You guys are really pushing me. Although I do vocab SRS and a little extra-curricular book/online study of actual Japanese, have a job, wife, and am training for a marathon this year, you're forcing me to rethink my kanji-learning capabilities.

I started 3 months ago and am only at 350. I've been ramping up that level, however, and am starting to add about 8 kanji a day. At that rate, it'll be 7 months 'til I'm done.

I have a feeling that as I continue being successful in retaining Kanji at 8/day, I'll start increasing that to 9, 10, 11... and thus will make my goal of finishing RTK this year.

If I can, it'd be nice to finish by my 34th b-day (end of Oct.)

But who knows, everyone's inspiration on this site could get me there faster than that!

donbert wrote:

Added 2042 just in time for Khatzumemo's 1AM reset. Boy, does it feel good.

5/6/08-6/27/08

Wow that was quick. You guys are intense. It took me forever :-p.

Made my first index card flashcard in November.. Found this site in January. Finished adding the last card to the SRS this evening. The feeling of accomplishment that I have at this moment is indescribable. It's a small step on my journey, but it's an important one. I've enjoyed every moment. I look forward to continued progress, RTK 3, and helping everyone here as much as I can. Thank you Fabrice, I could never have done it without your help. And thanks to all of you on the forums. You helped keep it fun, and showed that a forum really could exist without trolls on it. And now, I believe I have some champagne waiting for me..

I finished very recently too. I work in the video game industry and have done the greater part of my studying while deep in the 'crunch' period of development, where you can find yourself barely at home for months. Some weeks all I could spare was a couple of hours, but if you force yourself to use that time as productively as possible you will still find yourself racing through it.

If you ever catching yourself thinking "I'm too busy to learn new kanji this week" just be sure you're not trying to excuse yourself from just biting the bullet and opening the book. Once you've 'learned' a kanji, which might simply be writing out the character once, the work is essentially done and Fabrice's SRS will do the rest for you.

I found the stories on this site absolutely invaluable to my quest; where inventing my own story for every character might have been 'better', I simply didn't have the time to expend on that holy grail. I've also enjoyed asking friends to test me using paddy's excellent kanji poster which I would highly recommend. So a HUGE thank you to all those whose imaginative stories have made Heisig's gauntlet that much more achievable. Bring on the JLPT!

Way to go Shibo!!

I just added my last frame last night, and as of this morning they're all reviewed and circulating in Anki. This is my first post, but I've been reading the forums for the past few weeks. The resources and attitude here are amazing.

My RtKing was pretty much inconsistent (schizophrenic?). I did the first 800 at the start of the year, then almost nothing for months, and then in a burst of AJATT inspired motivation took the last ~1200 at 100 a day with a few days break in the middle to study for actual exams (oops).

Anyway, I mostly wanted to say thanks for this website. I'd be nowhere without it. I'm especially grateful to Katsuo and others who pointed out groups of primitives that appeared often but weren't labeled explicitly by Heisig. I exploited those things like crazzzyyy.

Also wanted to mention: if anyone is insane enough to try 100 a day-ing it, I recommend Anki. The timing algorithm means you'll never wake up to 200+ reviews. The most I ever had first thing was about 70, with the rest trickling in throughout the day. Maybe other SRSs do this too, but I saw some posts worried about the reviews and I didn't notice them seeing as I was already chained to the computer all day.

Approximately 6 months ago I started RTK. As I knew that I was going to have plenty of time for the first 3 months, but not so much time after that, I divided my RTK studies into "phases".

"Phase 1" was adding all the 2042 kanji to RevTK and creating as many stories as possible. That phase ended 3 months ago, and it took me lots of time and effort, but I ended up having more than 2000 kanji expired or failed. That sounds awful, and it did feel awful.

Anyway, I wasn't going to give up, so it was time for "Phase 2", that is, taking control of all of those 2042 kanji and turning all my piles from red and orange to green. 6 months after starting RTK - using this site since the beginning - I finally can enjoy those wonderfully green piles, and I even have 1674 kanji on my last stack!

Thanks Fabrice!, your work is wonderful and I really don't know if would have managed to get here without this site.

Thank you all here, because this forum is the best Japanese related source and the best group of Japanese learners that I have found since I started Japanese years ago! Each time I visit this site and all the resources I have found here I get more convinced that all the "Japanese is HARD!", "Kanji is IMPOSSIBLE!" arguments are nothing but mere excuses to justify people's laziness and lack of imagination.

If you have just a computer and access to internet, learning Japanese can be not only easy, but a lot of fun! It just takes time and willpower, and of course some imagination. And even if you don't have a computer, there are a gazillion ways  of making your learning funnier and more productive than just sitting down and reading grammar books.

Excuse my excessively long speech, it's just that you don't learn how to write 2042 new kanji everyday.

Last edited by Transtic (2008 July 07, 1:02 am)

Just finished at 1 in the morning! Spent about 5 months doing the #0-#1000, and 1 month doing #1000-#2042! Lots of reviewing still to do and I expect lots of failings, but feel so good to be able to close that book. Did anyone else find the latin message a bit disconcerting ?

congrats thermal and szreter. Keep on reviewing and then tackle the next step in mastering Japanese.

Congraz!!

I'll be there too in about a week or two!

Whoopie!  Done and done.  Started 5/9/08 & finished 7/15/08. 

I am very much looking forward to concentrating on reviews for awhile.  No new kanji means I can also focus on busting out my Assimil Japanese with Ease lessons & start making more serious headway on my SRS sentences.

Finally, a special thanks to the usual suspects...Heisig & Fabrice!  Without this website, finishing these kanji would have been near logistically impossible for me.

Last edited by BigAmish (2008 July 15, 2:13 pm)

Finally just finished in a little under 3 months.  Now just to catch up on the 100 cards in the miss pile.

I tried to do around 30 a day with breaks on the weekend.  However towards the end, even though the kanji was becoming more variable studying became easier.  I assuming I just became acclimated with the system and the website.   Now I can go back to studying grammar, listening and vocab as it has been nothing but vocab for the last 3 months.

Thanks to Heisig and thanks especially to Reviewing the Kanji.  I couldn't have done it without this website.