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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5410 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 1 of 21 05 November 2010 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
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I've lurked here for far longer than I'd care to admit, but reading these forums has built up a wanderlust to which I've finally given in.
I'm an Australian studying an intensive Japanese program at a Japanese university. There are around 25 hours of classes per week, entirely in Japanese. After a month or so, I realised that I was procrastinating even more than usual, most likely due to the burnout that comes from studying Japanese all day, every day. I thought I could improve my efficiency by focusing more on other languages during the time I would otherwise be procrastinating. There are also a large number of international students here(some who are unwilling to speak Japanese) who speak my target languages, which could be a great opportunity for speaking practice. The campus at which I'm studying is also specifically for foreign languages, so the library has enough resources for me to be able to save my meagre scholarship. My Japanese is at the stage where I would be comfortable learning another foreign language through it, and I think this would be particularly useful for Korean (because of the similar grammar) and Mandarin (because I imagine less emphasis is given to rote memorisation of hanzi). Where possible, I'll try to find Japanese resources, but that doesn't mean I'll pass over a good resource in English. I have been using Anki for a couple of years for Japanese, and seen good results, but I'm finding myself spending too much time in front of an SRS rather than using the language itself. As a consequence, I've decided to experiment with not using an SRS for any of these languages. Here is a list of my plans and wishes: KOREAN: I've studied Korean for four months through self-study and then spent three weeks in the country, I bought a set of four textbooks written in Japanese while I was in Korea. They turned out to be terrible: light on content and with four-line dialogues. I'm trying to rush through them as quickly as possible, having already finished the first 15 lessons of the 25-lesson first volume at a rate of five per day. It helps that I already know most of the grammar and vocabulary the book introduces. Once that's finished, in no particular order: - 'Speaking Korean' Volumes 1-3 by Francis Y.T. Park, from my university library, for some proper drilling of the grammar - Sogang University's online program - As soon as it is profitable to do so, start on Talk To Me In Korean's intermediate 'Iyagi' dialogues, which come with complete transcripts - While in Korea, I bought a translation of Roald Dahl's 'Revolting Rhymes', which I know very well from childhood. Perhaps not the most useful children's stories from a language-learning perspective, but I'm very much looking forward to reading them. - Working my way through some of the 韓国ジャーナル magazines available at my university's bookshop - All the while keeping a journal on Lang-8 for writing practise, attempting to use newly-learned grammar and vocabulary as much as possible - Conversing as much as is tolerable to the few Korean students who are studying here MANDARIN: The most optimistic, perhaps, and the first to be culled if I find myself lacking time. Although I'm no great fan of the spoken language, my fascination with Chinese characters (by far the strongest part of my Japanese) has left me with no choice but to give in. I prefer traditional characters, so my choice of resources is somewhat limited. At this stage: - 'Beginning Chinese' and 'Beginning Chinese Reader' by John DeFrancis (with audio if possible, though I'm not sure whether the library has it) - Seeking out a dialogue-heavy book written in Japanese, preferably with traditional characters, especially since DeFrancis's book might be slightly dated - There are many Chinese and Taiwanese students here, so finding someone to talk to won't be a problem - Keeping a journal on Lang-8 with the same aims as my Korean journal At this stage, no more than 30 minutes per day unless I have a great deal of spare time. FRENCH: I studied for three years and reached a low advanced level, but it's been largely dormant for two years. My pronunciation in particular has regressed to embarrassing levels. So: - Quick revision of the spoken language, by listening to dialogues and watching movies, with an emphasis on shadowing for pronunciation - Working through Linguaphone French at a reasonably quick pace - Speaking as much as I can I don't plan to devote more than 30 minutes a day to active French study, particularly after the initial refreshing stage. I have no overwhelming desire to study it at the moment, but it would be a shame not to arrest its decline. For those who have managed to make it through my rather long and self-indulgent post, I would greatly appreciate any advice or comments, and I look forward to being more active on this wonderfully helpful forum! *EDIT: Pedantic grammar changes Edited by mayfair on 07 November 2010 at 8:55am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5410 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 21 07 November 2010 at 8:54am | IP Logged |
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I've been quite happy with my progress in the two days since my original post, due largely to the fact that I've had a break from classes due to the university festival. I'm wary of doing too much at once and then dropping off completely, but I figure that since a lot of what I'm doing is revision, I might as well do it while I have the time. It all depends on keeping up daily exposure to each of these languages, however brief it may be.
JAPANESE: Other than keeping up with my Anki reviews, I haven't been doing much other than speaking to my friends. No active searching for vocab, but I've been writing some essays for homework, which obviously helps consolidate what I already know. The problem with cramming vocab, as I was doing before, was passive recognition (often only in the context of a flash card, unfortunately) but no ability to use the words I was learning. I might hold off on adding cards to Anki for a while, but read as much as I can, and see what effect that has. KOREAN: I finished another four chapters of Korean for Japanese 1, doing at two a day and remembering only essential vocabulary that I might use for basic conversations with the students here. MANDARIN: I'm worried: I'm enjoying this far too much. No sane person should enjoy the pronunciation drills from FSI Standard Chinese: A Modular Approach, but I've worked through the first three tapes eagerly (1 hour total). "zh", "ch", "j", "q", "z" and "c" are giving me a bit of trouble. I also checked out Beginning Chinese, Beginning Chinese Reader and the character text from the library and I've done the first three chapters of the reader, which introduce 10 characters each. Knowing Japanese and having studied the very basics of Mandarin already, this was mostly revision. Only one character I haven't seen before: 啊. I fear my main problem will be getting myself to stop studying when I have other things to do. FRENCH: I read a bit of Amélie Nothomb's Stupeur et Tremblements, which I read in French class at university. I've forgotten many adverbs and adjectives, but I can still understand the book with little difficulty. Because I know the story well, I hope to be able to read it without referring too much to a dictionary. Edited by mayfair on 07 November 2010 at 3:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6133 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 3 of 21 07 November 2010 at 10:07am | IP Logged |
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Your studies sound very interesting and I wish you good luck! I'll reiterate that last part because you're studying three East Asian languages at once and you might just need both good luck wishes. Very impressive though!
How do you find Korean coming from a Japanese perspective? Are there lots of noticeable similarities, or are they more hidden? Are there many cognates between the two languages? 頑張って！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5410 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 4 of 21 07 November 2010 at 10:53am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the support - I'm very aware that I'm going to need all the luck I can get!
Luckily for someone with a knowledge of Japanese (or Chinese, for that matter), many Chinese compounds are similar or the same in both languages. For instance, 準備する (junbi suru - to prepare) is 준비하다 (junbi hada) in Korean, where 'hada' means 'to do'. Some other compounds are similar but slightly different, such as the Japanese 近所 (きんじょ - kinjo - neighbourhood) and the Korean 근처 (geuncheo). The latter uses the hanja compound 近処, which doesn't exist in Japanese but could be read as 'kinsho'. I'm hoping that these similarities mean that vocabulary acquisition won't be such a big problem. Korean grammar, at least the little I have learnt so far, is also quite similar to that of Japanese, particularly the usage of particles. I assume that's why the Koreans in my class send me into despair whenever they speak Japanese effortlessly - the grammar comes far more naturally to them than to native English speakers. I've heard that Korean grammar becomes far more complex at the advanced level, though, which I'm dreading. Edited by mayfair on 07 November 2010 at 3:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Xiaohua Diglot Newbie FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5775 days ago 3 posts - 5 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 5 of 21 07 November 2010 at 12:13pm | IP Logged |
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I also wish you good luck :D I am also studying the CJK languages but the difference is that none of them is my
main field of study. I am a Chinese born French so If you want any help in French I will be glad to help you :) (however my chinese is not that good ^^; ) 加油！ ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sage74 Groupie United States Joined 5429 days ago 40 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 6 of 21 09 November 2010 at 9:45pm | IP Logged |
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You sound ambitious which is a good attitude to have! I am studying Japanese currently and will probably go into Korean eventually as well. I wish you well in your studies! 頑張って!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5410 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 7 of 21 11 November 2010 at 11:40pm | IP Logged |
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Xiaohua: I wish you good luck too! Have you managed to make much progress with them without being too pressed for time? I'd be interested to hear how manageable it is without the benefit of living in one of the countries whose language you're studying (especially since I'll eventually be going back to Australia).
sage74: Thank you - I'm possibly too ambitious, but better an excess of ambition than a lack of it, right? (This is less true for Macbeth, but I don't plan on murdering a king any time soon.) 頑張りま～す！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5410 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 8 of 21 13 November 2010 at 10:18am | IP Logged |
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I've had a relatively busy week this week, which is actually helpful in that it gives me an idea of how feasible this plan will be in the long term.
KOREAN: - Finished up to lesson 20 of Korean for Japanese and decided to ditch it. I'll read through it from time to time for revision (both Korean and Japanese, I guess), but I won't work through it in any kind of systematic fashion. - Finished introductory 'ten days' of Speaking Korean. I'll once I get into the proper units, I'll use it in conjunction with Book III, which introduces hanja words, for some quick vocabulary. - Quickly ran through the first five lessons of the Sogang online course. Everything is fine except the listening (partly due to the poor quality of the recordings). I'm aching for some proper listening material, so I may consider searching for a listening book (I'd probably only find one written in Japanese). I'm planning to cut up the Talk to Me in Korean Iyagi dialogues into one-minute chunks and then read the transcript aloud while listening, but the language is a bit beyond me at the moment. MANDARIN: I've finished the first two chapters of Beginning Chinese and the first six of Beginning Chinese Reader, and shadowed the dialogues and example sentences for the latter for about 15 minutes each day. I was quite happy with my progress until I tried this dual tone drill and bombed out, with 24/50. Part of me wishes Chinese was only written! FRENCH: Not a great deal, due to lack of motivation. I'm up to page 30 of Stupeur et Tremblements, and I've downloaded two podcasts: 'RFI - Apprendre le français avec l’actu' and 'RFI - Journal en français facile'. Linguaphone is too easy, but I've been listening to the audio when I go for a run in the morning. I'm considering the L/R method with Jules Verne's Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours, for which I have the audiobook and a bilingual text in Word format, mainly because I've never read it while always meaning to. JAPANESE: It's difficult to keep a log of this, since it consumes so much of my life. I haven't been doing much more study than I have to, so that I have time for other languages and to avoid burnout. Currently writing a speech for my university's exchange student speech contest, which I will no doubt lose to a Korean. Worth a try though, right? 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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