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Sunja’s Newspaper/TV Challenge --TAC 09 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 41 of 232 03 January 2009 at 8:41am | IP Logged |
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I took a break from studying today and took Kanjistep's placement test for JLPT3. I made 70% which is passing. I was hoping to be a bit farther along. I need to work on grammar and I can't do that here so I'm off to study!
EDIT: I was a bit disenchanted with my score so I took it again an hour or so later and got a total score of 78%. My weakest area is particles (I missed 2 out of 5). I missed 4 from the vocabulary, but of course this was my second time taking it... That was fun. I think I'll check back there in a week and see if they do indeed change the questions. That would be great if I could take a different quiz each week. I did some reading in my "Mangaland" book. I made up the work I missed yesterday when my family and I went out. If I can't manage a chapter a day plus my current vocabulary study then I'll put off working in the workbook. The practice lessons in the workbook take a lot of time. There's a lot of writing involved. I may decide to skip it until I get better. Edited by Sunja on 03 January 2009 at 5:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 42 of 232 05 January 2009 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
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I have an extended vacation since my other half doesn't go to work until Thursday and I don't have a course for this semester yet. That leaves me no excuse not to cram in as much Japanese as possible in the next few days.
Despite that, I didn't get started until 11:00. I put on the earplugs and was able to maintain listening for 4 hours straight. I wasn't as if I wasn't doing other things simultaneously. I had to fix lunch, clean up, attend to all of my family -- that's where volume plays a crucial part -- and I took my daughter and her friend sledding (!) I had the earplugs tucked under my Stirnband. Trudging up the snowy hill and no one could tell I was listening to Fuji News Network. For kanji and grammar practice I wrote out all the example sentences from chapter 50 (Mangaland book) and I did some additional sentences from IKnow!. It's almost bedtime but I'm going to go over a few units of シャドーイング日本語はなそう。 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 43 of 232 07 January 2009 at 9:49am | IP Logged |
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I haven't done so well today. Yesterday was better.
I put the earplugs in at 8:30 yesterday and went out to do some errands. Bank, post office, shopping -- without any kids along....it was bliss! I listened to a good five hours of IKnow sentences and Japanese news casts, looped over and over. In the afternoon I wrote out 53 sentences from Iknow! while listening to the making of a Miyasaki film. Later did an additional 17 from my grammar book. Mostly uses of ~ように. I started watching the Miyasaki film at 9.00. It's true! The more you hear, the easier it sounds. I'm excited. I really slacked off today. I've kept up with my vocab alright, but I didn't do any listening practice. For shame. Well, it's only 4.30. There's a bit more of the day left. I'd better use it listening to Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 44 of 232 08 January 2009 at 7:43am | IP Logged |
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I've made recordings of the renewed FNN, I have an old CD from JFBP, which I haven't heard in a year, a short story from "Breaking Into Japanese Lit" and sentences from IKnow! Level 2 and Level 10. So I have a nice mix to listen to today! I've already done 3 hours of listening. I took my kid to kindergarten and my husband went back to work. I haven't been called into work yet. I keep checking the machine....
Yes, the earplugs fit quite nicely under my Stirnband. I imagine when it gets warmer I won't be able to run around with those things in my ears. I could, but it might be a bit rude, standing there talking to somebody.... anyway. It's working great for now. I did about 100 sentences last night. I'm about to do some more sentences as soon as I clean up the kitchen. It looks like a bomb hit it. I'll try to stifle the urge to go into the forum -- Forum-Verbot in effect! I want to siphon all my efforts into studying. Here to update my plan of action: Slowly working on Levels 7,8 of IKnow! Date to finish: somewhere within the next two weeks. As soon as the new words stop coming, I'll pick up the pace a bit. Slowly working my way through Japanese in Mangaland III, copying down every sentence with kanji in it. Next step. Workbook. In February I want to do another test. Hopefully then I'll finally be clear of JLPT 3 kanji/words/grammar and I can move on. \('O')/ The slow, arduous trek into the intermediate-to-advanced arena! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 45 of 232 09 January 2009 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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Upon embarking on my slow, arduous trek into the intermediate-to-advanced arena I found another book I'd forgot I had: JLPT Level 3 Bonjinsha Practice, and I took the pre-test and the beginning of the book, which is good for revealing weak areas. Alas, my score was not unlike the small quiz I took a few days ago where I barely passed. Here are my missed scores:
Vocab: 1/10 Kanji: 2/19 Reading: 2/4 Grammar: 10/22 I didn't do listening. (I study on my own and I have no one to converse with, of course my listening is a weakness!) I'm on a campaign to improve. I reluctantly ordered the last of those JFBP books. I never got it because when I joined the forum I'd pretty much given up on the series. Now I've decided that the grammar can't be all to different from other books, and since I'm missing 50% on my grammar section anything will help. I've searched and searched for another book but for 10 Euros (used) the price is really good and it's 15 chapters in kanji. What can go wrong? I figure I can only improve with it. I'm going to continue with Japanese in Mangaland until my book comes. I'm almost finished writing sentences out of it. I've been shadowing off-and-on all morning. The IKnow! sentences are excellent for this. I've updated the first page of my log to reflect my new placement level. From this point forward.....oh, man. My husband just called. I forgot it's Friday!! I gotta go pick him up.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 46 of 232 10 January 2009 at 10:50am | IP Logged |
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Ugh. I'm so depressed. I don't have a course to help out with the Haushalt and we just received notice that the city is raising our monthly rate for the heating. The realtor sign is still hanging in front of our door like some morbid reminder that we have to leave. No one is kicking us out yet so.......onward!
It is my pursuit to find out what works best for me and ever since I've up-ped my listening I've noticed one thing. Getting a feel for the words with passive listening is good, but I don't feel like I'm getting much out of it. I'll continue it of course with the idea that I'm going to do more shadowing. I wasn't doing enough before. In the summer I was doing 20 minutes outdoors and I found this to be ideal. There was something about the outdoor elements, (fresh air and such) which got my brain working. Seeing as how that's not going to happen in winter, I've decided to shadow whenever I can, here in the house. I usually have to whisper or mouth the words. Not so great, I know, but I'm almost never alone and it is a bit awkward with people around. No matter. Seeing as how my job is on hold, I have a unique opportunity to do as much language as possible -- well,..with a family. I'll try to keep better notes of my shadowing progress. Today I shadowed off and on and don't have a clear idea of how much time was spent doing it. It's typical that I start to shadow a sentence and then clam up when somebody walks into the room. It's kinda hard to keep track. Other than that my vocab work is doing well. Waiting for my book.... Edited by Sunja on 10 January 2009 at 10:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 47 of 232 11 January 2009 at 9:55am | IP Logged |
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I jumped into shadowing this morning, using the short sentences from IKnow!, and I managed to shadow 200 of them. I clicked on the icon to hear it once then I played it again and spoke almost exactly at the same time. It took a couple of tries to get some of them exact. There are some sounds that I need practice on -- to sound the way the Japanese do. By doing this practice of shadowing I'm trying to train my brain to recognize situations and dialogues so that they become automatic. I've learned so many words since November and I keep forgetting things. If I don't start making some of it "more automatic" I'll never advance. It took me an hour to do 200 sentences. (I had to do many of them more than once to get them right.) A few hours later I did about 170 more sentences in the same manner. It would be nice if I could do this many on a daily basis. Na,..wishful thinking.
I also have gone back to my book on shadowing and I'm starting to do more intense work with it. I went over Unit 2, composed of 9 Sections having 1-10 short dialogues. There are quite a few contractions! No wonder I put the book away. Stuff like "tabeteshimaimashita ---) tabechatta" to indicate something that's ended. There's also yoyakushiteoku ---) yoyakushitoku. This is great for me since I've worked mostly with polite forms. I think this will enable me to process Japanese at a higher pace. I won't notice the results for a while yet. I think this practice, along with my vocabulary work with IKnow!, and my grammar study with the new book...well,...I think I've covered all my bases. Edited by Sunja on 11 January 2009 at 10:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 48 of 232 12 January 2009 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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That whole business yesterday of shadowing Japanese for so long was a mistake.
The thing I've noticed is, when I listen to Japanese (passive) for hours and hours, all I get is a few words and a big headache. It's better when I listen for say, 10 minutes at a time. I notice this when I'm in a rush to go somewhere and I want to cram in a bit of study first. I'm usually really stressed and really focused. (*'v'*) I was doing it last year I don't know what happened. I guess I've been subconsciously competeing with the notion that "alljapaneseallthetime" is a good thing. I have to admit, it was easier to put on the headphones and zone out with radio or TV, and just start doing other things. My ear may be getting accustomed to it but am I understanding it? I can't waste more time on passive listening. It's going to take more of a conscious effort, but I'm going to try to do language in short, intense "bursts". It just feels more right for me.... I just shadowed sentences for 15min. Now I'm off to do something other than study.... oo, this is gonna be good. I'll be editing in with the results! Day's not over yet... Edited by Sunja on 12 January 2009 at 7:34am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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