"Reviewing the Kanji" is a reviewing aid that helps you keep track of, and schedule reviews for over two thousand kanji. While the title is a perfectly descriptive one, it is also a playful nod at the kanji study method called "Remembering the Kanji" by James W. Heisig.

"Reviewing the Kanji" is a web-based application. There are several advantages over PC/Mac flashcard programs :

• Because it focuses on the kanji, the interface can be simplified and there is no time wasted learning yet another PC program.
• Although there are many flashcard applications implementing the Leitner system, it is hard to find pre-defined flashcard sets for James Heisig's keywords.
• Because it is web-based, it is possible to create a sense of community through the members list, a forum, and other features to come. Studying the kanji with a self-study method can be quite a lonely task if you do not have direct contacts within a japanese community or with other persons sharing your interest. It is my hope that this website will foster motivation and help users to persevere with the method and complete Volume I of "Remembering the Kanji".
• You can more easily use it on the road, while on business trips or otherwise.

The keywords provided on the kanji flashcards have been carefully chosen by James W. Heisig in his method called "Remembering the Kanji". You can learn more about it here and here. If you want to try the method, a sample of the book is available for download as a PDF file at the bottom of this page.

This website is designed as a complement to the book, not as a replacement. You have to learn the kanji on your own, following the "building blocks" approach of the book, then you can use this website to organize your reviews.

Reviewing is necessary in order to place the kanji in long term memory. Reviewing also takes a lot of time. A single, monthly review of two thousand kanji is equivalent to more than 60 reviews per day. Clearly, there is a need for organizing the reviews.

"Reviewing the Kanji" uses Sebastian Leitner's flashcard system, along with scheduling of reviews :

Leitner's system consists of a cardboard box separated into a number of compartments. The compartments are filled with flashcards and the flashcards are moved from one compartment to another, according to the current level of knowledge. When a flashcard is answered correctly it is promoted to the next compartment. When a flashcard is answered incorrectly it is demoted to the first compartment.

-- source : flashcardexchange.com

Quick Summary

Once you have logged in, you will see a quick summary of your progress : current lesson & number of kanji remaining in this lesson, number of expired flashcards, number of "failed" flashcards. Each summary corresponds to an area of the website explained below.

Adding Flashcards

Whenever you study with the book and have learned new kanji, simply enter the number of new kanji that you have studied and click 'Ok' :

A confirmation dialog appears, showing you the actual frame number range that corresponds to the newly added cards :

It is assumed that you are studying the kanji in the same "frame number" ordering that is presented in the book. New flashcards are always added in sequential order.

This is how the Leitner cardboard box looks like in Reviewing the Kanji :

There are five compartments, displayed from left to right. Each compartment corresponds to a level of knowledge.

Coloured bars in each compartment represent stacks of cards.

Clicking any of the coloured bars on the graph will take you to the reviewing screen.

A card that is answered correctly will be promoted to the next compartment. Since it also gets scheduled for review, it will also always move to the green stack.

When a card is not answered correctly it will move back to the first compartment! This is why you can gauge your current level of knowledge just by looking at the count of cards in each compartment : cards in the last compartment have not only been tested four times or more, they also have passed the test at least four times in a row. Thus, the cards in the last compartments correspond to the kanji you know best.

When a card has been tested, it is scheduled for review in a number of days corresponding to which compartment it is moving to :

* : cards tested succesfully in the last box remain in the last box and are scheduled again at the maximum time interval.

There is also an amount of variance added to the interval to help shuffle the flashcards over time. It is roughly one sixth of the interval so for example, a card going on a 30 day interval may be scheduled anywhere from 25 days to 35 days.

Also note that the last box on the graph on the Review page shows the total of cards from the 5th, 6th and 7th boxes together.

Clicking any of the stacks in the Leitner graph will take you to the reviewing screen :

Depending on how many cards are in the stack the reviewing session could be very short or very long. Keep in mind that you can test as many or as few cards as you like, and you may leave the Review screen whenever you want!

Every time you answer a card, that card's status is updated. When you click the "Finish" button to skip to the Review Summary screen, the remaining cards that were not reviewed simply stay in the stack, and can be tested when you have more time.

When you test one of the expired stacks (orange), you get cards in order of their expiry date, starting with the least recently expired ones, i.e. first come the cards that expired first.

When you test the untested stack, it works the other way round. Cards that were the most recently added, get tested first. This lets you review immediately newly added cards, regardless of how many untested cards were already on the stack.

Cards are always shuffled when they were added or expired on the same date. In other words, during review you get the cards in the order explained above, and within this order, groups of cards that fall on the same date get shuffled together.

Reviewing is done from the keyword to the kanji, and not the other way around. As recommended in James Heisig's method, you should write down the characters while reviewing. Since the book teaches you the stroke order of all the components of the japanese characters, being able to recall the kanji from the keyword means you are able to write every one of the kanji from memory. There is no planned support for testing kanji the other way round (there is however some sight-reading test/games planned).

Write down the character on a sheet of paper, or trace it in the palm of your hand, then press the Spacebar key or click "Show Kanji" to verify your answer :

The kanji is now displayed, along with the frame number and stroke count.

The stroke count is useful to speed up reviews : count strokes as you write the kanji and then compare with the correct answer. This is easier and faster than comparing your writing with the character on the screen.

If you were correct, answer "Yes" otherwise answer "No". You can answer by clicking either of the buttons or using the Y and N keys.

Correctly answered cards will be promoted to the next card box, incorrectly answered cards will return to the red stack in box one. It is highly suggested that you do not settle for half answers, if you forgot even just a small part of the writing of the kanji, answer "No". You are your own judge, but keep in mind that it is is not a race. Also realise that because many kanji look similar, forgetting "just one small stroke" here or there can make the difference between one kanji and another.

The "Stats" panel shows you how many kanji you have been testing in this session so far, how many were answered correctly, and how many were answered incorrectly.

At the end of the session, or when you click the "Skip to summary" button, you will be taken to the Review Summary screen :

The Review Summary lists the kanji that were not answered correctly during the review session.

The table can be sorted on any column by clicking on the column headers. In the example image above the review summary is sorted on the frame numbers.

Clicking any of the keywords will take you to the corresponding kanji in the Study area, where you can check your mnemonics, adapt them, or maybe use a mnemonic shared by another member if yours wasn't working so well.

The Study area is the most active area of the website, after the flashcard reviews : this is where you can enter your stories (as per Remembering the Kanji's method) and share them with other members :

There are two ways to enter the Study area : click the "Study" link in the main navigation bar, which will show you an introductory text with some hints for editing your stories. The second way is when you click the red stack representing your "failed" flashcards, this gives you the opportunity to rework stories that didn't work well, see what new ideas have been shared by other members, and eventually click the "Learned" button to move the flashcard back into the review cycle.

If you choose to publicly share your story, it will appear in the list below. You can vote for stories that work well, copy a story from another member (you can use it as is, or you may want to edit it).

• With the Leitner system, each cardbox represents a level of knowledge of the kanji. You can get a rapid estimate of your current progress simply by checking how many cards are in each box.
• You are able to set your own priorities simply by choosing the card box you want to work on. If you feel tired or you don't have enough time, review the higher compartments. If you are ready to tackle difficult kanji, work on the lower compartments.
• Too many reviews in a short period is a waste of time, as the information learned will remain in short term memory. Wait too long before reviewing, and you have lost the information. The scheduling system in "Reviewing the Kanji" uses increasingly longer spaced reviews, in order to promote long-term memory retention.
• You can optimize your reviewing time thanks to the scheduling system. There will be lots of reviews early on, but once your cards spread into the higher compartments, they will be scheduled for longer intervals, during which you can focus on the kanji that needs more attention.

Q. I can not see japanese characters in my browser.
A. You have to enable East Asian languages support in Windows in order to see the kanji on this website. See Installing Japanese Support for a detailed how-to on installing East Asian language characters and the Input Method Editor (IME) which lets you type in Japanese.

Q. What about paper flashcards ?
A. Paper flashcards allow you to review wherever you go, without the need of a computer. It is not necessary to create your own paper flashcards when studying with Remembering the Kanji, but it is still recommended. The time spent creating the cards helps during the study. Creating your own flashcards can be time consuming however. If you like, you can print some flashcards (Printable flashcards). You can also buy the "Kanji Study Cards" from Japan Publications (which also have the kanji compounds, pronunciations, etc. covered in RTK Volume II).

Q. Do I really have to write the characters down when reviewing ?
A. No, but it's highly recommended to do it :

During later randomized review with flashcards, learners also write the characters. When review starts with a native-language definition and proceeds backward along the retrieval path to the character, writing the character gives a clear indication of how well it has been recalled. It also seems, however, that this motor element can make a contribution to character memorization and recognition, as many scholars have suggested.

Source: article by Dr. Timothy W. Richardson

• Remembering the Kanji
• Sebastian Leitner's flashcard system
• Chinese Character Memorization and Literacy
• Theoretical aspects of spaced repetition in learning
• KanjiClinic.com