For those who don’t know, KKLC is the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course. It comes with nine volumes of graded readers that build on the kanji you learn in the main book. On his website, the author suggests the following study method:
TLDR: Quick summary of KLC study process
With the KLC method, you will learn kanji in the context of extensive reading. Be prepared to spend at least half your time on reading exercises. Set your goal as learning to read, not “finishing” the kanji.
Start your day’s routine by using the KKLC, the Graded Reading Sets, and the Green Book [basically a writing book, you write the kanji 2-3 times before moving on] to review recently learned material.
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Study a small number of new kanji in the KKLC, following the detailed instructions given in this guide. The number should be small enough that you can keep pace with your practice work in the Green Book and GRS.
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Read the Graded Reading Sets for your newly learned kanji, aloud.
Use Scrolling Mode to hide the phonetic and English glosses off the bottom of your tablet screen. Actively puzzle out the pronunciation of each word, the meaning of each word, and the meaning of the overall item, before consulting its glosses.
Replace massive SRS flash card study with massive GRS reading practice
The GRS will allow you to internalize kanji and important kanji-based vocabulary with little need of flash cards.
Do not bother to make “sentence cards” out of GRS exercises, which fulfill the same purpose.
Full guide where he explains the review method (2n 8n).
I’ve been doing KKLC for two weeks now, and it’s been fantastic, especially in combination with the graded reading sets. However, I've been ignoring his advice on SRS.
I couldn’t find an Anki deck I was happy with (I’m really picky about my cards), and creating cards easily takes up 60 minutes every day (often closer to 90). And that also doesn't include Anki reviews for my other decks.
Naturally, his method seems very appealing right now, because I can't realistically keep this pace up with work and all, without sacrificing my immersion time (CIJ etc.).
But letting go of an efficient algorithm and accepting that things will fall through the cracks is also kind of…scary? Even more so given the huge task ahead that is KKLC.
Has anyone here used KKLC or studied in a similar way (essentially, graded reading without mining), and would you recommend it?
For context, I’ve been studying for over a year now, so I still consider myself a beginner. Reading through the GRS so far has been relatively easy. Most sentences are n+1, although they sometimes include unfamiliar grammar (with references to the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, which I own) and, of course, unknown vocabulary (which I can quickly look up with a pop-up dictionary). I wouldn’t drop SRS completely; I just wouldn’t use it for KKLC.
by Lokorokotokomoko