ONE LESSON AT A TIME

Remembering the Kanji is divided into 50 lessons. Your goal should be to finish one lesson at a time, not to finish a set number of kanji per day.

BECOMES HARDER AS YOU PROGRESS

As you make your way through Rtk the difficulty will increase significantly. However, the difficulty is somewhat relative.

• at around #1200 it doesn’t become easier, you will get used to the difficulty.
• at around #1700 is doesn’t become harder, you will be worn out.

CHANGING PRIMITIVES/KEYWORDS

You will come across several strange choices primitives and keywords. However, it is not recommended that you change them because your keyword may be used by another kanji/primitive.

If you using Anki you can add additional keywords, for most people this creates confusion, while others find it helpful to add supplementary keywords.

DO NOT TAKE EXTENDED BREAKS

It is advised that RtK be completed in one swoop.

Short breaks are discouraged, but acceptable. Long breaks will set you back, force you to relearn, and in some cased discourage you from continuing.

STEP 1: SET A TIMETABLE

There are 2042 Kanji in RtK, and Heisig recommends completing it in about 3 months. Many who have completed the book say 3 to 6 months is ideal. After setting a timetable, you can estimate how many kanji you should be covering per week (day).

16 weeks = 130 per week (20 per day)
32 weeks = 65 per week (10 per day)

see Goals & Timetables for more details

STEP 2: CREATE “IMAGINATIVE” STORIES

When you begin, you will notice that the first 300-600 kanji will be easy to remember. You may even be tempted to not to write down stories for them. This is a mistake because the more kanji you add, the harder it will be for you to recall them during reviews.

Further, you should take your time and truly visualize each story as you create it. Add as many details as possible. Describe it to yourself, going over every detail. Stamp it onto your brain.

You do not need to write down each detail on your flash card. I prefer to keep my cards simple.

STEP 3: USE REVIEWING THE KANJI

Reviewing the Kanji is the golden egg that RtK laid. Not because it has a built in SRS flashcard interface, but because it has tens of thousands of user generated stories.

You will soon notice that Heisig does not provide stories for all 2042 kanji. After about 500 the stories become sparser until they stop appearing.

The other great thing about RevtK is its forum. You will find a community that is dedicated to learning Japanese. The forums will also provide you with a world of relevant (and irrelevant) information on virtually every topic. They will help you through your studies of RtK and beyond.

STEP 4: REVIEW USING ANKI

I cover this topic in more detail in Outgrowing Reviewing the Kanji.

STEP 5: WRITE EACH KANJI

I cannot stress this enough. You should write each kanji using the correct stroke order every time you review it. This will help you remember it better, teach you the stroke order, and improve your writing.