1 Year of Japanese!

こんにちは。

Yesterday was officially my 1 year mark in learning Japanese! I've learned a lot over this past year. I've learned so many things, anything from what study methods work best for me or aren't worth my time, to having a deeper understanding and appreciation of how culture influences language use.

I plan to continue learning, and I still love Japanese and am so happy to have learned all I have this past year. It's been a great journey so far!

じゃまたね。

10 Months of Learning Japanese - Day 305

こんばんは。久しぶりです。Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I've felt up to making a new post. The last two months have been full of personal and family health challenges. I've been feeling a little better the last couple of weeks, and I've been able to study some more after having to cut back a lot for two months. 

To brush back up on things I've been reviewing all my vocabulary words on Anki and other apps I've used here and there to remind myself that I haven't forgotten Japanese! I was getting a little stressed for a while that I might start studying again only to find I'd forgotten everything. This hasn't been the case though, so I'm very relieved to be picking up again where I left off. 

I haven't been learning anything new since I've been focusing on reviewing things I've learned so far. I can't believe I started learning 10 months ago already! It seems like just yesterday, but it also feels like it was a long time ago.

I hope to feel well enough to make some more progress soon, but even if not I will keep reviewing all the things I've learned and continue to love and enjoy the Japanese language and culture.

じゃまたね。

234 Days of Learning Japanese!

皆さんこんにちは。

Well, here I am on day 234! I've been continuing to work hard learning new vocabulary, grammar, and to improve my listening skills. I've noticed that I'm starting to understand more and feel less overwhelmed when listening to music or watching videos in Japanese. 

As a result of feeling less overwhelmed, I've been listening to even more music, watching more videos, and listening to audio books while reading along. It's been helping so much and I feel that I've turned a corner into where I can actually enjoy learning instead of studying being so serious all the time. I'm still doing all the serious studies, such as reviewing vocabulary cards in Anki, but now when I don't feel up for that I can at least watch or listen to something and understand what's going on without having to rely on subtitles or a lyric translation so heavily. 

It's such an exciting feeling to listen to something and catch more than just a word here and there. To be able to listen to something and be able to really understand (with a little work) it has been really great. 

I've been listening to a lot of music the past few weeks after I came across a song that I had known the tune previously but didn't know more than that. The song is "Ue o Muite Arukou"  or sometimes known as "Sukiyaki" sung by Kyu Sakamoto. I've been a little obsessed with the song and have played it and sung it a lot. 

Last week I downloaded a CD called "Planet Journey" from an artist named Ritsuka. I love all the songs and I have learned new vocabulary and grammar from listening closely. I've been really into the song "Aoi Tori" aka "Bluebird". There were a lot of words I already knew when I first listened to it so it had caught my attention, and now that I have listened a lot I've learned a good deal. I've been enjoying some other songs and artists as well, but these two songs stand out. I've been trying to find some additional music artists that fit my tastes but it's a lot of work. 

I also have been watching some clips from game shows on YouTube. AKBingo is my favorite right now even though I know there is a lot of controversy and some shady things concerning AKB48, the music group that the show is built around. 

Aside from diving into Japanese music and media a little more, I've been continuing to practice in more serious ways as well. I haven't done as much Rosetta Stone as I'd like to the past few weeks because I haven't been well enough (thus all the time on my hands to watch game shows and such). I have been doing some more vocabulary, and have worked my way up to about 5500 vocabulary words that I'm currently working on. Since I've been doing more reading and other things, it has felt easier to remember more words and their meanings. Sometimes just practicing a word in Anki a couple of times, and then hearing it in a song or on a program is all it takes to remember it well.

In one of my last posts I talked about taking a break from new vocabulary, and I took around a month long break (or close to that). I may take another break in the future if I feel burned out on new words, but right now I feel like my learning is similar to a snowball running down a hill that's getting bigger and bigger and I want it to keep going. It's a hard balance between doing too little and not progressing much and becoming frustrated that way, or doing too much and getting overwhelmed. This past week I've felt like being in an at-home pseudo-immersion where I just want more and more no matter how well I understand it all. I know that will likely taper off but it's been nice to feel less overwhelmed in general, even if it's a temporary thing.

I've felt myself more easily be able to make sentences, and I often think quite a few sentences (at minimum) in Japanese each day. Even though I'm by myself a lot it is a relief to be able to form a complete thought fairly quickly about something I'm watching, etc. Baby steps! 

I can't wait to see how much progress I make between now and my next update! Thanks for reading!

じゃまたね。

Day 211 Progress Update

皆さんこんばんは。

Hello everyone! Here I am on day 211, and I feel like things are going well. I've continued to review the vocabulary words I've learned so far, but I have not been learning any new words via an app. I have still learned new words the natural way here and there.

Getting off the insane vocabulary word accumulation treadmill has been so good for me. I've instead used my time building my core skills and grammar. Even though I was working on all those things before, I'm now able to spend more time on making sentences and understanding than I had been able to before. I feel a lot less stress about learning and it has become enjoyable again. I will definitely learn more words again at some point, but I can see now how I just need to go with the flow a little more and do what feels right each step of the way instead of trying to fit my studying and progress into some kind of pre-made mold. 

I've been using my Genki I book and Rosetta Stone mostly these past few weeks in addition to reviewing vocabulary words/example sentences in Anki and using JapanesePod101. I've felt myself reach a higher level of understanding than where I'd been previously and it's exciting! I've been working especially hard on increasing my usage and understanding of a wider scope of verb conjugations and using more particles correctly.

Can't wait to see where I'm at on my next update! Thanks for reading!

さようなら。

Day 200 Progress Update

皆さんこんばんは。

Well, here I am on day 200! I've definitely learned a lot these past 200 days...and I'm also at a turning point. I've been in self-reflection mode a lot both because that's normal for me this time of year and also because of losing someone dear to me this past week very unexpectedly.

In the spirit of inner reflection, here are a few of the things I've been pondering concerning going forward in my Japanese learning.

I've been spending a lot of time learning vocabulary, which is a good thing, but can get a little out of hand. Focusing a lot on vocabulary is particularly popular for a lot of people including myself who like to quantify their learning into numbers. I've used different apps and books to aid in my learning, including using Anki. The deck on Anki that I've been using has helped me so much - I think one's experience with Anki and how effective it is largely depends on what deck you use. The one I've been using has been SO helpful. My reading comprehension and reading skills have improved so much. I am going to continue using Anki, but the thing I'm questioning is the pace of learning any new vocabulary for at least a little while. 

Because I love numbers like most everyone else seems to these days, my most high goal has been to learn the all magical number of vocabulary words in one year - 10,000. Right now I'm at about 4400-4500 words that I can read and recognize well. No I can't use them all in conversation, but there are a lot of English words I know well that I would never use in a conversation either. That however is different since I can speak and think in English just fine... ;)

Because I'm now 200 days into learning Japanese, it's becoming more and more obvious to me how much more practice I need in making my own sentences. I do pretty well for the stage I'm at in reading other's writing and my listening skills are coming along well too. As for making complete thoughts and being able to say or think more than a sentence here or there, I definitely feel behind from where I'd like to be. The past week or so I've spent less time doing new vocabulary and I've been spending more time writing and speaking sentences. Simple ones, but I need to just work hard and build up my abilities in that area.

I've been a little addicted to reaching that 10,000 word goal for this first year, and I've evaluated that goal here and there along the way so far, but I'm really thinking about it even harder now. I've also justified continuing towards that goal because my reading ability has improved so much from expanding my vocabulary. However, I think because I do have some health problems and due to that situation I only have a small amount of time that I'm well enough each day to have "hard-core" study time. That means I really need to use that feel-good time wisely. I've been focusing so much on vocabulary, and while I know that's good and has helped me be able to read and know so much more than if I hadn't been doing so much vocabulary thus far, I really am at a turning point. 

So right now the question I'm considering is this: Do I keep going forward as I have been, learning up to 35 new vocabulary words a day so I can attain that magical 10,000 words come September? OR Do I slack off a little on learning new words, failing to reach that obsessive compulsive 10,000 words, but in so doing I would likely spend more time doing other types of practice that I hope will help me more overall?

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be learning less new words from here forward, letting go of that 10,000 words in one year goal I've had. It's a really good goal, and I know it has done wonders for a lot of other people. It makes me sad to think about changing course a little and not being able to put a figurative checkmark at the end of my first year knowing that many words. But I can see that if what I really want is to be able to speak and think in Japanese and not just read and listen, I need to pull back just a little on being number obsessed and build up my core skills a little better. I know that I need to do this away from being in an app. Apps get you in kind of a quiz mode all the time yet put you in a situation where you're unable to recall many of those words outside of the app. I need to break free of that problem a little better by changing my focus.

So that sums up where I'm at right now for the most part. Self reflection mode. I know that losing someone close to me this week has made me think that much harder about how I'm doing things (not just with Japanese learning). I don't know what the coming days are going to look like exactly with my learning, but what I do know is that I want to be able to speak and think in Japanese, not just know a bunch of words as I read or listen that I can't put into sentences myself. 

Thanks for reading! <3

じゃまた。

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。

Leap Year - Progress Update - Day 162

皆さんこんばんは。

Here I am on day 162 of learning Japanese! I thought that Leap Day would be a good day for a post. In less than a month I will be at my six month mark. Time has gone so quickly. I've been working really hard using Anki to learn new words and I do my best to use and remember them even though it's difficult for me. I figure as long as I'm moving forward and learning, growing, and understanding more that's all that matters. I also still make sure to use JapanesePod101 and learn a little new grammar everyday.

Lately when I'm out driving around I try to stay in Japanese the whole time. If I'm by myself when driving I talk out loud to myself, and when I'm grocery shopping, etc. I think in Japanese as much as possible. It's kind of fun to think in Japanese enough to feel a little weird switching back to English. Keep in mind my level of speaking/thinking in Japanese pretty much goes like this: これは車です。このペンは黒です。その車は黄色です。あの木は多きです。その店は高いです。その食べ物は安いです。For those that can't read this, what I wrote says "This is a car. This pen is black. That car is yellow. That tree over there is big. That store is tall. That food is cheap."

Another thing I tried the other day was while watching tv I had to identify in Japanese one thing on each frame of the show I was watching. Or I had to describe what was going on. So for example on the particular show there were a lot of nature scenes and families doing activities together so I would think 草 "grass" when the scene showed a field of grass, 家族 "family" when the scene showed a family together, or 女の子は走っています "girl is running" when a girl was running.

I feel both awesome and super juvenile at the same time when I do this. Gotta practice the basics though. I figure it's good for me to stay in Japanese even if I feel like a two year old. I'm having a hard time doing better sentences than this. I want to be able to think in Japanese and say things that are about what I think and feel about things, not just describing things. I'm really trying but I also feel like I'm struggling. I just need more practice in the right ways. I guess after learning for 162 days I feel like that is long enough that I should be able to do more with my vocabulary than how I feel I'm doing. I have done lang-8 to try and help me with this but I need to do more than that, or just do it a lot more often. We'll see. This is what I feel is my biggest hurdle at the moment. Part of the problem is that all the things I struggle with are things that are hurdles for me in my native language of English as well. Most of my English language encounters are about simple boring things and not generally concerning my thoughts or feelings.

In fun news, I have been practicing my writing more. I ordered a brush pen and got it in the mail today and was excited to try it out. Here's some writing I did today first using the thick end and next trying the thin end of the pen:

In the second photo I wrote all the first year 一年生 kanji. In the first photo I just wrote a few of the first year kanji and also accidentally wrote on the left side of the paper. Oops! I was so excited to try out my new pen I guess. 

Can't wait to see how I've progressed by my next post! 

じゃまたね。

Day 150!

皆さんこんばんは。

Here I am on day 150 of learning Japanese! I've been continuing to practice everyday using mostly Anki and my various grammar resources. I also listen to at least one audio and/or video lesson per day on JapanesePod101. Since starting this phase of studying on January 21, I've only missed a couple days of studying due to extenuating circumstances on those days. Life happens! :)

I've been focusing a lot on being able to read. Being able to read real Japanese without furigana over the kanji is a big goal of mine. So far it's going really well. I try to read articles on NHK World News and some other books I have. I've even been trying to read ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I haven't gotten very far reading it yet but I've been mostly working on my 35+ new words per day in Anki. 

I finally got around to doing another post on Lang-8 the other day. I need to do more of that so I can get better at making more complex sentences. I do ok with basic sentences about simple topics. It's when it gets into more important stuff or thoughts/feelings that I need a lot of practice. I also need more practice on conjugating verbs into terms other than present so I can improve on them even though I know some.

It's been interesting to see how I'm able to retain new words pretty well despite the high amount of words I'm trying to learn each day. There are some that are harder for me than others that take quite a while but some come a little easier. Sometimes I dream about the new words I'm learning or I often get a specific challenging word stuck in my mind until I seem to have it down.

I don't have an exact on how many words I know at this point, and I'm still working on many of them. I also just have an estimate since I can't be completely exact since I have to eliminate all the overlapping words that are the same. My best estimate is that I know around 3000 words right now. That is pretty exciting! That averages out to be about 20 words per day since I started, which sounds about right. That has been my usual pace most of the time in learning new vocabulary words.

I have also been working on learning to write kanji. It really doesn't seem as hard as many people make it out to be. I write in kana constantly everyday when I study, and it sure can be a space saver and more helpful to know how to write the kanji and not have to do everything long-hand in kana. 

Here is some writing practice I did yesterday:

Most of the kanji are pretty logical in stroke order, and of course many components/radicals follow the same stroke order each time. I'm excited to see how I'll progress as I learn how to properly write more characters.

Can't wait to see where I'm at next time I update!

じゃまたね。

100 Days of Japanese!!!

こんばんは。

Good evening everybody! Here I am on day 100 of learning Japanese! It's exciting to see how far I've come over the last 100 days. It's also a little scary to know how far I still have to go. Time just passes so quickly - it seems like I just started studying.

Just a recap of where I'm (approximately) at on my learning:

-I know about 2025 vocabulary words which includes a combination of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

-I can recognize about 555 kanji and the most common meanings associated with them. 555 down, 1581(ish) to go for the joyo kanji! I've still been mostly using the JLPT Self Study app to study them.

I decided to reset my Mindsnacks Japanese app a day or so ago to start through the vocabulary again but this time only use the kanji setting instead of kana. It was a little hard to wipe out all my progress and high scores, but since the point is to really learn Japanese and not get good scores on some games, I decided to go for it. I had been trying for a while to do everything on kanji mode while reviewing but it hopefully will work better for me to just start from the beginning and go one lesson at a time so it isn't as overwhelming.

I have finally been able to start conjugating verbs more fully this week. A lot of things have started making more sense this past week and it has been a big relief! I've been practicing informal and formal verb forms. My comfort zone is definitely the formal ~masu verb forms but I've been working really hard this week to branch out and learn more. I have been working on the past tense verb forms as well. Lang-8 has helped a lot. I was pretty proud of myself for having done an eight sentence post on there the other day about Christmas using mostly past tense speech and I didn't do very much incorrect.

It's been fun to watch some anime and understand more each time. The last couple of weeks I've been enjoying Fullmetal Alchemist. I like to use anime as an unscientific measuring stick to see how much I'm able to understand. Of course most anime is not polite speech, but it depends on the show.

I can't wait to see where I'm at after another 100 days!

じゃ、またね。

Progress Update - Day 94

みんなさんこんにちは。Hello everyone!

Here I am on day 94 of my Japanese learning journey! I've still been continuing to expand my vocabulary and keep up with the words I've learned so far. I've slowed a bit on how many words per day on average I'm learning for the most part. I know approximately 2000 vocabulary words at this point, which averages out to having learned about 20 words per day even with slowing down a bit. I've been slowly starting to use the Genki 1 book with my husband and I like the it so far. I need to dedicate more time to studying that way.

I've been focusing a lot on kanji even though I haven't learned quite as many per day on average as I would have liked. Life happens. I can recognize the common meanings of about 485 kanji. I started really studying those around November 18th, so I've been focusing more on kanji than vocabulary for 5 weeks. To do the math, out of the total 2136 joyo (common use) kanji and having "learned" about 485 of them so far, I have 1651 left to "learn". That means I'm a little over 1/5 of the way through the joyo kanji. That is super exciting to me! It has been so great to be able to type Japanese words and use the kanji instead of having to do everything with just kana.

I've also started brushing up on my Spanish again and have been doing well with that. I can do basic sentences pretty well in Spanish, so I figured it might help me in feeling more confident and less afraid to make Japanese sentences if I brushed up on my Spanish again. So far it's been working well for me. Studying some Spanish again has taken a little time from Japanese study time but if it helps me move forward to where I need to be in making sentences in Japanese so that I can actually practice and use the language and the vocabulary I've learned so far then it's completely worth it.

I finished my Mindsnacks Japanese app and have continued to utilize some courses through Memrise and Mango Languages. I've been using Duolingo and Mindsnacks to brush up on my Spanish vocabulary again. It's funny how some words just come back without having to re-learn them once the brain gets studying again. To study kanji I've still been using my JLPT Study app.

This past week I have finally been brave enough to do some posts on lang-8.com. I had signed up for the site back in September but hadn't been ready to do any posts until now. I was worried about how the environment of people correcting one another would be and whether the site was safe to use. So far I am really impressed and I like the environment of the site. So far all the people I have connected with that have corrected my Japanese and that I have corrected English have been very nice. No one has said anything mean or embarrassing. I definitely understand why so many people on the internet have recommended using lang-8 to help learn. I have gone from just doing a very simple sentence to doing a 5 or 6 sentence post. I'm excited to continue to do posts and learn how to write and make sentences better.

As I've continued to study Japanese, I've continued to enjoy Japanese culture more and more. It's been exciting to understand various things better and to comprehend names of foods and restaurants that I've been aware of but didn't know the meanings. Also watching Japanese programs and knowing that I understand more of what is being said without needing the subtitles as much is really cool.

Yesterday I drove past a brand new restaurant near where I live that had tonkotsu in the name and to know what that means in relation to a ramen shop was fun. (Pork ramen where the bones have been boiled.) I hope to go try the tonkotsu ramen sometime. Yum yum it makes me hungry just thinking about it!

A couple weeks ago at a local grocery store I found these gummy candies:



I love finding Japanese foods at stores now since I can read what they are for the most part. For those who don't read katakana writing from left to right these say peach gummy, Suika (watermelon) gummy, and strawberry gummy. Why the company used the Japanese word for watermelon but not for peach and strawberry I don't understand, but whatever. They taste really good.

Thanks for reading about my continuing journey of learning Japanese!

Until next time! さようなら。

Progress Update - Day 22 (Week 3)

Konbanwa!

I'm excited to say my hiragana writing has been coming along well! I've been working on writing katakana as well, but I've been continuing to practice the hiragana more first. To save on paper I've been using a white board for most of my practicing. Here is a sample of some of my hiragana writing:

Obviously my writing isn't perfect, but I'm very happy with it so far. I'm also pleased that my vocabulary has been coming along well. I know a little over 400 words now. Since my last update, I've learned names of different types of buildings and businesses. I've spent most of my time reviewing all the words I've learned previously. 

My goal when I started was to learn about 10 words a day, and as of today my average is about 20 words a day. I spend several hours a day (broken up throughout the day) working on new words and reviewing. My husband is averaging a good 7-8 words per day. Since he spends about an hour or so a day studying, that's really good. 

It's been fun to progress well in vocabulary, reading, and writing. Can't wait to see where I'm at next week!

Sayounara!

Progress Update - Day 19 - Writing Hiragana and Vocabulary

I have exciting news! I can write all of the main hiragana characters now! I had been practicing a little using an app, but it isn't the same as writing the characters by hand. On an app you trace the characters, so it always turns out right. Writing by hand is harder since it's all on you. Plus there is getting the stroke order correct. With a few exceptions, most of the characters follow the same formula, so it isn't too hard once you have the rules down.

I'm so excited to be able to write by hand now! You better believe I'm going to practice tons. I will be writing on everything! Good thing I have a white board so I don't go through too much paper. 

Also, I have done really well expanding my vocabulary and now know about 300+ words. I go around my house and the store naming things so I don't forget what I've learned. 

Since my last post I've learned:

-Basic animals
-Professions
-Counting round and flat items
-More numbers

I'm excited to see how I continue to progress!

Ja mata!

Progress Update - Day 15

I'm excited to report that as of the end of today, which is day 15 of learning Japanese, I know a little over 200 words. That means that so far I am surpassing my goal of 10 words per day pretty good. I'm happy with my progress so far. I'm able to read hiragana characters accurately most of the time and my katakana recognition is coming along well. It's nice to be able to sound words out! 

This week I've been working more on:

- Reviewing the words I learned previously
- Food and Meal terms
- Greetings
- Questions
- Pronouns
- Days, Weeks, Years
- Kana Recognition

My husband's progress is coming along well too. He hadn't been able to practice as much as me this past week but will have more time this week so we'll probably know a lot of the same stuff as each other by the end of the week and have an easier time practicing together. 

We used Rosetta Stone last week a little bit but had a busy weekend and weren't able to do any lessons. Using Rosetta and a combination of apps has been working well for us so far though. 

I'm excited to see how we will have progressed by next week!

Ja mata!

Progress Update - Day 12

As of early today, I know a bit over 200 words, which feels awesome! My goal is to learn and remember 10 words per day, so I'm doing pretty good so far. I have to review all I've learned a lot so I can remember everything. There are a few greeting phrases I am still working to remember well. Simpler things like food, clothes, numbers, etc. I don't have much problem remembering so far.

I was struggling the last few days on some greetings and I don't have them all down perfect or anything, but I pushed through today and practiced a lot and improved quite a bit. I've found that if I just practice by ear and don't say all the words out loud, I don't remember or learn things as well. So today I worked to say all the words out loud and not just listen and read them. Makes sense I guess!

I have my headset coming in the mail later, which means hopefully I'll be using Rosetta Stone by later today. I'm excited to see how I can progress once I start with that too!

I've been using the Mindsnacks app and Memrise a lot. At first I didn't really like Memrise, but I've stuck with it and am liking it more now. It's helped me learn more than just the Mindsnacks alone.

The Dr Moku apps have helped me remember the hiragana characters that I've struggled to remember. So most of the hiragana I have down pretty well now which is great. I've been progressing along on the katakana as well, but I haven't worked on it as much.

I'll update with how the Rosetta Stone goes! I did the free level 1 trial app last week and had liked it. Can't wait to keep going!

Ja mata!

Week 1 - Beginning Japanese

Konnichiwa! 

Welcome and thank you (or shall I say arigato) for visiting my blog! My name is Ellie, and my husband and I have just started our journey of learning the Japanese language (or Nihongo I should say)! We started last Monday afternoon which was September 21, 2015. I will chronicle our learning progress here on this blog at least once a week. 

So far learning Japanese has been a very exciting and enjoyable experience. I have always loved all things Japanese from the anime, the language, the culture, etc. I am a very visual learner so the beautiful kanji, hiragana, and katakana characters have been appealing to me for a long time. This past week it has been fun to re-watch a few anime series I have enjoyed previously and be able to understand a few scattered words already where I didn't before.

This weekend I decided to start tracking my progress so I can look back at any time and see how far I've come from knowing little to no Japanese words. It's easy to become discouraged after mastering a few basic words to when things become more complex. 

My husband and I are learning Japanese together, which I think has made all the difference for me personally. In the past when I made attempts at learning a new language, I often was practicing on my own (with the exception of college course learning and all that involved). From what I've experienced in just one week, I highly recommend if you are learning a language to have a friend or family member do it along with you. Then you have someone at your same level to be an encouragement to keep practicing, and you won't feel intimidated at first like you might if you start immediately with a native speaker. This is just my opinion of course, and what works for me might not be the right choice for someone else.

During this past week, I have used a combination of:

- Apps

- Online Resources

- Memorization

- 1-2+ Hours Practice Daily

Through this combination, I have learned 100+ words including:

- Numbers 1-100

- Months and Seasons

- Family Members

- Basic Body Parts

- Basic Greetings

- Basic Clothing

I have also progressed well in learning to recognize, pronounce, and write hiragana, some katakana, and a few kanji.

If you are just starting out on your own adventure of learning Japanese, here are some apps and online resources I recommend from what I've used so far.

MindSnacks Japanese

Kanji Draw

Rosetta Stone

I've used a few additional apps, but these are my favorite and the most helpful. Youtube has also been a wonderful resource full of helpful tips and lessons from various vloggers. I'm sure over time as I progress, the apps and programs I use will change. In the future I hope to utilize the help of native speakers and tutors to have a fuller learning experience. I just have to get over being shy enough to go for it!

I have heard many people say that if you learn and remember at least 10 words per day you can be fluent to some extent in 3-6 months in any language. So for a 7 day period of time, having learned over 100+ words is pretty good in my opinion! My husband has learned a little less than that (around 70+ words or so) but he has a lot more on his plate schedule-wise than me and so hasn't practiced as much.

To some it may not seem like a big deal to have learned 100+ words in one week, but let me give you a little background on some of my previous language learning experiences and why this is a huge deal for me personally.

I know many people who have immersed themselves into a foreign language and have become semi-fluent in 3-6 months. This has genuinely amazed me over the years and I have always been jealous of these individuals and their brilliant language-learning skills. At times I have felt that maybe I'm just not smart enough to learn another language, or that I just don't have what it takes. It doesn't help that I am shy in nature and can sometimes feel quite anxious and unsure when doing anything in my life, let alone speak a new language!

In my teenage years I learned a little French and Italian due to the influence of a few family members but never really got anywhere much. In high school I decided that learning Spanish would be the most practical for the workplace and in general for where I live. I did well learning Spanish, but to date I have unfortunately fizzled out on that a few times. Who knows, I may try again one day. 

I struggle to have enough faith in myself to fully learn a language to fluency level. Where I live there are many people who are bi-lingual English/Spanish speaking, in addition to other languages as well. This can be an advantage and great resource for practicing, but also can be very intimidating when just starting out. 

I reached basic conversation level in Spanish about ten years ago by taking three college level courses, but decided to end my college learning after that 18 month period because of issues I had with the only teacher there. Plus an ugh boss I had at work at the time put a crazy amount of pressure on me and I don't handle that well at all. (Those are other stories for another time.) I have dabbled with Spanish a few other times in the past ten years, but with some health issues and mental blocks in my way I haven't seen it through. The desire to speak more than English has always been with me, however, so when the motivation to learn a new language returned again recently I decided to explore other options with my husband at my side.

Which brings me back full circle to my new journey of learning Japanese! Arigato if you have made it through this long post. I hope you'll follow my progress as I share with you the joy of learning Japanese!

Sayonara!