g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 313 of 333 16 December 2012 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
I think I am finally feeling the gap close between B1 and B2. I'm still not there yet, but I have moments where it feels within my grasp. I think it is really crucial for me right now to keep a check on my desire for wanderlust. It's an exciting time of year as everybody sets about evaluating the last year's activity and setting new goals for the future. I was quite tempted to pencil myself in to have another go at German in the new year, but I know that any other language study will come at the price of holding back my Japanese. As I'm getting closer and closer to the next level, this is not a price worth paying. I think I can now understand why I often see people advising on this forum to get really good at one language first, and then diversify.
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 314 of 333 16 December 2012 at 9:54am | IP Logged |
g-bod wrote:
I think I can now understand why I often see people advising on this forum to get really good at one language first, and then diversify. |
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Professor Arguelles says the opposite though. He says if you are planning to learn four languages any only have an hour per day, you should spend 15 minutes on each. This is because if you learn one and then another, it will take much more time since you will have to spend some of your time maintaining the first language while learning the second, meaning that you will have less time per day for every new language you learn. I suppose he kind of has a point, but I think dividing my time like that would mean I wouldn't learn anything. I will be adding a new language this year though in spite of that ;)
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 315 of 333 16 December 2012 at 11:20am | IP Logged |
Maybe it's different if you start out with more languages at the same time as a complete beginner. All I know is that at present if I spend time working on/thinking in French I have to spend more time afterwards warming my Japanese back up. Which is time I then can't spend getting better at Japanese! I'll have to get used to switching languages eventually, at least if I want more than just Japanese...but at a crucial point such as this, where the next level is within sight, I'd be stupid to let myself get distracted.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 316 of 333 16 December 2012 at 2:08pm | IP Logged |
I've just ordered a pile of books from Amazon Japan. It's things that I want, to complete various collections that I have, which I know I can't get from the shops in London, although I still somehow feel guilty for spending the money. At least this time round I'm actually spending more money on the books than I am on the shipping costs. And unless a lot of forward planning is done (like buying train tickets three months in advance), shipping from Japan is still a lot cheaper than travelling to London to buy books anyway.
Well, buying books is great, but what I really need to do is get my head down and read.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 317 of 333 17 December 2012 at 10:32pm | IP Logged |
Well I think I've let myself get distracted anyway. Not by another language. But by exciting things such as preparing for Christmas and watching too much Big Bang Theory. My concern that I was doing too much kanji has turned into not doing any kanji, and not wanting to do any kanji. I can see the number of due cards increasing on Anki and I don't really care. I still haven't got the hang of using Anki in a sensible way.
I finished watching a silly drama called Attention Please, which despite being an incredibly cheesy take at the Eliza Doolittle trope, still somehow managed to get me hooked. Since then I've been trying out a couple of other series but nothing seems to have grabbed me yet.
I think I'm just ready to wind down a bit before Christmas. If I stop doing much Japanese for a few days, I know I'll soon miss it, and then I'll feel refreshed and ready to start working hard again.
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 318 of 333 18 December 2012 at 8:59pm | IP Logged |
Hello Japanese, seems I'm missing you already.
Well, that was a short break!
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g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German
| Message 319 of 333 18 December 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
I'm thinking of setting myself some mini-goals to complete by the time the year (and this year's TAC) is over. Really just to keep my eye on the ball and not let myself get too distracted by preparation for 2013. I'm thinking about aiming to do the following by the end of December:
Finish reading any Japanese books I currently have "on the go" - this would be the 村上 short stories, 10分で読める伝記2年生 (that's a book of biographies for second graders) and vol 2 of ドラえもん. This is probably the toughest mini challenge for me. I never read enough.
Watch one complete drama series. This shouldn't be too difficult to achieve. It's really just here as a reminder that I need regular listening practice. I had a go at watching Taiyou to Umi no Kyoushitsu, but I think I'm just a bit bored of the eccentric schoolteacher fixing their students problems one by one format, so I'm not sure if I'll continue with that for now. I also watched the first episode of a show from 1994 called Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari. It's way more cheesy than any of the more recent shows I've seen but there's something so compelling about the bad 90s haircuts. Well, the 1990s were my formative years so I guess I'm going to like it somehow!
Do the first 2-3 chapters in part 3 of Kanji in Context. I think now I've finished parts 1 and 2, I'm going to have to change my approach if I want to succeed in getting through part 3 without giving up again! I have a couple of ideas, it would be nice to try them out before the end of the year.
Finish Chapter 1 of 文化中級日本語I. Yes, I've actually started using a general intermediate textbook again. I haven't become familiar enough with it yet to write much about it here, as I'm only halfway through the first chapter, but so far I quite like it. It's a nice alternative to JLPT drill books at least. If I can get through the first chapter, I'll have a better idea of how it works and whether I want to continue.
With two weeks to go, that's plenty to keep me busy!
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 320 of 333 18 December 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
I'm not much for Christmas preparations, but I love the Big Bang theory. I don't have a TV, so I buy them on DVD when they come out (and watch them over and over). But it will probably be next year before season 6 comes on DVD, so I'm trying very hard not to accidentally see any episodes from season 6 in the meantime. I don't like seeing things out of order.
If you think 90's hair styles were bad, you should have been around for the 80's. Although I suppose the very worst was around the turn of the decade, late 80's early 90's. The girls, except me, must have used nearly a can of hairspray per day. Some teased and sprayed their hair so much that it stood up eight inches. I, on the other hand, knew I was going to be weird and different no matter what I did and figured that if I was going to be weird and different anyway, I might as well do it properly. So I ironed my hair completely flat.
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