igordesu
Member
From: Wisconsin USA
Registered: 2008-09-22
Posts: 428
Okay, seriously, I know you're probably going to think I'm just a simple-minded idiot trying to share is "revelation" (something everybody else already knows) with the world, but just hear me out.
First of all, yes, I'm a fan of AJATT. Just thought I'd throw that in there. Secondly, I use Anki; I have no idea how the SRS/Leitner system on this site works, so my ignorance may show, lol...
Right, so, with Anki, you can set the number of new cards you want to learn each day. My problem is that, like every other college kid, my schedule is awkward and imbalanced. Example; I work all day saturday, then go to church and work all day sunday, and finally have school from 8am till 5pm mondays. Okay, that was waaaaay more information than you needed to know, but the problem is that on the weekend and through the early part of the week, no amount of kanji is reasonable (especially with my record of procrastination with homework...). My deck always builds up like huuuuge with reviews on top of all the new cards, and I never have enough time or motivation to do it all. My previous solution? 12 new cards per day. Not 10, b/c that's a depressingly low number. Not 11 b/c I feel like it's no different than 10 and I'm just cheating myself. 12. But, I simply am not able to do more than that on those few days so that's what I have my thing set at all the time.
This is way not enough. It's going to take me forever to finish RTK.
New Solution? Lump it. Yep, I lump it (once or twice) every week. I lump a large portion of cards during a particular portion of the week when I'm usually not as busy, and just do a few the rest of the days.
Let's do an example (cuz it's really late as I'm writing this but I have nothing better to do...). Let's say you want to 100 cards per week (okay, I know it's not a lot, but it's a nice round number and my sleep deprived brain can't handle much more). 100 cards would mean about 15 cards (rounding up) per day. Easy, right? Ah, but what if you did like 5 cards a day for 6 days, and the other 70 on the last day (or you could split the seventy up into 2 times a week and make it easier). There would be lots of reviews after the lumped days, but that's not as bad because (for me at least) the hardest part that requires the most motivation is the creative process when I first learn a kanji. Then you could just use the "time boxing" technique (which is talked about on AJATT) so you don't start to dread that part of the week.
I think I want to do 150 per week, so that means about 22-ish per day. Since I'm not one of those beasts that can blow through like 50 kanji everyday, I'll just lump it. In fact, I'll lump it TWICE. I'll do 50 kanji twice a week, and the rest'll be just be just 10 per day.
Plus, one of the advantages of this is you actually feel like you're getting somewhere. When I do 12 per day, I feel like I'll never finish. But now, I still get a lot done per week and I'll actually finish within the next century...
Okay, I'm probably just ranting and raving now like a lunatic because I'm soooo tired that...wow, like, my math and logic probably sucks, lol... But basically, when you get right down to it, this was basically just a fools realization that he doesn't have to do the same amount of kanji everyday just because the Anki setting is set. Okay, now I'm just being バカ so I'm done. Nighty Night-don't let the bed bugs bite...
TerryS
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2008-10-25
Posts: 64
@Igor (はい！イゴルですの名前が分かりますよう！)
You know, that is almost similar to what I was saying in the "Encouragement Thread" -- that some of us just can't do a bunch everyday -- we even have a hard time doing any every day -- so the task that looms before us seems daunting. More to the point, some of us can't learn so many new ones at once, either. I am one of those people that easily learn concepts but forget details in no time flat. It helps if I use the kanji in the context of a sentence often, or know (and use) some vocab with that kanji regularly.
Just today I was thinking, 2000 kanji / even 20 per day = 100 days, that's a little over 3 months. 2000 / 10 = 200 that's almost 7. Even that's not bad! And I already know some kanji, so maybe it'd be more like 6 months.
But once in a while I can do more. (I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the butt on reviews, but considering I already know some kanji, maybe that won't be too bad.)
So, here, if I use your logic: I'm already at 70 with RTK. And I'm not sure how many more kanji I already know, but let's be on the conservative side and lop off another 50. 1948 - 120 = 1828. Let's just call it 1830. 1830 / 10 = 183 days (6 months). There's 4.5 weeks to a month. What happens if I do an extra 25 just one day a week?
10 x 6 = 60 + 25 = 85 kanji per week
1830 / 85 = 21.5 weeks
21.5 / 4.5 = 4.7 months
Let's just call it 4 1/2 months, I have a feeling I know more kanji than I think. That's not even including ones I forgot, which will likely stick easier when I learn them again the "Heisig" way.
Wow, "slow and steady" really can win the race!
Think I should change my username to "Turtle"?
