It took me about 2 months or so, but it depends how much time in the day you have (I’m unemployed XD).

Yes, all the emphasis is on drawing the characters. Memorising stroke order is no big deal – there are a few set rules like left->right then top->bottom, and Heisig walks you through all new stroke order patterns as you come to them. After a while, the stroke order rules become second nature. While there are obviously a few kanji with irregular stroke orders (which Heisig points out anyway), you should soon be able to guess a radical’s/primitive’s stroke order without actually looking it up :P

While I halted all my other studying to get it out of the way, it’s entirely up to you. It can get a little tedious after a while, but I was seeing the results appear so rapidly that I was pretty determined to keep going :) Also, Koichi was being/still is slow with lesson updates, so I had to do SOMETHING ;)

What I’m doing just now is learning the readings through TextFugu’s kanji section. They aren’t TOTALLY necessary, but can sometimes be handy in remembering vocab. Sometimes you can just pick up readings from seeing enough words that contain them. Basically, don’t worry about the readings – the benefits from learning how to recognise kanji outweigh not learning readings COMPLETELY haha Also, don’t bother with RTK 2 – it’s the one that deals with readings, but has had some pretty bad reviews.

Flashcards work for me. For other people, they may not. Flashcards aren’t as effective if that’s *all* you do. What’s wrong with rote memorising a word and *then* practising with it?

Also, he says “With language learning you don’t want to memorize the facts while ignoring the why and how.” – the “why and how” are covered by studying, using textbooks or in class or whatever. It seems like he doesn’t understand that. Do some people *really* try and learn languages just by vocab memorisation? I don’t think anyone is that stupid.

「さっきからずっと電話のベルがなり続けています。」

I know it’s something about the telephone’s bell continuing to do something, but I’m not sure what haha I assume it’s continuously ringing, but what does なる（なり続ける） have to do with it? Also, it’s annoying that you have to type づ as “du” and not “dzu” XD

「「あのう・・・」と言って、田中[たなか]さんは話しだしました。」

If「話しだしました」means “…suddenly began to speak”, why is「と言って」there as well? Also, should「話しだしました」be written as「話し出しました」? Sorry, the grammar book I’ve started reading only has kanji specific to it’s level (old JLPT 3). Also, there are no English translations for the example sentences. It’s kinda stupid that the example sentences have grammar in them that is only covered later in the book – keep having to flick back and forth haha

• This reply was modified 13 years, 6 months ago by  MisterM2402 [Michael].

Once I finish uni, I going to go work for Koichi once he’s set up MechaFugu Industries. Oh darn it, did I just reveal his plans for world domination? He said he’d feed me poisonous fugu if I told anyone about the underground bunker meetings at Area 51… damn it! Well, since I’m dead anyway, just a heads up on heat-seeking cat missiles, cats with bionic eyes that shoot lasers, fugu-cat hybrid soldiers and a MMORPG titled “Cat Island Forever”.

Even if the classes are as dire as Revenant says, I still *have* to take an extra course along with my major (not that we use the terms “major” and “minor” over here haha), and the “outside” classes kinda boil down to languages or computer literacy and basic programming. I’m taking a Computer Science degree, so languages are the only option, really, and I may as well take a language I like :)

This was pretty much just a thread for missing to show off his uber-l33t skillz – he’s better than 95% of us and he knows it. And he knows we know it.

And I don’t think “Ah~” needed translated.

Just sayin’.

You got me all wrong XD I only meant that they will *probably* be going at a snail’s pace; I have no idea *exactly* what’s in the courses. All I remember is that the description says something like “involves kana writing and around 200 kanji”. I’m just assuming that’ll be really slow going in the beginning with lots of roumaji.

Hold on, I’ll get the page.

https://www.star.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ipp/cxasst07001.htm – 1st semester, basic course

https://www.star.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ipp/cxasst07002.htm – 2nd semester, basic course

https://www.star.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ipp/cxasst08002.htm – Japanese 1 – I think this is the course for people actually doing Japanese majors. Slightly more difficult than Introductory Japanese 1 and 2, I assume.

https://www.star.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ipp/cxasst08006.htm – Japanese 2A, full year, Year 2 – I’m going to email the department and see if this course is available to me or even suitable for my level – usually taken by second year Japanese majors, I think.

https://www.star.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ipp/cxasst08007.htm – Japanese 2B, full year, Year 2 – taken at the same time as 2A, revolves around kanji writing which I covered in 2 months XD I wouldn’t want to take it and couldn’t because I wouldn’t have enough spare “credit points” haha.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 6 months ago by  MisterM2402 [Michael].

You’re no weirdo – kanji IS fun :D I second Kyle’s suggestion of RTK. A few of us have completed it and it’s worked wonders :) Best thing to do is to get stuck into any sorta kanji resource as soon as you feel ready; it helps more than you’d think haha

Just stick at Anki for vocab. The first few times you review words, it might seem hopeless. At some point you’ll think “oh, hold on a second, I actually know this one! :D” – happens every time with me, it just takes a while :P

I don’t know why, but your avatar looks really good :P Quite fitting as a forum avvie somehow haha

@missingno15: “Honey”? Why don’t you pick a more feminine name?