Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5219 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese
| Message 97 of 1702 20 September 2011 at 3:42pm | IP Logged |
Kraemder, I don't have the itme right now to read your entire log but I'm intrigued. You started from scratch in April and are already comfortable enough to read an entire book (Harry Potter) in Japanese? I've been studying (off and on) for 3 years and I doubt I could do it! I struggle reading just a few sentences. Very impressive, Kraemder! Well done!
I have a learning log, too, which I just re-started after a year break.
Oh, by the way, did you enjoy Lost Odyssey in Japanese? I played LO when it first came out (one of my all-time favorite RPGs). Last year, I tried it in Japanese but found that I wasn't as taken with the Japanese voice actors as I had been with the English ones. I ended up switching back to English hehe,
Anyway, good luck with your studies. You are making fantastic progress! (I'm jealous!)
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 98 of 1702 21 September 2011 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
Don't get the wrong impression - I don't feel "comfortable" enough to tackle a whole book. I think I'm going to drag myself through it kicking and screaming. And it's only thanks to this fantastic tool Furigana inserter and Rikaichan that I'm willing to attempt it.
Lost Odyssey is really good. Unfortunately, I understand the actor's Japanese a lot less than some other stuff I've watched - IE anime and some movies. If I started on English I could totally see myself getting used to those voices and not being able to get into the Japanese ones. So I didn't even try them heh.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 99 of 1702 23 September 2011 at 12:27am | IP Logged |
Ok updating from an airplane flying from Los Angeles to Boston. It cost 15 bucks but I figured I'd be so
bored it would be worth it. I went ahead and did 3 homework assignments so far for this distance course
and mailed them off. They took me about 3 hours each to do. It's pretty much the first active learnng I've
done. Most everything I do is passive. Well I'm glad I took this course if it only gets me to start writing stuff
out with a pencil. By the end of the course I won't have done a lot grammar but definitely will have written
tons of kana out. I like it and I think it's really helping. the study material I have includes exercises that I've
ignored but I'm going to go back I think and do them. I'm looking forward to the feedback from the
assignments and speaking in Japanese with the tutor.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 100 of 1702 24 September 2011 at 1:25am | IP Logged |
Ok I've been trying to learn kanji pretty consistently the past week anyway which is more than before so
progress should be made I hope. People say they're fluent in x amount of kanji and I was was wondering
what qualifies as being fluent? If you can draw it on command and know its English meaning? Or must
you know all the on and kun readings too? Anyway I've writing kanji out on graph paper and saying the
meaning and whatever Japanese word I know that includes it to myself. I think people have recommended
a site called learning or remembering the kanji. I'm gonna check it out again. I don't know if it works on my
iPad though and I'm in Boston pretty far from my desktop atm. I hear it's no longer free but is still very
reasonable. If it's something I'll use then I'm willing to pay a reasonable price.
As I'm in boston I stopped by schoenhoffs language book store to see what they had. I was hoping for an
easy reader that say only had hiragana or furigana for EVERY word. They were sold out but they're gonna
call me. I would put Harry potter on hold if they had something readable and graded.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 101 of 1702 24 September 2011 at 5:42pm | IP Logged |
I found a nice study set of cards for kanji. I grabbed it off of flashcard exchange. A website I've never
visited but my flashcard app hooks into it so I can download sets there. It's called your 1st 1000 kanji. It's
3 sided so you get the kanji symbol on one side, the English on another, and the different readings on the
3rd. Glad I found this set. I was looking for one earlier on quizlet but couldn't find one and then my app
added support for the flashcard exchange site.
So I'm using this in conjunction with just rote writing kanji out on graph paper. It would be nice learning
new kanji as I learned vocabulary but as the symbols are all so foreign and I don't know the stroke order or
meaning of the individual kanji used I find they simply dont stick. But I'm working on getting some
recognition going for the individual kanji so I hope to correct this.
Edited by kraemder on 24 September 2011 at 5:43pm
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 102 of 1702 25 September 2011 at 10:33pm | IP Logged |
Ok I am finding that writing the kanji over and over while good is more about me learning the stroke order.
I was just reviewing some graph paper from yesterday and I only recalled the meanings of a couple kanji. I
could remember the stroke order much better though. Then again you can sort of guess stroke order
anyway. So for kanji for now I think I'm gonna focus on this flashcard set I downloaded. It would be good if
I could do the flashcards then write the same kanji out but the flash cards don't show stroke order and I
don't want to guess and finding those kanji in my book would be a pain. They both do the 1st 1000 or
grades 1 through 6 so I'm gonna get through this set then get to writing. It may be a few months for me to
get through the 1000 kanji cards O.o but that's life.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 103 of 1702 26 September 2011 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
Hanging put int the airport terminal and my flights delayed and it's gonna be 3+ hour additional waiting for
me. Look at the departing times and you'll see that everything is mostly on time except for my plane.
Happens every time I fly.
Anyway, I found my way back to a site that was recommended t me earlier Read The Kanji. My Japanese
might have been a bit weaker then and I obviously didn't think I needed kanji as much. It was definitely
weaker. My hiragana and katakana have gotten better leaving me frustrated with kanji. So this site seems
really really good. And it has Japanese sentences to practice your reading but you can just ignore them if
you want. This site definitely beats my flashcard app I had going. My set downloaded wasn't bad but this
site is really nice. Only problem is the need for an Internet connection which isn't usually going to be an
issue except in this airport when my cell battery dies and obviously when I get on the plane. But at home
obviously it's not an issue. I also like that they don't use flash so I can use it on my iPad. I'm getting pretty
frustrated with iPad and their lack of flash support. Every other tablet does it just fine, are they just better?
Ugh.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 104 of 1702 29 September 2011 at 8:07am | IP Logged |
Ok so I fount read the kanji was a bit obsessed with counters. I'm not that interested in them. They're flat
out the last thing I plan on learning and I'm hoping I maybe somehow just get them by osmosis. I'm really
keen on getting better at kanji though now. I'm using my iPad app kanji box. I think the author says his
program is available on face book for free and has a couple more options even. I haven't looked there. The
app has a few options and I'm using the kanji one where it gives you the English and the readings (which i
ignore for the most part) and you pick the kanji out from a list of 4. It gives you similar looking kanji to
make it harder. I like the multiple choice method for starting out. It's a little more fun and I read an article
that people learn better if you test them on the material actually before you teach it. A little weird I know
but it makes a certain sense. IE when you do see the answer you've already tried to use the knowledge so
the brain is likely to see that it's useful and retain it maybe. So I this as a plus to the multiple guess
method.
Still waiting on feedback from the homework assignments I mailed off last week. I think they're going to
mail them back to me rather than email feedback :/. I love making combining my hobbies of languages and
technology gadgets so that's a disappointment. Speaking of which I pre-ordered the fire kindle. I hope it
has pop up dictionary support for foreign languages. We'll see. It has flash and I've been wanting a flash
tablet for a while. So disappointig that apple can't do flash.
Edited by kraemder on 29 September 2011 at 8:10am
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