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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 5984 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 81 of 333 13 May 2012 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I suppose it is about time I made another update here.
JLPT preparation is going reasonably well. I think my listening is hopefully about good enough now to meet the requirements of the test, I just need to keep it sharp with regular practice. I’ve always felt reasonably confident that my reading level is about right for the test but I need to do a bit more work with practice drills and just make sure I can keep to time. My kanji is definitely at an appropriate level for the test, although I am trying to look forward a little bit and see what I can do to prepare for N2. Vocabulary has been a major worry for me but working through practice drills has been a huge help. The problem is, of course, you either know a word or you don’t so I’ve just got to keep my fingers crossed that most of the words on the test are ones that I know! I’m slowly filling in a few gaps with the grammar and should be finished with this by the end of the month, which gives me plenty of time for practice drills. I’m really glad that I decided to go for the test. I was a little concerned beforehand that I would end up too preoccupied with lists and exam technique but I have actually learned a lot of useful stuff. A lot of the language knowledge questions have forced me to focus on the details of the language and making important distinctions between usage of words and grammar with similar meanings or that might easily be confused. There is also a strong emphasis on the listening test about choosing the correct language for a given situation (at N3 there are two question types which focus on this). All in all I’ve been quite surprised to notice a general improvement in my ability too. Yay! The biggest surprise was when I went back to the JLPT sample questions and I thought I’d test the water with N2 again. The reading is still too difficult but I was really surprised to discover that the other sections were actually ok. Assuming that N3 goes well this summer, I think I might be able to push towards a potential N2 attempt in December. Apart from JLPT preparation I have been having a little bit of fun with the NHK for School website. I think I might have already expressed my joy here about their 高校講座 site which has TV programmes and radio shows available online covering a high school level curriculum. Well the NHK for School website has streaming TV shows aimed mainly at elementary school but some middle school level material as well. It gives some interesting cultural background in reasonably straightforward language. One of the shows I am quite enjoying gives an introduction to all the prefectures in Japan. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4703 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 82 of 333 13 May 2012 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, vocabulary.. it's really not that easy to amass it and then somehow activate it. Even passive knowledge has to be activated. I noticed that words I constantly get right on test float around unrecognized in a real life setting sometimes. Once I recognized something I learned earlier, I usually own it. A bit of maintenance is all that's needed from that point on.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5984 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 83 of 333 19 May 2012 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It was the final Japanese class this week, which basically consisted of an end of year test. I will really miss the class. There is nothing on offer at a more advanced level in my local area so for the most part it will be back to just me, my books and my computer. I am still continuing with the online lessons and I am finding the one to one lessons in particular are well worth the money. But nothing compares to meeting people in person. I guess perhaps languages like Latin are not for me!
I seem to have hit a bit of a hump in my studies again and it seems I haven't really done very much since my last post. Life has got in the way a little bit but I've also felt a bit unmotivated lately. Maybe I peaked a bit too soon with my N3 prep. I am not too thrilled about another six weeks of working through drill books. Grammar is giving me more trouble than I expected but I don't really know what to do about it. Or more precisely, I have some ideas about what I could do I just don't feel like doing it! I'm being a bad student! I think I am getting fed up of my haphazard approach. I have always flitted between methods and resources, driven by impatience and indecisiveness. I wish I could just pick one or two resources and just see them through to the end! But I am quite nervous about doing this with the N3 stuff in case I pick the wrong book and end up ill prepared for the test. So instead I am using bits of everything and getting in a muddle as I seem to be wasting a lot of time thinking about what I am using rather than what I am learning. I have never been very good at basic study skills such as notetaking, review and revision. I have realised that some of the grammar I studied both in class and on my own has just become a distant memory as I didn't get enough of a chance to experience, use and internalise it before moving on and distracting myself with other things. I really am a bad student! And I have also been very lazy about doing stuff for the Super Challenge too. Even though it would be so easy just to pick up a book or put on a DVD. The writing might not be so easy but I would still learn a lot from it... Anyway, my husband is taking me out for lunch today so I shall go and enjoy that and not think about Japanese or JLPT prep at all. Maybe I will try to be a good student tomorrow instead. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 84 of 333 19 May 2012 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yep, it's a vicious circle. I start to feel frustrated and I go out and buy a new book or try a new method which is always very motivating. Then I get into another rut and go out and buy something else. My log is full of "I'd like to finish this by XXX" and I never do. Every day is something different. I try to find routine and consistency -- all these challenges, for example -- but I always fall short. Still, I'm pretty sure I'm making progress. The problem is it's so slow that I can't see it. It's as if my life were traveling at the speed of light with my progress stuck in normal speed.
How are you progressing with the JLPT 3 vocabulary? Do you use the JLPT lists? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4799 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 85 of 333 19 May 2012 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I fell through the same cycle back in March and again the past few days, so I think it's
normal. I actually remembered Sunja's list on her first post about what NOT to do :) But we still do that, so I think it's ok. I find that taking some time away from studying is good, and just putting on a drama I love, or anime. I love the story lines, so I don't really approach them as Japanese study, and more like entertainment. Then I hear or see something I've come across before, and feel the motivation again :) But even if you don't do that, it's ok. I flitted a lot between methods too and only just recently decided to focus on what I like rather than what people say should be done, which has relieved a lot of the tension I'd been feeling. Good luck, and remember, reviewing, or not, and using too many books and methods, it's still all Japanese, and you're still learning, even if it doesn't seem apparent at present. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5984 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 86 of 333 19 May 2012 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sunja, I think you and I both have a problem! I should post a photo of my Japanese bookshelf some time. Every time I have a crisis of confidence I seem to buy more books, which I then never really use! But at least they do look ever so pretty, lined up on my bookshelves. I guess Japanese books are to me like shoes and handbags are to most of my female friends!
I am not using any lists to study vocabulary for the JLPT. I think I posted here a while back about using the Soumatome vocabulary book, which is basically a huge vocabulary list plus some drills. I gave up on it very quickly for a number of reasons. It tries to deliver too much in too short a time and there are not enough examples of usage or drills for the amount of material it tries to deliver. I just found myself on a constant Anki churn without getting too much out of it. But the one thing that finally turned me off the book, and lists altogether, was speaking to a friend who sat the N3 a while ago. They sat the exam at a time when not many materials had been published for it and used Soumatome because it was one of the first texts that had been rushed out for the new exam. I asked if the Soumatome book prepared them well for the exam, but they felt that it was pitched too low, there was a lot of vocabulary on the test that wasn't covered in the books, but they found that they had no trouble answering the questions because they had learned the words elsewhere. I think this is a major problem with using lists, especially now the exam has moved away from working to a published list of words, so any list you will get is just somebody's guess at what you might have to know. If you like learning from lists anyway I'm sure it will help give you some background, however I prefer to use drill books (including listening and reading) and creating my own lists of words and expressions when I come across things I don't know (or don't know very well). I think another important thing to remember is that although vocabulary is an important building block for your language knowledge, the part of the JLPT test which tests your vocabulary knowledge only is actually very small. If I wanted to spread my time according to the weightings of the test sections, I should be spending a third of my time listening, a third reading and a third on language knowledge (which includes grammar and kanji as well as vocabulary). Woodsei, thanks for the reminder regarding drama and anime. Now I've reached the point where I can generally follow a straightforward series without using subtitles, it is a great way to study without actually studying. When I started my JLPT prep I was quite worried about my listening ability, which was one of the weakest areas for me. I bought a few listening practice books which seemed to focus on details of the language, such as listening for a っ or long vowels, or contractions such as ～てる or ～とく. I didn't find it helpful at all and it actually felt quite stressful. Anyway, one of the drill books I have (合格できる) has some really sensible advice about preparing for the different sections of the test. Under listening, it makes the point that it is not a skill you can improve immediately but you have to work at it over time. It also emphasises activities like watching dramas or following the news. So I started to relax, listened to lots of podcasts on the bus, watched more drama and anime and was rather surprised to find that it has actually worked. Listening has gone from being one of my weakest skills to one of my strongest! I kind of suspect I probably need to start doing the same kind of thing to work on my reading skills, however it is much harder work to sit with a book than it is to plonk myself down in front of the TV! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4799 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 87 of 333 20 May 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese books are so colorful, don't you think? I think they're gorgeous. I totally get
what you mean by them being analogous to shoes and bags :) An yes, it's a lot easier to sit in front of the TV rather than with a book, and all those hours I've put in with dramas the past week, have really improved my listening! So I really do need to work on reading, though, like you, and it needs more discipline. Your log is really fun! I'm glad we all have that team spirit and encouragement for each other :) I hope I muster the courage of setting a JLPT test goal soon, because I KNOW it will get me studying like a house on fire :) I just keep chickening out. Sigh. Oh well :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6622 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 88 of 333 20 May 2012 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Ha ha! Me too! I never understood the point of shoes and handbags, but I have books everywhere. I have quite a few learner's books too. Now I'm looking forward to lining my bookshelves with real Japanese books, by which I mean books in Japanese, not books about Japanese.
I've got to get cracking on my listening. It is one of my weakest areas. Actually I'm weak in all areas except reading, but since I have little use or opportunities for active skills, listening is the next most important. I'm going to try to find some dramas if I can figure out what I like. Movies are ok, but I get bored watching the same movies again and again. I like TV because I can get used to the characters so it feels familiar, but at the same time, it's a new show each time so it's always different. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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