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Trying to learn too quickly? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| pinkparfait Newbie United States https://facebook.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4788 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 15 28 August 2011 at 4:50am | IP Logged | ||
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First I just want to say that I hope this is the right board to be posting this on, I
am kind of new here so I was unsure... TLDR; How many new vocabulary words/kanji do you think you should learn a week, and how quickly can you go through an average elementary level textbook (GENKI I and II to be specific) Anyways! I have been trying to learn Japanese for a looong time (my first attempt was in 4th grade and I am a freshman in college now) but I was never able to get serious about it because of personal motivation/lack of resources. For the past year though I have finally been able to study seriously. I am making my way through a beginner level textbook, reviewing vocabulary and kanji through the use of traditional flash cards and anki, and using lang-8 to get practice, among other things, and I am really happy and proud of myself! My week usually looks something like this: Monday: Begin new chapter in textbook, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Tuesday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Wednesday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Thursday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Friday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Saturday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki Sunday: Do textbook exercises/study textbook grammar, study 5 new kanji, review vocab in anki It's a bit more specific than that, but I don't it's necessary to go into it too much. My problem is, whenever I explain what my average day of studying looks like, people are always quick to start informing me that I am trying to learn WAY TOO FAST and that I am not going to retain anything and that I am hurting myself in the long run. I learn about 35 new kanji a week (meaning/readings/writing through Basic Kanji Book) along with 2-4 vocabulary words for each kanji, and anywhere from 50-100 vocabulary words through my textbook (Genki) which makes for around 250 new vocabulary words on a busy week. The website for the textbook I use says it teaches "All the major sentence patterns that should be learned in an elementary Japanese course (desu/-masu, honorific, causative, passive, and causative-passive patterns)" And that the time requirement for each chapter is approximately 9 hours. (http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en the book I use) An example of what I learn from one chapter in my textbook: Past Tense Short Forms Qualifying Nouns with Verbs and Adjectives まだ～ていません ～から Useful Expressions: Colors (That's from chapter 9 in my textbook by the way.) Is this really too fast? I haven't been doing it for too long so I can't say whether or not it works in the long run, but it has gone well so far. I personally think that the rate that you normally learn (in an average college class) seems really slow! The Japanese program at my college for example doesn't even start teaching you kanji till your second year! What do you think? TLDR; How many new vocabulary words/kanji do you think you should learn a week, and how quickly can you go through an average elementary level textbook (GENKI I and II to be specific) Thank you for your time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4944 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 15 28 August 2011 at 11:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry about a long post.
I am not learning Japanese, so I can only speak of language learning in general. I'd say the pace you are ok with is usually a good one. I agree that most courses at school (and usually no matter whether it is primary school or university, sometimes even language school courses) are too slow for people interested in the language. And most teachers don't know how to teach people in the group more individually in regards to their various pace or level (I was lucky to meet two such teachers but they are exceptions) Learning 250 new words a week is a lot in any language, the more when a different script is included, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't keep at it. If you have got enough time, it is great to progress quickly. By the way how long approximately do you study each day? Don't let people change your mind about your learning. Your pleasure from the process is the main thing here. From what you wrote, I believe the fast learning is as well keeping you motivated which is "conditio sine qua non" when learning a language. Just don't forget to put enough efforts in reviewing things you studied earlier but that applies to slow learners as well. Anki is a great tool here. I'd just advice you to add new things to your shedule to develop all the skills and to prevent gettng bored. I'm not sure how many easy readers and podcasts are there for Japanese but I'm sure a Japanese lover like you shouldn't have troubles with finding some if interested. edited a grammar mistake I am a bit ashamed of Edited by Cavesa on 28 August 2011 at 11:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5316 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 15 28 August 2011 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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The number of words you learn is only part of the story. If you learn 5 words a day, but you know them well
enough that you can use them in live conversation, that's great. But 10 words known passively or out of context are not quite as useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5701 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 15 28 August 2011 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you're worrying about your pace, it most certainly shows that you are worried you won't be able to keep it up for too long.
But does that matter? If you can't keep it up anymore, slow down. If you forget words or grammar points, review them. It's not like you'll remember or even understand everything perfectly after it's introduced in your textbook.
Seriously? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| genini1 Senior Member United States Joined 5403 days ago 114 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 15 28 August 2011 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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The answer to how many words you should be learning each day is as many as you want. Self learning has the most remarkable feature of having 0 consequences for failure so if you really fell into a groove and 'learned' 1,000 words in a single day and forgot 90% of them the next you still learned 100 and have seen 900 more that make them easier the next time you try. Realistically speaking aiming for 30 words a day and remembering only half of them is still 15 words. The main thing is to keep learning and doing even if you only do a few but remember that if you truly want to learn a language, particularly in a reasonable time from (less than a decade) you'll have to learn a lot per day. 50 words a week means that in a year you'll know 2600 words, a solid foundation but still far from being able to really enjoy the language as you probably want to.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5917 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 15 28 August 2011 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would be inclined to ask, what kind of people are telling you that you are studying way too fast? Are they able to make an informed judgement on the state of your Japanese abilities or are they just forcing on you their own opinions about how things should be done?
I see that you are using Anki to review your Anki and vocabulary anyway. I would say that if you are keeping on top of your Anki reviews and still finding this method effective, there is nothing wrong with your approach and I did something quite similar myself when I was working with the same materials. The one thing that I did not do, and I now regret, is take time to review the grammar exercises and drills in previous chapters as I was too concerned about rapid progress and a little too laid back about consolidation. If I could have words with the person I was three years ago I think I would recommend to spend half of my grammar time studying something new in Genki, and the other half going over exercises in previous chapters. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pinkparfait Newbie United States https://facebook.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4788 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 15 29 August 2011 at 1:42am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for replying, and no worries about the long post! Yours wasn't even as long as my original one was haha. To answer your question, I study...a lot. I don't really know an exact amount though...hmm, let's see. Every Monday I spend a couple of hours making flashcards and looking up the new words I will be learning that week. Then I usually spend 30-60 minutes everyday reviewing the current lesson I am studying in my textbook/ doing the textbook and workbook exercises. Then I spend...maybe 30 minutes or more a day doing Anki repetitions. And then I spend another 30-60 minutes studying the day's new kanji and related vocabulary. Also, twice a week I have an hour long skype session with a Japanese tutor. Oh, and I spend a lot of time unofficially studying by looking at Japanese websites, watching Japanese TV, listening to Japanese music, ect. I don't really do much at the moment besides study or browse the internet haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pinkparfait Newbie United States https://facebook.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4788 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 15 29 August 2011 at 1:45am | IP Logged | ||
My way of learning in context is to look up various sentences for each word I am studying so that I can get a feel for how it is used. That's in context, right? If you happen to have any suggestions please don't hesitate to share! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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