Extensive Reading

So I just wanted to mention that I recently discovered extensive reading. Through an AJATT tweet I found Liana's Extensive Reading Blog which lead me to Culture Quirk's Video. I am only just starting to find out about it, but it seems like just what I need to be doing. I just need some super easy level one books. Luckily in the area are some lovely japanese bookstores and libraries!

Anki Changes

So I have made a little change to the way that I study my kanji in Anki that has made a huge difference in the level of boredom. I have been playing with timeboxing. I know that I read all bout it on AJATT long ago but I ignored it. I thought 30 minutes is a really short amount of time to review hundreds of kanji. It appears that it was too long. Khatzumoto was right. Smaller chunks are better. I have changed my session limit from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Now I am finding that I am running out of time long before I am bored with the process and then I am just irritated enough that I didn't get to finish that I want to go back and study more. I have gone from 0 reviews a day to at least 15. I feel really good about that even though it is just a baby step. I am entertaining the idea of an even shorter time like 2 or 3 minutes, but maybe I'll wait until I feel bored with everything again. I am not studying new kanji yet and am holding steady at 395, but my number or reviews due is getting smaller bit by bit. Yay! I just need to spend some time reading somehow so that I am seeing the kanji more frequently so they stay in my brain.