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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4464 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 297 of 436 25 July 2013 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
http://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/pdf/cdslist_e_all.pdf Item #1: I can understand the main points of TV news about politics, economics, etc. The band is 0-25%. (Assuming I've interpreted this correctly). Looks like "Listening" is the hardest activity. 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 298 of 436 26 July 2013 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I started watching Gou again, although this time I've relented and switched on English subs. This means I can enjoy it with my husband (and actually follow the plot myself). I need to know a lot more about both Japanese history and old-fashioned Japanese forms before I can follow a show like this without assistance! However, since the drama is some 35 hours long in total, as long as I don't get lazy and zone out the Japanese, hopefully I'll pick some stuff up along the way. There is something rather charming about the style of Japanese used in the drama...
I've just finished studying the first chapter in 留学生のための漢字の教科書 中級７００. So I'm still very much on track to get 4 chapters done before I go on holiday. In fact it's a bigger challenge trying not to do too much at the moment. For the time being, it's quite nice doing a small amount of writing practice nearly every evening. I actually had quite a stinker of a day today, for a number of different reasons. But at least once I got home and was finally able to relax, I watched an episode of Gou and then practiced writing a few characters and I thought to myself "isn't it cool that I can actually do this". It lifted my mood a bit, at least. 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 299 of 436 26 July 2013 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it would be pretty easy at your level to tune in the Japanese even though you have subs on. I seem to do it pretty well. In a way, I learn new vocabulary better this way. But only sort of. It goes by so fast that you really don't get a chance to retain it.
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| 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 300 of 436 27 July 2013 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I already know that I progress better through the TV method if I can follow the show without
subs. However, I'm just treating this as cultural studies! 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 301 of 436 28 July 2013 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Alongside my new found motivation to study kanji again, I've started going through my N2 textbooks. You know, the ones that I didn't actually study from before I passed the exam! It's actually kind of nice going to the books now knowing full well that there is no pressure, expecting to find useful stuff to study at my leisure, while also being prepared to drop them in an instant if they don't prove to be useful. And of course, the only thing I care about is whether they are useful for how I want to use the language in real life, rather than in an exam room.
With the probable exception of the listening comprehension book, which is the closest to an exam manual of all of them, the N2 Kanzen Master books are actually a pretty neat suite of textbooks for intermediate learners. The reading book packs into a relatively short space lots of useful techniques for finding out the overall meaning of a passage, which is useful for both the exam and real life. In fact I would say for most people the Kanzen Master reading book is the one book really worth getting for helping to pass the exam. The kanji book is not great for learning kanji, but has some fantastic exercises to practice them with. I particularly love the fact that it comes with a CD full of dictation exercises. The grammar book had a massive overhaul from the previous edition for the older version of the exam and is now hugely improved with a much better grouping of expressions and more information about usage (which I think is actually a lot more detailed and nuanced than you'd need for the exam, but is useful nonetheless). But today I've been looking at the vocabulary book. I never really used it before because I felt rather overwhelmed by the prospect when I was preparing for the exam. It's a massive book packed full of useful expressions, many of which I'm not familiar with and most of which are not in my active vocabulary, yet. So it's perfect to go back to now in smaller chunks with no time pressure. I've since realised that vocabulary books for the more advanced JLPT exams are pretty pointless. The textbook writers have no way of knowing what is going to be on the papers any more. If you love vocabulary books there's no reason not to use them, just don't be disappointed when the test paper doesn't actually cover anything from the book. However, I'm not preparing for any test now, I just want to expand my vocabulary a little to help me have more fun with the language, and it's nice to do that sometimes in a structured way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4464 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 302 of 436 28 July 2013 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
I bought Nihongo No Satome N3 Grammar and New Kanzen Master N3 Grammar when I was in London. I've started looking at No-Satome and I can follow it, sort of. Each "day" it gives you a few grammar points, with an explanation or a few examples or, if you're lucky :-), both. Using just that book, I think I'd struggle. It doesn't always clearly explain the limitations of each grammar point, but I can always look them up elsewhere and just use the book as a guide to what to study. There are useful exercises too, although the daily ones are a little brief (6-7 questions, it seems). Kanzen Master has me stumped though. If I pick on a point I don't know about, say, N + によって, I see four example sentences but no translations. There's a "3 paperclips" symbol, which is "formation" and a "grammar point". It looks like it's going to be very hard work to get through this on my own. Everybody recommends it, so it's probably packed with great info (and lots of tests, which will be good once I know what I'm studying!). It may be that the later sections include more information, but at the moment KM looks to be a hard slog. Is there a magic key I'm missing? 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 303 of 436 28 July 2013 at 11:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can try. A dictionary sometimes to help with the examples. I don't know how good the book is though if
its not explaining the grammar points at all and you need to consult other resources instead. によって can mean according to or it can show reason. I wouldn't feel confident using it in a sentence though. 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 304 of 436 29 July 2013 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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The Kanzen Master N3 hadn't been published when I sat the exam so I've never looked at it. At
my level I can live without translations. I'm not really sure what to suggest as I don't know if or how the N3 book differs from the N2 one. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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