I noticed that alot of people mentioned that they would like to work in a group for the G-Time project but no one said what they would like to work on...Anyways for the G-Time project I would like to either use Heisigs "Remembering the Kanji" or prepare for the Lv 3 JLPT... Either one would be good so if anyone would like to do the same please contact me!!
Well since that learning kanji and studying is a thing that you do alone I was thinking of making a wiki for the grammar, definitions, kanji that we learn. I have never done anything like this before so if anyone is thinking of doing the same or knows anything about making a website please let me know.
So I'm thinking of doing a video project based on what that Ted guy talked about in the video we watched. I was thinking of interviewing and testing random UGA students on what type of method is best to learn hiragana or basic japanese. It would basically test Ted's theory of what type of learning works best. Message me if this sounds interesting.
A bit about Remembering the Kanji...
These books (the first two volumes) use a very similar system to the one used in your Remembering the Kana book, but applied to the kanji instead. One strange thing is that it's kind of an "all or nothing" system, which makes it a bit of a gamble—if you stick with the system all the way through, then the payoff is huge (you will learn all of the kanji). If you quit partway through, though, then you won't get nearly as much from your efforts. What this means is that they are wonderful if you are a highly motivated learner, and you are sure that you want to stick with Japanese until you become very proficient at it. It isn't so great if you just want to get the basics of the language, but not necessarily shoot for mastery.
It's also a bit odd in that you learn all of the kanji and their meanings first (in Vol 1), and then learn the readings after that (in Vol 2). If you want to know the details of how that came about, read the introduction to the book. I guarantee you that the system is very effective at what it does (I used these books myself, and learned how to read and write the kanji in less than a year), but you have to keep in mind that the books only do what they promise—teach you how to read and write the kanji, not Japanese. In order to learn to read Japanese, the kanji are a necessary but not sufficient condition: you also need to know lots of grammar, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, etc., and these books don't teach you that.
A huge advantage to using these books is that there are a lot of other people out there who are doing the same, and so there are a lot of support tools out there. For example, there are Anki decks that are keyed to the book already made for you. Also, there is a wonderful site called Reviewing the Kanji that might be even better than using Anki.
As Leah mentioned, these books don't lend themselves to classroom use, which is why I don't use them in our class. They are great for individual use, however, as a separate effort from what we learn in class. Also, I think that using them would be a very interesting G-Time project, but they might be better for individual projects, not group projects.
By the way, we have two copies of this book in the Japanese office, in a lending library that we're putting together. I still need to make a sign-out sheet system for that, and I've put creating that system that on my "to-do" list for Monday, so if you're interested please take a look. Oh, and you can also check out the first section of the book (276 kanji!) for free! =)
I was also thinking of doing something about remembering kanji, since that's always a big hurdle for any student of Japanese. I've heard a lot of things about "Remembering the Kanji" - apparently it does help you remember a lot, but doesn't give you the readings, just the meaning. As interested as I am in trying it, I also heard that it's better for self-study and probably won't work if used in a classroom setting, or in conjunction with other learning methods...but I don't know how true that is. But this would count as self-study anyway, right? o.o;
I also thought vaguely about doing something like a kanji wiki, but I don't know how that would work out. And I kind of suck with grammar, so that's one area I need to focus on too...if some of the more creative people could come throw out some ideas, that would be really helpful. ^-^
Note that this site will allow you to make wikis. =)
If anyone is interested in doing so I'll be sure to show you how.