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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5937 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes  Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 11 18 September 2008 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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...yes, Japanese.
What it is that draws me repeatedly to various facets of Japanese culture, I cannot say. But visiting Japan has become an important To-Do-Before-I-die item on my list. I've set out to learn as much as I can before my visit in April '09. I know from experience that traveling -anywhere- with a knowledge, be it limited, of the language is a lot more interesting. Thus, starting in July, I've begun to use the Assimil "Japanisch ohne Mühe" and an old Berlitz "oui je peux", both with audio. Today I've reached lesson 37 or so in the Assimil, which is my main material source. By "reaching" I mean that I have read and analysed as much of the grammar and vocabulary as possible. To memorise the vocabulary and important structures I also use flashcard software. I initially used a licensed shareware called VTrain, but have switched to Anki, a freeware that I consider superior in many respects and which is open source. I now have about 1400 cards of vocabulary and the first three schoolyears of Kanji, i.e. about 440 non-composite cards. The Kana were no big deal (I don't write them yet though, not having tried). I've sort of gotten drawn into learning the Kanji, though I had no intention to do so initially. I'll see how far that goes :-) I'll post progress reports and questions that I have here from time to time. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5933 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 2 of 11 18 September 2008 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck with your studies! You seem to already have a nice basic knowledge, so just keep going! ^^
I have one question though. You mentioned you have vocabulary cards and kanji cards in Anki, which I use as well. So I'd be interested in knowing how you organize your cards. Like, what's on the question side and then what's on the answer side. An example would be nice if you have the time. ^^ I am more interested in the kanji, but would be nice to know how you do the vocabulary ones as well. Hope that isn't too much of a bother. =) がんばってね！ Edit: Typo. Edited by sei on 18 September 2008 at 1:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5937 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 11 18 September 2008 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Kanji in Anki : Right now, it's reading "atoms" only, i.e. my cards are all Kanji to French and only comprise single Kanjis. I plan to add composites soon, probably before I add further individual symbols, to reinforce memory of those that I know while learning something that will no doubt be useful. I've not included readings at all yet, though I actually know quite a few, from semi-actively comparing with the kanji with the romaji and the Kana in the Assimil.
As I find that I'm coming close to saturation with my own mnemonics without any other support, I've ordered Heisig's first volume. I hope to get a more systematic set of mnemonics by using it. Vocabulary : French to romaji or Kana. I not only enter basic vocabulary but also some conjugation, standard expressions, sentences etc... There is some redundancy there, i.e. very early cards include "kimasen deshita" and "ikimasen deshita", and a few other neg. past tense verbs though I am able to reconstruct them from the u-form only. But Anki does a great job at lowering the frequency of cards that you don't need to study so much and redundancy allows for some welcome variation on a theme. I prefer to see several different cards at a lower frequency than the same single one more often. EDIT : no bother at all. Comments and questions are part of the motivation for this log :-) Edited by Whisky on 18 September 2008 at 2:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5933 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 4 of 11 18 September 2008 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the quick answer! =)
I have yet to make any Kanji cards, I have been mostly doing vocabulary ones (not that often though), because I just thought I could learn by reading and seeing it used a lot. I don't like the approach of individual Kanji, so I mainly study by learning words. Which is why I can't say how many Kanji I know or anything like that, but I can read some words made with Kanji. Still, I might start adding some individual Kanji to my Anki cards. I still have a few troubles working with Anki, so I just use the basic feature - Make cards (that can go both sides) and then click the level I think I am at with the card (when reviewing). Are there other features? You mention that it lowers the frequency of cards that you don't need to study so much... do you mean something different from what I do? I don't think I understand what you mean very well. ^^ But anyway, thanks again for the answer! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akatsuki Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6290 days ago 226 posts - 236 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: Norwegian | Message 5 of 11 18 September 2008 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck with your Japanese studies!
Sorry for the offtopic:
Why don't you exchange decks with each other? I think it's a good way to learn vocabulary if, let's say, people open up a thread and post links to their anki decks - could be a nice attempt, just like the skype thread. I know that some people may think it's their work and they don't feel like sharing their decks, but you could arrange yourself to share only some of your decks if the person in question shared his'. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5937 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 11 19 September 2008 at 2:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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About Anki : Sorry if I was not clear - all I'm saying is that I find the algorythm that sets the next due date for a given card according to how hard you felt it was works pretty well for me. I feel I have a fairly good understanding of how the program works, but its basic functions are sufficient for most users I'd guess.
About sharing decks : I have no problem to send my deck to someone, but I hardly think it would be very useful. I cannot imagine using my own deck without my own precise learning path - I've used a particular mix of methods which I find suitable for me and some of my cards have disambiguation-codes which are designed for me. Additionally, the deck's in French :-) In a similar vein, I'm not very interested in decks from other people in general, as these are mostly tailored to individual needs. Now, if someone had something as specific as a deck populated with Kanji composites classified by school year (or eventually by JLPT level) I would not mind :-) but I'd also be fine with a reference to a table of such composites and produce the deck myself... I actually may give the Heisig deck another run once I've got the book, but I have not decided anything about that. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5933 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 7 of 11 19 September 2008 at 5:44am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for clearing that out. ^^ Yes, the algorithm works pretty well for me too. I thought that was the basic function of every SRS, but since I have not tried others I can't say exactly.
I have to agree on this. Even though it'd spare a lot of work if I could find a Kanji deck that was nicely made, I'd still probably have to edit it a lot to my needs. And part of the learning process is to make your own cards isn't it? Which doesn't mean I wouldn't give an already made deck a chance, but wouldn't depend on it. There is some already made decks for JLPT 4 on Anki as well. I think I have once looked over the JLPT vocabulary one, but I don't exactly like them. I rather do sentences than individual words for example. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5937 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 11 19 September 2008 at 7:02am | IP Logged | |||||
Well I've tried a couple and Anki is the one I prefer. VTrain for example puts cards in boxes, asks you to define box periodicity (you enter whatever values you like) and sends correct cards to the next box and wrong cards to the very first box. That's a bit too unflexible for my taste.
I'll have a look, maybe those can serve as a basis for a deck of my own. I find that to be really useful to many, a deck should be very neutral, under the assumption that you are meant to customise it on your own. So it may save some work, but by far not all of it :-/ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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