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日本語 and me the next round TAC 2012 Team い | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 305 of 333 05 December 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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The State of my Studies
Now all the excitement of the JLPT is well and truly over and I already find myself 5 days in to the final month of the 2012 TAC, I think it's time for a little update about what I've actually been doing to learn Japanese, and what I intend to continue doing this month. Kanji I can't quite get over the enthusiasm with which I've jumped back in to kanji studies again, but long may it continue (or at least as long as it takes me to "finish" the job). I've been back to my old nemesis, a combination of Kanji in Context plus Anki. But I am taking a different approach... The format of the cards is very different and based on the expressions and sentences in the workbook. I'm testing myself on both reading and writing the target words. I'm also making fairly strict use of the Anki timeboxing feature. The Anki SRS algorithm is far from perfect and I think once I've been drilling a card on the system for a little while, it's either mine for good or it's one I'm just not going to remember right now. There's little value to me of drilling cards that are several months old. So I am not worried about due cards building up any more, so long as I see new cards a few times in the week or so after I've added them. I review new cards first, and then review due cards from the shortest interval, so I always see the newest (or weakest) cards until the timer runs out. And then I usually stop for the day. So far it seems to be working really well and even though I'm only up to chapter 15 (of 143!!) it has helped me not only with things that came up on the test but also with reading the 村上 book. Classes I'm very happy to have discovered the Japonin system and am enjoying taking one or two classes a week. The classes usually cover one or two intermediate level grammar points and I always try to pick the classes covering something I've never met before to make the best use of the time. Thanks to compression of sound and occasional technical glitches, it's not as good as face to face interaction, but as I have no realistic options for that at present, it's still a very cost effective way of ensuring I get some interaction in Japanese and learn new stuff at the same time. I'm not so motivated to study grammar from textbooks on my own at present, so this is really the only grammar I'm getting! And as my language exchange is currently on hiatus thanks to technical problems, this is also the only interaction I'm getting at present. J Drama Now I'm at a level where some TV shows have passed over into the realm of comprehensible input, watching TV (without subtitles) is suddenly becoming a very effective study method. The more I watch, the better my listening comprehension becomes and also I notice some improvements in my own pronunciation. Unfortunately, the effect does seem to wear off quite quickly (on pronunciation within a few hours and on listening within a few days) but fortunately, I quite enjoy sitting down to watch cheesy yet comprehensible Japanese TV shows. It sounds strange compared to what I was told when I was a schoolkid, but basically I think I need to study less and watch more TV! I'm actually doing a little personal challenge, which I won't be tracking in too much detail here, but I am trying to watch 200 J Drama episodes, without subtitles. It's like a Half Super Challenge, only without the deadline (or sense of commitment). I've got a paper list of what I've been watching on my desk, which I only started last week, and so far I've watched a whole 4 episodes. Go me! Reading Just as TV is becoming more comprehensible (and therefore a much more important study tool), reading is also becoming a lot more important. I still don't do enough of it, although sitting down with the 村上 this week has been a huge confidence boost. So I am aiming to finish that, also finish a children's book of short stories I've been reading (and will do a little write up of when I'm finished) plus continue working through the children's graded readers I have. But the 村上 has been a wake up call that I need to stretch myself beyond children's stuff now. Textbook? With the exception of Kanji in Context, textbook study is probably the least important element of my studies at present, but it's not so trivial that I can drop it completely. I have a few options for doing things like shadowing, intensive reading, listening comprehension etc. and I think it's good to dip into textbooks occasionally because sometimes they bring things to your attention that you might not have noticed, or might have misinterpreted otherwise. All in all I'm feeling quite happy with where things are at the moment and very keen to continue watching TV, reading books, taking grammar classes and learning kanji! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 306 of 333 06 December 2012 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's a little funny that you're reading children's books and 村上. They're sort of at opposite ends of the spectrum. I always thought your reading skills must be comparatively weak because you were reading children's books, but now I think you've just grossly underestimated your level or that you lack a bit of self-confidence.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 307 of 333 06 December 2012 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Well Murakami's writing style is quite straight forward and not as kanji dense as some writers. But compared to a children's book there is little furigana and the writing is pretty small. It definitely takes longer to read. But reading is a lot less tiring for me now.
I think self confidence or lack of awareness of my own level may be a factor, but I also think I seem to have reached a point where my brain is consolidating everything I've encountered in the language. Certainly everything seems to be a bit easier to understand recently. But then I look at the hours I've tracked on the 6wcbot this time round and I've already beaten my total on previous challenges, with still a whole week to go. So maybe that has something to do with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 308 of 333 07 December 2012 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've finally finished reading one of the Aoi Tori Bunk children's books that's been sat on my bookshelf for far too long.
The book is called 三丁目が戦争です by 筒井康隆 and is actually a collection of four short stories. The first story is really rather dark. It starts off with the tale of a playground fight between a young girl who is quite the bully and an older boy who tries to stand up for all the kids. This escalates into a row between the parents. And then everything is overshadowed by a total war breaking out. Well, all I can say is that reading the descriptions of what happens next seems to pack a lot more of a punch when you're reading it in a foreign language - it's the realisation that first you actually do understand it, and then that it really is quite horrible. Anyway, the other stories are a lot more fun, including a story about how all the statues in the world are brought to life, a story about how a baby ends up accidentally being injected with growth hormone by an incompetent doctor and grows into a giant べビラ who causes havoc in Tokyo, and a story about how two kids sneak into a spaceship in the museum, press a button, and end up travelling deep into outer space... Anyway, it's very readable and, apart from the first story, is quite good fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 309 of 333 07 December 2012 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
I loved those kinds of stories when I was a kid. I still love old SF stories for kids. They're always out there in some fancy rocket ship zooming past Jupiter while calculating their orbit with a slide-rule. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 310 of 333 10 December 2012 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Woohoo I've just passed the 100 hour barrier for the 6WC! Just need to do another 2 and a half hours Japanese stuff and I'll pass 100 hours of Japanese study. Compared to my previous attempts, this is a significant improvement to the amount of time I'm spending on language study. I'm feeling very pleased with myself right now!
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 311 of 333 11 December 2012 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Woohoo, I'm now at just over 100 hours of Japanese study in the last 6 weeks.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 312 of 333 12 December 2012 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think now is a good time to remind myself that one can indeed have too much of a good thing.
No, I haven't burned myself out after 101h58 of Japanese study. I haven't even burned myself out after 29h5 of kanji study. Although kanji is the main cause of my concern here. I've just finished part 2 of kanji in context. So that's 18 chapters (of 143!), 350 kanji (of 1947!) - out of which I've input 625 facts into Anki to make 1250 cards. And a quick look on the Anki kanji stats function tells me that although the KiC reference book has only covered 350 characters so far, the example expressions and sentences have actually included 722 unique characters. The number of times I've noticed overlap between what I am studying in KiC and what vocabulary turns up either when I'm having online classes, or watching TV shows, or reading books, is pretty reassuring. It's definitely helping everything come together. So why am I worried? Well basically, I've been pushing myself to try and get through KiC as quickly as possible. It takes me about an hour of looking things up and typing to create review cards for one chapter and I've been able to work at a pace of adding around 3 chapters a week. If I work at that pace, I need to review cards for around 30 minutes a day (which I've been doing in 15 minute chunks) to get reviews of both brand new cards and enough older cards that I am happy (note, this means less reviews of older cards than the Anki algorithm thinks I need, so I always end a day's review with a couple of hundred due cards left).On top of that, once I move into part 3 and start encountering more and more kanji that I don't know so well, or even don't know at all, I'm going to have to spend some extra time just familiarising myself with the kanji themselves, which hasn't been necessary so far. It takes a lot of time and is taking up too big a proportion of my study time. I've really noticed what a major difference sitting back and watching TV is making to both my listening comprehension and my speaking ability and I think at the present time, TV is probably the biggest thing I should prioritise (at least until I find the ceiling at which that stops to be so effective too). Obviously, if I've got a spare 3 hours in a day, that's plenty of time to watch enough TV and study my kanji. But if I've only got a spare 2 hours or less, I think I need to prioritise TV. It feels really weird having to tell myself to stop studying so hard and go watch TV. But I think I need to do this! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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