6 Months of Japanese!

皆さんこんばんは。

Well, here I am completing my first six months of learning Japanese! I have learned so much and it's exciting to be able to look back at how I've progressed. The main reason I started this blog six months ago was so that I would be able to look back and see how far I've come. Even though I have a long way to go, I know that for me and my personal intentions and goals I'm doing well. Everyone moves at different paces, and I'm happy with how things have gone so far.

It's interesting how as time has passed I've learned a lot about what works for me and what doesn't. I've used all kinds of mobile applications, audio/video, and books to study and feel like I've made a lot of progress in finding a good routine. Currently I use Anki mainly for practicing my reading and vocabulary. I was skeptical about Anki for a long time, and I know others are as well. I think it depends on the decks you use, what your goals are, and how you use it as a tool. All I know is that I have improved a lot since using it. Faster than I had improved using other methods. 

I'm also still using JapanesePod101 for audio lessons. Sometimes I don't feel like the lessons apply to me very much because I'm not travelling to Japan, but I know all of it is still useful and important to know. I've started to use the video lessons a little more than the audio ones, but it just depends on the day/week and what I feel is the best use of my time.

Some of the areas I hope to focus on as I move forward is being able to use and understand more complex grammar, utilizing a wider variety of conjugations, and expanding my knowledge of sentence patterns and collocations. I've been looking up conjugations and grammar as I'm exposed to them, but I want to dig in deeper so I can get past the beginner wall and get closer to intermediate/advanced beginner. I know I need to step up my game in a lot of areas so that I can keep improving. 

I've been doing a lot of inner reflection on what my goals are, particularly since my last post. It's very important to me to continue developing my vocabulary similar to how I've been doing so far. Every week I see more words that I've learned stick a little better in my mind and I find then coming to mind as I practice speaking and thinking in Japanese. 

A few changes I've already been implementing mostly involve me being a little more realistic with my studies each day. I'm a very driven person, but sometimes I tend to get a little too number driven and my health and overall quality of learning can pay the price. Since I do have some health challenges I've found that I've had to reevaluate some of my goals to get me where I need to be and remember to keep my focus on the big picture instead of worrying about numbers. That's probably a good idea when working toward any goal. It's easy to work toward a number and look good on paper, but with what really matters, numbers don't even count. That being said I am still keeping count of my progress in vocabulary and other things even though it's just how I like to visualize my progress.

Another study method that has surprised me at how much it has helped is brushing up a little more intensely on the Spanish I learned ten years ago. The more Spanish vocabulary I remind myself of and work on, the Japanese vocabulary and grammar becomes easier to me. I know this doesn't work for everyone, but it has really been helpful to me. As I have learned Japanese verbs, it has been helpful all along when I have compared the coordinating Spanish verb. There are so many more similarities than I ever would have thought, and instead of getting confused, it has actually been helpful to me to start studying this way. Even with words that are completely different from each other this method has been helpful. It's like the words high-five in my brain and they're all linked together in shared meaning.

Now to sum up about Japanese! In my first six months I have learned 4000+ Japanese vocabulary words. I am not to the point of using all of them in conversation, but I'm pretty sure I don't use very many words even in English! Recognizing the words when I hear them and being able to read them accurately when I see them written with kanji and kana is where I have improved a lot, and it is what is most important to me in my personal goals. I'm not going on some trip to Japan or moving anywhere with a large Japanese population. Being able to have conversations is a goal of mine, but an even bigger goal of mine is to read and write correctly. 

I am happy to look back at where I started and see how I've progressed over the last six months. I'm excited to see where the next six months takes me! 

じゃまた。