I decided to try Anki after picking up two Nintendo DS consoles, a copy of the Nintendo sonomama jiten and a Japanese copy of Zelda Phantom Hourglass. I was mucking my way through the game but I caught myself looking up the same words over and over (must have looked up 最近 about a dozen times). So as I played I started writing down words, their reading, and their meaning on a pad. It was so much work reading anything anyway that this didn’t noticeably add to slowing down the game. Then later when I didn’t have time or didn’t feel like playing I would add the words to Anki, if I didn’t have any new words I would go through the cards I had already added. Also when choosing words to add I tried to only add those that seem useful in the current context (for Zelda things like sword, cave, adventure, etc. along with common words) and when reviewing I tried to write out the hidden parts of the card on paper before revealing (helps to really learn the kanji and improves hand writing too).

I’ve already made it to the end of the game unfortunately, but I’ve already started my next project. I picked up a Japanese copy of the first Harry Potter book. The learning curve is a bit steeper on this one, but the same method seems to work. Read and decipher as much as possible and pull out the most interesting/frustrating words, then add/review when you don’t want to read.

And if you read my comments, you’ll see that I have been more understanding of what Remembering the Kanji is about. I also clarified that I don’t dislike the book itself but rather the ambiguous promises it makes in the Introduction.

I’m sorry you feel my recent posts have been discouraging. Maybe the next post I’m working on would have made you feel better. In any case, I’ve run out of study methods to “shoot down” and have already started posting other topics to blog about but if you feel like there are some things I should be focusing on, I’m all ears.

Finally to clarify, I am not the administrator of this blog. I do not control the ads nor do I receive any money from them. The reason I don’t start my own blog is because I don’t really care about the money and don’t want to spend the time to setup, customize, update, and run my own setup.

Yes to all four of the benchmark questions, and to the question to me, I asked because 1) when I returned to your site yesterday it seemed you were focused on poking holes in others’ learning methods rather than articulating one, esp. in the redux flame/linkbait Heisig post, and 2) looking back through the site, the flip iconoclasm turned me off. I think it’s healthy to question received learning wisdom, but it lately seems like shooting stuff down is mainly what you’re about here, other than more-detailed-than-a-dictionary dictionary-style grammar posts.

This is important– whether you like it or not, you’re setting yourself up as a teacher here, and an authority. But I get the sense you don’t remember what it’s like NOT to be proficient. I first felt so in the Heisig discussion– you just seemed thick about accepting others’ testimony at face value. The other recent posts have made reading the site more of a downer– nothing’s good enough, “I think they all suck… you’re wasting your time,” as you wrote above. As a reader, the benefits of visiting the site (which I’ve used for a good two years) have been outweighed by how discouraging it has become to me, for both its tone and content. That’s all. I was out for a while after the last Heisig thing, and now I’m out for good.

Thanks for the grammar guide, though, and best of luck to you.

http://nihongo.3yen.com/2007-12-18/read-this-before-you-build-yet-another-index-card-programwebsite/

I am even working quietly on such a system. Creating a “positive contribution” takes a lot of time and not something I can just whip up especially with a full-time job. The guide itself has taken many years of work, which I gave away for free. While I enjoy working on these things to help people learn Japanese, it seems strange that you feel I’m obligated to contribute something else when I don’t get a single dime from these efforts.

So here’s my question for you. If SRS and Heisig are working for you, why do you ask me how to get where I am? Is it working or no? And if you want to know what my methods are, you might try reading through this blog since it’s a topic I already covered.

http://nihongo.3yen.com/2006-10-27/tae-kims-language-studying-tips/

Here’s a simple benchmark you can try to see if you’re using my “method” and I put it in quotes because I consider it more “common sense”.

1. Do you meet with Japanese speakers and actually practice speaking and listening with real people?

2. Do you read or at least try to read written Japanese in some form?

3. Do you often use a dictionary to lookup unfamiliar words (preferably electronic or online)?

And most importantly: 4. Is what you’re studying enjoyable and interesting?

A question: what’s your one positive contribution for learning Japanese– what’s your method? Of late, you have taken more of a gadfly’s role, poking holes in study methods popular on the Internet you haven’t needed (or just refuse to understand because you haven’t needed them? really, take our word for it), but I haven’t seen it backed up with a positive contribution.

So the question: if I can’t use Heisig or SRS cards to get where I want to be– which is where you are– how do I get there? Read your grammar guide & I’m good to go? Did it just “click” magically for you early on, and should I reasonably expect the same for me?

I ask, respectfully, because I have valued your writing on language, but as a reader/learner I find your gadfly role not too useful, however enjoyable it may be for you.