ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese
| Message 1 of 11 22 November 2009 at 6:15am | IP Logged |
I've always had a penchant for attempting to learn languages. Often up until now there have been obstacles. Friends and family would often ridicule me for attempting to learn languages. Usually with a disapproving "Why would you want to learn THAT!?" And honestly, it's really hard for me to explain why I want to learn, I just do (Japanese/German/Russian/French/Spanish/Hindi/Swedish/Norweg ian/Mandarin) <- not necessarily in that order. I actually come from a very close minded town in the USA (in the Northeast oddly enough), where outsiders are generally looked down upon pretty heavily. So generally if I had my head in a language book people would actually treat me fairly cruelly about it.
OK. Enough griping about the past.
My prior experience in Japanese:
One full semester of a college level class, of which I remember barely anything.
A couple attempts at RTK, only made it to about 100 or so.
The full Michel Thomas set which I have just finished last week. (excluding Advanced).
Assimil Japanese, up to lesson 24.
Should prolly note that I have all the kana down pat thanks to that class.
Note: Kanji are relatively easy for me. I practice my art quite a bit so shape recognition is kind've ingrained in me. I'm also a visual learner so that helps quite a bit as well.
Goals:
50-75 Kanji everyday until it's finished and all my cards are in the system.
25-50 AJATT sentences everyday after the Kanji.
5 lessons p/d of Assimil after the Kanji, along with the AJATT method.
Reading books/manga in Japanese. I got よつばと! ready to go.
Current status starting as of 11/21/09:
250 Kanji from RTK
Remembered about 80/100 from RTK after a year long hiatus with one error in writing those 80, 20 were forgotten... so I think the method works, because of that I pick up readings quickly. (At least when I took class)
Edited by ManicGenius on 22 November 2009 at 6:17am
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6772 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 2 of 11 22 November 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
If you can learn 50 kanji a day you will overcome the most serious obstacle for Japanese learners very quickly.
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onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean
| Message 3 of 11 22 November 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged |
I'm interested to see how this will go. :) I tried to learn Japanese a while ago, but was soon discouraged by the sheer amount of kanji. The best of luck to you!
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ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese
| Message 4 of 11 22 November 2009 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
onesteptwostep wrote:
I'm interested to see how this will go. :) I tried to learn Japanese a while ago, but was soon discouraged by the sheer amount of kanji. The best of luck to you! |
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I find with Kanji and anything in life really, it's best to attack things in small chunks. It makes it far more manageable. Like with my art, I draw at least one thing a day. Over time you just naturally get better. Same goes with Kanji. 50 is my goal but if I get at least 25 per day I'd be happy. I don't look at as "bah, 1700 to go", I look at it as "woohoo 50 more today!".
Same thing with the sentences. I plan on pulling all of mine from books, magazines, and websites I've always wanted to read. Eventually, it should just end up clicking. Once I get a good grounding that way I want to find some Japanese friends who want to practice English, to practice my Japanese with (then my ability should really take off!)
Along with learning an actual language, it's a never-ending process. I'm still learning English words I've never heard of and are still entering my lexicon (and I'm a native!).
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ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese
| Message 5 of 11 22 November 2009 at 7:20pm | IP Logged |
Side note: I work with a Russian guy, and after learning Kana and about 250 Kanji, last Friday I decided to see if I could learn Cyrillic.
Umm... I learned it in an afternoon...
Edited by ManicGenius on 22 November 2009 at 7:21pm
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6772 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 6 of 11 23 November 2009 at 4:44am | IP Logged |
ManicGenius wrote:
Side note: I work with a Russian guy, and after learning Kana and about 250 Kanji, last
Friday I decided to see if I could learn Cyrillic.
Umm... I learned it in an afternoon... |
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Yeah, doesn't Japanese make normal alphabets easy? :) It took me about 5 minutes to learn the Greek alphabet,
which leaves me wondering who the market for all these "Greek alphabet flashcard apps" is.
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ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese
| Message 7 of 11 23 November 2009 at 6:12am | IP Logged |
Captain Haddock wrote:
Yeah, doesn't Japanese make normal alphabets easy? :) It took me about 5 minutes to learn the Greek alphabet,
which leaves me wondering who the market for all these "Greek alphabet flashcard apps" is. |
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Marketed to the same people who buy Rosetta Stone thinking it'll make them completely fluent.
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maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5578 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 8 of 11 23 November 2009 at 7:21am | IP Logged |
Who cares for fluency as long as you are able to impress that Italian supermodel.
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