Just a question...

I've done around 250 kanji now, and I must honestly say that I'm not enjoying this book.
Reading tons of stories to memorize characters and their english keywords is just plain boring, and it's affecting my progress.

Is this normal? Am I supposed to be having a blast with this book because of the playful method?
I know that Heisig is by far the best method out there to learn kanji, but it's still just... Boring.

.... Yeah. Sorry for being a partypooper. :I

You're not enjoying the book, ok, but do you enjoy learning kanji? I mean, the book just presents a method a be able to write the kanji when you see the keyword. Of course you could not like the method, but general opinion here is that it helps a lot to follow the story method.

Perhaps you're taking the 'stories' too literal: don't let them just be stories or "donkey bridges" but really make a vivid imagery in your mind, as EratiK wrote. If necessary close your eyes to come up with a vivid scene, drawing from (good) memories of yours and bizarre situations you can come up with.

So again, in the beginning you might feel that the story method is preventing you from progressing faster, but in the end you'll see its benefits. You just can't rote memorise (i.e. learn by brute force and repetition) 2000 kanji.

EDIT: also, the customize keywords function will soon be available, if it really gets too hard on you, you can wait for it, and use Netherland keywords. How does that sound?

That's a nice idea, I'd be glad to help if a group effort was started.

Last edited by KanjiDevourer (2010 October 29, 11:19 am)

Wool gyuujuice I k ow just what you mean!!! I'm currently signed up to fail JLPTN1 come December, but I just had 3 weeks absolutely cram packed with projects, papers, midterms, the continuing selection process with Square Enix, and just --- no time to even do my homework let alone independently study my Japanese...

I really hope I don't fail this semester.... D:

Gyuu comes from 牛 not sheep 羊. (I'm just teasing you.)

Yeah, we just have to make the best of what we got and be confident.

EratiK wrote:

Incidently, I started my first 608 cards review (10 days without reviewing).

you're getting soft? didn't expect that from you ;-)

thanks for the good wishes!

Yep, you're right. That's why I make smaller goals and more of them. They are easier to start and complete -- even when they are the same amount!