I just finished RTK1, please congratulate me!

August 17, 2007
Found RTK1 on the shelves at Schoenhof's in Harvard Square, and thought it looked interesting. The clerk told me that other customers had found it to be a helpful way to learn the kanji. I said I'd give a shot and get back to him.

August 30
Wrote to my Japanese sensei from when I first started learning Japanese almost 10 years ago, asking him what he thought about the Heisig method. "I have difficulties with this approach," he replied, "but if it works for you, go for it."

September through December
Made 1000 flash cards per book. Fell behind, using ad-hoc review system.

December 23
Discovered this site.

January 2008
Visited Brussels, home of Fuaburisu and RevTK!

April 27
Added the 2,042nd kanji. Donated EUR20.42.

June - August '08
With RtK (and RevtK) I feel ready to take on an Advanced Reading course at summer school to aid in my graduate research.

August 17
Goal of having 2000+ kanji (98% retention) in the final box. Today, I'm at 1360 and the next few weeks are going to be critical in terms of not giving up ground.


Thoughts and advice:
- Twice a day works best for me. One session for review, and another session for study.
- Save your binge studying for a period when you know you'll be around for the next week or so to follow up.
- If there's any doubt, just say "no." 
- You can tell a lot about people by the stories they tell.
- This site wouldn't be nearly as pleasant to use if it had copious advertising on every page. So donate.
- Tell a friend.


Thanks...
...to Heisig-sensei for a great book
...to Fuaburisu-san for a great site
...to the generous donors
...to people who share stories
...to people who vote on stories
...to people who post in the forums


What a great experience.

All the best,
Ivan

Last edited by ivantolearnkanji (2008 April 27, 6:09 pm)

Congrats Ivan!

Finished! I shouldn't say finally, cause I just started RTK at the end of February, but I got a bit behind my own schedule. In the end, I even slowed down for the part 5 days and by now I don't feel that "finished" and all that. I only got around 1500 Kanji in the last column by now, so there's still a long way to go. Anyway, I hope this concludes on of the most tedious parts of learning the language. In the end I spent around 2-3 hours per day on Kanji, and that's just the minimum. Still, there are reviews to be done, but I hope they'll get less and less now that I don't add new cards.

I wanted to finish RtK before visiting Japan, and I've managed to. In the end I'm about two weeks early, which gives me some time to do some other language related stuff before I'm leaving. But for today, I'll just go on and continue playing GTA IV (which was the main reason in the past three days, that I didn't finish it earlier, damn you).

This website was the biggest help possible, and I'm not sure I could have finished so fast without it. The SRS is brilliant, I used a whole lot of the stories provided on this website as my own images and the community certainly helps a great deal in finding yet another motivator for pushing on with your study.

Thanks ファブリス for this fabulous website and thanks for all the others in providing not only so much Kanji related material and help, but also advice and motivation to every learner on this site.

やった！ I've finally finished RTK1, adding the last kanji exactly one day short of a year since starting!

At the start of February I was only at 750, and at the rate I was going I estimated it would take me about 3 years to finish! Luckily I found the AJATT website, and set myself the goal of finishing before my birthday (tomorrow). It hasn't been easy - 50+hrs a week work + living with my english speaking girlfriend cut into my time a bit. But I did it! I learnt 1285 kanji in 85 days, which still seems amazing to me.
I have to say it's been very rewarding. I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with my Japanese (been learning for about 5 years).


Thanks to everyone, I found the stories a huge help.
And of course, thanks to Fabrice.
I can definitely say I couldn't have done it without this site (I tried once before and failed!).

Now I just have to get the rest of the Kanji into the 4th stack (at about 1430 now).
これから も がんばります！

HAHAHAHA! I did it!

Started working from the online preview on February 1st, ordered my book on February 2nd. Finished with 43 in the failed stack and nothing waiting for review on May 6th. Its this day I have been thinking of everyday since I started, motivation to get through those times when I just couldn't take it.

Has been a tough three months, the last 400 hundred or so seeming to take forever, but its over. For a bit anyway, until I start RTK3. Want to get back to regular studying now.

I actually believe that one day I will be able to read and write Japanese now, what an amazing feeling!

"I.... I did it. I finished. I really finished. Wow." to say it with nestur's words.

Well, you know what comes now:

Thank you, thank you, thank you...
...Fabrice!
...Heisig and Rauther!
...everyone else here!

Wouldn't have been possible to finish the book without your help!

Biene, congratulations! What will be your next goal? RTK3? (There's a new, shiny 2nd edition out there).

Congratulations!

Don't forget to keep reviewing, otherwise getting back into RTK3 is really painful (personal experience...).  Might even be worth making a habit of adding like 1-2 kanji per day.

Everyone who has finished RTK 1, may find the following useful and/or interesting:

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=19730#p19730

Hi everyone! What a beautiful day is today! That's because after three months of intense study I finally managed to finish RTK1.
I feel... relieved. There were easy days that I just rushed through my reviews, but there were days that I felt almost oppressed by the seemingly unsurmountable piles of reviews. Although I have to admit that I used a really unorthodox approach to SRSing. Well, whatever works for each of us, right?

I really want to thank all who helped me with this insane (but really worthy) Kanji Journey:
James W. Heisig - for creating such a clever and effective method for learning the kanji.
ファブリス - for making this awesome site. It would be impossible for me to finish the book without the site's review system and this great forum, both are invaluable resources.
resolve - for making Anki. Your software is amazing and is really helpful for learners, especially for those who study Japanese.
The members of this site - for being so polite and helpful, providing me with motivation in the times of struggle, and for creating so many useful and imaginative stories.
To all of you - ありがとうございます。 You guys rock!!!

Now, I'm going to do my daily kanji reviews (I intend to keep reviewing) and I will start with Pimsleur and RTKana (to brush up my kana production ability) next. May we all succeed in our studies and thus, accomplish our goals!

I got done with the 2042th kanji the 20th of May, but I decided to postpone posting here until I was done reviewing all of the kanji at least once here on the site.. =P That took some time, but boy has it paid of! It's so awesome to recognize (and know one keyword from) most of the kanji that I read ^^! However, I've also noticed that there are quite a few kanji from RtK3 that are used frequently. Should I start learning those last 900-and-some characters right away, or should I focus entirely on learning words? Maybe a bit of both?
Well well, 2042 is a great deal of characters... I never would've thought this to be possible (for me) a year ago.

Congrats

About RTK3, I don't know... Maybe just learn those that you encounter often?

I just finished!  Had some doubts about if it was the best way to spend time before, but after starting and getting half way I couldn't just abandon it.  If nothing else, it already makes Japanese texts a lot less intimidating.  My speaking is leagues ahead of my reading/writing but I think this will close the gap some more.