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Normally, I was sticking to studying vocab and generally putting kanji on the backburner. Realising that this would be a very big problem in the long run, I recently decided to finally buckle down and learn the kanji. My goal is to learn all 2,200 before the end of this year.
At first it was going pretty good, I got a deck for Anki containing all the Heisig kanjis with their stories and all, and have been drilling daily using that.
But now, I seem to have hit a real rough patch. The reviews are becoming overwhelming as my brain becomes stuffed with more and more kanji, and I find myself forgetting them alarmingly quickly. When I first set out I was able to get nearly 100% accuracy, but now every time I review I get dozens of them wrong, some of those were even ones I reviewed the day before. It’s all very discouraging and I wonder if my goal is even possible now.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is this just a normal part of the process? Am I doing something wrong? To those who have gotten pretty far in kanji or completed it, how did you manage it?
How many are you learning per day?
Some people can do like 40 or 50 per day and they’re what scientists call “tanks”. I’m not one of those people. 15 to 20 is about my comfort range.
Also, do you write anything down or do you just read and review? I found writing stuff down helped it stick, but that is pretty dependant on how you learn.
Last thing, when you use Anki, how much time do you give yourself to guess the answer before clicking the red button? I try to limit it to about 5 or 6 seconds. If I don’t get it, red button that bitch because obviously I haven’t learned it. It makes the reviews pretty long, I’ll admit. But you’re also packing 2200 new things into your mindbrain so it’s gonna take some time. Stock up on patience because learning a language will absolutely pillage it.
The most important thing is not to get discouraged. If you’re getting overwhelmed, take a day off from learning new ones and just use the time for review. It’ll let you catch up, but it’s important to keep on the review so you don’t go forgetting stuff. But also! Don’t just give up! My god I can’t stress how important that is. I had stopped for a couple months and the 500+ kanji I knew are almost totally forgotten. It burns.
Best of luck. I hope you get it sorted soon!
(shameless plug my yt channel has a video on kanji studyage that shows you how I do it)
I haz a blog http://maninjapanchannel.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQzB-1u-dgYour study methods are actually quite similar to mine.
I give myself 20 new ones per day, which I think is a good pace so I can burn through them but still have some chance at retention. I’m not a tank by any stretch.
I usually try to give myself at most 10 seconds to answer. If I got close but missed a stroke I’ll normally red-button it. I do try to write them down as I go. I bought myself a little whiteboard and when reviewing I try to write it before flipping the card over.
I used to just plough through reviews with the new ones mixed in, but I’m trying a new approach where I’ll do just the reviews first during the day, and do the new ones just before bed. Too soon to tell how well that’s worked, however.
And yeah, I know what you mean about the burn of forgetting. Years ago when I first bought the Heisig books I managed to get about 250 or so (this is without Anki, mind) then abandoned kanjis altogether. When I restarted recently, I had to go and relearn almost all of those, it was painful.
I just hope I can keep that dreaded discouragement away. Lately I’ve been red-buttoning so many kanjis (even ones I used to have nailed, which is particularly alarming) that it’s taken the enjoyment out of it. I almost dread having to do reviews, which upsets me.
Yeah it can be brutal…
It may be worth spending a few days just doing an ass-kicking review. Although I wouldn’t know exactly how to go about that in the most effective manner. I’ve been meaning to do a massive review myself, so if I get to that soonish I’ll let you know how it goes lol. No promises though. I might not do it.
I used to do a review-at-the-beginning-of-the-day thing and it worked pretty well for me. Except doing reviews at 4am just isn’t sustainable, so it didn’t last. Apparently I’m expected to actually GO to work. Psh.
Anyway, best of luck. Don’t let it get the best of you, and just plug away at reviews if you’re getting stuck on new material. You’ll get there.
I haz a blog http://maninjapanchannel.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQzB-1u-dgWell, still chipping away at the kanjis so far, some are easier than others. I find it helps if it’s kanjis from words I already know.
One thing I’ve not done a lot of since restarting kanjis is test my reading ability thus far. I tried reading some Japanese YouTube comments just now and found that I’ve been able to “read” unknown/new words if they contain one of the kanjis I’ve now studied. So it’s become slightly easier to read and pick up new vocab, which was one of the main things I hoped to get out of this. Seeing actual results and benefits like that so soon gave me a nice little boost to my motivation and really made it feel like I’ve accomplished something.
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This reply was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by
Gigatron.
Hey! That’s awesome! :) Progress feels great.
Keep on chippin’
I haz a blog http://maninjapanchannel.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQzB-1u-dg -
This reply was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by
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