I think the only problem might be when you come across a sentence you want to add, but can't because you haven't learned the kanji yet (say, if you know what the word but are not familiar with the kanji).  If it is a sentence you just have to have, you could always use the hiragana instead and later when you review the sentence and know the kanji, replace it with the kanji or something like that.  So I suppose it's a problem easily fixed

Last edited by Nuriko (2009 February 18, 9:38 pm)

Learn the kanji.

If you're rate is low, it will eventually get better.

Take that time you'd be spending on doing more sentences and apply it to RtK... 

But that said, there's a LOT of grammar you can cover just repeating the same simple vocabulary.  So you can start getting a lot of that under your belt if you just absolutely cannot go over 10 kanji a day.

If your goal is speaking and listening (and kana and grammar) without kanji, I'd recommend just finding whatever sentences (iKnow, subs2srs) suit your fancy in those regards and grade them while not paying attention to kanji (though I bet you'd pick some up anyway)--you can break down sentences to understand them, and read grammar explanations (Tae Kim? etc) without having to 'know' and grade yourself on the kanji in those sentences (even if you use kana to help you identify where the words begin/end or read the translation/definition to get the gist of the words' meanings). Similarly, you can listen to and repeat the audio and write out whatever kana that you want without knowing the kanji, just present it in a way that you feel like you're getting a feel for speaking/listening (and similarly you could use kana to help you out here, such as iKnow which already has spaced kana readings below the regular sentence).

That said, I wouldn't recommend focusing on entire kana words except as a tool to one of the above aspects, since you're going to be replacing them eventually or tossing them aside in favour of kanji. Also, I think you'd be surprised at how common the kanji is in iKnow and how uniform the grammar is, so you could pretty easily find sentences with kanji you've learned by searching the site and do those sentences 'normally'. Same with searching the subs2srs Anki decks for kanji you know...

Also, I agree with the others--if you're just doing 10/day, instead of adding a bunch of stuff, might as well add another 5-10 a day. But I could understand wanting to just max out whatever you're comfortable with and then doing something else to exercise other parts of your brain. ;p

Last edited by nest0r (2009 February 19, 3:31 am)

I'd ignore everyone here, since they are Kanji addicts and you appear to be less so (like me).

There is no harm at all in adding new sentences. One could argue that it is more time optimal to finish RTK first and then piling in the sentences, but if you want to be doing other types of study then of course you should. One of the most important things about language learning is making sure you enjoy what you study, otherwise making progress will be much tougher.

The idea that learning real Japanese will somehow ruin memorizing english keywords which will therefore damage real your Japanese is ridiculous.

If 10 kanji a day is optimal for you, I'd say stick with it. You know yourself better than we do, and if trying to force more into your brain only causes you to forget more, it's not worth it.

With 1,200 kanji left, you're looking at about four months of work. It would be unfortunate to let that time go to waste. It takes time to understand and get comfortable with new grammar, vocab, etc., so you may as well start the process now. If that means  starting with more kana words than kanji words, there's nothing wrong with that. It's still Japanese. You can always swap in the kanji later. 

There are numerous other threads on this site about people crashing and burning by trying to do too much and then getting swamped with reviews. Avoid it if you can. Also, there's no magic number of kanji where you've suddenly learned them all. RTK is not a complete set, like the alphabet. It's a random number based on what the Japanese government decided students should learn in school. You will continue learning more kanji after that, and throughout your Japanese studies. So start with simple vocab and grammar sentences if you wish. There's no harm in it.

For those that can't wait to get to doing some sentences - you can use the "rtk - lite" greasemonkey skript. With that you only do 1100 or so Kanji - which include the 1000 or so most used.

timcampbell wrote:

If 10 kanji a day is optimal for you, I'd say stick with it. You know yourself better than we do, and if trying to force more into your brain only causes you to forget more, it's not worth it.

With 1,200 kanji left, you're looking at about four months of work. It would be unfortunate to let that time go to waste. It takes time to understand and get comfortable with new grammar, vocab, etc., so you may as well start the process now. If that means  starting with more kana words than kanji words, there's nothing wrong with that. It's still Japanese. You can always swap in the kanji later. 

There are numerous other threads on this site about people crashing and burning by trying to do too much and then getting swamped with reviews. Avoid it if you can. Also, there's no magic number of kanji where you've suddenly learned them all. RTK is not a complete set, like the alphabet. It's a random number based on what the Japanese government decided students should learn in school. You will continue learning more kanji after that, and throughout your Japanese studies. So start with simple vocab and grammar sentences if you wish. There's no harm in it.

Since I finished RtK1, I've learned... 1 new kanji a week, at most.