It’s really bad, but it’s been a while since I’ve done a monthly update on my progress. In fact, unless I missed an entry, the last one I did was almost a year ago, back in May 2008! All through 2008 I was experiencing burn out, mainly because I really wanted to study Japanese my own way but had to do it the University way. Now that I’m out of university, it means that I can do it my own way but no longer have the push that I absolutely have to get something done. So in a way, I can’t have it all, dammit! So while my start to this year hasn’t been filled with as much Japanese study as I could have done, I’m making more of an effort now. Here’s some of the things I’ve been up to in Feb: Anki, Remembering the Kanji and 2001 Kanji Odyssey Currently I have 755 cards in my Anki deck, with 45% of the “mature” cards. In Japanese at the moment my main aim is to be able to read. Even in English my reading and writing ability are stronger than my speaking ability. I am much more articulate in writing! I love to read, and what I really want to be able to do is read my manga collection with relative ease.

In manga, because of the relatively short dialogue, I am sure I know most of the grammar, but my biggest weaknesses are kanji and vocabulary. Eventually I want to move on to big thick novels. I’ve decided I’m going to attack this with Remembering the Kanji and 2001 Kanji Odyssey, using Anki. What I am doing is going full speed at RtK, until I get bored of it, then I will study KO. I do reviews of both in the one Anki deck, but take turns in actively studying whatever I feel like it out of the two. I think I’m making good progress. I don’t mind so much now about powering through RtK. Originally I wanted to just go through RtK as quickly as I could and get onto other things. It wasn’t working for me, which is why I’ve changed to this approach. With RtK, I do find it is the best way for me to learn how to write the kanji, plus a basic keyword which does come in handy when reading, as I can sometimes guess what a word is from a keyword. However, while I really want to write the Kanji, perhaps a bigger concern for me at the moment is actually reading/knowing words. I’m really excited about KO as it provides what a lot of Kanji guides have PLUS three sentences for each Kanji. I find that when I’m using a SRS program, I do learn better with sentences vs just words. So this is great. The first book is 555 kanji, and if I’m persistent (and don’t revert back to RtK or move on to something else… which is highly probable) I could finish it by my birthday in April easily.   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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This morning for various reasons I sat in on one of Gakuranman’s free Edufire Japanese for Beginners Lessons. It was a bit of fun, a great reminder of what it was like to first be learning Japanese, and a bit of a way to see other people’s teaching styles, but mostly it was a huge kick in the face…. My Japanese is so rusty!! If I was still in university it would still be another month away before it starts up again and before I would be actively studying. But that is no excuse now, as I’m out of university (actually… going to edufire reminds me of university, which is prob why I like it so much - all the stuff of university without assignments!!). What I need is to ship shape myself into action! I really have been slack. So today I flicked through the text book and I’ve been working through what has built up in anki… If I clear out my deck tonight I want to add in a few more sentences from 2001 Kanji Odyssey - I’ve decided that I can’t do RtK on it’s own, I lose steam. So instead I’ve been alternating, depending on how I feel. Sometimes I’ll add KO to my deck, sometimes I’ll add RtK.

I’ve also decided that things like textbooks, manga that I read, etc etc. I’m not adding those sentences to Anki. Instead, I’ll just read them where they are. I’ve done the “sentence” thing and I got bored of it. OK, Yes, that’s what I’m doing with KO, I feel that would be the best way for me to study that book. But for manga, I don’t want to rip it to pieces. I want to enjoy it. So, if I really want to learn something from it, I will seek out the word/whatever in a different form. So, fingers crossed that I can push myself to and over the intermediate level of Japanese.

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Well, I’m currently slogging through Remembering the Kanji. Tonight I am hoping to add about 30-40 kanji into anki, right now I am up to kanji number 709. I’m in the middle of a 130 kanji chapter which is hard going because there are so many (sometimes it is easy to confuse them when you are just solidifying them in your mind), but easy because there are so many (and thus there is lots of repetition of common elements). I’m looking forward to hopefully reaching 1000 kanji soon, about the half way mark!!! Why this, why now? I want to keep up my language learning now that I’ve graduated from university. I want to move to the next level with my japanese but I feel like one thing is holding me back at the moment: My kanji ability. So, once again, I’m plowing through Remembering the Kanji. My Process

Flash Cards - The Initial Creation Process A long time ago I printed out a whole heep of flash cards for Remembering the Kanji from a fantastic website called Polar Cloud. So in a folder I have a lot of uncut kanji just waiting for me. At the moment I am in the middle of cutting out a few sheets into flash cards (cards 709 - 755 tonight). I actually enjoy this process. While it would be horrible to cut them out all at once (the cards then would be harder to store, etc….) it is sort of fun to do a bit of cutting. You can explore these unknown kanji while you do so, perhaps already thinking up stories, but more likely going “what the hell is that?!?!” After they are cut out, with my book in hand, I head over to Reviewing the Kanji website. Here I will look at the stories others have made up and look at the book to read Heisig’s notes. Once I have a story I’ll do two things:-

write the story (often a shorter version!) in pencil on the back of my flash cards. In pencil because sometimes the story needs tweeking or a complete overhall. put the kanji info and story into anki

Usually, like now, this happens at night time. So, after this, it’ll be bed for me! The Learning Process Now, what I will do is take my flash cards and have them in my pocket. Walking to the bus stop, sitting on the toilet, at lunch… there are many opportunities to go through them! Often it wont be just the new ones but ones from a couple of days ago too that I am still working to really build a foundation in my head. I do both sides of the cards, from the kanji to keyword (not really worried about getting this one right, but just more of a good look at the kanji, see what elements are in them, and how it is put together, then turning over to remind of keyword and story), and of course keyword to kanji, reading through both the keyword and the story before turning it over. The Review Process Then, at night, it’s back to anki. At the moment I’m getting about 200 cards to review a day. Not sure if it is going to get worse or easier, or stay around this number!!! I admit, I often get many wrong, but I find that it is the review process that helps get it in my mind. And if I am constantly getting kanji wrong, then I know I need to focus more on these particular ones. My approach is more of a head first barge into it. I have faith that I will eventually come to perfect the kanji through other complimenting studies, right now I just want to get through this stepping stone as quickly as I can so I can move on. Although, even when I am through the book, I expect that I will continue to review in anki for quite a while!

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