Trying to learn too quickly? (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Trying to learn too quickly?
Tags: Kanji \| Learning Strategy \| Japanese
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

pinkparfait
Newbie
United States
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7 posts - 7 votes
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Studies: Japanese

Message 9 of 15

29 August 2011 at 1:48am | IP Logged

Bao wrote:

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.

Quote:

The Japanese program at my college for example doesn't even start
teaching you kanji till your second year!

Seriously?

It's not exactly that I feel that I won't feel I will be able to keep it up (I actually
feel quite good about it) it's more that I am very susceptible to negative criticism...it really easily get's stuck in my head I suppose.

And yes, I am serious unfortunately. The only reasons that I am even going to go is
because the students get access to various resources that I wouldn't have access to
otherwise, and that I would like major in Japanese.
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pinkparfait
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Message 10 of 15

29 August 2011 at 1:50am | IP Logged

genini1 wrote:

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.

I like that way of looking at things :) sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in your
failures and forget all your success.

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pinkparfait
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United States
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Studies: Japanese

Message 11 of 15

29 August 2011 at 4:39am | IP Logged

g-bod wrote:

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.

Well for the most part the people telling me it's too fast are just random people on
the internet haha.

And I think that putting aside time for specifically reviewing previously learned
grammar is a great idea by the way! I will definitely start doing that!
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tomsawyer
Senior Member
Aruba
Joined 5222 days ago
103 posts - 141 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German^B1, French, Russian

Message 12 of 15

29 August 2011 at 5:12am | IP Logged

Sounds like you're going great, don't stop what you're doing if it's working for you. It
it starts to get boring, then change it up.

As far as number of words per day, you'll find a wide range of people on this forum who
advocate from one word only per day, up to some who do a thousand words over the space of
a weekend.

Personally, I'm living in French at the moment, and I've "learnt/seen/processed/whatever"
around 1500 words over the last week and a half, using Iversen lists. I never did this
when I was living in German, but it just felt like a fun thing to do at the time. Of
course, I only do this because it floats my boat. When it gets boring, I'll switch it up
and do some reading (or watch some episodes of Star Trek and Friends).
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starrye
Senior Member
United States
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

Message 13 of 15

29 August 2011 at 8:01pm | IP Logged

Hmm, well I think it's true that you might forget some of the vocab and kanji you learn, but that's normal. Some words will take longer to learn than others. But remember if they are common words, you will keep seeing and hearing them again over the course of your studies... so try not to get too bogged down or hung up on your anki reviews. It's ok if you don't remember them all.

Eventually, once you start to get out of the beginner stages, you may want to adjust your study routine accordingly. For now I think it's fine to go along as you are-- once you've built up enough words and grammar patterns to begin using the language, you may want to start learning more from native materials, as new words and phrases come up in context. Or you might want to try making your own vocabulary lists based on real topics you want to be able to talk about.

And don't worry so much about what random people on the internet say. If it doesn't feel too fast for you, then maybe it isn't. Don't be afraid to trust your own gut feeling too. But if a certain method feels like it just isn't working, don't be afraid to change or find your own way. The worst thing you could do is stick to something that isn't working well, just because a popular blogger somewhere says it's the best way to go.
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cathrynm
Senior Member
United States
junglevision.co
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Studies: Japanese, Finnish

Message 14 of 15

29 August 2011 at 8:44pm | IP Logged

Hmm, yeah I thought 'more is better.' This is a simplified view, but I was just thinking if my brain is constantly in the process of forgetting, say, 25 words a week, that if I study less than 25 words a week, that I'll never dig out of the pit of non-fluency.

It's often the opinion of people out there that whatever you do that you're enjoying too much, well, it must be bad for you in some way. If you were exercising or doing math problems or playing chess, all these things would be bad for you also.

I looked over the schedule, I don't think 35 is a week is a crazy at all. Really, I think with Japanese there are people who learn fast, and there are people who never learn. That's my sense of this. If you go slow, it won't happen.

Edited by cathrynm on 29 August 2011 at 8:57pm
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AndyMeg
Diglot
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Colombia
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Studies: Japanese, Korean

Message 15 of 15

06 September 2011 at 9:16pm | IP Logged

I am also working with Genki, but with the vocabulary lists I just listen to, read and pronounce the words twice, and then I go ahead to the next thing in the lesson. I think the really important words to learn will be those I encounter most of the time, and so, by paying attention to them and understanding them I will eventually learn them because of their repeated usage.

But that´s not my only way of learning vocabulary. I am also using Anki, but not with Genki word lists.

I also do the excersices in Genki, so that way I practice what I have just learned, and it helps me to consolidate some of the topics (including some of the vocabulary)^_^!

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