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Right.....here it goes.

24567

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    You've just described exactly where I am. I was looking at the ajatt website and I might start doing some sentences. It's killing me that I can write the kanji for superfluous (for example), but can barely string a conversation together! :pac:

    Today I revised all 400. Being back in Japan and in the work environment helps a lot.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    475

    I feel like this week I finally got back into the swing of things.

    The trip home completely threw me off sync with my Japanese life!!

    I've finally started branching into the sentence and grammar areas, but not pushing myself too hard (I'm trying to have fun after all!). Started Assassin's Creed 2 in Nihongo as well. It'll be interesting to see how that fairs....

    Unfortunately, I also seem to have become addicted to Song of Ice and Fire series!!! It's a fine balance trying to read English and immerse yourself in Japanese!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    I got to 483 yesterday (monday), and started to feel a little ill.

    After lunch my school was closed down, the children sent home because of a heavy percentage of the kids having the flu. The teachers stayed of course (???).......and now I have インフルエンザ...... >_<

    Can't bring myself to study, so I'm playing Assassin's Creed 2 in Japanese.....that's studying, right? :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,132 ✭✭✭Just Like Heaven


    Influenza seems to be really common in Japan?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Hey, and they take it quite seriously. When I called to say I was sick, they told me to stay home all week. I rang on Thursday to say I was fine, but they didn't want to risk me infecting anyone. Fair enough I suppose, with so may kids and no bloody insulation (meaning really cold corridors and REALLY warm classrooms), the flu seems to spread quite rapidly when it arrives.

    Also....I refuse to wear the surgical face masks. Zay do naaaaahsing!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,905 ✭✭✭Aard


    I was told that the whole wearing facemasks thing was about not giving your infection to somebody else, rather than to avoid catching one yourself.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    It's mostly a courtesy thing, to show people you're sick and avoid spreading it.

    However, in this flu season, more people are wearing one to avoid catching a sickness as well, so it works both ways. :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Flu is almost all gone, so reached 508 today.

    It's the end of the 2nd section of his book and from now on, it's mainly primitive words, with no story. It's up to me to make them now!

    I suppose it's time for reflection since I'm now about a quarter of the way through the book.

    I can't pinpoint if my lack of comparitive progress in the last month or so is more to do with going home for Xmas or the fact that I'm learning the kanji rather quickly, so my pace naturally slowed down to cope.

    I honestly think it was going home. It took a good few weeks to get back into the groove and the way I felt about the language back in late November/early December. I think I'm making my way back there now, but it'll be a while.

    Let's over estimate that I completed 1/4 of the book in 2 and a 1/2 months. I would certainly be happy with having it finished in 7-8 months time. But I think I can do it quicker! (^-^)v


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    555! Beginning to realise that anki can help SO much if I just let it do its job.

    Used to get so pissed off if I missed a card. Now I realise that 70% of 500 cards is better than 80% of 200. I have to remember that I will continue with the rtk deck after I finish the book, and the percentage will rise once I do my srs every day.


  • Registered Users Posts: 273 ✭✭hibby


    I'm impressed with your dedication. The key to using Heisig seems to be to stick with it.

    I haven't used the Heisig method myself, though I have the book, and I have found it really helpful in some ways.

    Heisig says that eventually you get to a stage where you don't really need to think about the English names of the "primitives" so much - you get familiar enough with the forms that when you see a new kanji you immediately break it down into the familiar building blocks. You are still using visual memory but not necessarily in the form of a "story".


    I often wonder if some people use Heisig in its purest form - literally start out by spending months learning the meanings of thousands of kanji before learning any Japanese at all - and what their experience is.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    I feel like my head is about to explode with stories.....

    600.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    636

    About to hit a monster lesson with over a 100 kanji in it.

    Everytime I start an are revision, I dread what percentage I'll get, always thinking its going to be bad. But or some reason I tend to pull through them quite well. I think as I'm progressing, I'm not aware of how much this method is actually effecting me and my memory. Also, srs us geeeeeeeeat! ϵ( 'Θ' )϶


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    674, aiming for about 750 by the end of the week.

    Also....I've started doing sentences. :eek: More fun thatn I thought it'd be! Plus since I have native speakers around me in work, it's a great opportunity to be sure of correct grammar. One teacher finds it hilarious that I keep asking for the informal versions.

    'But, foreign people always use 'masu'...?' (´Д` )


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Scratch that, 700.


  • Registered Users Posts: 679 ✭✭✭just-joe


    what do ya mean by doing sentences? as in, writing sentences using kanji?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    I ask the teacher I work with to give me the informal way of saying a sentence in Japanese.

    Then I input it into my anki srs. The 'answer' side has furigana for the kanji and an explanation for any difficult grammar points, as well as a translation in English.

    I'm also going to start looking at certain books for sentences. For example, a book I have on Japanese particles. I might grab a sentence for each particle it describes.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30 raz789


    Try Tae Kim's guide to grammar for particle's.
    http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
    Best of all it's free! And there's a PDF
    I find it more interesting than normal books.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Excellent! There's a free app as well!

    My iPhone has been a bit of a hero in this language business, and I don't know where I'd be without it. Midori, Anki, Kotaba.......very handy to have it all on the auld 携帯電話!

    Thank you!


  • Registered Users Posts: 30 raz789


    Which grammar book do you use?
    I've tried Genki but I did get a little bored, dunno what it was about Tae Kim's guide that made it interesting.

    RTK is a challenge(though way better than any other method) and I'm gonna try it again hopefully...

    Also be careful with Anki on the iPhone, some have complained of data loss, if you have an account to sync I recommend using it regularly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Can't remember the name of the particle book, I'm currently in my second school and I left it at my base school, but I'll post it as soon as I can. It's not the most entertaining thing to be honest, but it gets the job done. I think I might branch out and look at teh Mangaland books for sentences.

    Also, I just bought Mass Effect 1 for the XBox in Japanese. I'm going to attempt slogging through it the ajatt way and see if it yeilds any results.

    The last 2 days at work were penciled in for being very quiet, but in typical Japanese High School fashion, they got busy with basically no notice. So, I've been stuck on 700 for the last 2 days which is frustrating, as I was getting in a groove. I'll see how many I can get done today, it's practice for graduation and I'm free for a good 5 hours.

    Re: the iPhone anki. I've heard that! And it happened to me the first time I tried syncing, which is lucky as it made me wary. With the iPhone anki, I tend to use it for 5 mins if I'm waiting for a bus, waiting for a meeting etc. Passes teh time and I'm learning (hopefully).

    I also got addicted to KPP thanks to my students:




    Don't judge me, it's all in the name of immersion!! :pac:


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Christ almighty, you want stress? Hang around a staff room in a JHS in Japan at the end of the academic year. The week leading up to graduation on the 10th, and from then on, has been incredibly busy. Teachers changing schools, 3rd graders emotional farewell and 1st graders going absolutely crazy. Like bloody animals.

    I reached the 750 mark on schedule but now I'm still in 766 ( just at the end of lesson 23, the longest so far). I've kept up with my reviews, but that's about it. Today I have some free time, so hopefully I'll make a little progress.

    Re the sentences....

    A mate here has successfully used the ajatt method so I pick his brains a lot. I noticed I just wasn't getting the sentences right at all. He told me I was picking sentences that were just too hard. Most had 2 compound kanji in them, always brand new. I need to do simpler ones with one kanji and build my confidence. THEN I use the kanji compounds in used to in new sentences with another compound, effectively building upon my foundations. Makes sense.

    To be honest, I think I'm going to leave the sentences for a little bit. I'll look into them again around the 1,000 kanji mark.

    Now, im reading the デスノート漫画. I watched the series moths ago, before I started studying so I know the story. I'm just reading through to get used to reading more than anything else. I can't sayI understand it, but small things are getting through. Small goals and all that.

    Ps sorry for any typos, hurriedly written on the phone.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Ha! So heisig admits lesson 23 was very difficult......so I think he purposefully eased off in lesson 24.

    800!

    Actually writing that feels brilliant, and it's greet to be able to quantify progress. I'm thinking (hoping) that I'll reach 1,000 in two weeks time. That'll be a moment to really savor. I'm finally seeing khazumoto's method at work. The small goals and regular para on the back make you realize that any step, no matter how small is a step in te right direction, so should be celebrated.

    Conversational Japanese is starting to permeate as well, and I'm fortunate to be living here for that extra help. Talking about kanji is a usual topic of conversation, and they think it's hilarious I can write the kanji but rarely pronounce it in Japanese. All in good time....

    I can't wait to get this language down. I did French through 2ndary school (and Irish of course) but this is the most effort I've ever put into learning a language.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    On a side note (and sorry for spamming today), I came across this website today:

    http://japaneselevelup.com/

    It seems to be a more structured/less waffle version of the ajatt method. I enjoy Khazumoto's site, but he tends to go on a little bit too much. this one is basically teh same idea, but with that little bit more focus.

    He has his own anki deck of 1950 to download that mixes the essential kanji from RtK books 1 and 3. he also has a couple of articles dedicated to the eradication of unessential kanji in Heisig's books (probably their main flaw). I'm going to do a little more research into it over the next few weeks and consider integrating some of his ideas.

    From what I've seen so far though, I'd recommend at least reading some of the articles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,419 ✭✭✭nadir


    where are you in Japan?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,419 ✭✭✭nadir


    あああ 金沢か, ぼくは東京にすんでいます


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    そうですか?でも、あなたのロケイーション(stab in the dark at the katakana)はダブリンですよ!

    Or have I slightly misread that, and you are infact going to live in Tokyo?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,164 ✭✭✭Konata


    nadir wrote: »
    あああ 金沢か, ぼくは東京にすんでいます

    来年私は東京に行きます!東洋大学で勉強します!

    What part of Tokyo do you live in? :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,352 ✭✭✭funky penguin


    Tá pian ana mhór ar fad i mo cheann. At least I think that's how it was said......

    I was never any good at languages, but these past two nights I went to my local and spoke more Japanese then I ever have before. Best of all, it was generally understood.

    But my bloody head feels like it's bursting to capacity with kanji, so I think I'm going to pause at 860 for the moment and bring my reviews down a notch, they're far too high.

    Slowly slowly slowly, I'm grabbing vital conversational points that can make dialogue that bit easier. I just can't wait to mix this with what I'm learning with Heisig.

    sllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwlllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy, no rush.


  • Registered Users Posts: 341 ✭✭LimerickLad92


    I enjoyed catching up on this

    What would you reccomend as the ideal way to permanantly get down kana, i always trip up on katakana!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,132 ✭✭✭Just Like Heaven


    Just practise using it. Punch some nouns into Anki in kana and read them out loud and as fluently as you can. You'll expand your vocab and familiarise yourself with the kana. 5 minutes a day for 2 weeks and it'll be second nature.


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