Mitchell's posterous - Filed under 'Japanese Project'

February 24, 2010

Progress update: 2/24

Kanji Kount™: 2050

Okay. I'm done. Finally. Entire Jouyou Kanji. Studied. Not quite 100% known-like-the-back-of-my-hand, but studied. No more new cards (at least for a while).

So I also just figured out how to read the statistics table embedded deep within the Anki deck file, and I've come up with some interesting (maybe?) stats for my journey:

As of yesterday (2/24/2010):

Total time spent studying: 172.5 hours (that's just over a week of straight studying!)

Total number of reps (i.e. number of cards I've reviewed): 29,746

Number of days until completion: 109

Number of days skipped: 5 (Note: I counted one day where I only did 2 reps, since that was ~30 seconds of "working")

Longest study streak: 48 days

Average pace: 18.8 Kanji learned / real day

Absolute average pace (Kanji learned/ total time): 11.9 Kanji / hour (285.2 Kanji / day) of studying

Average retention rate (for 'young' cards = cards whose review interval < 21 days): 68.7%

Average retention rate (for 'mature' cards = cards whose review interval > 21 days): 78.6%

So... now I guess I'll continue to review these guys until I'm down to only a few day (according to Anki, I'll be at ~50 / day in about a week's time), and I guess it's also time to start sentence mining! Better get on that quick!

Actually, I'm probably gonna hold off on that until March or so, since I've got one hell of a weekend to prepare for. By which I mean Classic.

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February 22, 2010

Progress Update: 2/22

Kanji Kount™: 2000

Well, I've got two things to say for myself:

1. I'm really, REALLY disappointed how my schoolwork has gotten in the way of my kanji study. For the last month or so, come Wednesday and Thursday nights, I'm forced to only partially complete (if I have the time for even that) my reps. I wish I could blame it solely on my four weekly problem sets being due Thursday and Friday, but part of the problem is that I (like nearly every other student) procrastinate so I don't get them done until the night before. And, I often underestimate the time that problems will take to actually solve in full. So, I invariably end up falling behind, only to play catch-up on the weekend. For instance, last Saturday night, I spent ... wait for it ... over SEVEN HOURS doing kanji! So... bottom line: progress has been intermittent, with predictable weekly gaps in study.

2. Good news: I'm finally far enough that it won't matter anymore, because I'LL BE DONE WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!

That is all :)

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February 9, 2010

Progress Update: 2/9

Kanji Kount™: 1800

Making progress! 10 more days to go (assuming no days skipped)!

Gosh, it's so hard to believe that I've studied nearly the entire Jouyou kanji in the span of just over 3 months! Considering that native-Japanese learn these throughout their entire school career, I feel like I'm zooming right along. Of course, I've still got readings and sentences to do after this. No need to get excited so early in my journey...

...

Still, 10 more days to go! :P

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February 2, 2010

Progress Update: 2/2

Kanji Kount™: 1700

So a few days ago, I found an option in Anki (my SRS software) to hide the statistics and the time interval on the buttons during the review session. I noticed that I was getting distracted/disheartened every time I forgot a kanji with a really long interval, because then it got reset to zero. Also, it's not very motivating to watch the accuracy progress bar drop from green to yellow and finally to red over the course of EVERY SINGLE review session. So, I decided to get rid of the stats during my reviews to help me focus on the kanji, instead of my progress. And guess what?

Today's review was my highest accuracy in over a MONTH!

Granted, it was only 67.7% 69.3%, but when I've been averaging in the low 60% range for the longest time now, a high-60's score seems great by comparison. I know that correlation is not causation, but still, I'm gonna stick with no-stats-while-I-study for the rest of my studying. Speaking of which... 2 MORE WEEKS at my current pace!

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January 31, 2010

Progress Update: 1/31

Kanji Kount™: 1625

Ughh......

So. I've been a terrible person lately, by which I mean not finishing all my reps for yesterday and the day before yesterday. Which made today's catch-up review feel like HELL to get through. Today was the longest that I ever spent on Kanji: a whopping 3.4 hours! AND I'm pretty sure that I had my worst accuracy to date as well: ~55%. Combine 3.4 hours and failing a card almost half the time... and you get a pretty painful way to spend an afternoon and evening (since I had to take frequent breaks to spread out the FAIL).

ANYWAY, I REALLY, REALLY DON'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN. REALLY.

REALLY.

SERIOUSLY, MITCHELL. DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.

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January 24, 2010

Progress Update: 1/24

via amazon.com

Kanji Kount™: 1525

Kanji is progressing nicely, at my increased pace of 25/day. Some days are harder than others, but at least I'm not skipping or failing to finish my reps anymore. I think I should start spreading my reviews throughout the day, rather than a 2+ hour session before I go to sleep as I've been doing. This way, I won't be so tempted to procrastinate the huge pile of reviews until later, instead steadily tackling them 25 minutes at a time. Also, I'll hopefully be able to avoid my near-daily burnout after hours of study and possibly increase retention rate.

On the Kana front however, I remembered to bring back my workbook from home this time, and have been doing a few pages per day. Hiragana is pretty darn strong, to the point that I've surprised myself with being at least as good with it as reading Hebrew. I can read Hiragana much faster than Hebrew (probably because I don't have to deal with the weird vowel rules/pattern of Hebrew, and instead just read what you see!), however I'm still a little uncertain as to a few characters like わ、ね、れ、め、ぬ、る、and ろ since they look so similar. But I'm sure that more time and practice will take care of those issues shortly. Still... I've been doing Hebrew of some kind since 2nd grade (granted, I was not nearly as disciplined as I am now) and the fact that I'm more comfortable reading (and understanding: my Japanese comprehension is probably greater than my Hebrew, although my Hebrew vocabulary is still larger, I think) Japanese, which I've been studying for... less than 3 months(!) is astonishing.

Katakana is another story entirely though. Since I don't see it nearly as much, I don't really have as many opportunities to practice. Furthermore, my workbook does Hiragana first, and I'm not quite finished with that section yet. I have been doing the Anki deck for Kana (including Hiragana as well) every few days (It's definitely 2nd priority after Kanji. I do Kana if I'm not totally burned out and my OCD-like behavior compels me to have 0 reviews waiting... :P) and I suppose it's been helping me with recognition and writing. I'm having a much harder time with Katakana than Hiragana, I think (maybe because all the boring straight lines don't stand out in my memory?). Once I get to the Katakana section of the workbook, I'm sure it'll improve rapidly as well.

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January 15, 2010

Progress Update: 1/15

Kanji Kount™: 1350

"Wait...what? A non-mod-20 Kanji Kount? How is this possible, Mitchell?", I hear you cry. Well, you see, I realized that I never made up for the very first time that I skipped a day of kanji study, way back on November 12th (gosh, so long ago!). So... I increased my pace to 25/day for the next four days to make up for it. And who knows, if I like the pace, maybe I'll stick with it :).

In other news, FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist, for those not in-the-know) changed their opening/closing sequence this week, and I've been listening to the music constantly as I studied tonight. For your viewing pleasure:

Opening:

Closing:

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January 9, 2010

Progress Update: 1/9

Kanji Kount™: 1220

I am officially sucking.

Since break began, I've basically unintentionally been living on Japan time: going to sleep after 4am and waking up after 2pm Pacific time :o. And I don't know how to fix it. While I am plodding along at the usual pace with kanji study, I continually end up doing my reps in the middle of the night (I just finished at 4:40am) and it's causing my accuracy to plummet (I'm hovering just over 60% on my reviews, compared to ~80% during my first month of study. Basically, it's just gone downhill since finals, in which I messed up my sleeping schedule. I need to get that fixed. Really, really soon.

And writing a blog post at 4:45am probably isn't helping.

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December 28, 2009

Over (9000/9)!

Kanji Kount™: 1000 (!!)

Yes, I've predictably hit the 1,000 kanji mark. Oh, happy day!

And (if you couldn't already see this coming from the title) to celebrate this momentous occasion, I present to you, the reader, this tired, overused, yet-almost-totally-appropriate-in-this-context meme:

Here's to hoping that my next thousand(s) (I think I'll stop at 3k :P ) will be easier!

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December 28, 2009

Progress Update: 12/28

Kanji Kount™: 980

Whew! I'm officially 1/2 done with RTK1! (Wait, did I do that math right?1945/2 = 973 < 980... Yep, I did! Edit: Actually, no, not really. There are 2042 kanji in RTK1, so I'm actually slightly less than 1/2 done.)

And I'm nearly 1/2 done (46%) with the Jouyou kanji! Of course, I'm only counting the ones that I've studied, not necessarily the ones I know really well. But still, it only takes about a week or two of studying for me to know a character, so it's not so bad. Bottom line: I'm making tons of progress! :)

Also, a side effect of studying kanji every night (although it's possibly a hold-over from finals week): My sleeping schedule is about 4-5 hours delayed compared to normal people. As in: I fall asleep around 4am, and wake up around 1pm. Thank goodness it's winter break, or I'd be in deep trouble with classes. Not looking forward to 8am daily lectures next semester.

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