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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 9 of 34 17 February 2011 at 6:41am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Tixhiidion and g-bod for stopping by my log, I always enjoy reading peoples comments. You are correct G-bod; I am very new to Japanese and this log marks the beginning of my journey. In fact this will be my first time learning any language other than my native tongue.Also, I just tried to edit my title to add TAC team あ but got an error, so I will try again later.
Anyways, I got my “lets learn katakana” book in the mail today and needless to say I dove right in it. I did about the first 20 pages and really like the way it lays out the material. I actually liked it so much that I went on line and purchased the “lets learn hiragana” book. Even though I can already read hiragana fairly well, I think going through that book would help me with stroke order and really enforce my knowledge. Other than that I did a lot more of Rosetta stone, and a lot more podcasts. I also got “Mitchel Thomas Japanese” from my cousin. I get a lot of free material from him cause he thought he was going to study abroad for a semester, turned out he had a change of interest though. I will probably use the” Mitchel Thomas” and “Rocket Japanese” audio courses after Rosetta stone loses my interest. Total time studying today: 2 hours Edited by fortheo on 17 February 2011 at 6:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 10 of 34 19 February 2011 at 7:12am | IP Logged |
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Hi guys! I'm still going strong. I'm not sure if I will still keep updating everyday because it would become monotonous. However, I will still come in here at least twice a week to post my progress and jot down my study hours.
I'm getting further along in Rosetta stone and things are getting more difficult. I usually go through a core lesson in about 20-30 minutes, but the recent one took me an hour. Not only did it take me a while, but i also went through it again cause i wasn't sure I got all the info out of it that I could. I have set up my daily studies like this: One hour of exposure with rosetta stone and other audio courses One hour of practicing Kana I'm getting fairly decent with the kana, as i can usual read it just fine (except the occasional double checking). However my writing of the kana still needs improvement so I am still working my way through the " Lets learn hiragana&Katakana " books.I dont wanna spend to much time on the kana So i may try to get an extra half an hour of studying in each day. Total time studying these past Two days = 4 hours Edited by fortheo on 19 February 2011 at 7:12am 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 11 of 34 19 February 2011 at 1:24pm | IP Logged |
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Sounds like you're making good progress. Glad you are getting an early win on the kana, it will set you in good stead for dealing with the beast that is kanji! I wish I could get 2 hours of study in a day. I never used the Let's Learn Hiragana book but I have the Let's Learn Kanji book - it's not so useful as a complete 'method' but it does a good job of explaining how kanji are made up of other component parts, how to write them and read them etc. It's a nice reference.
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| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 12 of 34 22 February 2011 at 6:37am | IP Logged |
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Hello every one, past three days haven't been so great. I've been dealing with an anxiety disorder and mild depression that i thought had under control, but it came back to wreak some havoc. I did manage to get some studying done cause I find keeping my mind preoccupied helps me forget my symptoms.
Any ways, on to the actual studying. I finished the first milestone in Rosetta stone, it was far easier than all of the previous lessons. I feel like I am still seeing improvements with Rosetta stone, therefore I will continue the lessons before switching to a different audio course( ie Michel Thomas, rocket japanese ). My kana is getting better, and I expect to have it all in my head by the end of the week. One thing that confuses me is the ん kana. How do I distinguish when it should be read as N or when it should be read as M. Other then that I havent ran into much problems. total time spent studying past three days : 5 hours Edited by fortheo on 25 February 2011 at 1:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 13 of 34 24 February 2011 at 7:16am | IP Logged |
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So today I decided to mix things up a little by adding pimsleur into my studying. I have all these great resources so I figured I might as well use them. Originally I was going to go through pimsleur after rosetta stone, but at this stage I think its ok if I do a half an hour a day of each. I like that in pimsleur the speech is at normal speed rather than the slower speed that Rosetta stone presents. I think working through these two resources at the same time will be good for me because each course has different strong points.
I still have so many other resources to use, and I plan to eventually go through all of them, but for right now I like the setup of pimsleur, Rosetta stone, and Kana. I am about 85 percent sure of my kana abilities at the moment. I can recognize all the symbols (I still occasionally have to double check one or two), the only thing I’m really working on right now is double consonants, repeated syllables, and yoons. I am also still a little unsure about how one can tell when ん is read as M instead of n. Total time studying past two days = 4 hours Edited by fortheo on 24 February 2011 at 7:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 14 of 34 28 February 2011 at 5:35am | IP Logged |
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End of week update: These past few days I haven’t been sticking to my two hour study sessions. But I have still done a lot. I’m still doing a lesson of Pimsleur a day, a few lessons of Rosetta stone, and some kana reinforcements. I can say that although I think one can learn a lot more from Pimlseur than Rosetta stone that is only if they don’t get so bored that they stop. Maybe I’m just a visual learner, but I find it really hard to pay attention to Pimsleur. I do still however enjoy that they speak at normal speed because it has really helped my listening abilities.
Oh yeah, I also found a native speaker who will be willing to help me out with the spoken language once I’m ready. I don’t have nearly enough confidence to start speaking with him soon, but in a few months or so I will definitely take him up on his offer. Total time spent studying past few days : 5 hours Another idea I decided to implement was weekly goals. I think if I split my goals up like this it will help me stick to it and reach my long term goals. WEEKLY GOALS for 2/28/2011 – 3/6/2011 • Log at least 14 hours of studying • Make it through lesson 11 of Pimsleur • Make it through unit 3 of Rosetta stone Japanese lvl1 • Start to write some of Pimsleur/Rosetta stone out in kana Edited by fortheo on 28 February 2011 at 5:37am 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 15 of 34 28 February 2011 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
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I found that Pimsleur helped a lot with pronunciation, but although the repetition throughout the series is rather cleverly done, the problem is that once you finish the series and don't review, you forget everything anyway (or at least I did). In terms of the boredom factor, I found the best way of dealing with it was to listen while I was in the bath - as I couldn't turn it off without getting out of a nice warm bath, I was motivated enough to do the whole 30 minutes! Fond memories!
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| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5041 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 16 of 34 07 March 2011 at 2:01am | IP Logged |
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End of week update: I managed to meet some of my weekly goals but not all. I stuck to Pimsleur every day so I got through lesson 11 of that. The lessons are starting to get a bit trickier so I’m sure I will review them more than once. My goal with Rosetta stone was nowhere near reached as I barely managed to finish unit 2, at least I have a better idea of how much time they take now. I have been writing out some of my lessons in the kana which is helpful. I also watched a lot of anime, but I don’t count that as time studying.
Total time spent studying this week: 12 hours Weekly goals for 3/7/2011 – 3/13/2011 • Log 16 hours • Go up through lesson 18 of Pimsleur • Get at least half way through unit three of Rosetta stone • Continue to write some of the lessons out in kana I’m aiming for 16 hours this week due to the fact that I have been slacking a little the previous week. Next week I plan to start working my way through “remembering the kanji “ Edited by fortheo on 07 March 2011 at 2:05am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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