Learning Japanese Stage I (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Learning Japanese Stage I
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25 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4

AndyMeg
Diglot
Groupie
Colombia
Joined 4919 days ago
48 posts - 62 votes

Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: Japanese, Korean

Message 25 of 25

15 February 2017 at 2:10am | IP Logged

kraemder wrote:

I can relate to your being in a class over your head. I decided to learn Japanese one spring. As you can
imagine my self studying was erratic and unstructured. Basically I downloaded vocabulary flashcards and
studied them and watched anime. I had a textbook too. That fall I couldn't take classes because of my work
schedule. But my work schedule changed and I was able to enroll for the spring semester. I had the choice of
taking 2nd semester Japanese or first. I had basically done half the first semester on my own using the book
and decided to go for second semester Japanese. The teacher was about a foot shorter than me but I kid you
not when I say I was terrified of getting called on in class because I rarely knew the answer. I was scared to
go to EVERY class haha. But I went. I really was a lot more motivated than the other students though and by
the end of the semester I was among the best students in the class. Being put ahead of your level can be
stressful (really really stressful!) but also make you learn more.

Kanji do get better but it takes years of consistently seeing and reading them. Yuck right? It takes Japanese
kids many years to properly learn kanji and unfortunately the same applies to us.

Yes, it was the most stressful time of my japanese learning journey. I remember the first class of level 3: I couldn't understand a single thing! I had to work a lot more than the others and it finally paid off (not so much with kanji: I became utterly terrified with them for a while; but I did improve a lot in other areas. I also became one of the most advanced students in any of sensei's classes at the time. She didn't have many students, but still it was good to hear that from her.).

Yes, I think what I lack is more input. I'm a lot better at listening to japanese than reading it (sometimes I watch some Raw japanese TV specials and dorama episodes. A few months ago I was really happy with a TV special I watched because I could understand a lot of things: for example, I could follow the conversation of a husband who was going blind and his wife who was trying to make him see that he wasn't alone. It felt so good being able to understand each and every word and expression!). The good thing is that I'm no longer terrified with kanjis, so I'm starting to make progress again (and the "Japanese Kanji Study" App is the most awesome tool I've found to date for learning kanji! I think I found it at the right time).

Edited by AndyMeg on 19 March 2017 at 12:28am

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