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Japanese one step at a time TAC team あ | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 34 11 February 2011 at 10:32pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone, I figured I would start a log to keep track of my progress with learning Japanese. I’m starting this log for a few reasons;
1. Keep track of the time I spend studying ( I Hope to reach at least 600 hours of study time by the end of 2011 ) 2. Hear advice from other people 3. To stay motivated to complete my daily studies, and reach my overall goals of basic fluency in both speaking, and reading. I have a pretty well organized approach to how I will achieve my goals. I must give credit to http://japanese-language-learning-review s.nativlang.com because my approach is about 95% the same as his. I will break down my plan now: • First 6-8 weeks will be spent on learning katakana, reviewing Hiragana, complete a lessons of Rosetta stone, and listen to Japanese podcast from http://www.japanesepod101.com/. My main goal from this first introductory period is to get some basic exposure to the language and work on pronunciation. • Next 2-4 weeks I will spend Really dissecting the Rosetta stones lessons by Writing out the lessons in Kana, defining the words ( as some of you may know RS doesn’t give exact English translations ) and put the sentences in an SRS and really drill them into my head. My goal from this is to become extremely confident with writing and reading the Kana while enforcing the phrases and sentences I’ve learned from Rosetta stone. • Next Two months will be spent with the majority of focus on Kanji. I am not 100 percent sure on what approach I will have at this yet. I will either use James Heisigs “Remembering the Kanji” or use “250 Kanji for everyday use volume 1 and two. I like the Idea of Heisigs approach, but I also would really like to learn the pronunciation of the kanji as I learn. I will also continue Rosetta stone and podcasts to keep up my exposure • The following months I will spend concentrating on grammar probably using “An Introduction to Modern Japanese: Book 1 and two” as the backbone of my study, I will likely use other books suggested on the website above. Of course I will still be focusing on enforcing the kanji I know, while learning new ones at this point. I will also keep my exposure up by some means, either continuing Rosetta stone, switching to Assimil, or podcast/anime/dorama/music. Either way I will stay exposed to the language. At this point I’m not sure what the future holds yet, probably more of the same approach but more advanced. I may also try the listening/reading method at some point as well. Another idea I would eventually like to implement is skyping with someone who already has a strong grasp on Japanese. Again I have to give credit to http://japanese-language-learning-reviews.nativlang.com/&nbs p; , I know that he posts on this forum, but I forgot his name (sorry) I’d also like to give a shout out to Sheetz cause his log at http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.a sp?TID=6241&PN=1&TPN=1 Really inspired me to start my own, and also gave me a lot of ideas such as the listening reading method and some good resources. So that’s about it. I will be posting in this log daily to track my progress. Wish me Luck! Edited by fortheo on 17 February 2011 at 8:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 2 of 34 11 February 2011 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
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Today I did about 40 minutes of Rosetta stone, 10 minutes reviewing the hiragana, and 10 minutes listening to podcasts. I am going to start katakana soon, i just dont know if i want to learn it online like I did with hiragana, or get a book.
Total time spent studying today = 1 hour 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 3 of 34 13 February 2011 at 5:57am | IP Logged |
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I did an hour of Rosetta stone today; it was a little boring mostly because it was a lot of review for me. The next lessons should have some unfamiliar topics, and I’m looking forward to them. I like the podcast at Japanesepod, they are nice and short so I can squeeze one in at just about any part of the day. I also reinforced my current of knowledge of hiragana. After coming to the conclusion that I would rather get a book and learn katakana away from my computer, I went on amazon and purchased “ Lets Learn Katakana “, I’m looking forward to getting that. Over all it was a decent day of studying.
Total time spent studying today: 90 minutes Edited by fortheo on 13 February 2011 at 5:59am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 34 14 February 2011 at 4:28am | IP Logged |
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Another day of studying complete. I did Rosetta stone for a while and though it is not the best software, it is giving me some basic phrases, and helps train my ears to really listen and dissect Japanese dialogue. Plus I got the software for free from my cousin, so its not like i spent a fortune on it. I also listened to Podcast, and listened to some audio lessons my cousin gave me from a program called " Rocket Japanese".
I am still debating whether or not I want to try Heisigs method of remembering the kanji. I may start with a different approach, and if that doesn't work then I will probably turn to "Remembering The Kanji". That's not for a few more weeks though, right now I'm still focusing on the basics. Total time spent studying today: 2 hours Edited by fortheo on 14 February 2011 at 4:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 5 of 34 15 February 2011 at 7:26am | IP Logged |
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I know there has been a lot of negative critiques on Rosetta stone on this forum (most of which I agree with), but there is one thing that I get out of it that is really essential to me. That is the ability to hear words or phrases in Japanese shows and instantly know what they mean without translating from Japanese to English. Whereas with other methods that teach the phrase and then give the English translation, I find I am always doing translations in my head when I run into those phrases in the real world. So despite Rosetta stones flaws, I really think I’m getting some essential skills from it.
So I did Rosetta stone for an hour today, podcasts for a half an hour and kana for a half an hour. Total time spent studying today: 2 hours Edited by fortheo on 15 February 2011 at 7:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 6 of 34 16 February 2011 at 6:25am | IP Logged |
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Hello!, just stopping by to jot down my progress. I've been getting a lot quicker at reading hiragana, I can almost read at speaking speed now. I did a lot more of the usual today, Now im just hoping My "Lets learn Katakana" book comes in the mail tomorrow.
Total time spent studying today : 2 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5469 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 7 of 34 16 February 2011 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
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Keep working hard, fortheo! It sounds like you are doing all the right things in the right order, and I'll be following your log with interest.
It took me a long time to be able to differentiate between hiragana and katakana both actively and passively, so don't get discouraged if you find your progress slowing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5987 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 34 16 February 2011 at 7:55pm | IP Logged |
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Hello fortheo, apologies for not commenting earlier but I did not spot you had joined us on team あ - perhaps you could amend the title of your log to include this information?
I am guessing from your posts so far that you are quite new to Japanese? When I learned hiragana and katakana to start with I just used paper flashcards. Then I thought I had the hang of things so stopped reviewing them, but a few months later realised I was still having a few problems with remembering how to write some katakana characters and put them into an SRS flashcard system and haven't looked back. I remember for the first couple of months reading hiragana still felt rather tiring but with regular practice you soon get used to it. I look forward to reading about your progress. Japanese is a great language to learn! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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