Support NeoGAF

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I watched most of IWGP, very awesome show. Are there any drama's with a similar tone? I liked how... frank it was.

 

[I'm an expert]

SMAP are going to be in their 80s and still on tv and selling records.

They're all still so young.. early 40s. Kusanagi still looks 30. I had a chance to meet Shingo years ago. Incredibly young aura.

I watched most of IWGP, very awesome show. Are there any drama's with a similar tone? I liked how... frank it was.

I'd say Stand Up is indeed in that same vein. There are certain performers you can follow for those kind of roles. Yamapi can have some very 'blunt' shows (he has typical bullshit like Summer Nude mixed in too though) as well as Abe Hiroshi.

Unrelated, but I also recommend Bad Boys J simply for how fun it is. Note, it does require advanced listening skills. (i'm still assuming people are not watching these subtitled)

 

[Deleted member 17706]

There's nothing quite like IWGP, in my opinion, but the scriptwriter (Kankuro Kudo) worked on stuff like Kisarazu Cat's Eye and Tiger & Dragon, which have kind of a similar tone and share some of the same actors. I really enjoyed both.

Expert is spot on about 2005, though! I just checked the Wikipedia entry and it's pretty much full of legendary series.

 

[I'm an expert]

Cat's Eye is..unique. I remember hating it but I don't think I was in the right mood for it. I remember I had it on dvd lol.

 

[Aizo]

Wow. I didn't realize that most of my favorite J dramas were from 2005 until checking that wiki page.
Also, I love IWGP. I'm watching the GTO adaptation now on Japanese Netflix, and as a big fan of the manga, I'd say it's pretty good so far. Any other recommended ones on Netflix? It's nice just being able to shut off subtitles.

I'm surprised Kurita hasn't posted about this yet.

 

[I'm an expert]

Sorimachi's or Akira's? Akira's is hot, burning trash.

 

[RangerBAD]

Wow. I didn't realize that most of my favorite J dramas were from 2005 until checking that wiki page.
Also, I love IWGP. I'm watching the GTO adaptation now on Japanese Netflix, and as a big fan of the manga, I'd say it's pretty good so far. Any other recommended ones on Netflix? It's nice just being able to shut off subtitles.

I'm surprised Kurita hasn't posted about this yet.

GTO had two great adaptations (anime and the 90s drama).

 

[Kilrogg]

IWGP, as I'm sure you know, is something of a darling in the early drama/fansub community, along with Stand Up. Those kind of shows really capture a special time in Japan since those ensembles will never be that young. Iwgp meant a lot to me too since I lived in Ikebuke. Really special shows. 05 was really the golden age. Nobuta, hanayori, engine, attack1, densha, 1litre..

I mean..I got teary just thinking about. That was more than a decade ago. Absolute monster year for johnny's and oguri.

Such a different time, yet when I turn on the tv now all those guys still there lol. 5->9 blitz is insane.

Actually, here's my listening guide: watch every 2005 jdrama. Seriously. It's a time capsule of the best jdrama has to offer.

I haven't watched those shows probably in that long.. at least a decade. Hanayori I'd watch reruns every once in a while with the sequel. I should binge 05 myself.

Aw man... I started with Densha Otoko, got recommended IGWP and Nobuta, found Stand Up!! on my own... Densha and Stand Up!! have got to be my two favorites. I'd be teary-eyed too if I wasn't so tired from a sleepless night. But yeah, this friend of mine and I, we rewatched Stand Up!! together when we were on our exchange year in Japan because it was so special to both of us for some reason. There's a sense of calm and serenity to this drama that I haven't found anywhere else.

I'd throw in My Boss My Hero (from 2006; Nagase Tomoya really sells the loveable dumb guy thing) and, just for kicks, the Sailor Moon live action series. So kitschy, so much fun. Turns out it's from 2003-2004 too.

I'd never realized all those great dramas I watched were all from the same year. Kinda disturbing actually. I could never get into any other dramas after that (though I've watched a couple).

 

[AmethystEnd]

I wasn't using it for practice or anything, but a few years ago I became a huge Sasuke nerd (the competition, obviously). Now I've seen all 31 competitions multiple times and I know the "lore" of pretty much all the recurring contestants. And I don't mean that dumbass G4 rebroadcast titled "Ninja Warrior". Fuck Ninja Warrior, seriously. I mean the original Japanese broadcasts.

Something about Sasuke just makes me so happy. I can't wait for the 32nd competition.

 

[Kilrogg]

I wasn't using it for practice or anything, but a few years ago I became a huge Sasuke nerd (the competition, obviously). Now I've seen all 31 competitions multiple times and I know the "lore" of pretty much all the recurring contestants. And I don't mean that dumbass G4 rebroadcast titled "Ninja Warrior". Fuck Ninja Warrior, seriously. I mean the original Japanese broadcasts.

Something about Sasuke just makes me so happy. I can't wait for the 32nd competition.

Which reminds me... A few months ago we had this young intern at my company. She was a huge fan of Arashi. She'd never really learned Japanese formally, but she'd watched their show, Arashi ni Shiyagare, so many times that she knew an insane amount of vocabulary (for someone 9 years younger than who never learned the language) and she understood most of it even without subtitles (she can't read kanji anyway). I was seriously impressed, and honestly kinda envious. It felt at times like she understood more than me. My Japanese has seriously fallen behind.

It's kind of a 'duh' statement to make, but I guess if there's something you're passionate about on Japanese TV, your Jgo (damn you I'm an expert) level will skyrocket. Too bad nothing really holds my attention on Japanese TV. I could never acquire a taste for it. It's just too loud and gaudy for me. Hurts my brain. I love the language, but much of the culture either annoys me or doesn't interest me. I don't even want to live there (at least not if I'm gonna work there *shudders*).

 

[AmethystEnd]

Which reminds me... A few months ago we had this young intern at my company. She was a huge fan of Arashi. She'd never really learned Japanese formally, but she'd watched their show, Arashi ni Shiyagare, so many times that she knew an insane amount of vocabulary (for someone 9 years younger than who never learned the language) and she understood most of it even without subtitles (she can't read kanji anyway). I was seriously impressed, and honestly kinda envious. It felt at times like she understood more than me. My Japanese has seriously fallen behind.

It's kind of a 'duh' statement to make, but I guess if there's something you're passionate about on Japanese TV, your Jgo (damn you I'm an expert) level will skyrocket. Too bad nothing really holds my attention on Japanese TV. I could never acquire a taste for it. It's just too loud and gaudy for me. Hurts my brain. I love the language, but much of the culture either annoys me or doesn't interest me. I don't even want to live there (at least not if I'm gonna work there *shudders*).

That's interesting. I think you're the first person I've spoken to who just loves the language for the sake of itself without being interested in the culture/media. I mean, obviously I knew people who are just interested in languages exist, but I've never met one.

Yeah, I picked up a lot of vocabulary from Sasuke though mostly it's not stuff that would apply day-to-day. Like 皆勤 and 皆勤賞 (かいきん / かいきんしょう; perfect attendance / perfect attendance award) because there's literally only one competitor who has competed in all 31 tournaments without missing one.

 

[Yaari]

I didn't actually check the vids, I just Googled "Yes Japan", saw the website homepage and stopped looking lol :|

expert, it's pretty good, and like most things shame on me for not utilising it properly before... there is a lot of stuff out there, I'm probably going to keep using NHK Easy for a few more weeks then move on to 毎日新聞, then on to legit NHK.

I'm shying away from using anything that has English in it because it's annoying having the English interpretation, it's too distracting and I'm trying to make the brain switch from E>J J>E to just J>J. So probs gonna have a bit of a geeze for anything decent TV wise that isn't subbed, I'll do that next weekend. I'm trying to watch anything that deals with political or economic topics, that I'm actually interested int.

I still use Crunchyroll daily because the sub support is just great, I can watch at least 8-12 episodes lol I don't actually do this last bit I'm joking I swear.

i dunno, there would have been something neat about learning Japanese all those years ago, trading your VHS tapes as if they were a precious commodity.

This is my biggest issue. I'm used to translating things on the spot like I did with my native language as well as in English, but that simply doesn't apply here. It's difficult for me to get over it.

 

[Tuck]

This week, I finish Genki 1. I've spent 6 months on it - a chapter every 2 weeks. I suppose thats slow, but it works well for my schedule and I've made consistent progress without falling behind.

I figure I'll spend 2-4 weeks reviewing genki 1, practicing writing and all the vocabulary I missed, then start genki 2 in the new year. Genki 2 will likely take me another 6 months, then I'll do Tobira.

Last week, I also started WaniKani, and so far, I love it. I've been making cue-cards for each word I learn in genki and testing myself that way. Its effective, but time consuming. I'll keep doing it in genki 2, but I think WaniKani will allow me to learn a lot more vocabulary in parallel to the normal studying I do.

I'm doing all this alone - I didn't want to take a class because then it becomes more than just a hobby. I like that my studying fits my schedule, rather than the other way around. Even if I'm going a bit slow, I'm enjoying it. I discovered that theres a meetup group in Toronto where people of all skill levels go to practice speaking. Next year - maybe after finishing Genki 2 - I'd like to start going to them to practice my speaking, which is definitely my weak spot so far since I can't practice with anyone.

tl;dr Japanese is a lot of fun to learn, though I'm still in the very early stages.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Last week, I also started WaniKani, and so far, I love it. I've been making cue-cards for each word I learn in genki and testing myself that way. Its effective, but time consuming. I'll keep doing it in genki 2, but I think WaniKani will allow me to learn a lot more vocabulary in parallel to the normal studying I do.

It's probably good writing practice to make cards, but if you want to save time making them there are a bunch of Anki shared decks that have all the Genki vocabulary words.

 

[Griss]

It's great that you have a clear deadline and motivation - makes studying so much easier!

It sounds like Wanikani might be right up your alley. It's a web application aimed at beginners that teaches you kanji radicals, kanji and vocabulary by using SRS, mnemonics and timed quizzes. It's an amazing tool to build your Japanese reading skill and it does a great job of making learning fun. You start at level 1 with only the most basic radicals and kanji available to you, which you get quizzed at at timed intervals. Once you "master" that set of characters by answering correctly a certain amount of times, you level up and unlock new learning material. You're quizzed on those new characters as well while at the same time you keep reviewing material from level 1. The pace is slow at first but picks up very fast later (but you still have control on when you start studying new material in case you get overwhelmed by reviews). They say it takes about 2 years to complete the course, and once you've mastered that you will be able to read most of the joyo kanji and about 5000 vocabulary words.

The downside is, you don't learn to write kanji and they don't teach you grammar either, so you'll still need to combine it with other study material. Oh, and... it costs money! $8 for a month and $80 for a year. Levels 1 and 2 are free though (will take you about 2 weeks) so doesn't hurt to try it out and see if it works for you. I think you get a discount if you're a Textfugu subscriber, which might also be useful to you. Never tried Textfugu though so can't really say much about it.

Anyway check out Wanikani and read their FAQ if you wanna know more! I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and while I already know all the material (been studying Japanese for ~4 years now) I still can't wait until new reviews unlock and it's a good memory refresher. I even put a widget on my desktop that tells me when my next review is... I'm quite addicted to Wanikani, haha. I guess this is how people obsessed with Candy Crush feel...


I only know of this one, but maybe there are better ones out there. Also, if you have an iPhone, install Chinese handwritten as a keyboard layout and you will be able to use handwritten kanji on your phone as well . Useful for when you want to look up words on your phone. (Also if you use iOS, get the app "imi wa" - best dictionary ever).

I got this advice a few months ago, and even though I delayed and only started WaniKani about a month and a half ago, it's easily the best advice I ever got on here, so I wanted to thank you. WaniKani is so much fun it almost provides the motivation for you. I'm up to level 5, I know about about 140 kanji and 240 words, and yet I feel like I haven't done any 'work' at all. It's perfectly designed to give you just what you can handle without 'learning Japanese' becoming any more than just another minor hobby or any kind of a chore. I love it to bits.

I've found that learning Kanji is also just inherently fun. I learned 仙 can be hermit, which was funny because the radicals amount to literally 'mountain person', straight out of Life of Brian. No way I'm forgetting that one having seen it just once. So then I come across 内人　and I'm like, hmmm... inside person..., well if it's not hermit... who else stays indoors all day? An prisoner, perhaps? And you check it and it's right, and you feel great about deducing the word from context. It's just a really fun little puzzle where the more pieces you know the more powerful your deductive reasoning becomes. And once you know the on'yomi for a few kanji you really do start to know how to say a huge amount of vocab almost by default. It's more logical than it looks when starting out.

I know that I'm yet to hit the really frustrating high-stroke-count kanji but right now I love it and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I'm using Tae Kim and Genki for grammar, but I want to wait until I have more vocab to dig into that properly because plenty of the examples require you to read Kanji. Having gone through the first chapters of both and skimmed ahead as well, I can already see how difficult it will be. The language seems really, really vague to me at this early stage. Implied subjects are just odd. Wait, the beef bowl is tasty or YOU are tasty? And wherever we use word order in one way in English, it seems like they use the reverse, from the possessive article to verbs themselves. Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Anyone know what level of WaniKani you can start reading simple stuff at? I'm thinking that around level 20 it should start becoming possible with the help of a dictionary.

 

[stump sock]

by level 10 you're something like 75% towards the N4 vocab list, you should be able to read an awful lot by then. assuming your grammar is keeping up with your vocab.

high stroke count kanji aren't as bad as they initially seem UNLESS you need to write them from memory. then it gets a little rough. it's all about the radicals. it's easier for me to tell 煬 and 焜 apart than it is 末 and 未, depending on the font/handwriting.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Wanikani orders kanjis by radical, not by frequency, right? So I think you'd have a while to go before you can dive in without having to look stuff up.

I've been doing Kanjidamage but re-ordered to roughly sort by frequency of use (while still maintaining radical order) and it's helped to make kanjis a lot less of a reading barrier. But even with this, 800 kanjis in, there's still quite a few I don't know even just with NHK EasyWeb.

 

[stump sock]

Wanikani orders kanjis by radical, not by frequency, right? So I think you'd have a while to go before you can dive in without having to look stuff up.

a little bit of both. the kanji it gives you are based on the radicals it gives you, but it seems to be ordered so that the radicals you get are roughly least to most common. again, by level 10, you're done with N5 vocab, and 3/4 done with N4.

 

[Tuck]

I got this advice a few months ago, and even though I delayed and only started WaniKani about a month and a half ago, it's easily the best advice I ever got on here, so I wanted to thank you. WaniKani is so much fun it almost provides the motivation for you. I'm up to level 5, I know about about 140 kanji and 240 words, and yet I feel like I haven't done any 'work' at all. It's perfectly designed to give you just what you can handle without 'learning Japanese' becoming any more than just another minor hobby or any kind of a chore. I love it to bits.

I've found that learning Kanji is also just inherently fun. I learned 仙 can be hermit, which was funny because the radicals amount to literally 'mountain person', straight out of Life of Brian. No way I'm forgetting that one having seen it just once. So then I come across 内人　and I'm like, hmmm... inside person..., well if it's not hermit... who else stays indoors all day? An prisoner, perhaps? And you check it and it's right, and you feel great about deducing the word from context. It's just a really fun little puzzle where the more pieces you know the more powerful your deductive reasoning becomes. And once you know the on'yomi for a few kanji you really do start to know how to say a huge amount of vocab almost by default. It's more logical than it looks when starting out.

I know that I'm yet to hit the really frustrating high-stroke-count kanji but right now I love it and I'd recommend it to anyone.

So far, I agree. Its a lot of fun. I'm sort of addicted lol.

 

[Aizo]

Sorimachi's or Akira's? Akira's is hot, burning trash.

Sorimachi's for sure. I've never been interested in the remake.

 

[Jintor]

apropos of nothing: if you can read, read. there's nothing more fucking boring than staring at a list and memorising words from it. i'm looking through the n4 vocab list to see what words i haven't learned yet just in the course of trying to read things and it is boring as sin.

if you're going to memorise words off a list, at least make the list yourself by writing down words you don't recognise

 

[Nocebo]

So then I come across 内人　and I'm like, hmmm... inside person..., well if it's not hermit... who else stays indoors all day? An prisoner, perhaps? And you check it and it's right, and you feel great about deducing the word from context.

I think you mean 囚人? But I love the kanji that make visual sense, too. Like 繭 or kanji that have a certain easily understandable meaning in several compound words for example 原子、電子、光子、粒子 or 工 in 工事、工場、工作、人工、工学、工具 etc.

 

[Porcile]

apropos of nothing: if you can read, read. there's nothing more fucking boring than staring at a list and memorising words from it. i'm looking through the n4 vocab list to see what words i haven't learned yet just in the course of trying to read things and it is boring as sin.

if you're going to memorise words off a list, at least make the list yourself by writing down words you don't recognise

Yeah, I prefer Tae Kim's way or just learning them as you read them in the wild. The problem with JLPT vocab is that sometimes it uses hiragana instead of kanji, which is way more difficult to memorise. rather than having a word associated with a kanji which you recognise and know the readings of. I used to have all my vocab written as hiragana, but I just gave up with that as nothing was sticking.

 

[I'm an expert]

So where's the white board army?

 

[Porcile]

I'm actually on day three. Just did my kanji, vocab and grammar. Mounted a good sized whiteboard on my wall and all that.

 

[I'm an expert]

If anyone stays true to the program for more than two weeks I'll be shocked. Surely no one has as much free time as I did back then. That was a once in a lifetime thing.

 

[Porcile]

I do freelance work from home mostly and have enough money saved to last three months easy. Right now I'm not taking on any work, so I have the time.

 

[I'm an expert]

I thought you weren't buying into my infomercial bullshit. :O

I'm excited to see if you complete the whole thing. Would like to see others' results. Are you just doing the writing portion or did you plan to do the full day with listening and writing/speaking?

 

[Resilient]

Porky, I'm with you on it. At Day 4 myself. Hope you stick through with it 👐 Jintor and Amethyst were keen on it too right?

If anybody is contemplating learning Japanese, read experts post on the whiteboard method. Lot of WaniKani talk - IMO stop wasting your time on it and do this instead. It's 4 times faster and you'll learn more, and be able to learn more in a ... A quarter of the time WaniKani will take you. Plus it's free.

I fit listening in at work using podcasts (SBS Australian Japan podcast, others) and NHK on my commute to work. More listening done on weekends than during week though.

 

[Porcile]

I thought it was doable and certainly not bullshit. It's more whether I personally or others could do it or not. I considered your post like throwing a hand grenade into a room of people and seeing the chaos it would cause. I'll guess we'll find out though . On paper it makes sense, but logistically it's like "So, by the end I'm going to be writing like 6000 words a day, huh? Ok..."

I'm doing the whole thing: writing, reading, listening and speaking when I get the chance.

 

[I'm an expert]

I am interested in what (all Japanese) podcasts you guys listen to since it's not a tool I had for studying. Let me listen to a few.


Actually by the end, with kanji at least, if you're at the point where you only practice one word for the majority of the kanji, it's like 2k words. In total though, with all the components, yeah it's thousands of unique items.

 

[Resilient]

I can see it getting harder by the 1.5 month stage, but at that point there is no point in stopping it.

In the 4 days i have done it, there has been a clear improvement retention wise. reading is way easier on NHK, and when speaking with friends it's been easier to grab the grammar pattern i want. i'm using patterns when i speak, that i only ever used when i wrote messages to people, as in, I spent time looking them up because I vaguely remembered them. Today in conversation I just remembered them. And I'm able to hear people easier too. Makes it easy when you've written the pattern 8 or so times in the previous day's.
weird. Because it's early content i'm retreading (starting from &#26085, it's just cementing it at this point. i'm not trying to get ahead of myself, but it's working so far.

While you're doing it, you just know it's going to work, and it would be stupid to ignore using such a method and instead go with a slow, drawn out study over the next 2 years. i can easily see myself taking N1 next year and passing it.

yada yada, i could go on, but the dude was definitely right. studying any other way is just lazy, and not doing it out of choice is BS - it's just an excuse not to do it. you can totally work full time and do this, you just need to pay the price.

Start it and then take a long look at yourself. Expert already said this many times in the thread but you have to ask yourself. What are my goals? Why am I doing this? Why do I want to learn Japanese? If you really truly want to learn the language, you would do it this way. Just make the sacrifice.

It's 3 months. It's going to be a fucked up 3 months depending on your lifestyle (full time work, "full time" study) but it's just 3 months.

 

[Resilient]

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/japanese?language=ja

An example. SBS Japan Radio podcast, from Australia.

 

[I'm an expert]

3 months is genuinely insanely short lol. I'll be posting here in February and everyone will be like..wtf.. that's it..

Skimmed that radio show quickly. I was about to throw my tablet out the window while jumping through the first 30 mins..just some lady reading the news. When they finally got to some chatting I was like phew. For me podcast just means conversations. Seems like this is some great on the go listening though.

 

[Porcile]

So far, the most time consuming part for me has been working out which vocabulary words would be practical to write with the kanji. For example, 気 is used in hundreds of words, some of them using kanji I already know, some using kanji I don't know. Lots of them are on the JLPT vocab list, wanikani vocab list or whatever resource you're using. So like, where do I start? Which ones are going to be the most beneficial to learn without having to write 20 words for each kanji? Right now, I'm just picking words I know are used a lot, and the ones which use a common reading. I think this will become a little easier to manage when it gets down to kanji which only have a couple common words a piece, but with the early ones like 人、大、気 etc it's a little different.

That said, I think the natural process seeing an unknown word but being able to recognise all the kanji means i'll be able to pick them up quicker. It will be great if I can get through the jouyou kanji in three months, and after that never have to shrug off a word because I don't recognise one of the kanji or its reading.

 

[I'm an expert]

Yep, that was indeed an issue early on. You just have to set yourself a limit of words and realize you'll eventually learn the ones you put to the side. The goal is definitely not to learn every word out there, but seeing certain kanji have different readings and meanings is important for deciphering the language in a natural setting.

 

[Jintor]

3 months is genuinely insanely short lol. I'll be posting here in February and everyone will be like..wtf.. that's it..

Skimmed that radio show quickly. I was about to throw my tablet out the window while jumping through the first 30 mins..just some lady reading the news. When they finally got to some chatting I was like phew. For me podcast just means conversations. Seems like this is some great on the go listening though.

i listen to a conversational podcast called the Hotcast. Unfortunately I can't vouch for quality because I understand... uh... let's say very little of it

 

[Aizo]

Always with the 謙遜, Jintor.

 

[RangerBAD]

If anyone stays true to the program for more than two weeks I'll be shocked. Surely no one has as much free time as I did back then. That was a once in a lifetime thing.

I was really interested in doing the method too. I'd have the time, but I realized my arm/hand would end up dead at some point and just force me to stop days at a time. I would have to do it in notebooks. A whiteboard is impossible for me.

 

[I'm an expert]

You can use notebooks, shrug. As long as the writing is a part of the process, it works. Verbally or mentally reciting isn't enough, the writing is the key to memory lock.

 

[RangerBAD]

You can use notebooks, shrug. As long as the writing is a part of the process, it works. Verbally or mentally reciting isn't enough, the writing is the key to memory lock.

Well, it's not really that, just the physical part of it. Writing thousands of words in a day may be too much for my limited physical strength.

 

[I'm an expert]

Ah, well yes. I dont know anyone's specific physical condition. If it's not physically possible, of course dont bother.

 

[stump sock]

Ah, well yes. I dont know anyone's specific physical condition. If it's not physically possible, of course dont bother.

yeah, I've got joint issues that mean I can't write for more than a few minutes at a time. but I don't mind being "lazy," as long as I keep at it.

 

[RangerBAD]

Ah, well yes. I dont know anyone's specific physical condition. If it's not physically possible, of course dont bother.

I would just hate to possibly hit that wall and have to quit. I really do wish I could go faster with my studies. :/

 

[Porcile]

Obviously the advantage here is that through repetition and going over the same material everyday without exception, you give yourself every possible opportunity to see the things you're studying in a real world context. It doesn't matter if you don't see the kanji in the real world on the first day, because no matter what you'll see it the next day, and then five days later that's when you see it being used in a newspaper article. Even if you never see that vocabulary word at all in your reading practice, 90 days of learning it over and over is sure to keep it in your brain for when you do.

If there was a way to replicate the volume of repetition, even if it meant finding another means to go through your study material, then it would have the same, but somewhat diminished effect. Rather than three months, it might take six or seven months. You would definitely have to find a quick way of interacting with your study materials though, since that initial interaction is what will keep it in your short term memory long enough to see it being used.

 

[I'm an expert]

Well, my method isn't faster, it's fastest. There's plenty of in between stuff you could do to accelerate your learning without doing my way.

 

[Resilient]

Porcile, that was the biggest time sink for me too. What I do - Open Word, Kanji Cards and jisho.org. I do my writing list the night before. That way when I wake up and do my Kanji for the day I've already decided which 3 words I'm going to use for each Kanji. Massive help.

I use an iPhone app as a dictionary too, but also the Remembering The Kanji app because it shows you the stroke order for the unknown Kanji in your common list. App cost me 9.95 when I first started studying like a noob those years ago lol. It's useless aside from that one feature.

yeah, I've got joint issues that mean I can't write for more than a few minutes at a time. but I don't mind being "lazy," as long as I keep at it.

I would just hate to possibly hit that wall and have to quit. I really do wish I could go faster with my studies. :/

Barring any physical limitations - if you can't physically do it I'm not suggesting your lazy.

But if the time is there it's definitely the best way to go. Notebooks would get really messy reallllllly quickly but anything is worth a try once.

example: for a fairly broad Kanji, i just pick the words i think will be relevant for me in my time over in J. this is from my writing list.

はやめる、さー、はやい、はや、はやー、はやまる
• はやまるto move ahead, to move up
• はやいearly, fast
• はやめるto hasten, to quicken
• そうきearly stage

はかる、はからう、ケイplot, plan, scheme, measure
• けいかくplan, project, schedule
• とうけいstatistics
• かいけいacoustics

みず、みずー
• すいじゅんwater level
• すいどうwater service
• げすいどうsewer

 

[RangerBAD]

You probably can do the method on a tablet too. Buy a pen and get a draw app and away you go. Battery life could be a concern. Or get a tablet that artists use that you use on your computer.

Well, my method isn't faster, it's fastest. There's plenty of in between stuff you could do to accelerate your learning without doing my way.

Any suggestions?

 

[Resilient]

I'm at a point now where I can write just a common word for Day 1 and Day 2 which cuts the writing time for 50 Kanji to around 7-10minutes. Allow maybe 15-20 for the preceding 2 days, and around 30' for the new 25.

By the end of it, for all Jlpt1 Kanji you're looking at about

4.2 hours for ones you've mastered
Another .8 for the 50 you're still learning
And another .5 for the new 25. Then you're done. So by the end you'll be writing for 6 hours.

Granted a lot of those will be repeated from earlier levels, so you could probably shave it down to 3 min per 25 that you've totally retained. Let's say 4-6 hours.

Just putting it out there for anybody contemplating it, this is pretty conservative math lol.

 

[I'm an expert]

You will develop a natural shorthand fairly soon. I'd be lying if I said I meticulously wrote the review kanji by like day 30. Quick strokes, as long as you know you wrote the character correctly, doesn't matter if it's nice looking.