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CZ’s TAC 15 CHN/JPN/KOR | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 713 of 844 23 December 2013 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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12/23/13
Chinese MCDs: 83(125) [+24(52)] Chinese Vocab: 185 [+71] Hanzi: 0 [+0] Japanese MCDs: 23(51) [+11(24)] Japanese Vocab: 376 [+151] Korean MCDs: 24(54) [+14(36)] Korean Vocab: 349 [+171] This past week I mainly focused on grammar cards. Despite having more time, I added roughly the same amount of vocab cards though I mined a lot more and have them saved in a Word file to add later. This made me realize that I should mainly use Anki as 1) a tool to keep me studying everyday, not a tool to learn the whole language and 2) as just a small part of my overall learning. What I have noticed is that is is ridiculously easy for me to learn Korean vocab and grammar using Anki...most likely because I have simply spent more time around the language. It's fairly easy for Japanese, but I have trouble with certain kinds of words (political and business words seem really foreign) and it's fairly hard with Chinese. However, I have been smart with Chinese and have been learning vocab straight from my Chinese characters dictionary, so it is much easier to remember the words than they otherwise would have been. I see the best use being for grammar, especially with Chinese and somewhat with Japanese. The MCDs are really helping learn the basic grammar. However, I plan on going back to my preferred method of reading a lot, looking up the majority of the words, and moving on, focusing more on volume of exposure instead. Anki will be still be there to learn the words that are harder for me to remember. I plan on reading out loud example sentences in my grammar book and trying to use those grammar point through talking to myself, tweeting, writing using Lang-8, etc, and the MCDs will help me reinforce everything. I was reading Warp's log the other day and his mentioning of finding a hook with Spanish rang true to me, as I have been looking for a hook with Chinese. Sure, I think f(x)'s Victoria and miss A's Fei are extremely hot, but not really a good reason to learn the language. I had gotten into Jolin Tsai before, but I needed more. I have been finding some other Chinese singers and groups that I have been getting into, and I have found some Taiwanese dramas that I like. When it comes to Japanese, I've had to rediscover material to get me into it. I don't like anime anymore, though Jdramas (and Toda Erika) has filled that void for me. Most of the music acts that I liked aren't active or release bad music now, so I've had to find some new bands to get into. I had to give up on Japanese hiphop as I think it's garbage aside from a select few rappers/groups, but I've had a lot more luck with Jrock. I've always hated 98% of Jpop and it doesn't look like that's changing anytime soon. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5533 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 714 of 844 23 December 2013 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I 100% credit having a "hook" with keeping me going with Korean for over 4 years now
(and I'm still amazed that it has been that long). A perfect example: Just over 2 years ago there was a fire at work and after that event I was working non-stop with pretty much no time to do almost anything else for a period of several months (and I also moved twice during that same period). Studying languages was simply not in the cards during that time as there was no free time available to do so. However, whenever I climbed in the car to drive home from work I always still fired up the MP3 player and the commute was filled with Korean immersion. However the important part is that I didn't turn on the MP3 player because I wanted to use my commute to "study Korean" (or else it probably would not have happened); I turned it on because I wanted to unwind by listening to music I like...music that just so happens to be *in* Korean. Also while I had far less time to watch TV during that period, the TV I *did* watch was Korean TV because the shows I watched regularly during that period were all Korean. That's the kind of hook I need to find for Spanish; one where something that I *want* to do, that I will do on a regular basis, and that I can do for fun (on those days where I want to avoid anything even resembling work) just so happens to be done in Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 715 of 844 24 December 2013 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I have a much stronger hook with Korean compared to Japanese, which is why my
levels in the two languages are so vastly different. However, I think I've finally found something to keep me learning Japanese. With Anki, I deleted my vocab decks. I found that once a word reached 3-4 weeks, I would always end up forgetting it, no matter how well I knew the word. I'm assuming it's because I'm only seeing it in one context. Back to lots of reading for me. I'm still keeping Anki for grammar, as I find it one of the best methods for me to remember grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| greatdaytonihon Newbie United States Joined 4035 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 716 of 844 29 December 2013 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, this is amazing! You're studying Chinese, Korean and Japanese all together. Doesn't it get confusing
for you? For me, there are always times where I can't remember words in English and only the Japanese/Spanish equivalent for some reason. I feel like this would be even more confusing with these three together. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 717 of 844 30 December 2013 at 12:47am | IP Logged | ||
For me, it makes everything easier. A lot of words are pronounced similarly, and there are patterns that you end up picking up for characters that are shared in words but are pronounced slightly differently. In the end, my study time is reduced across the board because the vocabulary between the three are similar, and the grammar between Korean and Japanese are very similar. Once you get past the beginning stages, it's quite easy to juggle all three. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 718 of 844 31 December 2013 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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2013 Wrap-up
Compared to 2012, 2013 was lackluster because I had my final two semesters in university and had other focuses. Korean was the only language I stuck with through the whole year, but it was mainly passive learning, so I can't say that I have noticed any real improvement in Korean this year because of a lack of output, though I do have a feeling that I can understand things passively a lot better. I do run a site where I translate Korean and Japanese actress interviews, and I have gotten better and faster at it. I like translation because it helps me pinpoint what I don't know. However, since I am translating interviews from actresses I like, that makes it much easier to do. I get requests from time to time and have to force myself to do those. Japanese and Chinese were on and off this year, and that's a problem that I believe that I have fixed now. I would resume studying one of them for a month, and then think "Oh, I should spend all of my time focusing on Korean," and not spend any extra time on Korean. I have to remember to get rid of "could, should, and would" when it comes to languages, and just simply focus on these three languages, as they are the three I want to learn the most. Any other language can wait until I'm older. For Japanese and Chinese, I had to find new media to hook me into learning both languages again. For Japanese, I used to watch anime and play imported video games. Well, I don't play video games much anymore because I'm one of those people who yell at the game all the time, and I don't like most anime I try to watch these days. I have found some Japanese dramas I liked and new actresses to be fans of, so that has helped a lot. With Chinese, I have finally found other artists aside from Jolin Tsai to be a fan of, which should help me going forward. I don't think I met any of the goals I set to accomplish this year (mainly because I forgot what my goals even were), so there's no point going over those. Edited by The Real CZ on 31 December 2013 at 2:32pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 719 of 844 03 January 2014 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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First post of 2014. Welcome members from Team 구미호, 旅立ち and still unnamed Chinese
team. (Once the Chinese team gets a name, I'll update the title of the log. I need to know all three team names before editing the title to make sure I have enough room.) I don't have any "goals" for TAC 2014. There's no "learn 156484654 words, speak 39075375 hours, write 9037543745 posts, watch 9078503475 episodes of dramas" or anything like that. My goals for 2014 revolve around two basic themes: volume and consistency. When it comes to volume, I mean doing a lot. By consistency, it means trying to stay in contact with the languages as much as possible. I usually have no problem with Korean, but it has been a problem with Japanese over the years. For grammar, I plan on reading out loud the example sentences after having read the explanation of the grammar point. I plan on doing this a lot. I want a lot of practice of speaking correct sentences. I think doing this a lot will help my speaking (obviously), grammar knowledge, and listening. I plan to continue SRSing vocab structures, as I am almost finished with SRSing all the main grammar points in Teach Yourself Chinese (except for the ba construction, I'll need to go more into depth studying that before I SRS it.) I plan to do the scriptorium exercise for any grammar structures that are giving me trouble. For vocab, I plan to do a lot of intensive and extensive reading. I'll intensively read any article I read on the internet and just extensively read books. It is a pain to intensively read books since I would have to write down all of the words on a piece of paper and then type them up on the computer before searching for them. I plan on seeing as many words as I possibly can. When it comes to any numbers listed here, expect to see the number of articles I read in each language per day. For listening, I'll continue watching dramas and movies without subs/ignoring the subs if they're embedded (as they are when watching on Hulu through the Roku device). I have also downloaded some free podcasts through iTunes. For Korean, I definitely plan on listening to Yoo In Na's Volume Up radio broadcasts, as she's one of my favorite actresses. For Japanese and Chinese, I'm just experimenting with random podcasts for now. For output, I have a better plan this year. I plan on tweeting once a day (minimum, but no pressure to do more than that) to see how I improve in expressing myself throughout the year. My Korean is much better than my Japanese and Chinese, so I expect to see the most improvement in Japanese and Chinese this year. I will also try to think in all three languages throughout the day. I plan on following the AJATT advice of first showing up (which is basically the one tweet per day and maybe one thought per day), and then beating your average, raising that up over a period of time. I believe by the end of 2014, regardless of how busy I become, I will still be able to express myself much better if I simply show up everyday to tweet and think in all the languages. I may start writing on Lang 8 again and may even record audio clips or videos to put on YouTube (that are semi-scripted). For example, I'll end this post showing off the extent at which I can express myself in the three languages. Chinese example 1: 我覺得任容萱很可愛. Pic of Kirsten Ren/任容 萱 Chinese example 2: 我今天發現了田馥甄. Video of Hebe Tien's Insignificance Japanese example 1: 昨日から少女時代のPaparazziという曲を聴いて いた。Paparazziを初めて聴いた時はこの 曲が 好きじゃない。Video of SNSD's Paparazzi Japanese example 2: 練習なし日本語で話せるわけがない。 Korean example 1: 나는 신년에 공부 할 수 있는 한 공부하려고 하기로 결정했어. 무엇보다 내가 연습을 본격 적으로 해야 돼. 내가 읽는 것하고 드라마를 보는 것뿐만 하지 않기로 했어. Korean example 2: @warpthree 하하. 나는 대만 드라마를 봤을 때 자막 없이 봤거든. 내 중국어 실력이 초 보 수준임에 불구하고 자막없는 비디오를 보거나 자막 있다면 자막을 무모하며 비디오를 보는 것이다. Edit: Man, I am really getting f**king annoyed over this forum's inability to properly link anything. It's 2014, not 1994. Edited by The Real CZ on 03 January 2014 at 2:37pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 720 of 844 03 January 2014 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds like a great plan!
Yoo In Na is very pleasant to listen to. I'll probably also listen to a few of her podcasts this year. Another fun podcast is 장기하의 대단한 라디오. Can't recommend this one enough :D For some reason I'm no longer as enthusiastic about KDramas as I used to be, so I decided to focus on podcasts for listening practice this year. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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