sounds boring plus what about vocabulary that just uses hiragana/katkana. they're pretty useful too you know.

anyways if you do do it that way you're basiclaly doing sentence method except doing it in that specific order/theme because without context you relaly don't know what the word means.

I made it to about 900 in Heisig before I started getting a little restless.  I popped over to Iknow and started the first 200 of the core 2000.  They are supposedly in some kind of frequency of use order.  There are still quite a few kanji that come up which I didn't know yet from only studying about half of the first book. 

I have continued to add about 30 kanji a day from the book, but I have also added in the ones that have come up in Iknow.  I look up the new radicals in the book and learn them.  I'm using anki for my reviews, so it has the flexibility to add out of order.  I don't know if you could do this using the review on this site, but if you have done the RTK lite, you probably won't come across as many new ones as I did. 

Anyway, I have enjoyed spending half my time learning to recognize new kanji and the other half actually learning Japanese.  I'm sure some would argue the efficiency of doing so, but only doing Rtk was sapping my motivation fast.  I have noticed quite a difference in my comprehension when watching/listening to Japanese stuff.  Now I probably understand about 5 words a minute as opposed to 1, haha.

I see if it really brings me forward to learn everything grouped: start with learning words, after doing that I'll try to make sentences of them and learn how to do that (grammar).

baldy514, You could take a look into RTK LITE for remaining 1.000 kanjis, there may be only 350-400 kanjis left for you to have more than enough kanjis for thousands of vocabs. I did RTK LITE (1.000 JLPT kanjis + 1.000 primitives needed) but I'd be better off to learn less actually, as reviewing unused kanjis is not that motivational. It would be a burden to have hundreds of kanjis more to be remembered.

Last edited by jokoto (2009 February 06, 9:47 am)

To play devil's advocate: 1000 most common kanji (1 month @ 2 hours per day). The most basic 100 grammar rules via 450 example sentences (1 month @ 2 hours a day, in addition to upkeep on kanji) followed up by 2000 basic vocabulary example sentences (4 months@ 2 hours in addition to upkeep on kanji and grammar sentences). That's six months using figures that were scientifically pulled out of my ass.

Now, in that time, the student hopefully is having fun in Japanese (manga, dramas, music). Once you begin sentences, you start understanding more and more Japanese.  Add on vocabulary and even more Japanese opens to you. Hopefully the student notices that quite a few words has Kanji (and maybe primitives) new to her.  After the six months of formal study compounded with Japanese media, she can roll around and do all of RTK1 (maybe 1 month), then advanced grammar sentences (another month or less), then 4000 example vocabulary sentences (8 months). The student will be at 16 months, having studied 2 hours a day with much, much more Japanese input.

Yeah, the student could have done all the RTK up front. Problem is, you've got her investing in something with no early returns. Get the success building up early on, you create momentum that can hold less dedicated students. In addition, we've built a variety of knowledge that helps create understanding in any Japanese media she watches.

jokoto wrote:

baldy514, You could take a look into RTK LITE for remaining 1.000 kanjis, there may be only 350-400 kanjis left for you to have more than enough kanjis for thousands of vocabs. I did RTK LITE (1.000 JLPT kanjis + 1.000 primitives needed) but I'd be better off to learn less actually, as reviewing unused kanjis is not that motivational. It would be a burden to have hundreds of kanjis more to be remembered.

I'll look into that over the weekend.  My current study plan is 2-3 hours weeknights and 5-6 hours on weekends mixing up IKnow, RTK, and reading.  I also do a mental review of what is and isn't working over the weekend and try to set up a new plan for the week.  I've only been doing the Iknow for a couple of weeks, but it is so refreshing after about three or four weeks of pure RTK.  I tried the KO2001 lists for a while, but I think I prefer the regular Iknow core list for the time being.  I think I might finish the first 400 in the core then go back and hit the KO lists for vocab that I haven't covered.  BTW Nukemarine, I have the book now.  I'm going to look at the project thread over the weekend and see if I can pitch in for a list or two. 

I bought the Japanese the Manga Way book you mentioned last week, and I skim it to get an idea of things during lunch or when I have spare time.  I tried grammar about a month ago but found it way over my head.  Now I've listened enough and studied enough that the concepts make a little more sense. I'll probably add sentences from the book into my regimen soon.   Variety is the spice of life, right?