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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 193 of 436 30 April 2013 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished a book! And it looks like it's the first book (in Japanese) I've finished this year!
The book is １０分で読めるお話二年生 - that's right, a graded reader for second graders. I'm aiming high as always. I have to say, I love the なぜ？どうして？ books published in the same kind of series, which attempt to answer the kind of science questions that kids in each age group might ask. But where the non fiction books are enjoyable because they are cute and funny (they answer such important questions as うちゅう船の 中で した、 おしっこや うんちは、 どうなるの？) the fiction books are just kind of childish and boring. I'm hoping as the age ranges go up, things will get more interesting. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 194 of 436 02 May 2013 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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The problem with Kanji in Context is there is just so much of it! Basically if you want a complete course covering 1947 kanji and 9000 words with usage examples specially written for 6000 of those words, Kanji in Context delivers. But every time I open the book and see I'm only on chapter twenty-something and there are 143 chapters in total, my heart kind of sinks. And since each chapter contains 10+ kanji, 50+ vocabulary words and 40+ example phrases and sentences, there is simply no way to quickly digest all that information. If I really push myself, I can get through 3 chapters in a week. But I certainly can't cover 3 chapters every week, in fact that's a quick path to burnout (as much as I hate using that word - I think if you're burning yourself out on a hobby, you're doing it wrong). It also leaves limited time to look at studying with other materials and therefore limits the way I study.
The flip side is there's no denying that some useful stuff is covered in the books. And even though I'm only up to chapter 27, which has introduced the 451st kanji of the series, in actual fact Anki tells me that all the stuff I've entered from the workbook actually covers some 860 kanji, so although they introduce a core of kanji in a systematic way, they clearly throw in loads of other stuff for the exposure (the kanji you aren't expected to be able to read yet in the workbook come with furigana). And I have to say, over the last few days I've been trying to read at least one news article a day, and stuff I have studied from Kanji in Context over the last week or so has cropped up in the news articles. Even so, I do wonder if this is the "right" approach for me right now. It's kind of hard because I'm not entirely sure what I want to achieve with Japanese right now anyway. Or any other language, for that matter. Oooooh I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4431 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 195 of 436 03 May 2013 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was a bit curious, considering you passed the JLPT N2, you have to know more than just
the 451st ones you studied with Kanji in Context. So most of the Kanjis you are studying now must be ones you already know, right? Do you actually feels that you are learning new things or isn't it a bit redundant? I am not asking saying this is pointless, but I have actually considered doing that and was wondering if it is worth the trouble! Concerning whether it's the right approach for you right now, you won't be able to figure it out until you find an objective I guess. Maybe you can put the JLPT N1 as an objective or getting to the level where you can listen/read the news concerning precise topics without a dictionary for instance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4672 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 196 of 436 03 May 2013 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't you find it a bit difficult to read those children's books?
I mean, I find it a bit annoying when lo-fi games (classics, mostly) have to render laods of kanji in hiragana because of space limitations... Also, shouldn't you know most of the vocabulary words featured in Kanji in Context by now? Edited by stifa on 03 May 2013 at 6:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 197 of 436 03 May 2013 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would say that Kanji in Context is actually more of a vocabulary course than a kanji course, it just so happens that the order in which the vocabulary is delivered is grouped according to the order in which they want to teach you the kanji. It isn't sorted according to JLPT level, so it covers stuff which could be useful at either N2 or N1 (or neither) all at the same time. As far as the 451 kanji I have looked at so far are concerned, I definitely had some degree of familiarity with all of them already, although some I know a lot better than others. However I am still picking up new vocabulary from every chapter, while at the same time refreshing my knowledge of words and phrases I had quite forgotten about.
As for how many kanji I actually know, I couldn't really estimate. I've totally failed on learning them methodically or systematically because I seem to find it really hard to get to the end of any single textbook! All I can say is that when I sat the N3 exam, I could answer the kanji questions with 100% confidence, but when I sat the N2 exam, I could only answer the questions with 50% confidence. As for whether it is worth the trouble, well, this is a question I can't really answer myself right now. It goes hand in hand with the fact I can't decide on any goals right now either. The children's books are tricky in the sense that, at least in the case of the short fictional stories, the kind of vocabulary can crop up that is only really used in children's books. Lack of kanji can be a problem if you're not used to it, but actually this is quite good practice for getting to know the vocabulary better. Also, the typesetting for the graded readers I'm using does a really good job of putting some spaces in sensible places within sentences to make up for the lack of spacing, which isn't a problem in an adult text because the kanji tell you where the word boundaries are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4983 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 198 of 436 03 May 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering about this too heh. I kinda figured you're like this girl in my class who is just really thorough
and not happy until she knows something inside and out. Whereas I am ready to move on to new stuff if I get say 70%. I get bored lol. 新しいマテリアルの方がいいと思いますよ！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 199 of 436 03 May 2013 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I want to be like that girl. Truth is I get bored too, which is why I find it hard to stick to a single textbook long enough to finish it. Basically my perfectionism is tempered by my impatience and impulsiveness, which is why I'm permanently disatisfied but never seem to be able to do anything about it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 200 of 436 04 May 2013 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Up until now, when I approached a chapter in Kanji in Context, I always went from kanji, to vocabulary, to the workbook. I would basically spend some time on one day studying the kanji and vocabulary (just by making notes, no flashcards or anything), and then the next day I'd put the knowledge into action by working through the workbook and making Anki cards.
But thinking about some of the feedback I've had here (thanks guys!) I reckon I'm going to start going the other way around. Or at least, I'll start with the workbook, mark all the phrases and sentences with elements I don't understand in them, and work backwards from there. This should help me focus on stuff I don't know, and not waste so much time on stuff I do know. I was a little more strict on my assessment in things from chapter 28, because I'd already made a half-hearted attempt to study the kanji in the reference book a couple of days ago. So although I recognised things like 東海岸 and 谷川 in my pass of the workbook today, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have recognised them prior to looking at the reference book (as I remember at the time thinking "argh, I've forgotten what 岸 and 谷 mean"). Even with being a little more perfectionist than I might need to be, I have taken the things I feel I need to put into Anki in this particular chapter down from 40 to 29. And on the next chapter, I will be very straightforward in my approach. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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