at first, I focused on production of kanji from a keyword, e.g., discuss -> 談, at this point there is no Japanese and I spent four months getting through all th

at first, I focused on production of kanji from a keyword, e.g., discuss -> 談, at this point there is no Japanese and I spent four months getting through all the kanji. I still test daily and have gone through 21k kanji tests. Currently, I am reading みんなの日本語 wherein I am focusing on sentence mining and grammar. My current deck of sentences is around 800 sentences that I review as well, wherein I review recognition and speak out loud. My level is currently in between basic to low-intermediate. In the sentence mining I learn the readings of the kanji in context and could care less about kunyomi/onyomi, e.g.,幼稚園 -> ようちえん (or infancy-immature-park in RTK keywords). The method I am using is summarized at: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com I don't follow it all, but some of it is good. I studied Japanese for 12 years half-assed never getting anywhere. For the first time I am making progress and I have a plan (which is the part that I lacked before). BTW, to retain vocabulary, I would recommend Anki http://ichi2.net/anki/ http://ichi2.net/anki/ it is open and regularly updated.