On taking a break from adding new kanji...

zardoz73 Member

From: tokyo Registered: 2008-07-28 Posts: 13

Is this a mistake? I'm now at around 450 kanji, and to this point I've been working at it every day for about two weeks, some days doing as many as 50 or 60 kanji. And I've been reviewing on this site every day as well; I'm just now getting to where I have a stack of kanji to review every day.

But for two main reasons, I'm thinking of taking a break for a few days or a week or so at adding new kanji, but continuing to review my expired kanji on this site. One reason is that other things are keeping me busy and I have a lot less time, and the other is that I'm having trouble remembering a lot of my review kanji. I figure that if I stop adding new kanji for a bit and focus on getting down the roughly first 1/4 of the book I've done so far, it'll actually help in the long run.

What do you guys think? Any advice on this?

skinnyneo Member

Registered: 2007-03-07 Posts: 148

Well I personally would suggest that you maybe instead slow down on the number of kanji that you are adding every day but not stop completely. I always found it was really hard to get back into it after taking a break, even when I would tell myself it's only for a week or so. Of course if you have life events those are unavoidable but if you can even doing one new kanji a day will keep you in the rythm.

Zarxrax Member

From: North Carolina Registered: 2008-03-24 Posts: 949

I would recommend that instead of stopping adding new kanji, just reduce the number of new kanji you add each day. Maybe cut back to half of what you are currently learning.
If it gets to where you simply cannot bear the number of reviews you have each day, then maybe you should take a break from adding new kanji altogether. It's better to at least add some new kanji everyday though, so you don't run a risk of stopping altogether (once you stop something, its easy to stay stopped).

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cescoz Member

From: Italy Registered: 2008-01-22 Posts: 131

If you continue to review,I think it's not a problem...
You are going very well with 50-60 kanji, but maybe are too many?
I'm not the right person to tell this because I went at 70-80 in the last part,but then the reviews were painful...long,tiring and problematics.
Try to stop some day for reviewing,but then return to study,at least do 10 kanji a day,and then return with 20-30.If in this way your retention increase go in this way,all depends to the time that you have anyway

rich_f Member

From: north carolina Registered: 2007-07-12 Posts: 1708

As long as you don't stop your daily reviews, do whatever you feel comfortable with.

I preferred to add kanji in chunks by primitives, rather than worry about how many I'm adding. I found it a lot easier to get the preliminary reviews out of the way if the ones I was learning had a similar primitive theme. But I would take a break every couple of days to just consolidate what I had and do my reviews. As long as you don't stop that, you're fine.

cerulean Member

From: Ohio Registered: 2008-05-09 Posts: 133

I'm at just about the exact number of Kanji you are right now.
I stopped adding kanji for a couple weeks due to my own laziness (but still kept up in daily reviews) and I can tell you, as long as you review you'll be okay. You can add new kanji at anytime. The important thing is to review the things you've already learned.

You'll be fine to take a break, but if it's not necessary to stop adding new kanji into your diet, then please keep adding them. Just make sure you don't lose your interest during this break period... It seems harder to get back into daily additions now that I haven't been doing it for awhile.

Wizard Member

From: Osaka Registered: 2008-06-13 Posts: 96

My fail pile slowly crept up and I haven't learned any new kanji for a while now. I have been thoroughly sorting my fail pile out. It's almost cleared up.

I bought the set of heisig kanji cards off amazon. Kinda expensive, but I choose 30 kanji I fail and carry them with me at all times, and whenever I have some spare time I review them. This way I can clear failed cards very quickly.

Sevenhelmets Member

From: 新宿区 Registered: 2008-05-20 Posts: 38

Wizard wrote:
I bought the set of heisig kanji cards off amazon. Kinda expensive, but I choose 30 kanji I fail and carry them with me at all times, and whenever I have some spare time I review them. This way I can clear failed cards very quickly.

Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of SRS though? Sounds like it's almost completely learning by rote memorization.

Kyle_N Member

From: Dallas, TX Registered: 2007-12-03 Posts: 23

It's perfectly fine to take a break from adding new cards. If you have the option to go to the beach for a week or study kanji...go to the beach and breathe some fresh air. You are already ahead of the game, just get back on the horse when you get back. I know it will be hard at first, but life isn't always SRS compatible. If you are just being lazy..well stop being lazy and get crackin'!

alyks Member

From: Arizona Registered: 2008-05-31 Posts: 914 Website

Kyle_N wrote:
It's perfectly fine to take a break from adding new cards. If you have the option to go to the beach for a week or study kanji...go to the beach and breathe some fresh air. You are already ahead of the game, just get back on the horse when you get back. I know it will be hard at first, but life isn't always SRS compatible. If you are just being lazy..well stop being lazy and get crackin'!

I live in a land locked state =[

Ryuujin27 Member

Registered: 2006-12-14 Posts: 824

So I just recently did this... hit 980 and just couldn't find time to sit down and study as well as handle my reviews. So I chose to manage my reviews and today, for the first time, I managed to squeeze and hour and a half and learn 20 new kanji, bringing me to exactly 1000.

The benefits? I have barely any cards in the first few stacks, and my reviews are down to about 20-40 a day! How sweet is that!?

So yeah, don't worry if you have a take a break. As long as you can manage to pounce on that first opportunity to continue, then break away, my friend

Wizard Member

From: Osaka Registered: 2008-06-13 Posts: 96

Sevenhelmets wrote:
Wizard wrote:
I bought the set of heisig kanji cards off amazon. Kinda expensive, but I choose 30 kanji I fail and carry them with me at all times, and whenever I have some spare time I review them. This way I can clear failed cards very quickly.
Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of SRS though? Sounds like it's almost completely learning by rote memorization.

I don't think so. I review the story once on here, and try to force it into my head. After I have done about 30 kanji or got tired, i review them all again, and then i review them again whenever they expire.

cards that end up in my fail pile i take out and carry with me, and several times a day for two days i review them (from keyword to kanji). prior to that review, I go through all the stories for the failed kanji and tweak them a little to help me remember them better.

after reviewing them several times for two days, i do a final review by going down the fail list and checking each one before adding it back into circulation ready for regular review with the rest.

some stories dont magically stick so I have to review them several times until they do.

Index » RtK Volume 1

Wizard wrote:

Kyle_N wrote:

Sevenhelmets wrote:

Wizard wrote: