SC2013 - Jaxter0987's Blog [Kanji Stage]

[jaxter0987]

I first want to start off by saying that the whole idea of blogging has never been something I thought I'd ever be doing. I could never be one of those people that always wanted to share every single thing that happened to them in their daily lifes (ie Facebook status every freaking HOUR or even less).

With that being said, this school year has been a year of a lot of changes to my life. I've started fencing for the first time ever. I've went and experienced a lot of the cliches about college life (drinking, smoking, partying, etc) and I've been trying a lot of new things. In fact, I got into playing Visual Novels this year as well, and I'm glad I found Fuwanovel.

Given this year of changes, I want to take on this challenge. I'll make sure I post about my experiences on landmark barriers that people often go through. Being able to post daily would be the best option for me, though I'm not sure that would be allowed since that would be akin to spamming the forums in my mind. Unless I'm told that this is possible, I will arbitrarily decide to post about the process I'm going through.

My only goal this year is to learn the Kanji and hopefully Kana for Japanese. I'll be taking a slow approach of 15 Kanji daily. I plan on waking up at 8:30am every morning and study Japanese for about an hour each morning. This schedule I've set forth will be the most difficult part to keep, because quite frankly, I'm a lazy bum in the morning. I'm a night owl through and through, though if I set my learning time to be towards the end of the day, I'll be easily prone to external distractions. So the morning is really my best option.

My first real day of learning will start tomorrow morning. I'll be making another post later today detailing my thoughts on the introductory material for Remembering the Kanji Volume 1.

I can't believe I'm actually doing this!

Edit: I just want to point out that I'm using the 6th Edition of Remembering the Kanji. Don't know why I want to point this out but for some reason, I felt the need to and have acted accordingly.

[Tay]

Congrats on starting this epic quest! I've got a lot of suggestions for you, but if you're going to post every day, I'll try and spread them out : ). Here's a few to start with:

• Routine is really is important. There are some stellar examples on the forums of what a constant routine and perseverance can do. I'm still doing really well, but all my "rough patches" occurred when I got lax about my routines.
• When life gets super busy, DO NOT STOP. Scale back to 10 new kanji a day. Or 5. But do not stop! If you stop, you die.
• The floor is lava
• Reviews build up really fast in Anki if you take days off. Get them done early in the day, so you can forget about them. As Rin from Fate/Stay Night would say: You don't need any extra flab on the brain.
• Timeboxing is important! More on this later.

Last thing: the purpose of this blog is for community recruitment, or making yourself accountable to the community for your successes and failures. We'll cheer you on, but only you can prevent forest fires do the actual studying!

Looking forward to your posts!

PS: These last thoughts are coming from me as a future doctor ; ). I've been taking 4 years of physiology/biochemistry/anatomy/histology type stuff in preparation for Medical School, and so the following suggestions come with love (but are just that: suggestions) and not preachy-ness --- Smoking is bad. Quit. ASAP. Drinking too much in college can cripple your liver and several parts of your brain! If you're under 25, you should try and drink as little alcohol as possible. Exercise. Study hard. Get your brain exercising by studying the Kanji!

PPS: Really excited to have you with us!

PPPS: I don't see a problem with posting every day, so long as it doesn't become a burden on you, and make it less likely for you to do the daily studies. (meaning: follow your heart)

[jaxter0987]

I guess I'll begin with my response to your post:

I'm glad you're reminding me yet again the importance of routine. It really can't be stressed enough. It's nice to know that getting lax about the routine led to some rough patches. This will hopefully be sufficient as a warning to myself for those days where I start slacking.

That tidbit about life getting super busy is simply the best suggestion. I'm absolutely positive that for the next 9 weeks or so, my life will only get busier as I start getting into the meat of the coursework. Being told that scaling back the number of kanji per day is acceptable as long as I don't stop is music to my ears. That statement alone has relieved a lot of anxiety I felt when I considered what might be happening in the near future.

Regarding the reviews on Anki:

I don't quite understand the usage of Anki. When I first downloaded the application a week ago, I also went and downloaded the deck you recommended. I decided to open up the reviewing process to see a glimpse of what I was going to be doing and my first thought was "What exactly am I supposed to be doing / is supposed to be happening?". Maybe it will become clear after studying the book a little bit, but my understanding of Anki is very very miniscule. I understand that its essentially a flashcard application and that's about it.

Edit: There's a freaking User Manual and even some Intro Videos*Facepalm* Don't know why I had to spend time writing that tiny paragraph about Anki when I can just read the manual.

"The floor is lava" Pardon me for asking but what exactly is this supposed to mean? Or is it something you'll expand upon later?

Regarding the health suggestions:

I would first like to clarify that I still refuse to smoke cigarettes. That being said, I've experimented with Marijuana to some degree and I am by no means addicted to it. My consumption of alcohol has largely been cut back thanks to one particular bad experience with it. I still drink from time to time but never to the degree that caused that first bad experience.

To summarize, I understand the health risks and will not be fool hardy enough to ignore them.

Now my response to the introductory material:

After spending ~40 minutes reading through those first 12 pages, I essentially went "Huh?!?!". The whole idea of learning using imaginative memory rather than visual memory simply shocked me. At first I didn't quite understand what Heisig was trying to say when those words came up but I gradually began to understand what the book was going to try to teach me. I felt a great sense of discouragement while I was reading about imaginative memory. I'm not very proud to say that my imaginative powers are terrible. I'd say that there is not a creative/ imaginative bone within me. Hopefully I'll be able to change that as progress through this process.

And now a short bit about posting daily:

The reason why I wanted to be able to post daily is because I've already started forming the habit of checking Fuwanovel daily for new replies and content. But alas, due to the rather small active community we have, I rarely get notifications for responses to all the various topics I've posted in, save for short sporadic bursts of activity. Since I'm already checking in everyday, I should be able to at least post something everyday.

"I don't see a problem with posting every day, so long as it doesn't become a burden on you, and make it less likely for you to do the daily studies."

My reasoning for expressing my intent on posting everyday is that it will force me to study. If I claim that I'm able to do such a simple task and yet fail to follow through, I'd look very much like an idiot wouldn't I? I'm hoping that my tendency to avoid doing things that would/ might cause embarrassment will be a source of motivation for studying.

Though I'll almost guarantee that I will eventually stop posting everyday, for the reason I stated in my first post. Talking about myself so frequently in front of people I don't know is just so unnatural to me, almost to the point of being uncomfortable for me. Again, here's to hoping that doing this will change that fact.

[Down]

That tidbit about life getting super busy is simply the best suggestion. I'm absolutely positive that for the next 9 weeks or so, my life will only get busier as I start getting into the meat of the coursework. Being told that scaling back the number of kanji per day is acceptable as long as I don't stop is music to my ears. That statement alone has relieved a lot of anxiety I felt when I considered what might be happening in the near future.

Well, if that can help you further enough, Tay's statement is incredibly right. Like, if you stop ONE day, you're done for. That already happened twice to me when I started to learn the kanjis. You can maybe survive one day where you really couldn't do a single kanji by making efforts the following days and cutting back on numbers, but skipping more than one is almost certainly leading you to stop.

"The floor is lava" Pardon me for asking but what exactly is this supposed to mean? Or is it something you'll expand upon later?

Pretty sure it's a joke. I'm not exactly sure about what he's referencing to though =p

After spending ~40 minutes reading through those first 12 pages, I essentially went "Huh?!?!". The whole idea of learning using imaginative memory rather than visual memory simply shocked me. At first I didn't quite understand what Heisig was trying to say when those words came up but I gradually began to understand what the book was going to try to teach me. I felt a great sense of discouragement while I was reading about imaginative memory. I'm not very proud to say that my imaginative powers are terrible. I'd say that there is not a creative/ imaginative bone within me. Hopefully I'll be able to change that as progress through this process.

If what I recall serves me well, imaginative memory is not about being creative. It's about using your ability to link ideas.

Basically, you don't have to be creative - you don't even HAVE to come up with a real story like the ones he describes. What you have to do is to find something in the kanji that helps you remember it. Like, the most classic one:

休: hey, this kanji represents a person (人) lying on the side of a tree (木) ! He's slacking off -> it means 'to rest'.

Of course it's not always that easy to do, but it's all about making things fit. Sometimes the components put together won't fit the global sense.

For example, when I see 紙, which means paper.

I see 糸 and 氏, which is more or less 'thread + clan/family'. When I see that, I think "what the hell, this is completely unrelated". Then I link 'completely unrelated' with 'paper' and I find back the meaning: paper!

That sounds a really stupid/stretched way of thinking, but that's why you have to come up with that kind of things on your own.

Basically, all you have to do is making links between ideas.

Instead having 'you seeing the kanji' trigger the direct idea linking with its meaning, the idea is to trigger something. One link. Then that thing will link with other ideas and lead you to the meaning. That sounds complex but for people whose memory strength is idea linking it's extremely effective.

[jaxter0987]

Day 1

I didn't get enough sleep the night before so I started studying with a half awake mind. I can only shudder at what a terrible start this might become. Anyways, after going through each of the accompanying text for each kanji, I tried imagining some of the pictographic images the book gives for some of the kanji, like how the kanji for day looks like a smiling sun if you curve the strokes. I hope this is what the intended method is for studying. I have a notebook for me to write down the kanji right after I learn it along with its accompanying key word.

After a very short break, I booted up Anki and found another notebook dedicated to be used with Anki. After the front side of a card is shown, I spend some time writing the kanji out in the second notebook before showing the answer to the card. Seems like everything is going smoothly so far. I actually feel kind of accomplished after doing this.

[Tay]

Congrats on your first day! Feeling encouraged by your first study is really important for morale reasons, and in my experience, as you keep it up and maintain your studies, these study sessions help boost your own learning confidence. Looking forward to more posts!

Regarding your response to my initial post:

The Floor is Lava - This is an internet meme, and I'll be posting a little about it on my blog in the next few days. In short, it goes back to what Down said: there's a lot of danger when you drop your routines, even a little. Quite frankly: there are good study days when morale is high, and there are bad study days when every review feels taxing. The only way I get through it is keeping my routine, and reminding myself that in a few months, it'll all be over and I'll be SO much closer to learning Japanese. But, no matter WHAT, I don't let myself stop. If I stop, it takes SO much effort to start again.

Health Risks - I'm glad you're being smart : ). That post came after me working with several elderly patients who didn't take care of themselves during those critical years, and whose lives were ruined in the long run. It was on my mind and slipped out.

Now, most important: Imaginative Memorizing - So, as you read in Heisig's introduction, one of the WORST ways to memorize the kanji is to memorize them "dry" (AKA: look at kanji, write it 100 times, memorize the whole thing). The RTK method of memorizing is to instead memorize certain kanji, and then use them in a story/phrase to remember how to construct larger kanji. You don't need to be creative to come up with little associations -- and, in fact, "stories" that are too long are actually HARDER to remember! By the time I hit 1000 kanji the first time, I'd mostly abandoned stories for mental pictures and quick associations. Don't be dogmatic in creating stories -- do your best, following his suggestion, and Anki will tell you (via how well you remember them over several days) whether or not your "stories" are working.

That, ultimately, is my useful tidbit here: ANKI is very powerful when you use it right. Not only is it a flashcard program, but the SRS technology helps you see which kanji you struggle with. For the kanji that I don't memorize straight-off, I often have to come up with several different stories until one sticks and I stop missing it.

Glad to have you! Looking forward to more posts!

[jaxter0987]

Again, I started studying with a half awake mind. I always have trouble getting off the computer when night time comes around. It's like "I should go to bed... but first let me check this/ let me do this" and then I keep remembering other things I want to do on the computer. I never end up sleeping when I should...

While I was studying today, I had the most trouble coming up with something easy to help me remember the kanji for Rising Sun and Stomach. The books description did little to help me come up with a story for Rising Sun and while the description for Stomach was better in that regard, I still had trouble coming up with something. Oh well, we'll see how well I can remember them later on.

I found myself confusing the kanji for 7 and the kanji for 9 and writing the kanji for Prosperous the wrong way. I can kind of forgive myself for Properous, since I was using the right primitives just not written in the correct locations. Confusing 7 for 9 on the other hand, annoyed me a bit. I even spent a little more time on seven yesterday so something like this wouldn't happen. Oh well... this will probably be the first of many self complaints while I'm studying.

I realized last night that I should probably spend some time looking at other peoples blogs. I guess I can add that to my daily routine.

[Mephisto]

Good luck! Cheering for you and don't be afraid to ask for help.

頑張ってください！

[CartmanJr]

While I was studying today, I had the most trouble coming up with something easy to help me remember the kanji for Rising Sun and Stomach.

It is always nice to see someone else join in and it has been enjoyable reading your blog, I just have to say that this website here has been invaluable to me. The stories on it are really helpful and it has been the most helpful website I have been using. Just hit the study button at the top and then you can search for the Kanji you are on, read through a couple of stories and either make your own personal one or find one that sticks.

I will leave a couple of things I have learnt from this experience:

- Doing reviews at night is usually a bad idea, even if you are a night person like me.

- Doing this helped my sleep routine, I go to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time now. (Usually went to bed at 4 - 6am, or I would stay up till the next day)

- Find something to raise your motivation as high as you can, does a world of good to your mindset when you study.

Hopefully you get something good out of this and good luck.

[Tay]

Here's the kanji for rising sun: 旭 We've already learned the two sub-elements: nine and sun.

Therefore, stories can be something like, "I see the rising sun every morning at nine when it rises." "Nine friends and I watched the rising sun come up today." or utilize the nine-baseball connection to imagine the sun rising above the baseball (nine!) field.

Is this how you're doing it?

On the whole, I suggest you look at the kanji koohi website. They have stories you can use if you're having a lot of difficulty.

[jaxter0987]

It is always nice to see someone else join in and it has been enjoyable reading your blog, I just have to say that this website here has been invaluable to me. The stories on it are really helpful and it has been the most helpful website I have been using. Just hit the study button at the top and then you can search for the Kanji you are on, read through a couple of stories and either make your own personal one or find one that sticks.

I will leave a couple of things I have learnt from this experience:

- Doing reviews at night is usually a bad idea, even if you are a night person like me.

- Doing this helped my sleep routine, I go to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time now. (Usually went to bed at 4 - 6am, or I would stay up till the next day)

- Find something to raise your motivation as high as you can, does a world of good to your mindset when you study.

Hopefully you get something good out of this and good luck.

I've been doing the reviews in the morning because if I tried to at night, I'd get distracted by people.

Here's the kanji for rising sun: 旭 We've already learned the two sub-elements: nine and sun.

Therefore, stories can be something like, "I see the rising sun every morning at nine when it rises." "Nine friends and I watched the rising sun come up today." or utilize the nine-baseball connection to imagine the sun rising above the baseball (nine!) field.

Is this how you're doing it?

On the whole, I suggest you look at the kanji koohi website. They have stories you can use if you're having a lot of difficulty.

Yeah that's how I've been doing it for the most part but none of those would stick. Maybe the first one but the sun rising at nine is probably too far fetched for it to stick.

Thanks for the support guys! Its really nice to see others sharing their own experiences and advice.

[jaxter0987]

Day 3

Actually got enough sleep this time before studying so I'll probably remember the kanji I studied today better. I wrote the kanji for Prosperous wrong again, as well as mixed up the kanji for Bright with Shine T.T

I also realized this morning that I've been writing the first stroke for the kanji of 9 all wrong.

I'll probably have more to say later on in the day but right now, I have to go to class.

Edit: I completely forgot to update this when I had the chance.

I felt pretty disappointed that I was writing several kanji's wrong just because of the way I wrote 9 wrong. It really isn't a big deal since I only just started studying, but I'm afraid that after I reach like the hundreds of kanji, I'll realize that I've been writing such and such stroke all wrong and become discouraged.

I guess I need an easier way to remember prosperous other than just remembering two suns. I still have homework left to do so I'm worried that I won't get enough sleep tonight for tomorrow morning...

[jaxter0987]

Today was a pretty crappy study day.

The first issue with today was the fact that I had to spend part of the morning doing homework that I couldn't finish the night before. That in turn made me feel rushed after I finished studying the 15 kanji for the day. Because I had to finish that homework assignment before my first class of the day, I couldn't review on Anki until just about an hour ago.

While reviewing on Anki, I wrote the kanji for tongue, oneself, white, and only wrong. I also forgot how to write the kanji for thousand, gall bladder, and measurement...

And the worst part about today was the fact that Anki some how included 3 additional kanji to the list of new cards to review today. I didn't know the words at all and was frustrated that the flashcards were not in sync with what I had just studied. For now, I've set Anki to only have 12 new cards the next day so hopefully that will make my studying and reviewing in sync again and hopefully tomorrow won't be a mess like it was today...

[Mephisto]

Try not to get too frustrated. It can be difficult at first, but later on you'll get used to it.

[Tay]

The disparity with anki and your study had to do with the fact that there are multiple printings of the sixth and fifth editions of RTK, and your deck must be based on a different printing. You'll have 10-20 of such disparities, but it all sorts itself out pretty fast.

Don't be discouraged! Remember, you're doing it right: keep your priorities, scale back new kanji if you have to, but don't stop. Great job, keep it up!

[jaxter0987]

The disparity with anki and your study had to do with the fact that there are multiple printings of the sixth and fifth editions of RTK, and your deck must be based on a different printing. You'll have 10-20 of such disparities, but it all sorts itself out pretty fast.

Don't be discouraged! Remember, you're doing it right: keep your priorities, scale back new kanji if you have to, but don't stop. Great job, keep it up!

But I'm using the book that was listed on the SC2013 page and the deck that was recommended... That's disappointing if that really is the case.

[CartmanJr]

But I'm using the book that was listed on the SC2013 page and the deck that was recommended... That's disappointing if that really is the case.

I too bought the 6th edition, you will have to change the amount of new Kanji at the start a few times to keep them in sync. You will have to then do it once when you get further in the book but other than that it will be correct.

Sounds like you got the ones you previously had trouble with right though so good luck.

[jaxter0987]

I realized that I didn't write up a post for yesterday but I didn't really have much to say for that either (At least if I did, it wasn't enough of an impact for me to still remember what they were). Looking at my practice book for when I go through Anki reviews, it seems I wrote the kanji for "goods" and "mediocre" wrong but otherwise seemed to do fine in terms of reviews.

Nothing particularly troubling happened today either, though the reviews from the first day started showing up and I was proud to find out that they stuck with me. And I seem to have trouble writing the kanji for sword correctly. I know the stroke order and the strokes used but the always end up misshapen. Knowing how to write the primitive, by one's side, in relation to its use in bigger kanji annoyed be but I'll probably start noticing trends for when to write the horizontal stroke longer or the curved stroke longer.

[jaxter0987]

Week 1

Wow today was a busy day...

Things just kept coming up and then I ended up forgetting about posting today until just now. I had some trouble remembering the kanji for vice, shining, and separate but among the others I studied today, they seemed to stick. Everything seems to be going swimmingly though I have trouble remembering some of the more recent primitives.

One problem is that I'll be helping out my college's anime club for open house. They're setting up a booth for open house and they will begin setting up ~6am and its an all day event. I'll either have to wake up especially early tomorrow or postpone it to early evening for my hour of studying though I'll likely choose the former if possible. It all really depends how I'm feeling when the alarm goes off tomorrow.

[jaxter0987]

The event yesterday ended up being an all day thing. I came back home really late at night and managed to at least study the 15 words for the day before succumbing to my body's need for rest. I was literally awake for ~21 hours that day so I had a lot of trouble getting up for today's study session.

When I finally got up however, I remembered that I still hadn't reviewed the words from yesterday and decided to go through the reviews now and study for today's words later. The review I'd do for today will just be added to tomorrow's review and I'll finally be back on my regular schedule by then.

Also, Anki was 1 word off again but it didn't feel as bad as the first time since I was expecting it and the word appeared towards the end of the review. The Anki reviews really do build up fast if you skip a day of review...

[jaxter0987]

Wow... Things were just not going my way this past weekend (+ Monday). I'm finally winding down from a long day just now. I'm missing several days of reviews but I did manage to get at least some studying in each day. Not looking forward to seeing how many reviews I'll need to do tomorrow when I finally get back on schedule (hopefully).

Not much to say now other then the fact that it really is hard to get back on track once you start slacking a little. I'll have to try to be more vigilant so as to avoid this kind of situation...

[Tay]

Not much to say now other then the fact that it really is hard to get back on track once you start slacking a little.

It's extremely, painfully true! Baby steps have always been the key for me, though, to getting back on track: no matter how behind I may be, I always learn a couple new kanji, and do a couple reviews. If you don't have the drive/energy/time to wipe out the backlog of reviews, do a few, but always keep progressing with new kanji.

I'm tellin' ya... Stopping = Death. The floor is lava.

Anyway, glad to see the update. We're here for you, so keep up the good work!

[jaxter0987]

Got through all of the reviews but haven't studied today's Kanji yet. Still, my schedule is on track to being back the way it was last week so that's good news. Probably going to post another update tonight after studying the new Kanji and subsequently reviewing them on Anki.

Edit: But of course, I forgot to come back to post about today. I got through the Kanji again but I've fallen behind in reviews again.

[jaxter0987]

Week 2

Still behind on doing reviews on Anki but at least I've gotten through ~10% of the Kanji already!

My roommates keep saying that I put more effort into studying Japanese than studying for my actual classes... I guess this is both a good thing and a bad thing =P

I don't have any specific examples off the top of my head but I've been having a fair amount of trouble coming up with stories for the Kanji that use water or fire as a primitive. Also, stories for Kanji that use soil as a primitive trouble me as well. I guess I just need to spend more time thinking up stories.

Again, I'm faced with the problem of being busy during the the usual time I study Japanese, tomorrow. This time it won't be an all day thing so its not as bad as the other weekend though.

[jaxter0987]

Week 3

I figured I'd end up posting less and less over time...

Throughout this entire week, I've been falling further and further behind in doing reviews and learning less and less new kanji each day. Midterms are a pain and a source of stress T.T

And like last time, coming up with stories for the kanji is still an issue.