Studying Japanese Language/Literature/History

yay! so excited for you :) and horribly horribly jeaous =_=;

i still study but not as much lately. i have time but i'm always so freaking tired i just don't have the motivation. i spent a good chunk of my shift at work today studying tae kim's guide actually. basic conjugation (past tense, negative, past-negative)... it actually makes sense! i'll have to go over it a bunch before it fully sinks in and i'm able to use it but i don't find it all that difficult really and the guide says it's one of the more difficult concepts in japanese grammar so once you've got it down other things will seem easier. so i'm encouraged by that. i took notes so i can glance at it now and then and hopefully it'll stick. now i'm into the next lesson which is particles. i'd already gone over particles somewhat on other sites etc but the way tae kim explains them makes more sense to me :D

boutux wrote: so interac has finally sent me the documents i need to start the visa application process. yay!!

i was checking out the embassy of japan site for my country and i came across some very useful japanese educational stuff. I will post the info in the resource thread. check it out.

Congrats! and I tried the Erin's Challenge site. It's so cute and fun. The videos do feel like a drama, but one that I can fully understand, lol. I think I can see them building up to a love interest, hehe.

nope i've never heard of it.

welcome to the studying japanese thread, check out the resource thread to for more ways to learn japanese.

sorry, forgot to add the link and our sneaky way of editing doesn't work for me any more, hehe:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC#p/c/4071737C12790477/0/rGrBHiuPlT0

Fibelle,

From what I've read, when trying to learn multiple languages (a.k.a. language acquisition), learning more than one at a time can actually be counterproductive for two reasons:

1) immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language. adding another language, especially one that you don't already know, makes language study even less effective.

2) when learning more than one language, it is beneficial to layer your learning plan. I forget the formal name of this strategy, but this is a quick summary-

If,...

L1=English (my first language)
L2=Japanese (my second language)
L3=Korean (my third language)

Then,...

I should use L1 to learn L2 (e.g. learn Japanese by using English) and use L2 to learn L3 (e.g. learn Korean by using Japanese)

From what I understand, it helps improve the clarity of each language in your mind and maintain the distinctiveness of each language by keeping the languages more linear in your mind. Like, pencil-->empitsu・鉛筆(japanese)-->연필(korean--via google translate, hehe). It may not be much of an issue if you only ever learn 3 languages, but I can see it getting confusing if you learn 4 or more.

Sorry if that was confusing hehehe

Kawaikochan wrote: Fibelle,

From what I've read, when trying to learn multiple languages (a.k.a. language acquisition), learning more than one at a time can actually be counterproductive for two reasons:

1) immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language. adding another language, especially one that you don't already know, makes language study even less effective.

2) when learning more than one language, it is beneficial to layer your learning plan. I forget the formal name of this strategy, but this is a quick summary-

If,...

L1=English (my first language)
L2=Japanese (my second language)
L3=Korean (my third language)

Then,...

I should use L1 to learn L2 (e.g. learn Japanese by using English) and use L2 to learn L3 (e.g. learn Korean by using Japanese)

From what I understand, it helps improve the clarity of each language in your mind and maintain the distinctiveness of each language by keeping the languages more linear in your mind. Like, pencil-->empitsu・鉛筆(japanese)-->연필(korean--via google translate, hehe). It may not be much of an issue if you only ever learn 3 languages, but I can see it getting confusing if you learn 4 or more.

Sorry if that was confusing hehehe

mmm this makes perfect sense to me. but i can see it getting pretty complicated and confusing when you start getting into more complex grammar, conjugation etc



so carrying on with Tae Kim, getting into the more difficult particles, i'm starting to get confused lol. i took a break for the last little bit cause the last couple of lessons were just frustrating more than anything. when things start getting frustrating i find it best to take a step back and just review some kana or something and then get back into it when it doesn't seem so scary, or you'll just get burned out and want to quit altogether.
so my next step is to go back and review the notes i took from the last few lessons and see if i can get up to speed. i think part of my problem might be that some of the recent material didn't fully sink in so i was getting ahead of myself. *sigh*
some of it does make sense the way it's explained, like how 'no' can be used to replace parts of a sentence etc but i can't quite wrap my head around how to use it properly and how you know when it's being used this way and when it's used in the posessive sense, but i suppose it all comes with practice, once you get the vocab down the context will make things pretty clear i suppose. his way of doing things is to learn the grammar first and vocab will build up gradually as we go along. and he doesn't use romaji, you have to know hiragana to get through his guide. kanji are used but you hover over them to get the hiragana reading and english translation, this way we supposedly can learn kanji a bit at a time as we go along as well. but i still find kanji scary :P

ladyfaile wrote: when things start getting frustrating i find it best to take a step back and just review some kana or something and then get back into it when it doesn't seem so scary, or you'll just get burned out and want to quit altogether.

I do this too! I think it's one of the benefits to self study (or a personal program like a tutor or JOI). It allows you to move around because sometimes you just don't get it, lol.

Personally, I read far in advance for grammar points, even if I don't really get the information because of the way my mind works. (If I read it, then I will remember that that rule exists even if I don't remember exactly what it says or how it is used.) However, I totally take away all the pressure. I just read it casually, like a book. I don't do any exercises or try to memorize anything. I think it helps maintain the confidence necessary to learn a new language. Sometimes I wish I'd taken Japanese in college, but I think I really just wish I started self-study earlier :)