Finally finished.  My second time - first time I stopped around 800 or so, and only the first half were really solid.

This time I decided I was definitely going to finish the full RTK 1.  I used Anki and often didn't add a single character for days, but I always kept up on my reviews.  Took me about 7 months total.  I'll probably average around 60-70 reviews per day for a bit - very workable.

My mature cards are about 78%.  I'd like to get it a bit higher, but I'm sure it will go up over time.  It's already been enormously helpful with my Japanese, so I'll continue to review it.  I doubt I'll do RTK 2, but I will slowly continue on into RTK 3, although will be putting more time into KIC or KO or something like that.

Thanks for the board.  This was a constant source of motivation and forced me to be the tortoise and not the hare (my normal state).  Feels really great to have finished.  Just want to say for people still in the middle - it makes no difference if you do 5 per day or 50 per day.  As long as you finish, it doesn't matter.

Kuma01 wrote:

Well, this is my first post on this forum, I guess I've been purposely staying away from here to prevent procrastination, which I'm very prone to. Finishing RtK was a monk like exercise for me, since I'm a hare that tries to have the determination of a turtle, which usually fails, but this time I was able to tap into reserves of determination I thought I didn't have before. The whole ordeal took me exactly 39 days, which still felt like it was too slow. A belated congratulations to everyone who went before me, and to myself of course. Hopefully this will be the first milestone of many.

congratulations on finishing RTK .  39 days is blazing fast.  I wish you good luck on your reviews because they are going to as tough as learning the kanji them because you did it so fast.  Don't worry about failing a lot of cards as you review because that's what SRS is all about.

Make sure to do the reviews consistently so you don't end up in my situation of having 1100+ cards in your review boxes .

If you haven't done this already, try and find why you study Japanese
(I've been learning 日本語 for 3 years and my reasons fluctuate and change constantly).  It will help you stay grounded as you get into the wild that is post-RTK. 

Good luck.

P.s. don't forget to use these forums for help and guidance.

終わりV。

ありがとう。


In seriousness I want to thank everyone like many before me have. This site is great and really helps you out when you need it. If I ever had trouble with a story this site had great stories to help inspire me. Thanks to any and everyone who has put in time to gather up list comparing Kanji and corrections to Heisig you guys rock. Thanks to everyone who finished before me because I made it here because I wanted to have your babies... I mean accomplish the same as you.


Message to those still going through RTK1 ( because I know you read this like I did ): Keep going at whatever is good for you. All the pressure you feel from adding cards is mostly only there because of the pressure you put on yourself. As soon as you add card 2042 a huge relief hits you and you look back and say that wasn't too bad what was I complaining about. You have a great resource in front of you and we are all here to help. We want you to be at our level even if some ( read: NoSleepTilFluent ) secretly wants to be better at Japanese than everyone else around me.

Took me 60 days (starting January 23rd ) I though it was going to take me until May bt you don't really know how these things turn out. The date doesn't matter what matters is not getting worst everyday. So do you reviews and then if you feel  like it add some cards if not don't sweat it. Just do what you want.


Edit: The more Japanese I learn the less English grammar sticks in my head.

Last edited by NoSleepTilFluent (2011 March 23, 6:44 pm)

NoSleepTilFluent wrote:

Edit: The more Japanese I learn the less English grammar sticks in my head.

Haha.

I even feel uncomfortable speaking in English! lol
Although my English is evidently better xD

Out of all 5 languages I know, I only feel comfortable speaking in my native and Japanese lang.

Andres, congrats on your finish!!!

I cant believe I'm writing this!  IM DONE! (with adding new cards)  
OMG!! One felled attempt last summer (made it about a month a few hundred cards)  Restarted mid January...I cant belive I did IT!  Now just going to review for a while then start to add RTK 3 in at about 10 day.  Nice and slow. 
WWWOOOOO HOOOOOOO

jettyke wrote:

NoSleepTilFluent wrote:

Edit: The more Japanese I learn the less English grammar sticks in my head.

Haha.

I even feel uncomfortable speaking in English! lol
Although my English is evidently better xD

Out of all 5 languages I know, I only feel comfortable speaking in my native and Japanese lang.

This happens a lot in the beginning. But as you keep learning it won't brother you too much. Although one thing I noticed when I read english is. My japanese reading sometimes take over and I read a word as it would be read in jp. Its annoying lol

haplology wrote:

This time I decided I was definitely going to finish the full RTK 1.  I used Anki and often didn't add a single character for days, but I always kept up on my reviews.  Took me about 7 months total.  I'll probably average around 60-70 reviews per day for a bit - very workable.

Thanks for the board.  This was a constant source of motivation and forced me to be the tortoise and not the hare (my normal state).  Feels really great to have finished.  Just want to say for people still in the middle - it makes no difference if you do 5 per day or 50 per day.  As long as you finish, it doesn't matter.

Hello everybody,

This is my first post here and it is to say that I, too, have managed to finish RTK! The quote above is pretty much my story as well but for the difference that it has taken me rather 9 or 10 months to finish it. Congrats haplology and everyone else! I also want to thank the board and everyone for their stories, without them I couldn't have done it.

As haplology has already said, to everyone in the middle of things, keep up with your reviews even if you don't manage to add new cards. Sticking with the review regimen has, for me too, proven to be the key to success.

Lastly, could anyone point me to a thread on the forum where methods for learning vocabulary words are discussed. I'm not sure whether or not to use mnemonic techniques to remember what kanjis a Japanese word is spelled with.

Thanks again everyone! I love you guys!

Chris

I am DONE!! Finished in 89 days. First attempt.

Tons of reviews due tomorrow. I might take a couple days to let reviews die down a bit or I might dive right into the supplement. We'll see.

But I AM DONE!!! Feels awesome.

Mlorenz, we have winter up in Flagstaff and the northern parts of Arizona. But in Phoenix, there are just two seasons - hot and hotter.   Good luck with RTK! Hope you join in the celebration in about 2 weeks!

Joe4TheRecord wrote:

This is my first post. I just finished Book I today! It took me almost five months to go through it all using Anki. I didn't start losing my motivation until the very end where I kind of rushed the last 100... but oh well! Now to get cracking on those reviews!

Thank you everyone at this site who contributes and gives support. I couldn't have gotten some of those kanji under my belt without your awesome mnemonics.

Congratulations to you!