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Japanese from scratch TAC 2015 東亜

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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Lexii
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5214 days ago

162 posts - 194 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 105 of 1702
29 September 2011 at 2:39pm | IP Logged 
Kraemder, sorry to hear that you encountered a lot of counters on ReadtheKanji. It's one of my favorite sites (it would be PERFECT if it had audio), and I haven't really experienced an over emphasis on counters. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Your log and mine sound a lot alike to me. It seems you, too, enjoy consulting loads of resources! We even have a lot of the same ones. One question I have for you: what is the e-learning college you're using? Have you had enough experience with it to give a quick review? Is it very expensive? I'd love to have a class or a tutor but I can't afford anything that's being offered in my area (multi-thousands of dollars for a 12-week class is not in my budget).

As for writing kanji, have you tried Skritter? Not too expensive, allows you to write via mouse or tablet, has audio and sentences. I find it very useful. I'm not trying to become an expert writer, per se, but the experience of actually writing helps me burn the kanji and words into my brain. Sure, I could do it on paper but Skritter gives me immediate feedback (and who doesn't like immediate feedback?).

There are several similar programs for iPod (I assume iPad, too), although the ones I have don't have audio. I like Kanji LS Touch (for learning individual kanji) and Japanese LS Touch (for words).

With regard to the Fire, I'll be interested to read your reaction, especially since you already have the iPad. I hope you'll do a comparison, looking specifically at how each figures in to your Japanese studies.

Anyway, keep up the great work, Kraemder!
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 106 of 1702
29 September 2011 at 5:37pm | IP Logged 
I could definitely do a comparison review of the fire vs ipad2 regarding my Japanese studies and in general. Regarding Japanese I suspect the ipad will win hands down heh.

Yeah I do use a lot of resources. Or rather I've gone through a lot of resources to date heh. I am pretty happy with the ones I'm using at the moment - my flashcard app, the elearning course, and kanji box app on ipad and the japanese in mangaland series of books. The e-learning course is through the University of Alabama. It's actually focused towards high school kids getting a head start on College but can be taken for college credit too. Obviously I don't have to sit in a classroom full of kids but seeing the JA 101 High School when I login is a little belittling heh. I really can't do a review on it yet as I'm just getting underway and haven't done a skype lab/tutor session yet. I have submitted several written assignments however.

As someone who has a bad tendency to not stick to a certain resource or program I would say it's a definite benefit to be in a course because you have a lot more motivation to do so - IE someone grading you and asking for assignments using -their- material. I think that's a real plus for me. The written assignments did wonders for my ability to write hiragana/katakana. It was basically non-existent before (recognition only) and now I can write most of the characters without having to stop and think etc. Not perfect yet (but I think it will be by the end of the course).

I forget the price exactly but it was about what you would pay for a course at your local community college. 400 bucks or something. I'm not taking it for an official grade mostly because I don't have easy access to someone who could serve as a proctor (someone who administers tests) since I'm not currently a student. The skype tutor said he'd be happy to have me just take tests during skype sessions. I am not sure if he'll be able to live up to that - if he can only have one skype window open at a time etc but we'll see.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 107 of 1702
01 October 2011 at 6:38am | IP Logged 
Studying Japanese is like learning two languages. Spoken Japanese and kanji. I think kanji qualifies as a
whole language unto itself.
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Everplayer
Diglot
Groupie
China
Joined 5041 days ago

69 posts - 85 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin*, English
Studies: Japanese, German

 
 Message 108 of 1702
01 October 2011 at 8:48am | IP Logged 
kraemder wrote:
Studying Japanese is like learning two languages. Spoken Japanese and kanji. I think kanji qualifies as a
whole language unto itself.


In fact, kanji is borrowed from a language called Chinese/Mandarin. :)
It can be interesting if you look deeper into kanji or Chinese characters alone because they are not mere symbols like alphabets or kana. Instead, many of them are "self-explanatory" in some sense. Of course, that is another very long story.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 109 of 1702
01 October 2011 at 7:19pm | IP Logged 
My flashcard app got an update - multiple choice. I'm having fun with it using it with a kanji deck I have of the first 1000 kanji you should learn. Right now I have it setup to show the Kanji and then 5 possible English translations of the individual kanji. The translations are for the kanji itself, not for a Japanese word (except for those cases where the Japanese word is spelled with a single Kanji I suppose). It's pretty fun and a lot like the Kanji Box app I was using this week. The app has some other stuff to it like drawing the kanji out which my flashcard app doesn't do. But the app does allow me a lot more control over the studying. I'm currently using the Leitner method (normally I use spaced repetition but for multiple choice somehow that doesn't seem as appropriate).

I was just thinking (for like the millionth time) how nice it would be to learn a language without a pictographic alphabet and with spaces between words (without using a computer to put them in for you). An easy language. Russian seems nice and easy. Alas, Russia doesn't publish loads of anime =/.

I'm gonna hit up Potter again. I got sidetracked by a few things - mostly my elearning Japanese course I'm taking. I started over last night on Potter. I have to use Firefox to read this (without the add ins it's a lost cause) and I haven't figured out a way to do bookmarks yet. (I'll try Google after I post this). Anyway I started from the beginning again. I was only a few pages in anyway. I was initially going to just plow through without keeping a vocabulary list. I did this with Spanish and David Eddings Pawn of Prophecy series and it worked well. I switched to doing vocab lists later with Wheel of Time. But I think with Japanese I am going to get a nice big fat list of words from Potter to plug into my ipod. When I hit 200 words or so I'll stop and just read a bit.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 110 of 1702
01 October 2011 at 8:00pm | IP Logged 
Everplayer wrote:
In fact, kanji is borrowed from a language called Chinese/Mandarin. :)
It can be interesting if you look deeper into kanji or Chinese characters alone because they are not mere symbols like alphabets or kana. Instead, many of them are "self-explanatory" in some sense. Of course, that is another very long story.


Yes it's a long story. Feeling overwhelmed with stuff to learn I had hoped to avoid it but I don't think I really can. I'm currently attempting to learn the "meaning" behind each individual kanji. I don't see any other way to learn to read/write it. It's interesting thankfully but it's a lot to learn.


Edited by kraemder on 01 October 2011 at 8:01pm

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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 111 of 1702
08 October 2011 at 7:18am | IP Logged 
Weekend. I always hope to get a lot in over the weekend. For this weekend I definitely want to get through some of the lab and written assignments for the course I'm taking. Also I want to read up more of Japanese in Manga land and make some headway on Harry Potter. I might get a schedule change at work which would let me take an actual live class in Japanese at the community college nearby. That would be awesome.
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5176 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 112 of 1702
08 October 2011 at 7:22am | IP Logged 
I do find Japanese pretty frustrating after studying western European languages. I am gonna look around for other language logs of people who studied western European languages and then took on Japanese and see how it went for them. It's only been about 6 months of studying for me so I shouldn't be too frustrated but I guess I still am. Oh well. Definitely not giving up though.


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