Quote:
Originally Posted by StonerPenguin
Hey Kyle;
Which books particularly did you buy? I see there's a reference book, a workbook and some other book for volume 1. Also, Over $50 bucks a book? Where did you get them?
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1. Reference book. I've heard from others that the workbook is a great supplement to the reference book, but I haven't used it. Maybe I could have learned even faster, but the pace I've kept up for a few months is way more than I ever could have hoped for. I'm basically doing 100 kanji per week with 80% retention. The caveat is that a handful of them I already knew, since I learned kanji as I saw them in Japan, rather than strictly from a book. So maybe I'm really learning 80 or so per week and strengthening my vocabulary with respect to the other 20?
2. The books are expensive because they're out of print. I bought mine at the university coop at my university in Japan back in 2004.
I know the author of the book because he was the head of the program I studied at in Japan at the time. I've made flashcards in Anki for about 1400 of the kanji and their related vocabulary. Once I've got all joyo kanji in there in a couple months, I'm going to email the author and ask him if I can distribute the flashcards to people at JF. Even if he says no, I'll strongly consider doing it anyway—I'm a lawyer with some knowledge of copyright law; I'll do some research and see if I can legally distribute without his permission under fair use.
The flashcards have been 99.99% of my kanji/vocab studies in 2010, so anyone looking to replicate my success could likely rely solely on them as well.
I suggest buying the book, but if you can't buy it but can wait for a few months for my flashcards, that is a passable substitute.
I know I keep going on and on on JF about KiC and my flashcards, but I'm so enthusiastic: I've had better improvement in my Japanese reading this year than ever since I was in Japan! It's not easy, but it's coming along faster than I could have hoped, and I'm very excited!
EXTRA!! EXCLAMATION POINTS !!!! FOR EVERY!BODY!!!!!