Desertbandit Groupie Netherlands Joined 5101 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)*
| Message 1 of 12 27 March 2011 at 9:28pm | IP Logged |
First I want to summarize my Japanese studies so far.
I did 4 chapters of Genki 3 Chapters of Colloqial Japanese , like 25 units of Pimsleur Japanese , did a bit of random Japanese reading (Furigana and Hiragana only) next to that I have some trivial learning sourches like Anime and Japanes Drama , oh and I finished 2 steps of the core 2000 Japanese (thats like 400 almost) . but as you can see I did all of those half assed cause I got a bit bored with it and the motivationn for it dies real quick...but somehow it gave me a lower basic fundemental base of Japanese . Thats what I did for 2 to 3 months ..and then I discovered ASSIMIL.
I LOVE ASSIMIL , its the only Book I never want to quit using .
But here comes the dillema at some time Assimil is going to stop being effective for me since I eventually will ''master'' it , and as you can see ...regular typical textbooks don't really work so well for me and I am kind of panicing since I can't think of what I should start doing after I finish Assimil .
Edited by Desertbandit on 27 March 2011 at 9:30pm
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psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5592 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French
| Message 2 of 12 28 March 2011 at 1:00am | IP Logged |
Talk to native speakers as much as you can.
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crafedog Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5819 days ago 166 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Tok Pisin, French
| Message 3 of 12 28 March 2011 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
- Find Japanese graded readers.
- Buy Heisig's Remembering the Kanji and learn them all if you haven't already.
- Watch things in Japanese that you like. Note interesting/key/difficult expressions.
- Practice your writing on Lang-8.
- Find interesting websites/blog feeds and get an online translator to go with your
browser (I use Chrome and Bubble Translate). Write down any new words/key expressions
in a book/Anki.
-Get a good grammar book (if I remember there's a small yellow, grammar dictionary that
was pretty good) and check out anything you don't know/come across/found difficult in
the past.
-Meet and chat with native speakers.
I'm not sure of the level that Assimil has taken you with Japanese (it's supposed to be
B1-B2 in a typical European language) but normally by that point you're capable of
getting away from the typical textbook format and can move into the more 'natural
learning'.
Two final things you can do: If you're not sure of your approximate 'level', check the
JLPT and see where you are. I would imagine perhaps a comfortable 3 though I could be
wrong. And finally, if you're not comfortable with your speaking ability, buy the
Michel Thomas Japanese course. Though I didn't like the woman's accent on it much, the
course still seemed pretty good but may be a bit low-level for you after the Assimil
volumes.
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Desertbandit Groupie Netherlands Joined 5101 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)*
| Message 4 of 12 28 March 2011 at 10:16pm | IP Logged |
I see Japanese graded readers look interesting , and I think I start to need to put more effort into Kanji.
More advice is welcome.
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 5 of 12 28 March 2011 at 10:33pm | IP Logged |
Desertbandit wrote:
First I want to summarize my Japanese studies so far.
I did 4 chapters of Genki 3 Chapters of Colloqial Japanese , like 25 units of Pimsleur Japanese , did a bit of random Japanese reading (Furigana and Hiragana only) next to that I have some trivial learning sourches like Anime and Japanes Drama , oh and I finished 2 steps of the core 2000 Japanese (thats like 400 almost) . but as you can see I did all of those half assed cause I got a bit bored with it and the motivationn for it dies real quick...but somehow it gave me a lower basic fundemental base of Japanese . Thats what I did for 2 to 3 months ..and then I discovered ASSIMIL.
I LOVE ASSIMIL , its the only Book I never want to quit using .
But here comes the dillema at some time Assimil is going to stop being effective for me since I eventually will ''master'' it , and as you can see ...regular typical textbooks don't really work so well for me and I am kind of panicing since I can't think of what I should start doing after I finish Assimil .
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Interestingly, I started very similarly, using Teach Yourself and Genki, and watching dramas. I never used Assimil, nor did I feel enclined to, however I did use japanesepod101.com podcasts and absolutely loved them. I also had language partners almost from the beginning.
The podcasts and language partners will help improve your listening and speaking skills.
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TDC Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6922 days ago 261 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, French Studies: Esperanto, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Persian
| Message 6 of 12 03 April 2011 at 2:15am | IP Logged |
Read Harry Potter in Japanese with an English Translation handy ;)
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Desertbandit Groupie Netherlands Joined 5101 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)*
| Message 7 of 12 03 April 2011 at 12:44pm | IP Logged |
I didn't want to read Harry Potter in my own Native language let alone in Japanese XD.
Thanks for the tip tough maybe Ill try to read some kind of famous book.
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Desertbandit Groupie Netherlands Joined 5101 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Arabic (Iraqi)*
| Message 8 of 12 05 April 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
Anyways, I'm getting closer to upper beginner-lower intermediate by the day.
Does anyone have some more pointers I can take once I need to take the leap to
intermediate ?
Im looking into ''an introduction to intermediate japanese'' it looks messy...but with
the Audio and the text and the conversations after it I can simulate something like
Assimil ?
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