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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 1 of 436 31 December 2012 at 4:40pm | IP Logged |
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2013 will be a rather special anniversary for me, as summer 2013 will mark 5 years since I first convinced myself it might be possible to learn Japanese and started learning this beautiful language. For the story so far, my TAC 2012 log is here and there are links back to previous logs, back to 2008, in the first post.
2012 was a rather amazing year as I seemed to hit a few important milestones. I wonder if I will be able to beat it this year. Edit: Turns out I accidentally hit my JLPT goal 1 year early. As a result, it turns out most of what follows is no longer so relevant, so I set myself a new set of goals in early February here My main goal, as always, is to keep getting better at Japanese. I also have one rather more specific goal, which is to pass JLPT N2. As I mentioned at the close of my 2012 log, in the longer term I would like to get better acquainted with some European languages (in particular, German), but until I have N2 under my belt, I intend to stay focused on Japanese. For the last two weeks of December I set myself a number of mini-goals to complete by the end of the year. This was to serve two purposes – first of all to keep me focused on still doing things in Japanese rather than simply daydreaming about a study plan for 2013, but secondly to try out a few things that I thought I might want to make key components of my approach to Japanese over the coming months. In both respects, I think it was a success. I think I’ll also be able to use the mini-goal approach on occasions when I feel my concentration faltering – not so much at times when I don’t want to do Japanese (everyone needs a break sometimes), but rather at times when I am getting distracted unnecessarily by other things (necessary distractions will obviously need attention). For the first time ever, I do actually feel reasonably confident about my approach to Japanese. Having never taken responsibility for learning a language myself before, I always felt like I was performing some kind of experiment on myself and I was never confident about the outcome. Now for the first time I feel like I know what I ought to do to achieve what I want, based on my own experiences of language learning up until now. I also have a much better idea about what I want to achieve in the first place. Anyway, the main tools and methods I intend to use are as follows: Lots of input I’m at a stage now where I am really ready to start making the most of native materials. I can sit back and enjoy a TV show. I can even sit back and enjoy a book. So the cornerstone of my activities from now on will involve lots of watching TV and reading books! It almost sounds too good to be true! Last year I signed up to do a Super Challenge but tracking things with the Bot and making sense of the rules just became a little too complicated for my taste. I seem to have some kind of mental block when it comes to counting pages – the Tadoku challenge never worked for me either. However, I still have the blog I set up originally with the idea of keeping track of what I had been consuming there. I will set up a couple of pages there to list all the books, TV shows, films etc. I get through this year. I’m sure it will be quite boring (which is why I’m not going to keep track here instead), but it will be nice for me to have a record that is harder to lose than a paper list. If I come across anything particularly interesting, enjoyable or simply comprehensible, I’ll note it in my log here. An intermediate textbook After promising this time last year to find an intermediate textbook and stick to it, I’ve finally found one that I actually feel like sticking to. The book is 文化中級日本語 and it comes in two volumes with two separate workbooks. The downsides are that there is no answer book and the grammar explanations are minimal. However, most of the exercises are such that I can actually manage without an answer book, and I have enough good grammar references to make up for the lack of detailed explanations. Crucially, although there is no answer book, there is a complete script of all listening exercises at the back of the book. I like the layout of the book, the mix of different types of study materials and the way they have structured things to teach particular expressions and vocabulary. Most of the grammar points I have at least encountered, all be it superficially, before, so it’s a very good opportunity to get better at using them and start polishing my intermediate Japanese. It’s also nice to have a structured course to provide pointers about important aspects of the language that I should pay attention to when I’m reading and watching lots of TV. Online classes I started to take online classes with Japonin as my evening classes drew to an end and it became clear that there was nothing within a reasonable travelling distance available for me at a more advanced level. It is hard for me to find opportunities to speak Japanese with native speakers and the one real benefit of taking a class is that by paying money, I can guarantee myself some time with a native speaker. One unexpected benefit of taking these classes was also that the grammar section of the JLPT felt surprisingly smooth compared to the rest of the test, so I think they will be worth continuing with on this basis alone, at least until I get N2. Writing (and receiving feedback) I would like to work on writing more. I have a language exchange partner who is happy to correct short pieces of writing for me, and his corrections are really as useful and informative as any professional teacher. I’m really grateful for his support. Structured kanji study After a long kanji hiatus, it really is time to close the kanji gap a little bit. I’ve been working fairly consistently at Kanji in Context since around November. I think is one activity which, while kind of essential for a language like Japanese, seems to give the least return for the amount of time invested. Nevertheless, a structured approach to studying kanji helps me to draw connections (and avoid stupid mistakes) which would go unnoticed if I just continued with extensive reading alone, so I intend to continue using Kanji in Context, in conjunction with Anki, in order to better recognise and read kanji. It is quite a mammoth task. The slimness of the volumes belies an incredible amount of information to be covered. I think it would be helpful for my reading in general however if I were to at least try and finish working through the first workbook this year (so far I’ve done the first 20 of the 94 chapters in vol.1 – there are 143 chapters in the course overall). A couple of weeks ago, I posted a self introduction in Japanese on the Team thread. I have copied it here in case any team members missed it, and have now included a translation. はじめました。 私は ゲールと 言います。３０歳、 女です。 南ウェールズに 住んでいます。 (This is just what is in my profile!) 公務員 です。 市役所で 都市計画の 関 係の 仕事を しています。 職場で 日本 語を 使う機会が ありません。 I am a public sector worker. I have no opportunity to use Japanese in my workplace. ４年間半前に 日本語を 勉強し始めました 。 その時、 私は無職でした。 生活や 仕事など 何を すればいいか 分かりませ んでした。 毎日毎日 何もせずに 家に いて、 生活は つまらなくて、 気分が 悪くなりました。 ある日、 日本語を 勉 強してみようと 決めました。 そんなに 難しい 外国語を 勉強するのは 時間が かかるはずだから、 日本語を勉強すれば 生活は 面白くなる だろうと 思いました 。 I started learning Japanese four and a half years ago. At that time I was unemployed. I didn’t know what I should do in terms of life or career. Every day I was stuck at home with nothing to do, life was boring and my mood was low. One day I decided to try learning Japanese. I thought it might make life more interesting because learning such a difficult language would take up a lot of time! ひらがなで 始めました。 それから、 イ ンターネットの おかげで Pimsleur, Genki, Anki, HTLAL などが 見つかりました。 日本語を 勉強 しはじめてから、 すぐ 新しい 仕事を 見つけました。 I started with hiragana, and then thanks to the internet I found out about things like Pimsleur, Genki, and HTLAL. Soon after I started learning Japanese, I found a new job. １年後、 都市計画を 勉強するために 大 学院に 入ることにしました。 仕事をしな がら パートタイムで 大学院に 通ってい たので、 生活は 大変忙しく なりました 。 日本語の勉強を 続けていましたが、 あまり 上達できませんでした。 1 year later, I decided to do a postgraduate degree. Because I was studying part time while working full time, I was very busy. I continued studying Japanese, but I couldn’t progress very much. ２０１１年の年末、 結局 大学院を 卒業 しました。 ２０１２年、 少し 生き返る ような 感じがしました。 日本語を もっ と 勉 強しました。 今年の夏、 JLPT N3を 受け て、 合格しました。 それで、 今年の１２月、 N2を やって みました が、 不合格 のはず です。 I finally finished my postgraduate studies at the end of 2011. In 2012, it felt a little bit like I had come back to life. I studied more Japanese. This summer I sat JLPT N3 and passed. Then I attempted N2 in December, but I expect I probably failed. 日本語の勉強を 始めて以来、 日本語がき れいな言語だと 分かりました。 日本語の おかげで、 日本人も 日本語を勉強する人 も 面白い人に 会って、 新しい 友達を 作りました。 日本語を勉強しはじめて よかったです。 After I started studying Japanese, I realised that it was a beautiful language. Thanks to Japanese, I have met some interesting people, both native speakers and other students of Japanese, and I have made new friends. I’m really glad I started learning Japanese. ２０１３年も 日本語の勉強を 続けようと 思います。 もっと日本語で 本を読んだ り、 テレビを見たり、 友達と話したり したい と思います。 In 2013 I will continue studying Japanese. I want to read more books, watch more TV and speak to my friends more often! Team Sakuraの 皆さんと 一緒に 勉強 するのを お楽しみに しています。 I’m looking forward to studying with everyone in Team Sakura. よろしくお願いします。 Edited by g-bod on 31 December 2013 at 3:02pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4633 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 2 of 436 01 January 2013 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
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Your program seems very well organized, It's very impressive! I wish you to progress even
more this year and with even more pleasure! Anyway, good luck with all that and 明けまし て おめでとう！ それで、 今年は よろしくね！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 3 of 436 02 January 2013 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Yuhakko, and Happy New Year!
I've managed to go with something a little different already as I started watching a Taiga drama. Every year NHK do one of these year long drama series of historical fiction. I started watching Gou, which is about the wife of the second Tokugawa Shogun. I have to say, I found some parts very tough to follow, but other parts were surprisingly easy. My comprehension is definitely lower than I would expect if I watched a show about working adults in my age group (and time line!), but not so bad that I don't think it's worth perservering. My husband was reading a book while I was watching it, but he's quite keen on military history so at least I could get him to tell me who some of the clans were from their flags, even though he couldn't understand any of the Japanese! I think it might be time to have another go at reading my Doraemon history manga for 6th graders... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4633 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 4 of 436 02 January 2013 at 1:25am | IP Logged |
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Oh right, I've heard of those year long drama series from NHK but never got a hold of it.
Would you have a website or something where I could find that? That might be really good in order to develop well a certain type of vocabulary since it would come back over and over along the year. Plus as you pointed, the time line and situation in general is different from ours and that makes it even more interesting to me. I'd advise you to go on watching it instead of coming back to your comfort zone! Plus since I am definitely going to watch it too now, it would be good to have someone to share that challenge with! ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 436 02 January 2013 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
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Well I'm terribly impressed with your Japanese introduction. Was it very difficult to write? I had the energy to read it tonight (I don't always lol). I think you used all the structures I've studied to date and a few that I learned on my own ahead of the class. It was very good practice for me =). I'll probably go back and read it again to practice more for some of the vocab. And thank you for the spaces it's easier on the eyes!
I'll have to write something similar soon for my log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 436 02 January 2013 at 9:20am | IP Logged |
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@kraemder it took a little time to write but wasn't difficult - although there are probably still mistakes and unnatural expressions and all that. I put in the spaces myself because otherwise it would get mangled by the forum software!
@yuhakko I'll PM you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 7 of 436 04 January 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
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My hopes for a productive start to the year have been well and truly crushed by a nasty winter cold! I ended up losing both my voice and a distressing amount of my hearing over the last couple of days. Combine that with a headache and lack of sleep, and my options for actually learning anything have been severely limited. Yesterday I was reduced to putting wildlife documentaries on the TV and snoozing on the sofa! On the plus side, I must be getting better now, because at least I have the energy to complain about it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 436 05 January 2013 at 2:33pm | IP Logged |
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I'm thinking I might have another go at German. I'd like to see if I can make simultaneous study work for me by not putting myself under uneccesary stress. If I go for N2 in July, I won't need to start studying seriously for it until April/May, which gives me 3 or 4 months in which I can afford to mess around a little bit before having to really focus on Japanese. I'd quite like to go on holiday in Germany again some time this year, so I'm sure anything I do learn will probably come in useful. I'm not going to sign myself up for any classes or tuition or make any real commitments with German at this point, in order to avoid the uneccesary stress bit.
As for what materials I might use, I am trying to be as thrifty as possible in my approach to German (in complete contrast to my approach to Japanese!) and I don't intend to spend any money on more materials at present. I think I will go back to Assimil, although I'm undecided whether to start again from the beginning or pick up where I left off. I might just listen to the lessons in order and start again from the point where I stop understanding everything. I expect Assimil will tell me everything I need to know about basic German grammar in its own quirky way, but I also have a regular textbook for A1 level German which I could use for additional support, structure and more immediately useful vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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