Are There Reasonable Alternatives For Kanji Memorizing Other Than RTK?

[Zalor]

I feel bad for slightly derailing this thread on a topic that really deserves it's own thread. In case you are unaware of RTK (Remembering the Kanji), also know as the "Heisig method", I recommend reading the introduction to his book here. Anybody seriously considering self-studying Japanese will most likely hear of this method from somewhere. One of the biggest barriers to start learning Japanese is the decision of whether to use this method or not. (Indeed, I wasted quite a bit of time agonizing on whether to use it or not, ultimately I did). What makes the decision so difficult is that there are many people who scream this method with praise, and then there are also a vocal crowd who despise it. There is very little middle ground from what I have seen. What really aggravates me however, is that many of Heisig's critics bash the method, but provide no other reasonably structured method of learning the Kanji. This post is not addressed to those who tried the method and decided for themselves that it was not for them, rather, I am addressing those who actively tell people not to use RTK, but provide no alternative solution. If you're really so anti-Heisig, and if you think new Japanese learners should avoid it, then have the decency to provide an alternative method. I see little value in bashing a method that works, if you can't even offer an alternative solution.  

 

Rote memorizing the Kanji is laborious, tedious, and ultimately not very effective. This method will allow you to learn the readings of kanji alongside their symbols, but you will forget most of what you learn shortly. It takes years to learn Kanji this way. During my first two years of High School I studied Chinese, after just half a year of leaving that class, I forgot 90% of what I learned. RTK combined with Anki combats this and is quite effective. (I am still able to recall Kanji I learned months ago and haven't encountered since). For purposes of memorization, the Heisig method is near flawless and even its critics rarely criticize this aspect of it.

 

In the VN community the most common criticism of RTK is the argument that people can learn the Kanji and their readings in context by reading untranslated VNs after learning grammar. I see nothing wrong with doing this, but I don't view this as an Alternative to RTK because you can do this after RTK. In fact by doing RTK first, you will have a head start in this method from those who haven't done RTK. Since you will already recognize most of the kanji, you can learn and memorize their readings much faster. I see no reasonable reason why these two methods can't coexist. Indeed Aaeru was living proof of this as she did RTK, then learned grammar, and then immersed herself in VNs. By combing the methods she was able to read Japanese reasonably well within 2 years time. Read her guide here. 

 

So if rote learning Kanji sucks and is mostly ineffective, and learning Kanji in context through immersion is only improved by doing RTK, what else is there? If you tried RTK and didn't like it, then that's just fine. But why are some people vehemently opposed to it if 1). It works for those motivated enough, and 2). There is no real alternative for memorizing the Kanji.

 

On the matter, a great quote I am using from page 3 of this thread by user Javizy:

 

 

If you think people memorizing dictionaries is remotely typical, then it's no wonder you find it "amusing". Beginners aren't interested in abstract posturing about kanji-learning and people who "invent" their own methods; they want a well-defined technique to follow that provides quick results with minimal effort. RTK offers this and it seems to have worked for a large number of people, who probably do think it's pretty awesome as a result.

 

One should note that while the purpose of this thread is partly me venting, I still intent this thread to be useful to those who are considering learning Japanese. So if you actually do have a reasonable alternative to RTK that works as fast and efficiently as RTK, then please post it for the benefit of future learners.    

 

EDIT: Wow, rereading this I just want to make one thing clear to people reading this now. I was in a really bad and discouraged mood when I wrote this. (I wrote this with a bit too much emotion imo). I apologize for that, however I don't really feel like rewriting the tone of my writing, and I still stand by what I said.   

[Down]

I don't know if people are really so vehement about RTK. I'm in the middle ground personally.

If you complete RTK, great, that's that much gained for learning kanji. Still, it's about 6 months that I'd rather have spent learning kanji in context.

 

What I do to learn kanji is simply use an Anki flashcard deck with all 2000+ jouyou kanji in order with compounds cards. Basically, when a new kanji is introduced, the following cards are compounds of that new kanji + older kanjis. It works really great for me so far, I'm close to completing it after some 6 months using it (there are 16000+ cards in it).

This way I absorb new vocab, provided there are enough compounds remembering the ON reading is a cinch (whereas it's much harder, from experience, with a deck containing only single kanji entries), and the KUN readings are also included. It's also much easier to start grasping the nuances of the kanji by seeing its compounds.

 

Of course you can do the same by cramming all of that information (ON+KUN+meaning+compounds) on the same card, but from experience again, it's just much easier to have it spread over multiple cards.

 

In parallel to that, jumping into reading material as soon as I started learning was key to remember all of those words/kanjis by seeing them in context.

 

I also know that there are people out there who simply grabbed reading material, jumped in dictionary in hand and painfully learned their way through huge amounts of text. It sounds horrible but it seems to be surprisingly common.

[Deep Blue]

Don't know if this will help you, but I'm using this software and it's really helping me out http://zkanji.sourceforge.net/

[Kaguya]

Eh, just to do some nitpicking, I said it to you before, but I actually had no idea the method existed until I was fairly advanced. 

I didn't even have internet when I started, though, so it might have been that. Anyway, I wouldn't say everyone "undoubtedly" knows about it.

[Nosebleed]

I don't personally bash RTK nor do I think it should be abolished (I still praise it as a great reviewing guide) I merely see it as an inefficient starting method, but I'd like to answer the questions you posed.

 

Indeed, this method works for people with enough motivation. And that's the entire problem for most people.

The amount of motivation you need to put in your head to burn through RTK as a beginning step to Japanese is a huge turn off for a lot of people.

 

But why you ask?

Because you realize that you'll still have at least 6 or so months of theoretical learning as opposed to practical learning when you start with this method.

Because you need to put the thought in your head that "first comes theory, then comes practice" when you're starting out with RTK and many people just don't like this.

 

Now you can say "well if they dont have enough motivation for RTK they don't have motivation for japanese to begin with". But the problem is that RTK is tedious and repetitive and learning japanese does not have to be tedious and repetitive.

 

Why did you start learning Japanese to begin with? 

Because you want to read things, to hear things and write things.

You want to comprehend the language as soon as possible, you want to be able to use your skills in useful contexts so you can have fun.

RTK provides you with none of that, instead you will be burning through an entire book for months before you can actually start practicing.

 

The amount of motivation you have to give yourself to go through this tedious process is immense and for a lot of people, this just doesn't cut it.

 

This is for those who say RTK should be the first step to learn Japanese and these are most of the arguments against that.

 

HOWEVER

This does not mean that RTK can not be used in a practical setting. (as opposed to a theoretical approach)

The best way to introduce RTK to people without severely demotivating them (for those who are easily demotivated) is by not using it as introductory method to the language, but as a supplement to other methods that properly introduce you to how to read Japanese.

 

And what people always suggest as the best way to learn how to read is by just seeing words and how they're pronounced in contexts.

What most kanji books do is give you the kanji, the onyomi/kunyomi and some compounds.

But this is the exact same result you can achieve by actually reading visual novels with the proper tools.

 

So one thing you can easily do is learn grammar through a guide like Tae Kim (there's no way to escape theoretical grammar learning, that's just unavoidable) and then go through a visual novel with what you learn, note down Kanji/compounds and their pronounciation. And then, if you want, you can use RTK to actually review how to memorize those kanji in particular, by reading their mnemonics.

 

This way, you plunge right into the activity that even made you want to learn the language in the first place, which, for most, is just more enjoyable than pure theoretical methods.

 

You said it well when you mentioned RTK can co-exist with other methods. It can indeed and I recommend RTK's mnemonics over any others to remember kanji, but it should almost always stay as a side guide while you use another method to learn the language.

 

Now, for those who prefer more theoretical methods and are fine with studying and burning through books at first before starting anything, RTK is fine. Although I still recommend coupling RTK with another guide book that teaches kanji pronounciation, or else you'll still take double the amount of time (unless, of course, time is not a constraint for you at all)

 

But for those who would prefer a more on-hands approach, starting with RTK before anything else is quite the hard task, and it's because of this that some people, like myself, who just can't stand the brutality that is reading through RTK for months, don't recommend RTK to beginners.

[sanahtlig]

I think people bash RTK for the same reason they bash learning Japanese in romaji: you're not learning Japanese, you're learning an English bastardization of it.  With RTK, you're learning a pneumonic that relies on English.  This could end up impairing fluency in the long run.  It's much harder to unlearn something than it is to learn it.  RTK is great at getting you to associate kanji with English words.  Do you want English words to pop in your head whenever you see a kanji, for the rest of your life?  That's what you need to ask yourself.

[Zalor]

@Nosebleed When I was thinking of people who hate RTK, I wasn't thinking of you, don't worry . You tried the method and know what about it works and what doesn't. In fact, I am in complete agreement with you. One of the reasons I am a bit insecure about it, is precisely because it has given me theoretical knowledge, but not much practical knowledge. The prime motivation that kept me going were the people who did the method and went on to fully learn Japanese. "It worked for them, so it should work for me as well" is what I would always tell myself. One of the reasons I created this thread is because the true RTK haters (not you) try to convince people that it is a waste of time. They try to convince people who did the method that they wasted their time. But while they tell people they wasted their time, they themselves don't offer an alternate solution for memorizing kanji that is as effective as RTK. It bothers me because these people discourage people from learning, which imo is quite a rude thing to do (especially if they don't offer an alternative solution). 

 

 

I think people bash RTK for the same reason they bash learning Japanese in romaji: you're not learning Japanese, you're learning an English bastardization of it.  With RTK, you're learning a pneumonic that relies on English.  This could end up impairing fluency in the long run.  It's much harder to unlearn something than it is to learn it.  RTK is great at getting you to associate kanji with English words.  Do you want English words to pop in your head whenever you see a kanji, for the rest of your life?  That's what you need to ask yourself.

[Cyrillej1]

I tried RTK for a bit when I first started, and I liked how it helped me remember some Kanji (even now I still have some mini stories I use, and easily remember the ones I went over from RTK).  Still, the reason why I didn't continue it was similar to what other people have mentioned.. that it seems to focus only on associating English to the kanji without learning the on/kun readings which is needed to actually read, and learn new vocabulary (until like waaaaay later).  It seems like too much work to go through just to learn english meanings, and not feel like I'm actually learning any Japanese.  I guess I rather jump into learning Japanese readings than to learn a bunch of stuff before I actually start.  I'm not against RTK, but I think I'm too impatient to go through it myself xD.  But I think if it works for you, then keep doing it.  I might even decide to try it out again if my current methods aren't working for me.

[sanahtlig]

I'm seriously considering memorizing the radicals on this site: http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/

 

There's only ~200 of them.  Since they're the building blocks of kanji, rather than the kanji themselves, there's not too many drawbacks to learning them by whatever means necessary, including RTK.  It'll not only help me remember kanji, but it'll make it a lot easier to look them up too.

[Zalor]

I'm seriously considering memorizing the radicals on this site: http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/

 

There's only ~200 of them.  Since they're the building blocks of kanji, rather than the kanji themselves, there's not too many drawbacks to learning them by whatever means necessary, including RTK.  It'll not only help me remember kanji, but it'll make it a lot easier to look them up too.

[LinovaA]

RTK is definitely my preferred method as of right now. I mean, I am almost through the pile and getting into the just review phase, but that is another story.

 

When I was taking Japanese in high school, learning kanji was more... write it out over and over and over until you got it. I am remembering way more from RTK as of now than I was when I was learning it in school. Of course that may have just been the environment. Regardless, I don't really know any other methods than RTK, but since I didn't start RTK until I had some kind of foundation in Japanese; I can't really comment on what it is like to start off with RTK. In the end it just comes down to your own personal learning style. Some people would much prefer to write out kanji over and over and over again (not me). Others would prefer this RTK method and do the "first theory, then practice" method. I just so happen to be part of the latter of the two.

[zoom909]

I'm going to address one particular part of the opening post, here:

"In the VN community the most common criticism of RTK is the argument that people can learn the Kanji and their readings in context by reading untranslated VNs after learning grammar. I see nothing wrong with doing this, but I don't view this as an Alternative to RTK because you can do this after RTK. In fact by doing RTK first, you will have a head start in this method from those who haven't done RTK. Since you will already recognize most of the kanji, you can learn and memorize their readings much faster. I see no reasonable reason why these two methods can't coexist. Indeed Aaeru was living proof of this as she did RTK, then learned grammar, and then immersed herself in VNs. By combing the methods she was able to read Japanese reasonably well within 2 years time. Read her guide here."

 

Yes.  You will have a head start on kanji over the people who didn't do RTK first.  But won't the people who didn't do RTK will have a head start on reading their games?  A sizeable head start, I might add...because RTK, unlike traditional kanji learning, is all-or-nothing.

 

The thing is, in order to just "get used to kanji", no particular Method is required.  All you really need is (1) a list of kanji and their most common readings and meanings--in the order they are taught in Japanese schools (wikipedia will suffice for this) and (2) reading material.  In this environment, it is surprising how far rote memorization will take you.  It is also surprising how many common words can be memorized together with their kanji--w/o you having to do anything other than read and pay attention to the kanji as you do.  Yes this process is not as quick as RTK but it runs in the background as you read--meanwhile you are able to read a ton of great stuff using furigana and electronic lookup.

 

Then when it comes time to learn to kanji for real (you want to read, for example, actual printed books, or console games) the main alternative to RTK is probably the Kanji Learner's Dictionary (the one by Jack Halpern).  It is not a "method" in the sense that you do have to know something about Japanese and about kanji in order to know what to do with this book.  And it would be pointless to use this book as a complete beginner.  But for people who want to study kanji last instead of first, it's fine.

 

This "Aaeru is living proof" argument...This is a version of "proof" I've not encountered before.  I don't claim "proof" of anything unless I can back it up.  All right, then, how can I get proof of Aaeru's Japanese skill level and the time it took for her to learn it? 

[Zalor]

This "Aaeru is living proof" argument...This is a version of "proof" I've not encountered before.  I don't claim "proof" of anything unless I can back it up.  All right, then, how can I get proof of Aaeru's Japanese skill level and the time it took for her to learn it? 

 

In the archaic 2011 version of Aaeru's guide, in response to a comment Aaeru wrote, "yes it’s the same method I used to learn to read Japanese very quickly back in 2009." Aaeru wrote the guide in 2011 and started learning sometime in 2009, that would be 2 years. In response to another comment Aaeru wrote, "It’s one year only if you can do 1.5hrs a day. 2 years only because people are people." Not sure if this is what you wanted, but this is what I had in mind as proof when I used the word. 

 

Yes.  You will have a head start on kanji over the people who didn't do RTK first.  But won't the people who didn't do RTK will have a head start on reading their games?  A sizeable head start, I might add...because RTK, unlike traditional kanji learning, is all-or-nothing.

 

[...] But for people who want to study kanji last instead of first, it's fine.

 

Just like how not everybody wants to learn Kanji first, not everybody wants to procrastinate them. Personally I would rather get the hardest and most tedious part of the language relatively out of the way before I start actually learning. I would rather grind kanji as a beginner and not struggle with them afterwards, than have fun first and learn kanji afterwards. There is no avoiding them, and learning a method to trivialize them sooner rather then later was not only advice that I was given by many, but advice that makes sense to me. It makes sense to have to work before I can play. Could I have played first? Yes, and admittedly I am a bit envious that the thought didn't occur to me when I was first trying to figure out how to learn Japanese. The thought of jumping into VNs first things first seemed like a right I had to earn. Perhaps that was a bit of a mistake of mine, but it doesn't mean that RTK is a worthless method. It may be time consuming, but there are clear long-term benefits to it for those who invest in it.  

[zoom909]

In the archaic 2011 version of Aaeru's guide, in response to a comment Aaeru wrote, "yes it’s the same method I used to learn to read Japanese very quickly back in 2009." Aaeru wrote the guide in 2011 and started learning sometime in 2009, that would be 2 years. In response to another comment Aaeru wrote, "It’s one year only if you can do 1.5hrs a day. 2 years only because people are people." Not sure if this is what you wanted, but this is what I had in mind as proof when I used the word. 

 

 

Just like how not everybody wants to learn Kanji first, not everybody wants to procrastinate them. Personally I would rather get the hardest and most tedious part of the language relatively out of the way before I start actually learning. I would rather grind kanji as a beginner and not struggle with them afterwards, than have fun first and learn kanji afterwards. There is no avoiding them, and learning a method to trivialize them sooner rather then later was not only advice that I was given by many, but advice that makes sense to me. It makes sense to have to work before I can play. Could I have played first? Yes, and admittedly I am a bit envious that the thought didn't occur to me when I was first trying to figure out how to learn Japanese. The thought of jumping into VNs first things first seemed like a right I had to earn. Perhaps that was a bit of a mistake of mine, but it doesn't mean that RTK is a worthless method. It may be time consuming, but there are clear long-term benefits to it for those who invest in it.  

 

No, that is missing my point about the proof.  Because claiming she did something is of course not proof that she did it.  You may believe it, and it may even be reasonable to do so, but that still doesn't prove it.  (I realize that this is just me being nit-picky, so you can ignore it if you want)

 

In summary, you wanted to know another way, so I attempted to explain what the other way is and why I believe RTK is, strictly speaking, unnecessary (but not worthless).

[Nosebleed]

So I was browsing around and came across this app that might actually be the solution to your RTK problems and might be really useful for anyone looking for a nice Japanese app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Obenkyo&hl=en

 

I was testing it out and found it to be a great review app, especially if you're going with the RTK/Aaeru method. (RTK + Anki flashcards)

 

Among the many functionalities, in the kanji section the app basically lets you costumize your review/test in any possible way could want.

 

You can set it to show onyomi and/or kunyomi and the order in which you're tested can be by School Level, by JLPT levels or by RTK chapters.

You can even delete the English word and just go by onyomi/kunyomi recognition (for full Japanese immersion).

You can also set how many kanji/words you want to review per test (from 10 to all the 2300 kanji in one go for all them lunatics).

 

So it's basically like a really costumizeable version of anki.

 

There's 3 types of exercises the app has to help you review kanji

1. Find the kanji - Shows you an English word and/or kunyomi/onyomi and you need to find the corresponding kanji among 6 options
2. Recognise kanji - Shows you kanji and you need to select the correct meaning in English and/or kunyomi/onyomi among 6 options
3. Draw kanji - As the name says, you draw the kanji corresponding to the word shown in English and/or kunyomi/onyomi (it might not be perfect, you might want to opt for pen and paper on this one)

If you're going to go with the RTK method, this is definitely a much more interactive way to review your studying.

 

But wait! There's more!

 

Reviewing kanji is not all the app allows, you can also review vocabulary which is really great if you're using the RTK method, it'll speed things up by showing you vocabulary, with the respective readings (can be disabled), that's related to the kanji you just learned.

 

It has 2 different exercises

1. Find the word - Shows you a word in English and/or hiragana/katakana and you need to select the right kanji compound
2. Recognize the word - Shows you a kanji compound and you need to select the right translation and/or pronounciation

But wait! There's more!

If you really are a textbook person, the app lets you actually check up on all of its kanji/word lists for actual reading purposes (if you don't want to do exercises).

 

You can click on any JLPT level and you'll see the list of kanji in that level with all the meanings and onyomi/kunyomi for that kanji as well as example words (with the respective pronounciations)

And if you select RTK order you can look at a kanji list by RTK chapters

 

(the kanji entries are the same in both, they're all taken from edict2).

 

This application basically covers all of your reviewing needs and it's great to couple with almost any guide, including RTK, for a much more in depth reviewing experience.

 

Other functionalities include:

 

Hiragana/Katakana tables with multiple types of exercises to memorize each kana individually

Number chart and exercises to help you memorize the numbers

Particles chart with exercises to help you memorize particle usage (really helpful for grammar)

And lastly it has the entire Tae Kim guide at the bottom if you want to simultaneously learn grammar.

 

I hope this app is useful for some of you, I for once was quite impressed by all the stuff it covers.

If you want something to improve your RTK experience, here you go.

[Abyssalrift]

I just noticed something from the original post, the Aaeru's guide for reading untranslated VNs page is actually gone (i think).  That guide was what made me have some motivation to start learning how to read Japanese and without it, i might have missed a great opportunity.  

 

I don't really want others to miss out on that guide, if something was done about this it would be great.

 

Also, uh f-first post...? -.-

[Deep Blue]

You can try with this book http://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Pict-O-Graphix-Over-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702

[Zalor]

I just noticed something from the original post, the Aaeru's guide for reading untranslated VNs page is actually gone (i think).  That guide was what made me have some motivation to start learning how to read Japanese and without it, i might have missed a great opportunity.  

 

I don't really want others to miss out on that guide, if something was done about this it would be great.

 

Also, uh f-first post...? -.-

 

I agree, I noticed that the guide disappeared recently as well. I can honestly say that I would never have even thought about trying to learn Japanese if it weren't for her guide. She provided a reasonable goal (2 years) and listed what to do during that time to reach the level of being able to read untranslated VNs moderately well. Her words were very inspiring, and often I would reread her guide when I felt discouraged.

 

In other news, (Finally!) I finished RTK yesterday. So now I am officially focusing my efforts on grammar.   

[LinovaA]

In other news, (Finally!) I finished RTK yesterday. So now I am officially focusing my efforts on grammar.   

 

Congratulations!

 

I kinda... gave up a little under a week ago. hehehe I am actually still doing it, but I reset my anki and have it set to 5 new kanji a day now. Turns out, the last like 1000 kanji did not really stick for me at all. Maybe I just got impatient and wanted to read VN's more (this is definitely 100% it). Anyway, trying to juggle grammar, kanji, and vocab all the time was kind of brutal, so I am liking this method a tad more.  RTK can mop up what I miss someday in the future.

[Zalor]

Congratulations!

 

I kinda... gave up a little under a week ago. hehehe I am actually still doing it, but I reset my anki and have it set to 5 new kanji a day now. Turns out, the last like 1000 kanji did not really stick for me at all. Maybe I just got impatient and wanted to read VN's more (this is definitely 100% it). Anyway, trying to juggle grammar, kanji, and vocab all the time was kind of brutal, so I am liking this method a tad more.  RTK can mop up what I miss someday in the future.

 

To share my experience and journey with RTK a little. For the most part I avoided any grammar learning while doing RTK, so when I spent time on Japanese I was either doing Anki or learning new kanji. It took me a cumulative effort of 8 months to do (I believe Aaeru said she took 8 months as well actually). However, that was mostly because real life got in the way of learning new words sometimes (I always did anki everyday though). I started RTK at the beginning of July. All the way through mid September I went at a pace of 20-25 kanji a day. So by the end of Summer vacation I had done around 1300 kanji. Then school started, and that's when things got really tough for me. I signed up take two classes with the notoriously hardest teacher in the Humanities department at my school. He's a really smart and nice guy, and I learned a lot from him. But he assigned a crazy amount of work. On top of that I had to study for the SAT (college entrance exam in the US) and had to do other things for the college application. So for a whole semester (from mid September - mid January), I basically didn't learn any new kanji. There were some days where I struggled to find time just to do anki, lol. When the semester finally ended I had a half month vacation until the next semester began on February 3rd. I felt really depressed and discouraged at this time. I sort of felt like I wasted a lot of time, because in that entire semester I only learned around 200 new kanji. I seriously contemplated quitting RTK, but if I did that then I knew for sure that I had wasted my time. At this time I reread Aaeru's guide almost religiously. Her words always filled me with inspiration and provided me with hope. I asked other self-taught people for advice during this period, and often they encouraged me to quit RTK and move onto the grammar (quitting was something I really didn't want to do though). Aaeru's words encouraged me to continue onward. Rereading her guide made me feel like I was doing the right thing, and that my diligence would pay off in the end. So I decided to create a deadline for RTK, and chose April 4th, because that seemed like a reasonable amount of time. During the half month off I did 25 new kanji a day, and by the start of the new semester I was 1900 kanji through. Although I slowed down a bit, throughout February I maintained a diligent pace. I finished RTK on February 28th. I beat my deadline by over a month!

 

I'm glad I didn't quit because a lot of really important and frequent kanji are saved for the latter half of the book. I've said this before, but I consider RTK to be prologue to learning Japanese. It's not actually learning Japanese, but if provides intellectual tools and advantages that make learning Japanese a lot easier in the long term. So now I can truly begin learning Japanese by studying grammar and knowing that I have a huge long term advantage over other beginners! I have the kanji more or less out of the way! Sure I need to learn their readings, but I've already done the hardest part. Memorizing how the damn things look and their general meanings!          

 

For people either doing RTK, or who are contemplating starting it. If you read this, I hope reading my journey through RTK was even half as inspirational as Aaeru's words were for me.  

[Amuzie]

I want to try it out but i think I'll wait until high school, in which i can select Japanese as a "extra" subject.  

[Zakamutt]

I just noticed something from the original post, the Aaeru's guide for reading untranslated VNs page is actually gone (i think).  That guide was what made me have some motivation to start learning how to read Japanese and without it, i might have missed a great opportunity.  

 

I don't really want others to miss out on that guide, if something was done about this it would be great.

 

Also, uh f-first post...? -.-

huh, I guess Tay probably put it in za blog's trash. lemmesee if I can't restore it...

 

EDIT: holy shit Tay really went with a broad strokes approach. A lot of the old interviews seem to no longer be a thing as well. Sigh, guess I'll have to actually work on this...

 

Edit2: T_T

 

[Abyssalrift]

I'm glad my post got noticed~

Thanks and sorry for the extra work!  

[Zakamutt]

Meh you improved the blog and this is good, I should be thanking you instead