Crazy = I did 500 the first day, haha.

It kind of sucked cause I had 300 to review today, but I’ve already learned so much, and even with a huge number like that, I’m remembering at least 75%. I’ve slowed it down to 150 per day, and it’s not that bad.

Also, Khatz, I took your advice, and I put Oprah (my Oprah radical is 莫) into my stories. Now, 漠, 模, 膜, and 摸 are so much easier to remember

Are you aware of http://drmoviemethod.blogspot.com/ ?

I’ve known about heisig ever since i started learning Japanese, but only began reading this site this week. I’ve had the Heisig book on my PC for months I had this SRS for months and never used it. WTF!

I never did because i was anxious about getting wrong meanings and confusion when learning new kanji that don’t show up in heisig. But i guess that, when you’re done, and are well into the japanese sentences bit you don’t need to make up stories anymore because then the new kanji wil be so special that you remember them and their readings anyway.

Apple: リンゴ　→　林檎
Lemon: レモン　→　檸檬
Rose: バラ　→　薔薇
Mandarin:　ミカン　→　蜜柑
Kirin(the japanese beer):　キリン　→　麒麟
Anyhow:　とにかく　→　兎に角

I got mine 4 days ago and I’ve already learned the first 7 essons. So, about 130-150 in 4 days.
Plus, it really isn’t hard at all, in fact it’s on the easy side. Plus, it makes you feel smart when you pick up a new book and can recognize a few new characters each time and guess the meanings of words right.

Oh, in case you couldn’t tell…..I highly recommend this book. You can get the paperback copy at amazon.com. Plus the intro and side notes are pretty inspiring.

YOU DARE DEFY ME??!?!?!?!?! :D.
Well, the reason I said to ignore it was that…everyone I know (ok, 4 people:. Mary Sisk Noguchi, some other people at Kanji Clinic, my brother-in-law the pure AJATT boy) seemed to have trouble with book 2 (the on-yomi book)…so I didn’t know if book 3 would help [I’m guessing you’re saying that you can skip book 2 and go straight to book 3]. But yeah, the more kanji, the merrier. I just imagine that, in the so-called “general” case, by the time you’re done mnemonicking 2046 odd kanji, you want to bust out into sentences SO bad, that you don’t want to be hearing about book 3…especially if those kanji will not become necessary for a while. But, sure, those who want to should go for it: I did 4500 kanji and still counting; I learn new ones and odd ones and rare ones as I go along.

No kanji knowledge is ever going to hurt. More is always better. But at the same time, I want to give people as little burden as possible. I try not to play cop/parent and tell people what they should do because it’s good for them. I just want to tell people what they need. The kanji in book 1 are an absolute minimum, and absolutely necessary to know. Anything over and above that is up to each individual’s drive, curiosity and reading choices–you seem to be having no trouble in those fields, and I’m really impressed by you with your kanji thirst there. It sometimes seems rare in Japanese learners these days. Way to go! Learn that book 3! Heisig’s mnemonic system is excellent.

Currently upto 900 Kanji, looking to post my own “congratulate me” post in a month or two after getting all of book 1 done.

As for using Heisig even if you know alot of Kanji, go for it. I’ve impressed two guys who were verbally fluent with my knowledge of kanji. They knew only 1000 kanji at their own guess, but took to what Heisig had done. Yes, go for it. If nothing else, you’ll get stroke order down pat.

What should I do about SRS reps and watching stuff in Japanese in the meantime?

I’ve been learning Japanese for about 8 months now, and discovered your site about a month ago. I’ve been using an SRS to great effect, and I’m at about 1000 sentences. The only hang-up is, I never used RTK. When I first heard about it I kinda dismissed it right away, but after reading about your method I saw that it could be really useful. The only problem is I’ve already learned about 650 kanji and their readings through rote memorization. I realize that my lack of kanji knowledge is what’s really holding me back, but I’m not sure if I could still effectively use the Heisig method with all these readings floating around in the back of my mind. Any suggestions?

>I am guessing that you just picked up the appropriate on/kun yomi readings when learning the 10,000 sentences?
Correct!

>I can’t think of anything more tedious than learning on/kun yomi in isolation
Correct!

>I promise to bung a goodly sized donation your way
Yay!

As far as the ‘Remembering the Kanji’ books are concerned, you mention that only the first volume is required.

On another page on this site, you mention that , ‘Given a single English keyword, learn to write out every general use kanji from memory.’

So, when you were learning the kanji, does this mean that you didn’t bother to learn the on/kun yomi for each character *during stage 2*??

If so, that would make sense - I am guessing that you just picked up the appropriate on/kun yomi readings when learning the 10,000 sentences? (I am hoping so, as I can’t think of anything more tedious than learning on/kun yomi in isolation [without the context given by sentences]).

Thanks - and I promise to bung a goodly sized donation your way when I am through with this process (if it works - and I have no reason to doubt it - it will be well worth it!).