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Xenops’ 日本語 Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3826 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 5 14 January 2015 at 7:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello Friends! Welcome to my Japanese log!
After making some tough decisions over the holidays, and acknowledging how money (or rather, the lack thereof) is affecting my future, I decided of all the languages I've started or wanted to learn, Japanese is my passion. And while the temptation is always present of "just want one more language", the thought of never being able to watch an anime without subtitles or never read a Japanese novel because I had too many temptations and distractions pains me. My dream is to able to finish my schooling and move to Japan to work, so I better get fluent. So I am putting other languages on the back burner for the next year and focusing on Japanese, and perhaps take and pass the lowest level of the JLPT proficiency test. I probably have too many study materials, but I will share these here: 
And Pimsleur, which many know about. :) My weekly goal will start off with accomplishing 4 hours of study a week, and hopefully build up from there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3826 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 5 19 January 2015 at 6:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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こんばんは！Good evening! Since Wednesday, I got 1.5 hours of quality study time, which considering I was sick for
most of it, is satisfactory. I am currently focusing on "Japanese for Everyone", since I feel that it covers minutia that Genki does not cover until later in the series. I am also, since we finally got high-speed Internet (Yay!), making Anki cards with Kanji radicals and their Japanese meanings for radicals that I have already learned. This way I can review the old radicals while still making progress through the book. I recently watched "Clannad" and "Clannad: After Story", and both anime are fantastic for learning Japanese. They are comtemporary slice-of-life anime where you have common greetings and exchanges used, and a couple of characters have stilted speech, so I could easily identify word patterns. Currently I'm trying to find a new anime to watch, whether for learning or for fun; I'm in the mood for something by Clamp. A current idea of mine is take the JLPT level 5 or 4 in December; the level depends on how much time I dedicate to GRE studies, both the normal test and the biochemistry test (both are required for graduate school in the U.S.). 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 3 of 5 19 January 2015 at 8:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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I look forward to your log. I think that's great that you have a goal to actually live in Japan. I'm kinda playing
with the idea but it's a big step. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4798 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 4 of 5 19 January 2015 at 8:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Xenops! I'm also a very passionate Japanese learner who wants to eventually move to
Japan after I finish my studies, and I do fight language temptation until I'm fairly fluent (or at least very functional) in 日本語. Japanese the manga way is very good. I haven't taken a look at the other sources except Genki, which has a very good reputation. I'd say not to repeat too many beginner textbooks, but get a good overview and grounding in the language from one source (two at the most if you need the reassurance, but I personally find that to be overkill), and then go ahead and spend time with native material and reading, listening, etc. as much as possible. Clannad is a fantastic anime, but also incredibly sad. I tend to get attached to anime or dramas I like, which isn't always a good thing, lol. It IS very good for Japanese, though. When do you plan on taking the GRE? If it's sometime in the fall, then you'll be having the JLPT soon after. N5 is extremely doable, and I do think N4 is, too, but you'll obviously have some more things to cover. If you're taking the GRE soon, and you have a lot of time afterwards to dedicate to Japanese then I do think N4 is realistic. It also really depends on your pace, and school workload. I'm guessing you're in the sciences, or at least want to be, and they do eat up a chunk of your time. I look forward to following your progress, Xenops. Keep it up. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3826 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 5 19 January 2015 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for the support, kraemder and Woodsei! I agree that learning enough Japanese to work in Japan is
definitely a challenge, but I have read success stories. :)
Yeah, I plan to use JfE for review, and then move on. :) While Genki presents the material very nicely, the material is kind of sparse (we went through chapter eight in class, and hadn't covered colors). I am liking JfE because it covers random grammar points, and a lot more on colloquial language, the latter I found useful when watching Clannad.
Currently I'm taking a break from school and working part-time, and only have a TESOL course (Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages) to finish by March. The biochemistry subject test is available in April and twice in the fall, so my current idea is to to the subject test in April, regular GRE whenever, and JLPT in December. But it all depends on how long the TESOL course takes (it's self-paced), whether I get a full-time job, and how confident I am in the subject test. Again, thanks for the support. :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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