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TAC Japanese, Korean, Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 1 of 12 05 May 2008 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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So, I've decided to take part in this Total Annihilation Challenge.
Last summer I decided to get (more) serious about Japanese, and I've learned a lot since then. I got over the kanji wall, and finally got out of the Beginner stage... Now maybe with this TAC thing, I can make even more progress. I have quite a bit of free time, so this should go pretty well, as long as I can keep at it. In addition to Japanese, I'm studying Korean and Chinese too. Languages Japanese: My current level is intermediate. This is my favorite language, and my biggest priority. I can work my way through various texts with the aid of a dictionary, but I'm still coming across new words constantly. I have poor audio skills in general, so I have trouble grasping longer sentences, especially when there's new words. I can read most of the joyo kanji, plus several non-joyo kanji, but I need increase my vocabulary over all. The focus will be on reading, listening, and writing, in that order. There's hardly any Japanese people where I live, so Korean: My current level is beginner. I know maybe 300 words, and I can understand most of the grammar points in a typical textbook. I can't produce very much at all, but that's not much of a priority. I'll be focusing on reading and listening. Chinese: My current level is...absolute beginner. I just started a couple weeks ago. I know a few hanzi, plus the meaning of several hanzi from studying Japanese. Again, I'll be focusing on reading, but I'm hoping to work on speaking a little too, since I work with some Chinese people(one who is monolingual. We use "sign-language" quite well) Materials: Online short stories and novels(all) Online audio books(all) Elementary Korean(Korean) Livemocha website(Chinese) Some light novels I've collected(Japanese) Various language sites(all) <- If I find something particularly good, or useful, I'll post it Start Date: May 5, 2008 I'll post my progress the next day, so I won't be posting things I never actually got to. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 2 of 12 06 May 2008 at 7:41pm | IP Logged |
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Report for May 5th
I didn't do a whole lot, but I did do more than I normally would have. I wrote some hanzi in my Chinese notebook to study later and practiced a little on Livemocha. I did my daily Japanese vocab review...I've been writing down words I've picked up in reading and entering them into my SRS. There's hundreds of words in my notebooks that are still waiting their turn to be entered into the SRS(I've been collecting words for a long time, but only recenlty reviewing them in an actually SRS). I read some of my Japanese light novel(涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱/The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) at points of the day where I wouldn't have been doing much study-wise. I also read some online comments about an anime I like. I was feeling really under the weather...but I'm better now after 12 hours of sleep ^_^; Anyway, my plan for increasing my study time aside from the obvious(studying more) is to get input when I usually wouldn't. Reading during TV commercials, on the bus, etc, listening to language audio instead of music while drawing, traveling, etc. I find listening to music in a target language doesn't do much of anything since I usually don't listen to the lyrics(that and I like rock music, where the singers aren't very clear at all). This means I have to take some initiative and get language audio onto my MP3 player. Right now, everything I would listen to is online or in my computer. I'm also planning on studying Japanese everyday, but Chinese and Korean on separate days from each other. The idea is that I'll do better if I don't break up my focus as much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 3 of 12 07 May 2008 at 2:16pm | IP Logged |
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Report for May 6th
I did my Jpn vocab review and added ~25 words I wrote some more hanzi in my Chinese notebook, for about 1.5 hours I read and listened to a Geisha article a few times on this site http://www.voiceblog.jp/nippon/(reading while listening, then just reading, then reading while listening again) I read Haruhi for a while. I'm understanding a lot more than I thought I would not using a dictionary ^o^ So far I haven't spent any money on Chinese and Korean materials...I'm using websites and books from the library. I've found some little Korean-English bilingual books with stories like Robin Hood at the library. They're aimed at Korean people learning English so the Korean half shouldn't be too simplified the way textbooks are(skipping or avoiding "difficult" structures). They are VERY simple and repetitive... which is pretty much what I need for Korean. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 4 of 12 08 May 2008 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
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Report for May 7th
Jpn vocab reviews Started reading a couple Chinese grammar books, but I didn't grasp much :( It's just not being presented very well. One book I found is bilingual, but it doesn't have pinyin or translations for the grammar examples... Wrote hanzi in my notebook for 1 hour. I read and listened to that geisha clip once more. Watched 5 episodes of anime(3 for the anime version of Haruhi, the lines were like an abridged version of the book) Read a little Haruhi. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 5 of 12 11 May 2008 at 1:49pm | IP Logged |
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Report for May 8th and 9th
Jpn reviews :p Wrote hanzi for maybe 4 hours Watched 6 episodes of an Korean anime(Jang Geum's Dream) I didn't know there was any Korean anime :D Only 4 episodes had subtitles. Read some Haruhi. Some miscellaneous study(I may have forgot something) Anyway, I thought of making some special word lists to tie together the shared vocabulary between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. I'll hopefully increase my vocab of the latter two, and save some energy by learning the words together instead of weeks or months apart. I thought of making webs/maps, but I rediscovered that I suck at that. It'll be like this: 外国語 외국어 外语 wàiyǔ And hopefully by theme. I'll be doing it on paper for a few reasons; I hate switching between inputs so often. I can't type pinyin with those little marks. I wouldn't know where to type it out anyway(ex. Microsoft Works? eh...). I spend too much time on the computer, at least I can study the lists offline. Also, I'm more or less taking the weekends off. I'll try to keep up my reviews, but I work all day and get home really late :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 6 of 12 14 May 2008 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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Report for May 12th and 13th
...I can't remember exactly what I did and for how long. But I've been spending more time on Korean than before, and I've started my trilingual vocab list. Anyway, I've still been spending a lot of time on forums. I consider it a separate hobby from studying languages, but it cuts into my study time. But thankfully, I may have found a solution. Since I like to read about learning languages, why don't I do that in Japanese? I haven't been able to find any forums, but I was reading a site about learning English last night. It was really easy...it's kind of funny how a simple light novel, or a blog aimed at teaching seems to be a lot harder to read. It also turns out there's a treasure trove of sites in Japanese for learning Chinese and Korean(well, we'll see how many are actually good, and free) I've heard of the ALC site for English, but it turns out there're also ones for Korean and Chinese :) You need Japanese to make any use out of it, but maybe it will be useful for someone out there(well, if anyone reads this). http://www.alc.co.jp/china/study/index.html http://www.alc.co.jp/korea/study/index.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 7 of 12 16 May 2008 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
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I've grown bored with reporting...and I keep forgetting exactly what I did. Darnnit.
Anyway, I'm still studying. Ihave this one anime without subtitles...called Legend of the Twighlight or something. I don't particually like it. Not only that, but I'm dissapointed by how hard it is to understand what the characters are saying! It's not just me, it's harder than other shows. So I started rewatching this anime called Princess Tutu(which I love!) and I could understand almost everything they said! They spoke so clearly...I'm going to use it to work on my listening skills. No point using something I can't understand... (Holy crap, my computer's been pissing me off lately. Maybe I should get a new one T_T a Mac or something) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6906 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 12 18 May 2008 at 6:02pm | IP Logged |
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Hey there, thanks for the ALC links. I'll take a look at them later, they look pretty good. I'm guessing by Chinese they mean Mandarin though, right? :(
And have you been on the TUFS website before? TUFS Language Modules They've got Japanese video courses for loads of languages, including Mandarin & Korean. There's also one for foreigners learning Japanese, with beginner's & intermediate levels. TUFS Japanese You have to register (free) to use it. You've taken a lot on learning Japanese, Mandarin & Korean at the same time! It seems like you're taking the same route I plan too, learning all the CJK languages. :) After Cantonese, Korean is going to be the next language I tackle, and then Mandarin. If you're having difficulties keeping track of what studying you've done you could try making a daily chart. In Excel, or a table in Word, and just tick off what studying you've done. Maybe you could try setting minimum goals for each day or something? それじゃ、がんばってください！ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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