Konnichiwa!
Here I am at day 70 of learning Japanese! Part of me feels like throwing a little confetti up in the air to celebrate. I'll just imagine doing that and save myself the mess! ;)
I have purposely slowed down on my vocabulary learning a little bit so that I can make sure I'm remembering all that I've learned so far, and also focus a little more on kanji and grammar so I can actually use the vocabulary I've been learning. Funny thing is, I added up the approximate of where I'm at on vocabulary even with slowing down a little and I've still learned an average of about 20 words per day. I know approximately 1500 words. I've been learning more verbs, and also have learned some tool words like screwdriver, ladder, etc. I can also recognize about 200 kanji at this point. I'm trying to learn about 20 kanji per day. So far I've been meeting that goal pretty well. Yay for learning!
I've been practicing reading more with some e-books, regular books, and reading what I can on NHK News Easy. Through doing that I've realized I for sure need to focus more of my study time on kanji so that I can understand things better. It's very frustrating to want to read something and not be able to. I am a HUGE reading person so learning kanji now that I have the kana down is a big goal for me.
I've felt that the less kanji I know the more I'm held back. Feeling like I need to do a lot more studying of kanji, I downloaded Anki and came across NihongoShark.com's decks. I ended up downloading the Hacking Japanese book from NihongoShark.com and have been focusing on kanji a lot more. His philosophy is pretty much to learn all the joyo (regular use) kanji first thing so that not knowing kanji doesn't end up being a hurdle or making you feel like quitting.
I had already started using a new app, JLPT Self Study, the last couple of weeks to learn more vocabulary and recognize more kanji. I've found it really helpful so far. I like Anki, and that is what most people recommend (including NihongoShark's program) but learning on my desktop computer isn't what works best for me right now due to health constraints, so I've just continued using the JLPT app for now. I tried the Anki app on Android and didn't like it very much so far. I figure learning the kanji in an efficient manner and remembering them is what is most important, not how I go about doing that, so I will keep going as I have been so long as I am remembering the kanji. I like to switch up my studying frequently so I may end up using Anki after all. Time will tell.
I'm usually not an audio lesson type of person, but I've been thinking it over for a while anyway and caved on Thanksgiving Day and signed up for a premium membership on JapanesePod101.com. So even though I'm not normally geared for audio, with learning a language it has obvious benefits especially since I'm not learning in a classroom setting with a teacher. JapanesePod101 is kind of in my mind filling the teacher role as the podcasts feel like listening in a classroom.
Can't wait to see how I've progressed by my next update!
Ja mata!
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Progress Update - Day 59 - Sentences, Particles, and Verbs
Konnichiwa!
I'm happy to report that my progress is still coming along quite well. I've been working really hard to make simple sentences and understand the particles that string sentences together. I don't have them all down yet, but I've learned some of the main ones and have been practicing. The lessons I've done on Rosetta Stone make more sense now.
I've also been working on learning more verbs and how to conjugate them. When I was learning some Spanish 10 years ago I had done pretty well with verb conjugation, but hadn't found what worked for me in Japanese until the last couple of weeks. All the resources I had come across up until the last few weeks were very confusing and hadn't been very helpful. A lot of resources either focus on only one verb form, or do a mixture of all of them kind of randomly without teaching the differences. Finding the right resources that don't hold back on you (babying you) and tell you everything you need to know is invaluable! Finally I was able to find some better resources that are more comprehensive so I could understand better. It has been a relief to finally understand what the dictionary forms of the verbs are and the rules about them, and the differences between the various conjugations I had been studying. So finally I'm on the right track to learn in a similar way to how I did with Spanish with verbs, and I know I'll be able to do well with practice.
As for my vocabulary, I now know around 1200+ words which puts me still in the range of learning about 20 words a day on average. I've been watching a couple of anime shows that I've viewed in the past and have been understanding more and more words. I have been thinking of it as kind of a measuring stick for myself to test how well my vocabulary has been coming along. When I first started learning several weeks ago, I had only been able to recognize a couple of words here and there. Now I'm recognizing one or more words per sentence, plus I'm able to pick out some of the grammar and particles. To continue understanding better and practice making sentences, I've been writing in a notebook some simple sentences so I can remember the grammar and more words without relying on apps.
Since my last post, some of the vocabulary topics I've learned are:
-More verbs
-Entertainment
-Emotions
-Computers
-Holidays
-More foods and occupations
-Pharmacy and health words
-Sports
-Money
-Post Office and Banking
I've been practicing reading more, using some different books I have, and also visiting the NHK Easy News site for practice. I'm not able to understand a whole lot yet but to be able to recognize what country an article is about and what the topic is can be pretty cool after only a couple months of study. Again it's like a measuring stick to see how I'm doing. As the days and weeks pass, I know I'll be able to understand more and I have to celebrate each baby step.
I have been working hard to recognize kanji better, learn some of the readings, and how to write them. I've been studying around 50+ kanji as a start using some apps to help me recognize them better and remember their meanings. I have a few down pretty good on knowing what they stand for and some of the more common readings of them. I can't wait to know more so that I can read more material without having to rely on hiragana translations of kanji.
I'm looking forward to learning more verbs and the proper conjugations in the coming days, and also getting the particle usage down so I can make more and better sentences. I also hope to do better on knowing more kanji by sight and the most common readings.
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
Sayounara!
I'm happy to report that my progress is still coming along quite well. I've been working really hard to make simple sentences and understand the particles that string sentences together. I don't have them all down yet, but I've learned some of the main ones and have been practicing. The lessons I've done on Rosetta Stone make more sense now.
I've also been working on learning more verbs and how to conjugate them. When I was learning some Spanish 10 years ago I had done pretty well with verb conjugation, but hadn't found what worked for me in Japanese until the last couple of weeks. All the resources I had come across up until the last few weeks were very confusing and hadn't been very helpful. A lot of resources either focus on only one verb form, or do a mixture of all of them kind of randomly without teaching the differences. Finding the right resources that don't hold back on you (babying you) and tell you everything you need to know is invaluable! Finally I was able to find some better resources that are more comprehensive so I could understand better. It has been a relief to finally understand what the dictionary forms of the verbs are and the rules about them, and the differences between the various conjugations I had been studying. So finally I'm on the right track to learn in a similar way to how I did with Spanish with verbs, and I know I'll be able to do well with practice.
As for my vocabulary, I now know around 1200+ words which puts me still in the range of learning about 20 words a day on average. I've been watching a couple of anime shows that I've viewed in the past and have been understanding more and more words. I have been thinking of it as kind of a measuring stick for myself to test how well my vocabulary has been coming along. When I first started learning several weeks ago, I had only been able to recognize a couple of words here and there. Now I'm recognizing one or more words per sentence, plus I'm able to pick out some of the grammar and particles. To continue understanding better and practice making sentences, I've been writing in a notebook some simple sentences so I can remember the grammar and more words without relying on apps.
Since my last post, some of the vocabulary topics I've learned are:
-More verbs
-Entertainment
-Emotions
-Computers
-Holidays
-More foods and occupations
-Pharmacy and health words
-Sports
-Money
-Post Office and Banking
I've been practicing reading more, using some different books I have, and also visiting the NHK Easy News site for practice. I'm not able to understand a whole lot yet but to be able to recognize what country an article is about and what the topic is can be pretty cool after only a couple months of study. Again it's like a measuring stick to see how I'm doing. As the days and weeks pass, I know I'll be able to understand more and I have to celebrate each baby step.
I have been working hard to recognize kanji better, learn some of the readings, and how to write them. I've been studying around 50+ kanji as a start using some apps to help me recognize them better and remember their meanings. I have a few down pretty good on knowing what they stand for and some of the more common readings of them. I can't wait to know more so that I can read more material without having to rely on hiragana translations of kanji.
I'm looking forward to learning more verbs and the proper conjugations in the coming days, and also getting the particle usage down so I can make more and better sentences. I also hope to do better on knowing more kanji by sight and the most common readings.
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
Sayounara!
Monday, November 2, 2015
Progress Update - Day 43
Konnichiwa everyone!
My vocabulary has still been coming along nicely. I'm up above 800 words now, which is right in line with how I've been doing so far learning between 15-20 words per day on average.
Since my last post I've learned:
- Adjectives (fast, slow, tall, small, etc.)
- Airport terms
- Vacation terms (beach, sand, sunglasses, etc.)
- Japanese foods
- Weather
- School
- Baking and Sweets
I've also been working on making sentences more accurately by learning the connecting words like ka, ga, wo, to, etc. I'm still learning that of course but its been making more sense and I've been trying to practice saying sentences less like a one year old child would.
I got my Genki books and I've cracked them open but haven't spent much time doing lessons yet. Personal life things get in the way of learning sometimes! I hope to use the books more and be better at learning kanji soon. In good news for today I did some Rosetta Stone and it made more sense than the last time I did a lesson so that was neat.
I also have been trying very hard to retain all the words I've learned - 800+ words in 6 weeks is a lot to remember and hold on to! I don't want to forget anything so I try to review frequently. It can be hard to balance learning new words with holding on to the ones I've already learned.
Can't wait to see where I'm at in my progress the next time I post!
Sayounara!
My vocabulary has still been coming along nicely. I'm up above 800 words now, which is right in line with how I've been doing so far learning between 15-20 words per day on average.
Since my last post I've learned:
- Adjectives (fast, slow, tall, small, etc.)
- Airport terms
- Vacation terms (beach, sand, sunglasses, etc.)
- Japanese foods
- Weather
- School
- Baking and Sweets
I've also been working on making sentences more accurately by learning the connecting words like ka, ga, wo, to, etc. I'm still learning that of course but its been making more sense and I've been trying to practice saying sentences less like a one year old child would.
I got my Genki books and I've cracked them open but haven't spent much time doing lessons yet. Personal life things get in the way of learning sometimes! I hope to use the books more and be better at learning kanji soon. In good news for today I did some Rosetta Stone and it made more sense than the last time I did a lesson so that was neat.
I also have been trying very hard to retain all the words I've learned - 800+ words in 6 weeks is a lot to remember and hold on to! I don't want to forget anything so I try to review frequently. It can be hard to balance learning new words with holding on to the ones I've already learned.
Can't wait to see where I'm at in my progress the next time I post!
Sayounara!
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