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Learning Japanese Stage I | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5351 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 9 of 25 18 August 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I disagree with this. I'm certainly not an advocate for becoming "obsessed", but I do recommend studying kanji as early and as well as possible. Kanji are the basic lexical building blocks of the Japanese language. Neglecting the kanji will have you grappling in the dark. And if you do privilege speaking over the written language, there will come a point where you hit a brick wall as you reach the low-level plateau provided by the spoken, everyday language, yet can't move further uphill because you're semi-illiterate. What I suggest is to proceed in a balanced fashion. In my case I divide my study time into three segments: one for my main textbook, one for a kanji book and the remaining one for multimedia instruction (iKnow!, Livemocha, Rosetta Stone). That way I work on all skills simultaneously so that each one reinforces the others and I don't fall behind in any of them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| AndyMeg Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 4932 days ago 48 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 10 of 25 10 September 2011 at 12:07am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
Well it has been almost a month since I last wrote in my log. I have been really busy with many things, but I did my schedule and reorganized a lot of things (and now I also have new material!).
I want to achieve a high-intermediate level for december next year (I would like to take the JLPT 2 next year, but that will not be my main focus in my learning proccess). Anyway, I am thinking about taking the JLPT4 this year, in order to measure my current progress. My goal is to study 3 hours a day, but it has proven to be difficult to achieve (some days I can only study half an hour, but other days I can really achieve my 3 hours goal) Here is my Schedule: Monday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - Mangajin (1 chapter) - Anki smart.fm Core 2000 (12 minutes) - Japanese course with my teacher. - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Tuesday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - *Japanese Menu (30 minutes) - Doing my japanese course´s homework - Anki smart.fm Core 2000 (12 minutes) - Japanese course with my teacher. - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Wednesday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - Mangajin (1 chapter) - Anki tofugu´s Nouns (12 minutes) - Genki I (4 pomodoros: 2 hours). - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Thursday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - Let´s Learn Kanji (2 pomodoros: 1 hour) - Anki smart.fm Core 2000 (12 minutes) - Genki I (4 pomodoros: 2 hours). - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Friday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - *Japanese Menu (30 minutes) - Anki smart.fm Core 2000 (12 minutes) - Genki I (4 pomodoros: 2 hours). - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Saturday: - Pimsleur Course (1 lesson) - Japanese the Manga Way (1 lesson) - Anki smart.fm Core 2000 (12 minutes) - Doing my japanese course´s homework - One note of “Nihongo Notes” (two pages) Now I will explain a little more about the *Japanese Menu. In my fist post I gave you some idea of what this is:
Now I want to show you some of the items/activities listed in my *Japanese Menu, so you can get a better idea of it: - Tae Kim´s Grammar (3 pages)--> I take the time - Erin´s Challenge (Japan Foundation´s Website)--> 7 minutes - Write as many japanese sentences as I can --> 1 minute - Sing no more than 6 japanese songs in a karaoke program --> I take the time - Japanese of anime and manga (Japan Foundation´s Website) --> 11 minutes - Japanese in Mangaland (Japonés en Viñetas) Vol 1.--> 15 minutes Well, the Menu list is really long, so the above is just an example. I choose activities I want to do and take the time until I reach the 30 minutes limit. About my goal of being able to understand anime and manga, I found some excellent materials I am enjoying a lot: Mangajin and Japanese The Manga Way. And also for having a better understanding of the daily use of japanese language, reading “Nihongo Notes” from The Japan Times, has become one of my favorite activities to do. I am also doing some unofficial japanese study by watching anime and doramas (most of them with subs), and I feel really happy and excited when I hear something I have recently studied and thus I can understand it and see it used in context. It is great! Now I also have the first two japanese volumes of a manga (and anime) I love a lot: Hikaru no go. I have read it in its English and Spanish versions, and I have watched the anime at least three times. I am planing to read this whole manga in japanese in order to improve in my target language, but I am not yet sure about what strategy to use.
Trying Japanesepod101.com out is still on my "To do list". My japanese teacher helps us a lot to improve our pronunciation in class, and I pay special attention of how she speaks as well as her intonation ^_^!
With kanji I am trying to study at least one hour per week. I want to improve my kanji knowledge but without getting obssesed about it. So far I have seen some progress: now I can understand a little more of the doramas and anime I watch without needing to read the subs, though I am still very far away from fully understanding them without the subtitles aid. Thanks a lot for all your advices and recommendations. ^_^! Edited by AndyMeg on 10 September 2011 at 12:21am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| AndyMeg Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 4932 days ago 48 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 11 of 25 12 October 2011 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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I had some problems because of a virus that was in my computer, but now the virus has been eliminated and the computer is working relatively OK.
It was really frustrating that I could not achieve my goal of studying japanese 3 hours per day, so after I read this post: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=17888&PN=1, I decided to change my goal and be a little more flexible. Now my goal is to study at least 30 minutes of japanese per day (every single day), but if I can study more than 30 minutes per day, it is always welcomed. I also changed the way I am using my study`s materials. I was using so many materials at the same time that even though I could notice my progress, sometimes it got confusing and I felt unfocused and thus I was having some difficulties for keeping my concentration levels while studying japanese (I am better at focusing at only one or two things for longer periods of time than trying to do more things for shorter periods of time). So, I decided to change my schedule and focus on less materials. So for the past two weeks my schedule has been more or less like this: Monday --> Mangajin (1 lesson) Monday to Thursday --> Michel Thomas`s course. Friday --> Let`s Learn Kanji (but the last two fridays I couldn`t study at all T__T) Saturday --> Japanese The Manga Way (1 lesson). Sunday --> Free study. Monday to Sunday --> Nihongo notes (1 note per day). I already finished the Michel Thomas` Foundation Course (it was a happy surprise that I already knew most of the grammar covered in this course, but it helped me to make connections I had never thought of, and it teached me to make longer and more complex sentences. I loved this course, but sometimes the "other students" got on my nerves, specially the woman). I hope by tomorrow I will finish the Michel Thomas` Advanced course. This month we are taking a break from the japanese class because sensei is very busy with other things. When I finish the Michel Thomas`s course I am planing to do a "two weeks kanji focus study", because I have not studied kanji for almost a month. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5042 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 12 of 25 12 October 2011 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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How did you like Michel Thomas?? I found that even though it didn't have as much spoken Japanese as pimsleur, that I learned more from it. In my experience pimsleur gave me some basic speaking, listening, and drilled sentences into me. While Michel Thomas gave me the understanding of how these sentences worked and how to change things around to make new coherent sentences.
I like both courses, but Michel thomas method is definitely my favorite. Whats your opinion on these two courses? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| AndyMeg Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 4932 days ago 48 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 13 of 25 13 October 2011 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I agree with you. I started with Pimsleur and completed level 1, but at level 2 I got bored of it, so I suspended it for a while and then replaced it with the Michel Thomas. I liked the Michel Thomas method a lot more. It gave me a better understanding of japanese and helped me to be able to make more complex sentences in a short period of time. But there are also things I liked about Pimsleur. One of them is that with the level I did, I improved my speaking and thanks to this I started to feel more comfortable when I had to speak in japanese in my japanese class. As you said, Pimslur has more vocabulary, so that`s another thing I found really helpful about that course. But I am concerned about one thing regarding Pimsleur`s course: I read in another forum that some of the things teached by pimsleur japanese course are extremely formal, and certainly not appropiate in a daily conversation basis (except, maybe, if you are talking to bussines partners). For example, they told an anecdote about an expresion that Pimslur teaches as appropiate when leaving a place (without giving more information of the context in which would be right to use it), but the japanese friends of the person who actually used that expression, started to laugh because it sounded extremely polite and out of context in that situation. In resume, I like Michel Thomas more, mainly because it allows me to get a better understanding of japanese grammar in a shorter space of time, which allows me to make more complex sentences. On the other hand, although I have not finished the complete Pimsleur course, there are some aspects of it that I really like: The way they present new words and/or expressions and put enfasis about how they should be spoken and that they make some "conversations" I have to participate in. I like those aspects a lot because they help me to develop my speaking confidence and to improve my pronunciation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5190 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 14 of 25 14 October 2011 at 1:48am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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Nice to see another Japanese log. I feel like I'm spreading myself thin too but for Japanese I think it's sort of
unavoidable since kanji is like a whole new language unto itself. It sounds like you're further along than me since you're already forming complex sentences. I'm curious how you do on the jlp test. I wish you luck on achieving fluency, I'll settle for passive understanding. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| AndyMeg Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 4932 days ago 48 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 15 of 25 04 November 2011 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I totally agree.
I was planing to take this year Noken 4, but I had to spend the money I had for this in some urgent matters, so I will have to wait for next year`s exam T_T... I would like to take Noken 2 next year, but I will have to work really hard for that because I am still at a beginner level. Thanks for your "good luck wish" ^_^! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| AndyMeg Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 4932 days ago 48 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 16 of 25 04 November 2011 at 2:53am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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Well, I finished the Michel Thomas Advanced course around two weeks ago. I really liked it, and I am planning to review it in december.
My "two weeks kanji focus study" was not as I had planned because I had too much things to do and too little time to study japanese T_T. Now I have settled new goals: -Finish the Part 1 (Kanji Radicals) of Let`s Learn Kanji. And then take a break from the book. -Change my study focus every week, like this: One week focusing on kanji and the next week focusing on grammar (until I achieve one of these goals: finish Genki I lessons or finish the Part 1 of Let`s Learn Kanji) I have been using memrise from time to time in order to increase my kanji words vocabulary. I also found a book that have lots of kanji practice excercises related to the vocabulary of Noken 5 and 4 and I am using it when I am in a "kanji focus week". Tomorrow I plan to start using JapanesePod from the beginnig (Newbie lessons) and see how it works for me. I am still doing one lesson of "Japanese The Manga Way" and "Mangajin" per week (I am around lesson 12 in both) and reading one note of "Nihongo Notes" everyday (I already finished Nihongo Notes 1 and now I am reading Nihongo Notes 2). I am also watching a dorama with japanese subs and I have found the combination of japanese audio and transcript to be really good. I am still far from being able to completly understand a dorama only in japanese, but I really like watching doramas and I hope that watching them completly in japanese with japanese subs will help me to improve ^_^! Edited by AndyMeg on 04 November 2011 at 3:07am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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