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Tags: Self-Study | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5498 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 33 09 May 2012 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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EDIT: as of 30/8/2012 this log will be for all the languages I flirt with/study. I want to cover more than one language at time and don't fancy having several blogs for languages which may not get a lot of work during certain times.
I've been studying Japanese by myself for the past 2 or so months. Admittedly not intensely; I've been wrapping up my degree this year and have numerous major commitments before the year is out. I've been using Pimsleur with great success so far; two short conversations with Japanese speakers that have been relatively effortless. I feel confident in my pronunciation if not so much in grammar, but that comes with time. What impressed me from day one of using Pimsleur is that I first opened the tapes when I was 12. After not studying Japanese for 9 years I was able to listen to the first lesson again and was able to understand almost everything. I agree, it's frustrating not having much vocabulary to show for all the hours spent listening but it's creating what I feel to be a very strong core. I'm up to unit 23 of Pimsluer Japanese 1, I'm not in any rush. I've done a 2 lessons from Genki but not made much effort with it, I've not made much time for it. I did manage to read a short graded reader called "Bus" with the help of a dictionary. This was pretty heartening; I couldn't read anything of substance in Chinese until I'd been learning for around 4 or 5 months I think. When my degree is through I'll have a little time free to spend more time on written texts, consolidating grammar and vocabulary. I've given Lang-8 a go today and look forward to making extensive use of it! I've been using Anki in the meantime to review all that I've learnt (and sneak peak what has yet to be covered!). I'm quite happy with the progress I've made and would like some suggestions as to what I can be doing elsewise so aas not to put a foot wrong. じゃね :P Edited by Toffeeliz on 16 October 2012 at 12:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mizunooto Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4515 days ago 42 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin, Japanese, Polish, Kazakh, Malay | Message 2 of 33 10 May 2012 at 3:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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Perhaps you could start seeking out native materials that spark your interest. I would recommend choosing things that you are enthusiastic about, and maybe just taking small parts that you can almost understand. Another thing you could do is use Google to search for grammar points with which you are familiar, or little things with which you want to be more familiar, e.g. search for "じゃ！” and see the contexts it produces, or search for "には" or for different politeness levels or whatever you like (simple examples!). I think it's useful, especially because - depending on your search term - you can find anything from literary to casual. I think fluency in moving between those is important in Japanese.
Lang8 is good up to a point. Just have a look at the corrections of supposed native English speakers to people's English attempts for a quick reality check on that! But certain of your friends on there will pop up as trustworthy after a while. Edited by mizunooto on 10 May 2012 at 3:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5498 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 33 10 May 2012 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello Mizunooto,
every so often I youtube some Japanese words. Unfortunately, I understand very little and have to be in the mood to do so. I agree that Lang8 has the potential to make confusing corrections, but my Japanese so far is basic, which is very easy for the natives to correct. My one entry there in Japanese was a self-introduction. My Chinese entry was more substantial and the corrections to that varied a lot more. I'm not sure whether I'm a good judge of which was the best correction, but I have natives that can help me with that. Note to the moderators: would it be possible to move this thread to Language learning logs, which is where I intially meant for this thread to be? thanks! As for today: some listening to JapanesePod101, of which I'm not very impressed. A little of Learn Japanese Pod on iTunes, which interrupts itself in the middle of the dialogues! I like informal lessons but by saying "I'm trying not to laugh" in the middle of the target language dialogue, it defeats the point of a language lesson. Onto Pimsleur unit 24 as I tidy my room. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4835 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 33 11 May 2012 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There is free japanese lessons - mp3 and text on the nhk web.
If this is not strong enough for you - maybe you could try to read some srt files with japanese subtitles. Both are available for free. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4519 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 5 of 33 11 May 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Going from Pimsleur 1 to native material is like playing in the kid's pool, then jump into shark infested waters.
Take your time and go slowly or you'll be overwhelmed and demoralized. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5498 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 33 12 May 2012 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've seen the NHK website, I really should give them a try. I remember when I was giving German a try, Deustche Welle had something very similar. I'm not able to understand more than the odd word in movies though. Thanks!
Thank you Atama Warui. I'm taking the 'passive' approach when it comes to native material; watching Japanese content without subtitles, trying to find visual content to match to the knowledge I already have and to just practice my listening skills. Thanks! Saturday 12th May - log Half of Pimsleur 24: I'll listen to the rest maybe today. Pimsleur is beginning to bore me now. Genki lesson 3: Did the first two excercises for this and posted them onto Lang-8 to get corrected (none needed! yay!). 15 minutes passive watching/listening: Studio Ghibli's "Only Yesterday". No subtitles. I'm putting all my faith in the little and often approach for now and it's working well. Grammar is coming a lot easier (or so I feel) in Japanese than I thought it would've. Then again, it's early days as of yet! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TK--F Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4498 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French | Message 7 of 33 15 May 2012 at 5:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese family TV is great for learning. I recommend Mainichi Kaasan, Crayon Shin Chan (NOT the mistranslated US version) and Doraemon. Once you graduate from those, magazines are a good next step. I import through Amazon.co.jp but the prices add up quickly.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5498 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 33 16 May 2012 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have seen some Shin-Chan American dubs, but I've never heard of Mainichi kaasan before. I can't find much of the latter on Youtube though :(. Wednesday 16th May - log Not much lately! Lang-8 posted about my hobbies. Did a Busuu.com unit about "family". I've come across part of the vocabulary through Genki and Pimsleur so it was good as a refresher on that. Finished Pimsleur Unit 24. It's become such a chore but it's been working so far! I may do Unit 25 tomorrow or tonight, I'm not sure. Lessons one and two of Colloquial Japanese. I think this course moves far too fast as far as vocabulary goes and very slowly with the hiragana/katakana. I'm nearly confident with hiragana but katakana is slow on the uptake. I realise this may be becuase I've not spent much time writing them by hand. Easily fixed. I like the pace at which kanji is introcued in Colloquial. Not only that, but it introduces them first through Japanese surnames, something I thought wouldn't be touched on, if at all. Apart from this, I've been trying to improve my Chinese writing skills through Lang-8 and flirting with a littl with Italian. I have little use for Italian so I'm not really giving it much of my time, but it's been fun to listen to and skim through. I have a book by Jay Rubin called "Making Sense of Japanese" coming in the post soon; I got it for £5 on Ebay and it's been recomended as the go-to book for helping independent students of Japanese to wade through the facts textbooks expect a teacher to tell you. I can't wait! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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