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90 Days Language Learning

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Radian
Diglot
Newbie
BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3274 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, English

 
 Message 1 of 9
12 May 2015 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
Hello community I am trying to learn Japanese, I did have Japanese lessons before thereby I have a very
basic understanding, would say I am at least A2. I am already on my twelveth day on language learning, and
I have made progress in memorizing the two systems of Japanese alphabet (Hiragana and Katakana).

However, I am having hard time to categorize, and how should I develop in learning an oriental language. I
have a lot of questions and hesitation about the language, and still struggling which is the most efficient way
of me to learn the language.

Categories I divided into:
- Kanji
- Grammar
- Reading
- New words

Should I start learning Kanji at this early stage? Or should I get used to the grammar? I know that the
Japanese's Grammar is not similar to English nor Portuguese's grammar.

Here is my basic setup for my 90 days of studying:

Day 1-10
- Learn Katakana/Hiragana

Day 11-30
- Learn new words (32 per day)
- Learn grammar

Day 31-40
- Basic conversation with native speakers
- Learn new words (20 per day)
- Learn grammar

Day 41-60
- Learn new words (15 per day)
- Listening to music
- Learn grammar

Day 61-70
- Creating conversation topics and able to express in basic manners
- Watching TV Shows
- Learn new words (10 per day)
- Learn Grammar

Day 71-90
- Attempt to reach B1/C2 level
- Learn grammar
- Watching TV Shows/ Listen music
- Learn new words (10 per day)
- Communicate native speaker

Still didn't include Kanji learning, because I am not sure when should I learn.
1 person has voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4314 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 2 of 9
12 May 2015 at 9:40pm | IP Logged 
Radian wrote:

Day 71-90
- Attempt to reach B1/C2 level


I haven't attempted to learn Japanese, but I think getting to C2 in 90 days would be ambitious. :)
6 persons have voted this message useful



chaotic_thought
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3323 days ago

129 posts - 274 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Dutch, French

 
 Message 3 of 9
12 May 2015 at 10:44pm | IP Logged 
Your plan seems to be a little "sequential" in nature. Maybe that works for you, but I would recommend splitting it up. For example, the FSI Japanese Headstart course has about 9 1/2 hours of audio. You could listen to it entirely in one day if you wanted, but I think this would be quite boring and not too effective. Instead, split up whatever learning material you have into manageable 30-min chunks. Just do one chunk per day, and use the rest of your daily study time to look at other materials and resources.

Free Resources

Jim Breen's Japanese Page | http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html
Huge list of online resources for learning Japanese.

FSI Japanese | http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/japanese.html

List of free, legal audiobooks sites | http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=6386&PN=1

The Japanese Page | http://thejapanesepage.com/

1 person has voted this message useful



g-bod
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5763 days ago

1485 posts - 2002 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 4 of 9
12 May 2015 at 10:50pm | IP Logged 
Welcome to the forum Radian and good luck with your Japanese.

pastrickwilken is right, C2 in 90 days would be very ambitious. Actually, starting from a very basic level like yours, B1 would also be very ambitious, but I can't say it wouldn't be possible. It took me 3 years to get from complete beginner to something equivalent to B1.

You asked specifically about kanji, so I shall offer you my opinion, for what it's worth:

If you really are aiming for B1+ level Japanese, you will need to learn kanji, and, assuming you are already comfortable with kana, it is never too soon to start. Some learners advocate using a system like Heisig to memorise hundreds of kanji and link them to English keywords, before then learning to attach them to real Japanese vocabulary. I did not use Heisig, but a forum search should bring up plenty of information about people who have used it.

Personally, I took more of a varied approach where I alternated between using specific kanji textbook courses (Basic Kanji Book and then later Kanji in Context) and just learning kanji at the same time as learning vocabulary with the assistance of the Anki SRS system.

Whichever approach you decide to take, it is worth just doing a little bit of research to start with to find out the background of how kanji work.

Also, since you are concerned with efficiency, bear in mind that kanji are intimately tied up with vocabulary in Japanese, so I think it would be worthwhile to consider kanji as one part of your vocabulary strategy.

As for the grammar, it doesn't contain many of the normal headaches for learners of European languages (no noun genders, definite/indefinite articles and very few irregular verbs to worry about). It is pretty logical and regular, but it is different and in that sense, you are right, it takes time to get used to. But really you don't need to take any different approach to Japanese grammar as you would with any other language. It's just a case of practice and exposure using whichever tools or materials you prefer.
2 persons have voted this message useful



smallwhite
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 5089 days ago

537 posts - 1045 votes 
Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish

 
 Message 5 of 9
13 May 2015 at 5:18am | IP Logged 
Hi Radian,

Welcome to the forum!

The levels go: A1 (N5) > A2 (N4) > B1 (N3) > B2 (N2) > C1 (N1)

I think there were about 650 words in each of the N5 and N4 official word lists, and about 1850 in each of N3 and N4. If you're learning to write only recently, you'll probably have to learn those words starting from A1/N5. That'd be 5000 words, and 56 words per day over 90 days.

I've learned the first 2 levels myself and found the words useful; they do appear everywhere in real life, especially the verbs. The words in katakana less so, but those are easy to remember anyway, most of them being just transliterations from English. Or you can simply skip them for the time being, as they're often guessable anyway.

N5-N4 grammar is easy to understand, easy to remember, and goes a long way. You'll be able to express a lot of things with them. So, do pay attention to them. N3-N2 grammar, on the other hand, is of a completely different format, and was super hard for me to memorise (this could be just me, though). You will need to use example sentences to learn it, they aren't things you can just cram definitions of, or things you can explain in Portuguese. So, you'll need to have a pretty good grasp of kanji, vocabulary and sentence-reading before you can start to learn N3-N2 grammar.

Good luck!
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Sterogyl
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4148 days ago

152 posts - 263 votes 
Studies: German*, French, EnglishC2
Studies: Japanese, Norwegian

 
 Message 6 of 9
15 May 2015 at 8:39am | IP Logged 
smallwhite wrote:

The levels go: A1 (N5) > A2 (N4) > B1 (N3) > B2 (N2) > C1 (N1)


I would even say that this is a bit optimistic. It seems to me that the N1 is more or less equivalent to B2 - after all, it only assesses your passive comprehension, plus it's a multiple choice test. And not too hard from a objective point of view, grammar- and vocabulary-wise. It nevertheless takes a looong time to get to this level as a European!

(I have passed the JLPT N2 years ago and I'm not even close to C1 or even B2 in Japanese...)
1 person has voted this message useful



Ezy Ryder
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
youtube.com/user/Kat
Joined 4130 days ago

284 posts - 387 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 7 of 9
15 May 2015 at 9:04am | IP Logged 
Sterogyl wrote:
smallwhite wrote:

The levels go: A1 (N5) > A2 (N4) > B1 (N3) > B2 (N2) > C1 (N1)


I would even say that this is a bit optimistic. It seems to me that the N1 is more or less
equivalent to B2 [...]

I second that.

Also, you most likely won't need to be able to handwrite the Kanji. If you can read them,
typing shouldn't be much of a problem. Learning to write won't make you remember them better
either.
1 person has voted this message useful



g-bod
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5763 days ago

1485 posts - 2002 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 8 of 9
15 May 2015 at 9:42am | IP Logged 
Actually I think N2 is comparable to B2, but for comprehension only, due to the limitations of the test.


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