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 1193 of 1702 12 December 2013 at 1:03am | IP Logged |
With the JLPT being over and a new semester at the local college coming up I am now given the option of
studying a different language. I'm looking at Spanish. My German was a lot better than the other students
when I tried the 2nd year class they offer and it would be like I'm an extra tutor in the class. So I'm sure
Spanish would offer more for me. Not sure what I'll do yet.
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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 1194 of 1702 12 December 2013 at 7:55pm | IP Logged |
There's several Spanish classes at the community college. I'm looking to take 102 because I never took it
and there's one class that filled up super fast. I am guessing the teacher is really good. Same thing
happened last year but I decided not to take two language classes at the same time. Well I might do it this
year. Or I'll stay focused on Japanese. I think I can get into this class if I want because people always drop.
I've been on top of my SRS reviews since starting them up again. I switched back to doing production with
pictures. And I'm doing my grammar deck 1st before anything else. I haven't added any grammar cards but
will do so this weekend. It's a little tricky trying to test myself on some of the less common ways to say
something since the English queue doesn't perfectly tell you what it's testing so I'm trying to make good hints but if I'm not paying
attention I still good that. But the reviews aren't too bad and I'm sure pure repetition will get it so I know even
those. I have a Skritter account now. I haven't really used it however and will probably regret spending the
money.
*edit for strange iPhone auto corrections*
Edited by kraemder on 13 December 2013 at 6:40am
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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 1195 of 1702 14 December 2013 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
I just was checking status of my order with WhiteRabbit for Kanji in Context.. I ended up buying from them since it was about the same price for new books versus used ones.. and I see they have a NEW version of the Kanji in Context series now. Days after I ordered the old one. /cry.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5979 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 1196 of 1702 14 December 2013 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
Shame. However the biggest difference seems to be the update to reflect the changes to the
joyo kanji, the inclusion of stroke order diagrams and red ink in the reference book and some
minor formatting changes in the workbooks. The method still looks identical. Once you've
learned how to use 1900 odd characters I don't think it will be such a big deal to learn a
couple of hundred more for the new joyo.
So yeah, it might be disappointing to miss out on the latest edition, but you've still got
yourself a robust and tried and tested course. Which you also got at a discount thanks to the
impending release of the revised edition.
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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 1197 of 1702 14 December 2013 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
Thanks. Everything you said is true. Well I didn't get it at much of a discount though. A couple of dollars. But
I'm sure it's a great book.
Oh I had my Japanese lesson tonight and found some good examples my Japanese grammar dictionary to
add to my grammar deck so it's growing and I'm on top of it. I'm going to steadily add to it. I think this'll be
really useful. I learned ないこともないですが structure. Well they used けど in my class. Pretty easy stuff.
While I was at it I added some なしでは examples too. I can't believe you can go through 2 years of studying
a language at a university and 2 textbooks and not learn how to say "without". Crazy. I am going to flip
through the book to find other glaring gaps in my knowledge that prevent me from speaking. I guess
Japanese people don't feel a need to express the idea of without too much or it'd be in the course but I do.
Edited by kraemder on 14 December 2013 at 1:50pm
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dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4662 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese
| Message 1198 of 1702 15 December 2013 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
kraemder wrote:
I can't believe you can go through 2 years of studying
a language at a university and 2 textbooks and not learn how to say "without". Crazy.
I am going to flip
through the book to find other glaring gaps in my knowledge that prevent me from
speaking. I guess
Japanese people don't feel a need to express the idea of without too much or it'd be in
the course but I do. |
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In one of the lessons that I remember covering なしで the American host explains how to
use it and the Japanese host explains that mostly in Japan, you accept food as it is
given to you. It wasn't quite as strong as "you must accept" but she seemed to be
saying that you probably don't want to order 4 things off the menu and modify each and
every one otherwise you may be considered odd (or rude).
You've been warned :-)
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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 1199 of 1702 16 December 2013 at 7:51am | IP Logged |
hehe I don't really use it for that. I tend to just order stuff off a menu and not really know what it is and just eat it when it arrives no matter what. I'm not a picky eater.
I heard back from White Rabbit Japan and they said I'm welcome to ship back the old version of kanji in context if I want. Of course I'd have to pay shipping both ways - which I was expecting. I think I do want to get the new versions of the books. As g-bod was pointing out there's an update to the joyo kanji and while I could still just learn the additional kanji outside the books I would rather have the current version that will be used for the next 15 years or whatever.
I had a JOI lesson. It was their 中級 level which is equivalent to N2. In my book that's advanced but they cater to N1 too so they call that advanced and N2 is just 中級. So my classmate was much more fluent than I am at Japanese. Which isn't very heartening when you feel like an idiot. I hadn't done a 中級 lesson in a couple months since I was doing N3 level only lessons even if they were review for the JLPT. Before, I found the students varied and in fact sometimes the N3 students were ahead of people taking N2 lessons. Not the case tonight. This lady spoke Japanese like she's been living there for many years, albeit as a 2nd language for sure. She made a couple mistakes regarding when to use plain form vs masu form that I caught but mostly I was just listening to her go using vocabulary I barely recognize passively. And with a good accent too. I find that I have a hard time understanding Japanese as spoken by foreigners vs native speakers. Which seems a little weird. But I understood her accent very well but just found her throwing around big words (to me) with ease to be a little challenging.
So I would like to be as good as the other students in the class obviously. Which means I need to buckle down. The other N2 level students are likely pretty good. I could see myself taking these classes for 2-3 years easy. So that gives me an idea of how low my level is vs other people taking the classes. Me two years from now should be a lot better than I am now. Frustrating but something we all have to go through I know if we want to level up. We did the にすぎない structure which in itself isn't too complicated but speaking freely about a variety of topics off the cuff, that can be challenging.
My reviews are going well. For some reason I'm adding tons and tons of vocabulary to my SRS deck. As in 200 new words this weekend. You'd think I was cramming for JLPT. Silly. I guess I want to understand more anime dialogue without subs. I get the feeling with a bit more it could go a long way. You just need to get the context. If you're only missing one word per sentence you can often just guess the meaning. But more than one word and it gets tough.
Edited by kraemder on 16 December 2013 at 7:54am
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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 1200 of 1702 18 December 2013 at 8:02am | IP Logged |
I think I finally got fluent with comparatives in Japanese. Took long enough. Such a useful thing to be able to do and pretty basic too. Yes, I'm referring to the 初級 grammar structure 何の方が何よりいい。。 structure. Stupid basic. At least I'm getting better. This isn't to say I couldn't do it before but I had to really try. And yes, it comes from not having much speaking practice. This grammar deck I'm making myself do is helping I think. I need to stay on top of it.
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