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TAC 2011 Team あ g-bod and 日本語 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 57 of 82 28 August 2011 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
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I have had a (enforced) very productive week at work, hence my week has not been quite so productive in terms of languages but in the name of consistency I'll still try and write an update here.
Last weekend's language exchange was a really education as I managed to mess up the particle に in many places. My partner did a reasonably good job of explaining why I was wrong in most cases and I've spent a little time referring back to some of my reference books to check meanings and usage as well. I have prepared a short piece to discuss with my partner about some of the things I've been doing at work. As it's taken up so much of my time and energy this week it felt kind of apt, however it's also a bit technical so trying to convert it into a basic explanation in Japanese has been an interesting experience but maybe a worthwhile exercise in circumlocution. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 58 of 82 03 September 2011 at 11:25am | IP Logged |
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I have started looking at Japanese: The Spoken Language. Considering that speaking is my weakest point, I may have been sold on the title. I discovered that the recordings for all the drills are available online here thanks to the Ohio State University and I listened to the introduction and was sold on the fact that it paid a little attention to some minimal pairs and a lot of attention to pitch accent. The book uses a crazy non-standard romaji system but at least it clearly marks out pitch accent and as recordings are available for pretty much everything, I just use this to check that I heard what I thought I heard. I’m not sure if a combination of formal drills and looser substitution exercises based on the model dialogues is what I need, but I’m willing to give it a shot for a few weeks and see if it helps. Other than that I’m still plodding on with Kanji in Context and Japanese for Busy People II.
My bed time reading has switched back to クレヨンしんちゃん. I’m about three quarters the way through the first volume now and it’s becoming a lot easier to read (and I’m picking up some earthier vocabulary with it…) Finally, I had an interesting experience last night. I stuck on a podcast while I was chatting with a friend online who is also learning Japanese and generally complaining about my perceived lack of progress and frustration at how much there is to learn. I then sat back and zoned back in on the podcast audio and suddenly realised I could understand pretty much everything they were talking about. The feeling had suddenly changed from understanding the odd word and sentence in a sea of burble, to noticing the odd words and sentences I couldn’t understand amidst a sea of comprehension. The subject areas were pretty safe in terms of vocabulary (it was an interview with some model talking about bland things like her favourite foods and where she wanted to travel) but it was still a nice feeling and a timely reminder that perhaps I have less to complain about than I realised. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4845 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 59 of 82 03 September 2011 at 2:31pm | IP Logged |
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Hi big sis <3,
I haven't logged on MSN for ages, sorry! As I told you a loooong time ago, Anki's not for me. You're better off doing what you're doing. As long as you keep listening to Japanese, you'll be fine. I'm still trying to go AJATT, but my computer is completely crazy right now and the new one I bought is too stupid to connect to the internet. I've completely neglected my Skype and MSN friends, and I'm sorry. I really miss you, and I hope you remember me and still want to talk. I don't know how you managed to learn Japanese so well. Chinese completely killed me. You're so smart. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 60 of 82 03 September 2011 at 2:43pm | IP Logged |
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Haha I saw your log the other day and I knew it was you. There can't be that many French girls with a high level of English who share your taste in trashy TV. Once your internet situation is stable, you know where to find me if you want a proper chat.
Anyway, I'm not smart, just bloody-minded. But like most people I'm good at sticking to the things I'm already good at (like reading and memorising stuff) and bad at challenging myself to improve my weaker areas (like speaking). But being the perfectionist I am I then go ahead and judge myself only by my weakest points. The lesson here is less moping and more hard work on the tricky bits! I bet you could do Chinese if you really wanted it. The problem is you want English more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4845 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 61 of 82 03 September 2011 at 2:51pm | IP Logged |
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I know what you mean. That's why I stopped working on pronunciation. Vocabulary is one of my weakest areas, so I'm concentrating on that instead. It's hard to push yourself to do something you suck at. >.<
Like you said, I don't want Chinese bad enough. I want English more and more. <3 Feel free to post on my log if you want. I'm online right now (Skype) but I'm about to take a bath. I'm super super stressed because I'm going to college in a few days and I have too many things to do. I haven't watched Jerry Springer in weeks. They don't even broadcast Ricky Lake anymore, so I can't watch that either. I had to wean myself off talk shows abruptly. I watched 13 episodes of Gilmore Girls/ Prison Break in a single day to make up for it. Anyway, I want a hug! And I was super impressed when you said that you understood the Japanese news almost entirely. And I'm sorry I didn't say hi when MSN (e-mails) logged me on automatically. Couldn't figure out the interface. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 62 of 82 07 September 2011 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
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Just a quick and somewhat disappointing update. It looks as if I may have to put my Japanese studies on hold for a while. All that remains for me to complete my MSc is the small matter of a dissertation, which is due in December and has been dutifully procrastinated up until now. Unfortunately, reality has now set in and I think that the regular Japanese study time after work which I have succeeded in carving out for myself over the course of the summer now has to be turned over to matters relating to my MSc. If I do have some slack I'll just pick up a manga or stick on a podcast or something rather than attempt formal study in short bursts. I don't want to feel guilty about studying one thing and not the other so I think I just have to let Japanese go for now and make my tuition fees earn themselves...
See you all in December! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 63 of 82 28 September 2011 at 10:02pm | IP Logged |
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I've noticed over the past few weeks that my listening skills really seem to have levelled up and I'm picking up a lot more from unsubbed dramas and podcasts than I could have done a few months ago. I often find that it's only in these spaces where I take a pause from studying more intensively (or at least in a more structured way) that I start noticing how much progress I've actually made. It's a nice feeling. Edited by g-bod on 28 September 2011 at 10:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5981 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 64 of 82 05 October 2011 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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I guess it's probably time for a proper update. My studies got pretty much derailed through September thanks to me spending more time worrying about how to fit work, dissertation and Japanese all together in my life and ended up not doing very much of anything (except work of course, money is the best kind of motivator sometimes) and feeling rather miserable about it.
I've got myself back on track over the past couple of weeks. The problem is you can't approach a dissertation in the same way as you should approach learning a language (and it doesn't really work vice versa either). I've worked out a Japanese programme that I can stick to for around an hour a day, but it doesn't matter if I miss the odd day. Dissertations don't fit into hour long slots, at least not for me. I just have to have a good block of time (like a whole afternoon) to get stuck in and get a lot done at once. I guess that's what weekends were made for, although on the whole I wish I didn't have to do it. So, in terms of my "programme" I've decided that, at least for the next 11 weeks or so, I am going back to basics and focusing on mainly spoken production. This means that I don't have a lot of new concepts to get my head around or new kanji and vocabulary to cram. My passive ability is good enough for me to be happy to park it for now anyway, but my spoken skills are my biggest weakness so I think I have a lot to gain from this. My tool of choice is Japanese: the Spoken Language. A year ago I would have hated this book and I think it would be awful as a first text, however for the purposes of what I want to focus on over the next few weeks it is ideal. I can ignore the weird romaji system while still appreciating that it marks pitch accent (along with some discussion of common accent patterns in the text). And I know enough about Japanese grammar already not to get sidetracked by the somewhat unique terminology employed. Plus all the audio for the conversations and drills is available online. I have just finished working through the first chapter and it was really back to basics for me, mainly dealing with conjugating verbs and i-adjectives in the past and present tense (desu/masu form only of course). However, working hard at the drills and exercises and being very critical of my performance (in just 20-30 minutes a day!) has really forced some kind of improvement already and I am finding that phrases and short sentences are coming out a lot more automatically now. I have also started working with Assimil Japanese. I know it is a popular method with a lot of people on this forum so I was quite curious to the set up and again, I am quite willing to start from the beginning and firm up my foundations. I also like the fact that I can get through one lesson a day in around 15 minutes and it doesn't really matter if I miss a day, which is vital right now. I guess that in order to learn to speak well you need to actually use the language with someone and unfortunately I have had to postpone my weekly Skype exchanges because thanks to the time difference the most convenient time (Sunday afternoon/evening) is also the most convenient time for me to focus on my dissertation. I really miss them but I'm looking forward to picking it back up in December. With any luck my partner will be surprised by my progress! Finally, I decided to take the plunge and enrol on an evening course in Japanese. I was agonising for weeks about whether to do it, whether I could make the time, and then what level to go for. In the end I went for the "intermediate" class (although the content doesn't fit with my definition of "intermediate", it seems to fall somewhere between JLPT N5 and N4). I could have gone for "upper intermediate" (content is definitely N4) but I didn't want to make things too difficult for myself when time is limited and I'm struggling with prioritising my life anyway. It was the first class tonight and altogether an interesting experience. We were given a detailed syllabus and it's full of lots of things that I can understand but really need to practice more. However, as someone who is normally very humble about her own ability, I hate to say that I was probably one of the strongest students there. Worse than that, there were some guys there who dealt with their own perceived inadequacies just by acting like idiots. It's quite disappointing to think that these people are paying good money to attend a class and then behaving like stupid high school kids. However, the teacher seemed ok and there were some normal people in the class too so for now I am happy just to see how things go. Plus I used more Japanese tonight than I have done for a long time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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