夢

^I learned a kanji I really like today. 夢ーyume
It means "dream".

In other news, still going fairly strong on srsing and RTK, slightly less strong on AJATT. It seems like having regular access to a laptop would help on that front. I currently only have my android phone. While great for srs, its not as convenient for media immersion. But I'll make do with what I have. Making progress is really exciting. I'm excited to hit the 400 and 500 milestones in RTK, I'll update when I do.

For anyone doing RTK

Incredibly useful spreadsheet I found that gives a (usually) common Japanese word for most of the kanji in RTK.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSVGYHKdvOhPxNTHq5aUHNQ&gid=0

Past 300!

I'm officially past 300 in RTK! I actually got there a few days ago but I've been slacking a bit and I didnt have any flashcards so I haven't gone any further since then. (I use traditional paper flashcards in addition to virtual srs flashcards). I have still been reviewing what I have though. It seems to me like I am going through the book at a slower pace than most; I would estimate I do about 10 new cards a day average. I think it's okay though, my retention rate is still very high. I'll keep the progress going, that's for sure. Also, I'm not quite fully doing the Ajatt (http://www.AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com) method in full, but I'm taking and using some of the better ideas from the site, such as listening to Japanese music (Thank you, Mr. Children) and podcasts (I recommend any of the free content on http://www.japanesepod101.com) whenever it's not inappropriate to wear earbuds. All in all, I'm still pleased with my progress so far and I'm excited by both how far I've come and by how much better I can still get. Thanks for all your support so far, 0 blog readers! ;)

Bonus: Some of my favorite kanji (because of look or meaning) - 傘　災　希源　完　憂鬱　霧　雪　愛　悲　春夏秋冬　茶　漠　影

Results of Scouring the Web

Here are some of the most useful sites that I have found whilst browsing the web for any useful (read: methods that don't require massive amounts of work) helpers to learn Japanese.


http://japaneselevelup.com
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/
http://kanji.koohii.com/
http://tatoeba.org
http://wwwjdic.org/

Still studying daily!

I think I'm really making some good progress in Kanji. All of these were drawn from memory while only looking at the heisig keywords. :) Only a few mistakes. I'll keep the updates coming!

5 Days In

Hey I broke the one post barrier that most blogs seem to stop at. よかった、I guess. :P

I've actually been doing it! I've studied kanji or vocabulary every day so far, some days for hours at a time. I'm actually trying to cut back a little bit, so I won't burn myself out. I've been using the first chapter of Heisig's Remembering the Kanji that is posted online to make flashcards, and after seeing how fast I've picked up some very complicated characters, I don't think that I can't buy it. I also got my droid phone replaced, so I'm now using AnkiDroid again, which is a super useful flashcard app. I just got a kanji book and a verb usage book in the mail today, but I'm probably going to order RTK in the next few days as well. Once I get that one I should be good for a while. O_o

I set a goal for myself on September 30th, 2011 at 5:33PM. One year from then I will know all ~2000 of the Joyo kanji, and I will still be doing my flashcard reps every day. I hope to be well on my way to fluency and native level proficiency.

One interesting technique that I learned online a few days ago is this. Make it easy for yourself to study. If you can, make it easier for yourself to study than to not study. For example, put only Japanese books or textbooks in your bag. Put only Japanese language podcasts on your iPod. Make it so Anki starts up with your computer. Set your homepage to the RTK site. Just a little bit of planning can make it so much easier to get over the first hill of actually starting to do the studying on every new day.

Anyways, I'll post another status update in a few days. I'll include some of the things I'm learning next time. ;)