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Ok bit of an achievement for me.
I completed RTK about a year ago, then had to stop reviews due to a lot going on in my life, not using anki, having no internet, it was terrible. During the summer I picked it back up but decided to start over again, as I was 6 months behind on reviews, may as well start over.
At 1400 in, same thing happened, too busy, moved again, lost internet again (you'd think I'd learn this time )
I am now in my 3rd runthrough of the book, and recently missed 2 weeks of reviews thanks to work stuff getting crazy then dropping through the floor and my motivation to study TANKING. 2 weeks later I had almost 700 reviews remaining, the biggest hole I've been able to dig myself out of, I did 500 reviews in the last 2 days AND I added 93 Kanji back in today, few more weeks and I should have all the KAnji back into my SRS and FINALY move onto REAL language study 
thurd wrote:
Draak wrote:
core 2k COMPLETE! i think it took me 4 months.
Ive lost a bit of motivation in learning recently but I think ill make it up by just forcing myself to watch more japanese.Elaborate please. How is your reading now for mangas/web pages/novels/games? Do you understand anything from anime etc.?
Sure. Let me explain my study experience first.
Took a university year one course in Japanese almost 3 years back dropped it. Learned maybe 200 vocab, 40 kanji and hiragana in 6 months. Was proud of the work effort and put in alot of work to get there but in hindsight it was laughable 
.
One year of almost no studying at all passed.
Stumbled upon AJATT, was absolutely inspired and stoked that with mere self-motivation you can achieve your dreams. Resigned myself to learning Japanese "no matter the cost" Downloaded Anki around June. Only knew basics back then and couold not READ for the life of me.
Picked up the Kanji and Kana book by Wolfgang that I had purchased maybe 5 years back and never before really taken a look at and input 25-50 Kanji every 2 days. Did not use Heisig, brute forced the kanji into my mind and used visual cues for memorization. Also learned at least one, sometimes two Onyoumi, Kinyoumi reading. (in hindsight it dint really help too much). Done in around 4 months. Super excited about this project, my retention is incredibly high and I barely review anymore, preferring to review the sentences and kill 2 birds with one stone. 二鳥一石！！
Started on core 2k. The option for me was to either use core2k, KanjiOdysey, or cull the net for my own sentences according to Katz. I figured combing my own was too slow and I want efficiency. I read someone who did a comparison of the Core2k and KO and found core2k to be more varied in terms of content so I stuck with that. Plus, its Open source!
3-4 months in and Im done. The results?
My vocab is much higher and I can understand! I cannot write by hand (dint include that in my studies, wanted to emphasize reading skills) but can write pretty good on the computer. Perhaps the greatest gift all this effort brought me is that I can read so much better than before.
Wheras before I could only read hiragana and just a handful of kanji my reading now is really good. Although I still need rikichan to really understand complex articles on Jwikipedia I can, with dic use pretty much understand anything on there. Subtitles are almost not a problem for me. I can follow the news somewhat well only because i can read the information at the bottom and understand enough.
These are really great milestones. Considering if I had taken University level Japanese, I would only really know like 150 Kanji in 8 months of study. Really, can you read and understand the news with 150 kanji? lol
Listening skills are still poor though. I need to focus more on watching more Japanese and less english. Its something I had failed to do. I just need to get out of my comfort zone and force myself to watch more and more. However right now im watching Shikomita Glory days and can understand around 60-70% , whereas before Subtitles were absolutely necessary otherwise id be completely lost.
Jblogs, no problem I can follow. J friends on facebook, I can read and get almost everything. 8 months back, no way in hell.
Ive slowed down a little but thats expected, just a little break before i delve into core 6k and hopefully 90% reading proficiency.
I need to find more Jdramas subbed in Japanese, I really like following those, can practice reading and listening at the same time Even anime I dont mind, but i find it hard to find J subbs.
Thanks Draak for sharing with us.
Draak wrote:
Took a university year one course in Japanese almost 3 years back dropped it. Learned maybe 200 vocab, 40 kanji and hiragana in 6 months. Was proud of the work effort and put in alot of work to get there but in hindsight it was laughable
One year of almost no studying at all passed.
I've had a very similar experience 
Draak wrote:
My vocab is much higher and I can understand! I cannot write by hand (dint include that in my studies, wanted to emphasize reading skills) but can write pretty good on the computer. Perhaps the greatest gift all this effort brought me is that I can read so much better than before.
Wheras before I could only read hiragana and just a handful of kanji my reading now is really good. Although I still need rikichan to really understand complex articles on Jwikipedia I can, with dic use pretty much understand anything on there. Subtitles are almost not a problem for me. I can follow the news somewhat well only because i can read the information at the bottom and understand enough.
Awesome !!! That's exactly what I want to achieve.
The fact that I understood the name of this DS game 「リズム天国ゴールド」 is pretty incredible
There's also ニンテンドウ、ニンテンドウ64、ニンテンドー、ニンテンドーDS、ニンテンドー ゲームキューブ、ファミリーコンピュータ、...
mattimus wrote:
Went to BookOff San Diego today and nabbed the complete 電車男 Densha Otoko DVD box set, including the special, for SIXTY DOLLARS.
Dude, that... that hurts me deeply. I've wanted that set *forever*. The fact that I now know it has exact subs makes it even more painful.
Ehem. Congrats on finishing RtK though!
Managed to do a past Lvl 1 JLPT Reading&Grammar test in 50-60 minutes with only a few 誤s. Attitude is actually really important I guess. Throughout the whole test I told myself "Wow, this is actually quite fun! How'd they find so many interesting articles?" and "Wow, this is really easy! No wonder, I'm a genius after all..". Try it out, maybe it will work for you as well.
