Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 1 of 12 25 January 2013 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
Hello^^
I started learning Japanese a few years ago. While it didnt start this way, I eventually learned learned all the common kanji through RTK and adapted a learning method similar to AJATT (all Japanese all the time- though I did not quite do it all the time xD). Anyways, I can read pretty fluently now-Japanese subs are no problem, can also read novels,manga etc. If I cant read something it is more likely to be lack of knowledge about the subject and lack of interest in the subject than not knowing that aspect of the language (like politics, quantum physics, etc). Writing is okay I think. Listening and Speaking are poorer. Though I pronouce things fine-just can not make up my own sentences on the spot well yet. I have a hearing loss so the listening part might take longer but no reason I can not do that if I can do the same in English (mostly).
The other language I am learning is Mardarin Chinese.I have been dabbling in it for a year now but I decided two days ago to commit myself fully to learning it. I already have learned some of the reading basics and have jumped into watching tv with Chinese subs. Knowing Japanese Kanji definitely makes it easier to start reading though (when it comes to Traditional Chinese text anyways).
Anyways as of late I have been using Learning-with-Texts for both languages.
Long articles no longer look so daunting when you see it sprinkled with text you do know!
I also decided I will set some exposure goals for this year-
Japanese: Watch 100 Drama series, read 100 books (excluding manga), listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
-would like to start crossing the border into native level fluency whatever that means
Chinese: Watch 300 drama episodes, read 5 books, read 30 manga books, listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
-would like to be able to chat online with a Chinese person in Chinese (in text).
sounds ambitious enough? xD
Not sure if there is enough hours for all though but I will find out. :)
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Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 2 of 12 26 January 2013 at 3:52am | IP Logged |
My ambitious goals for this year-
Japanese: Watch 100 Drama series, read 100 books (excluding manga), listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
Chinese: Watch 300 drama episodes, read 5 books, read 30 manga books, listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
For the Japanese goal, today I watched/listend to:
Watched Episode 1 of 最高の離婚
and listened to these songs for the first time-
HANABI by Mr. Children
君がいるだけで by 米米クラブ
月のしずくby 柴咲コウ
かたちあるもの by 柴咲コウ
Also worked on processing a wiki article though Learning-With-Texts about 崇源院 who was the real-life 江 from 江~姫たちの戦国~(loved that drama!).
For Chinese:
Watched Episode 2 of 給愛麗絲的奇蹟 with Chinese subs.
I think I basically get what is going on...
Also did my Learing-With-Texts srs reps for both languages.
So here is where I stand with my goals at the moment (Day 1):
Japanese: 0 out of a 100 drama series watched, 0 out of 100 books read, 4 out of 250 songs listened to.
Chinese: 1 out of 300 drama eps watched, 0 out of 5 books read, 0 out of 30 manga books read, 0 out of 250 songs listened to.
Not the best start but that is okay :)
Edited by Juniperarrow on 26 January 2013 at 3:53am
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Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5679 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 12 26 January 2013 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
What coursebooks have you been using for Chinsese? I admit I'm very jealous of your Japanese level. You've set some very ambitious goals for passive learning, but do you have many goals for active i.e. writing and speaking? Good luck!
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Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 4 of 12 27 January 2013 at 7:21am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the encouragement :)
Well to be honest I have not used any coursebooks for Chinese yet. A year? or so ago I used iKnow (Smart.fm) to learn the first 1000 words under their Core 2000 list. After that I used this Japanese site to learn some basic grammar hanzi and that is about it. If you know of any good resources or Chinese media works let me know :)
As far as active goals...I dont really have an specific goals for that the moment other than I have been logging on Sharedtalk more often to talk (via text) with some native speakers but that is about it...
~~~
For today:
Japanese:
Finished reading the book モギ 小さいな焼きもの師 by リンダ・スー・パーク.
(which I started earlier this year but I read 100+ pages today so I am going to count this)
Watched/listened to the following songs for the first time:
My Perfect Blue/ゆくゆくは by 柴咲コウ
Strength by 柴咲コウ
I have been listening to more of 柴咲コウ's works since I quite like ANOTHER:WORLD but so far I have found most of her other stuff not as good IMHO. It is not bad, but just not the kind of thing I would put on my ipod to listen to all the time.
Chinese: Not really anything today!xD
Did my Learning-with-Texts srs reps today in both languages though.
Here is where I stand with my 2013 goals at the moment:
Japanese: 0 out of a 100 drama series watched, 1 out of 100 books read, 6 out of 250 songs listened to.
Chinese: 1 out of 300 drama eps watched, 0 out of 5 books read, 0 out of 30 manga books read, 0 out of 250 songs listened to.
Edited by Juniperarrow on 27 January 2013 at 7:24am
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Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 5 of 12 28 January 2013 at 4:34am | IP Logged |
Today I did:
Japanese:
Watched Ep 1 of 恋愛ニート~忘れた恋のはじめ方~with Japanese subs
-It is not 100% my my thing but I think I will keep watching (well at least give Ep 2 a shot)
Started reading 女人平家 by 吉屋 信子.
To be honest it is difficult to read/understand (especially without knowing any of the historical background (takes place in the 平安時代 with the characters being real people with non-modern Japanese names, places and titles that I dont feel like looking all of up) behind it so I am dropping it for now anyways. Also in any case the first few pages were not that interesting (to me) anyways so...
Also started reading 基本がわかる 初めての中国語 by 王 婷婷
Will likely finish reading it tomorrow.
Chinese:
Watched Ep 3 of 給愛麗絲的奇蹟 with Chinese subs.
Added some Chinese text to Learning-with-Texts from an old Facebook update from a Taiwanese friend. I met him while wwoofing in Japan in 2011 and he wrote about the experiance and mentioned me so I want to understand what he said.
Did not do my Learning-With-Texts Reps today for either language.
Here is where I stand with my 2013 goals at the moment (Day 3):
Japanese: 0 out of a 100 drama series watched, 1 out of 100 books read, 6 out of 250 songs listened to.
Chinese: 2 out of 300 drama eps watched, 0 out of 5 books read, 0 out of 30 manga books read, 0 out of 250 songs listened to.
Edited by Juniperarrow on 28 January 2013 at 4:35am
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6619 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 6 of 12 28 January 2013 at 10:54am | IP Logged |
Juniperarrow wrote:
My ambitious goals for this year-
Japanese: Watch 100 Drama series, read 100 books (excluding manga), listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
Chinese: Watch 300 drama episodes, read 5 books, read 30 manga books, listen to 250 new songs on Youtube
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Very ambitious. You should do the Super Challenge.
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Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 7 of 12 29 January 2013 at 4:31am | IP Logged |
Hi, yes I have decided to do one of the Super Challenges (100 films and 100 books) for Japanese but I think my focus will be on my personal challenge by my personal rules.
---
Today I:
For Japanese:
Watched Ep 1 and 2 of 信長のシェフ.
It is about a Chef? who was タイムスリップed to 戦国時代 Japan. He eventually becomes the chef for 織田信長 and meets some other people whose names are recorded in history from Sengoku-era Japan and becomes a part of the events. Other than the fact that you and the main character knows nothing about the main character other than he is from modern day Japan a lot of the story feels like a not as good chef version of JIN. It is not bad-the food history facts if they are right are interesting but it is not epic or anything like JIN (IMO) was.
Read some more of 基本がわかる 初めての中国語.
Also started reading 橋のない川(第1部) by 住井すゑ again.
I started reading this last August but only made it half way through before I left for an adventure in Europe but I liked it so I pick it up again today. I was suprised how much easier it was to read even though I was away in Europe till a month ago (that said during my final month in Europe I brought a few books from Book-Off in Paris so...). Anyways it is a good story (series) that takes place in the early 20th century in a village in which everyone was formerly of the outcast caste in the traditional Japanese caste system but even though by law everyone became equal in the 1800s there is still a lot of discrimination going on and the book illustrates that as it follows a family (particulary their two sons) that lives in the villiage.
For Chinese:
Watched Ep 4 of 給愛麗絲的奇蹟 with Chinese subs.
Did my Learning-With-Text srs reps in both languages.
Here is where I stand with my 2013 goals at the moment (Day 4):
Japanese: 0 out of a 100 drama series watched, 1 out of 100 books read, 6 out of 250 songs listened to.
Chinese: 3 out of 300 drama eps watched, 0 out of 5 books read, 0 out of 30 manga books read, 0 out of 250 songs listened to.
Edited by Juniperarrow on 29 January 2013 at 4:34am
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Juniperarrow Diglot Newbie Joined 5681 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin
| Message 8 of 12 30 January 2013 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
What I did Yesterday:
I ran out of hearing aid batteries yesterday so I did not do any drama watching.
Have some more now though.
Japanese:
Read more of-
基本がわかる 初めての中国語 by 王 婷婷 and
橋のない川(第1部) by 住井すゑ
Chinese:
Wrote some very very basic sentences on Lang-8 here.
No corrections was needed yay!
Brought 10 Chinese books on a variety of subjects for $11 (USD) off Ebay.
Did my Learning-With-Text srs reps in both languages.
Here is where I stand with my 2013 goals at the moment (Day 5):
Japanese: 0 out of a 100 drama series watched, 1 out of 100 books read, 6 out of 250 songs listened to.
Chinese: 3 out of 300 drama eps watched, 0 out of 5 books read, 0 out of 30 manga books read, 0 out of 250 songs listened to.
Edited by Juniperarrow on 30 January 2013 at 5:50pm
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