Well, here I am on January 21, 2016 - my 123rd day of learning Japanese. It also happens to be four months from the day I started learning on September 21, 2015.
I'm very excited to say that I have completed the initial learning process of knowing at least one or more English meanings associated with all the joyo/common use kanji. Since I have been using apps that included all of the 2,136 joyo kanji along with a few other common kanji, it is safe to say that I am able to recognize all of the common use kanji now without too much difficulty. I'm still practicing!
I actually finished this past Monday the 20th, but I've taken these extra few days to study extra to make sure I really "know" them. Of course the more recent kanji I've learned aren't as solid in my mind as the ones I have been practicing for longer. I know that as I continue to review and move forward with my vocabulary now that I can more easily incorporate the kanji into my vocabulary learning process I will know them better and more fully as time moves on.
Something worth noting is that the better the "story" you can come up with for each kanji to help you remember, it doesn't matter as much how much time you spend memorizing and practicing if your story is memorable enough. I have had many kanji where the meaning and story in my mind were clear enough that it only took that first time or so to really get the particular character in my mind and not forget it. The characters that stand for things and words that I don't even use in English are the hardest for sure. Also when encountering groups of kanji where they seem very similar at first, it takes some time and memorizing to keep them each straight.
Along with reviewing and studying all of the kanji these past few weeks, I've continued to review my vocabulary here and there to keep in my mind the words I've learned so far. I haven't really expanded my vocabulary more than by a just a few words the past few weeks, but I've spent time understanding and noting the kanji that is part of the words I've learned over these past four months. So I guess you could say that I've been in a way re-learning all the words I've studied already and am now more fully incorporating the kanji so that I can recognize and know the words in more than just hiragana alone.
On my last post I talked about how I prefer Memrise for learning vocabulary. While that is still mostly true, as I've worked here and there on making some courses I can see that it might not be the right long term choice as far as making my own custom stuff. Yesterday I decided to work on some new AnkiApp decks again and I've worked out some of my issues with their system. Sometimes it just takes time to understand a system and find how to make it work for your needs. So at this point in time I'm going to start using AnkiApp some more.
The next stage of my learning will be very focused back on what I had been doing prior to studying the kanji heavily. Although before studying the kanji I had been doing a pretty good balance of different learning techniques, I am even more solid in realizing how I need to progress from here. Thanks to NihongoShark.com's Hacking Japanese Supercourse, I know how to keep myself more accountable in my studying habits and keep motivated even more than before. If you're learning Japanese I really recommend taking a look at NihongoShark.com and Niko's methods. They work. The fact that I went from thinking that it would take me years to recognize the kanji or that I might never learn them and yet now in less than 65 days I am now able to recognize them all really says something. Japanese doesn't seem as daunting now and each new word I learn doesn't seem so scary. Learning new words has actually been easier now that the kanji are all familiar to me.
I plan to use a combination of JapanesePod101 and Rosetta for listening and other practice, and Memrise and AnkiApp for my flashcard and memorization practice. I plan to use my Genki and other books more to get myself speaking Japanese out loud more frequently than I do currently. I go in spurts of time where I'm really good at speaking more, and then I go back to not being so good. I know I struggled with that back in college when learning Spanish. It can be hard when you don't have someone around all the time to practice with. I just need to talk out loud to myself more and not worry about feeling weird sometimes.
I can't wait to see where I am on my next progress update! Thanks for reading!
じゃまたね。
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Progress Update - Day 111 - Kanji Madness!
こんばんは。
Well, here I am on day 111 of learning Japanese! I've been working crazy hard on being able to recognize and know the English meanings of all the joyo kanji and it's been going well. I've still been doing some vocabulary on the side but not as much. I pretty much have eye strain all the time from looking at all the kanji characters so much.
Right now I know about 2175 vocabulary words, so even though I've slowed down from the pace I had been doing I'm really happy with that.
As for the kanji, out of the 2136 joyo/common use kanji characters, I'm able to recognize about 1215 of them reliably. I test myself on them all constantly. I'm surprised my eyes haven't popped right out of my head!
When I started being really serious about learning the kanji back mid-November and decided to have faith in myself that I could remember them, a big part of that was buying and reading the Hacking Japanese Supercourse from NihongoShark.com. I re-read some of the book the other day and looked at the next section (the section for after you know the kanji characters) and it got me so excited that I have been working even harder. I really thought that it would get harder the further I got, but it's actually been getting easier. Even if you haven't studied the kanji radicals/components specifically like in my case, the characters make more and more sense as you move forward.
I was on NHK News Easy last night and even though I didn't know all the words to a couple of articles, I was able to know exactly what was being talked about because I recognized the kanji. There have been a few things I've read recently that used some of the more "advanced" kanji characters that has made my learning so much easier. Seeing the characters in everyday use helps me remember them so much better.
Following the Hacking Japanese Supercourse recommendations of learning the kanji in about 97 days, I've been working hard toward my "deadline" of February 22. Since I've been finding it easier to remember the kanji and it's all coming together better the more time I put in, I will likely "finish" much before then, move ahead, and dive in to the vocabulary more than i had before.
I have been wanting to make a custom deck or course for quite a while since I don't like a lot of the ones out there I've come across, so I've been working on that as well. Once I can reliably recognize all the joyo kanji I want to really go for it on vocabulary. I've tried Anki. I've tried another Anki app that is a separate company, and a few other things. What seems to work best for me for whatever reason is Memrise. I know everyone just LOVES Anki but it just does not work for me. At all. It makes me feel so bored that I don't even want to bother with it. So I've been working on getting my own course set up for me and my husband on Memrise to use so that we can customize it to learn words that are more relevant to what we need. Fingers crossed!
Can't wait to see how things are going when I next update!
じゃまたね。
Well, here I am on day 111 of learning Japanese! I've been working crazy hard on being able to recognize and know the English meanings of all the joyo kanji and it's been going well. I've still been doing some vocabulary on the side but not as much. I pretty much have eye strain all the time from looking at all the kanji characters so much.
Right now I know about 2175 vocabulary words, so even though I've slowed down from the pace I had been doing I'm really happy with that.
As for the kanji, out of the 2136 joyo/common use kanji characters, I'm able to recognize about 1215 of them reliably. I test myself on them all constantly. I'm surprised my eyes haven't popped right out of my head!
When I started being really serious about learning the kanji back mid-November and decided to have faith in myself that I could remember them, a big part of that was buying and reading the Hacking Japanese Supercourse from NihongoShark.com. I re-read some of the book the other day and looked at the next section (the section for after you know the kanji characters) and it got me so excited that I have been working even harder. I really thought that it would get harder the further I got, but it's actually been getting easier. Even if you haven't studied the kanji radicals/components specifically like in my case, the characters make more and more sense as you move forward.
I was on NHK News Easy last night and even though I didn't know all the words to a couple of articles, I was able to know exactly what was being talked about because I recognized the kanji. There have been a few things I've read recently that used some of the more "advanced" kanji characters that has made my learning so much easier. Seeing the characters in everyday use helps me remember them so much better.
Following the Hacking Japanese Supercourse recommendations of learning the kanji in about 97 days, I've been working hard toward my "deadline" of February 22. Since I've been finding it easier to remember the kanji and it's all coming together better the more time I put in, I will likely "finish" much before then, move ahead, and dive in to the vocabulary more than i had before.
I have been wanting to make a custom deck or course for quite a while since I don't like a lot of the ones out there I've come across, so I've been working on that as well. Once I can reliably recognize all the joyo kanji I want to really go for it on vocabulary. I've tried Anki. I've tried another Anki app that is a separate company, and a few other things. What seems to work best for me for whatever reason is Memrise. I know everyone just LOVES Anki but it just does not work for me. At all. It makes me feel so bored that I don't even want to bother with it. So I've been working on getting my own course set up for me and my husband on Memrise to use so that we can customize it to learn words that are more relevant to what we need. Fingers crossed!
Can't wait to see how things are going when I next update!
じゃまたね。
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
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。
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。
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
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。
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。
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Progress Update - Day 70
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!
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!
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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