Tailoring Smart.fm

Big News!

I have discovered a way of actually tailoring Smart.fm to work better for me. As you know, Smart.fm consists of goals made by individual users. They take a ton of time any effort to make, two things I am short on. I've been using the goals created by the user scuda and I will be forever grateful to him for making the goals. My only problem is with the sheer size of them. On average they included 150 or more kanji. And they are organized to break with the Heisig lessons. My study method completely disregards the lessons. By the time I finnish learning a single goal, considering my rate of learning, its time to move on to the next goal. Thus far, I have yet to master any of the goals.

However. And this is a big however. One I had resigned myself to the belief was not possible. Within any goal, one can go in and choose individual items and add them to a tailor made goal of any size. Therefore, I can go in to scuda's goals, pick an choose my 100 kanji for the week and spend that time mastering them. I am ecstatic right now. Here is how it works. Simply visit the page of the goal. Click on the 'more items' link. Click 'more' again at the bottom of the page, until all items with in the goal are visible. Check the boxes of the items you wish to include in your tailor made goal. Select 'bulk actions' and 'add to goal'. Title you goal and create it. To add additional items to that goal, follow the same steps and when prompted, choose to add to the goal you've already created. Smart.fm seems to keep the itemsin the order in which you add them.

Without the aforementioned funk, I probably would have never discover this. See. Funks are good, in their own way.

Funks

Ok. So I've started calling them funks. Days where studying just does not work out. For what ever reason, be it: the weather, irritating people in my life, the fact the universe has turned against me, on these days, kanji just does not agree with me. It has happened twice now, and I have accepted that these funks will occur from time to time. The most important thing, is when they are over I must pick myself up, brush my self off, and get back to work.

My first funk occur the week before my first big review-week and I was able to use one of my review days as a study day. My second funk occured on Wednesday. To compensate, this week I will only study 74 kanji. Next week I will tack five additional kanji on per day, meaning 25 per day. I've come to the realization that when I fall behind, it is best to catch up slowly and not overwhelm myself.

This most recent funk has put me in a better mind set concerning Rosetta Stone. I have mapped out the remainder of my lessons and concluded that I should be able to complete it, provided no further unforeseen funks, in 38 days, which will be October 2, 2010. I will then employ that 30-40 minutes of time, formerly allotted to Rosetta Stone to a 2 week intensive Japanese Grammar study. I believe I have built up enough of a foundation for a focused study. After that, I will return to Rosetta and spend a day on each of the 48 core lessons, focusing on reviewing the vocabulary and the grammar points. I don't have nearly enough vocabulary down to even attempt reading news articles or blogs, and until I do, Rosetta, is my best practice arena. I will write and type my own sentences using their vocabulary and some of my own. In the process I plan to review some of the other Japanese Language books I have collected and also to post journal entries both here on this blog and on Lang 8.

I choose to believe these funks are an important component to my learning process, as long as I choose to recover from them. In an effort to keep myself motivated, I will be posting on this blog far more often. The content will always be related to my efforts to learn the Japanese language, however, they will also be entertainment oriented. Films, television and anime are the best resources I have for hearing the language. As I seek new content, I plan to share.

Reviewing The Kanji

Reviewing the Kanji

This is by far an insanely useful site if you want to follow the Heisig method.

Smart.fm

Ever wondered if there were an easier way to systematically learn information. The people at Smart.fm have figured out a way. The web based software creates a learning schedule that adapts to the individual’s performance and needs. There are tons of user created goal that you can opt to study and then master. The most useful ones for the Heisig Method were created by a user named Scuda and can be found here. He has created massive grouping of Heisig's lessons to study. Personally, I would have preferred smaller groups, however, I do not personally have the resolve or time to create them myself. And that is the beautiful thing about Smart.fm; you can create goal with content concerning any topic. Simply create an account so that it can keep track of the goals you explore and the progress you make.

iKnow offer a long term learning process, which works on its own schedule to teach you the material. The settings can be modified should you choose to study at your own pace.

Drill Beta is a drilling application that adapts to the user to make learning more efficient.

BrainSpeed is a fast pace fun arcade game that can be used as a quick review tool.

A final useful item can be found here. Another user created a goal involving the Kana with the additional syllabary. The BrainSpeed game under this goal is particularly beneficial for review.

Smart.fm was an indispensable tool during my first review week.

500th Kanji Milestone

I will admit my wrong doing for the whole world to know. I hit a slump on the 26th of August which jumbled up my entire schedule. Luckily, today was the first day in my review week, which meant I had plenty of time to play catch up. On a wonderfully good note, I discover a new study tool called Smart.fm that I will detail in great length in my next post. I am short on time, as I have much reviewing to do. But today marks my 500th kanji milestone. I believe that warrants fireworks.