andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7069 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French
| Message 1 of 4 31 March 2008 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
So I studied Japanese at high school. It doesn't count. All I remember are a few kana and how to introduce myself, say good morning, excuse me, etc. So I'm declaring Japanese is a totally new language for me.
I'm not studying too seriously, just 30 minutes or so a day. And mostly with just Assimil. My books arrived last week and I started yesterday. Much of yesterday was spent editing the audio because the first 6 lessons are so stupid in my opinion. I like to think I have a pretty good ear, so don't need a language broken down into phonemes when the speaker is supposed to be reading a dialogue.
Anyway, after that task, I went through Lesson 1. Just reading, repeating, shadowing. And casually went through some hiragana.
I have no specific goal in Japanese. I obviously want to be able to converse well, but aside from that I don't think my obsession with the language will overtake my Korean obsession. Korean will always be front stage for me - at least until I'm comfortable in the language... which seems so far away it's depressing sometimes :P
I'll probably update this log once or twice a week to make sure I'm sticking to a loose regime.
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6077 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 2 of 4 01 April 2008 at 2:51am | IP Logged |
I'd be interested in hearing your comments about the Assimil method. I use JFBP and I'm not entirely happy with it. I wish I'd heard about Assimil earlier. Were you able to retain what you learned from shadowing?
がんばてね!
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andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7069 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French
| Message 3 of 4 01 April 2008 at 5:11am | IP Logged |
I've used Assimil before and liked it, that's why I chose the text for Japanese. For now I don't think I need something with detailed grammar explanations in it since I assume I can find an equivalent usage in Korean.
The audio is a little slow, but I tightened it up and it sounds more natural now. But that's a problem with most language learning audio anyway.
To say that I didn't study particularly hard yesterday, I have retained roughly 90% from memory and understood all when I listened again. I'm focusing on input for a long while yet - at least while I'm studying Korean seriously. There's only so much new material I can take a day.. and 2-3 hours of Korean study hurts my brain, haha.
That's why I like Assimil.. it 'feels' light, but works for me.
As for shadowing. If I hear a sentence similar to something I have shadowed recently, my mind is prompted with that dialogue and I understand. Also, after several days I've basically focused on the dialogue or drill that much that I don't need to look at the text anymore.
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Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6077 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 4 of 4 01 April 2008 at 6:59am | IP Logged |
I misspelled gambatte, oh well :-)
I'm having a hard time concentrating on my lessons. It goes by to quick. I'm drilling with simpler dialogues, making them up, writing stories, etc, to try to bring myself up to speed.
It sounds like you already have a good grasp of the rythym and sound of the language.
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