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。

Progress Update - Day 135

皆さんこんばんは。

Here I am on day 135 of learning Japanese! I've been working hard doing all the cards in my Anki decks each day and it's been awesome to see myself progress. Words that seem hard one day aren't so hard the next. The human brain is amazing. In addition to using Anki to do a lot of my studying, I've been faithful about listening to JapanesePod101 everyday. Sometimes I just listen to one lesson, other times a couple. It just depends on how much time I have or how I'm feeling that day. I also have been making a bigger effort to speak Japanese daily. Even if I'm just thinking in Japanese or talking to myself as I drive I've found everything getting easier little bits at a time as each day passes.

I have also been continuing to study grammar in little bits each day. Doing just a little each day really takes off the pressure but really adds up. I alternate using A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, English Grammar for Students of Japanese, and Tae Kim's guide. I've been going by whatever question I have each day to guide my grammar studies. It been much better than just reading things straight through. That's painful and boring.

I've been doing well in increasing my vocabulary. I've been learning around 35ish words per day. When I average the approximate number of words I know at this point over the 135 days I've been learning it averages out to be about 20 words learned per day since I first started. It's exciting to see my reading comprehension increase as well. The Anki deck I'm using doesn't baby me too much so I've made a lot of progress knowing the various readings associated with each kanji as I add to my vocabulary without having to rely on furigana too much. It's a great feeling when I know the correct reading for a kanji. This goes for newer words I'm learning as well as also getting better at recognizing the correct kanji/readings for words I've learned previously. I'm really trying hard. 

I really do love the Japanese writing system. I loved it as a kid, and love it still. I hope to find the best way to learn to actually write the characters by hand at some point, but I'm not going to get too worked up over it. I've been writing in hiragana a lot the last couple weeks and it would be so much better if I could write the kanji without having to look up the proper order each time on every character. I know a lot of people don't need to or want to learn how to write the characters, but it just goes to show that we all have different interests and needs when learning a new language. I know of some people that have never even learned the kana and just focusing on spoken word only. I like to take notes - it helps me remember what I learn. It's kind of annoying me to have to write everything in hiragana for speed's sake. I definitely have a desire to do it all even though it will take a lot of practice. 

Well, that's all for this update! Can't wait to see where I'm at the next time I check in!

じゃまたね。

Progress Update - Day 130

皆さんこんばんは。

Here I am on day 130 - yay! I have really been studying hard doing all of my "chain items" each day continuing with the study habit recommendations of NihongoShark.com. Each day there are three types of studying you have to do:

1. Study your flash cards or whatever you're using for vocabulary study. 

Right now I'm using a combination of Anki, AnkiApp, and Memrise. 

2. Listen to at least one audio lesson per day. 

I'm utilizing my JapanesePod101.com subscription and have been faithfully listening to at least one lesson per day, sometimes more. I like the video lessons as well through their site.

3. Make sure to speak Japanese everyday, and spend at least a little time studying grammar. 

I have several grammar books and Tae Kim's guide that I've been studying a little each day.

This past week my husband and I invested in some of the grammar books and other study materials we've been looking at for a while. We had checked some of them out at the library first to try them out. It's been exciting to have all that I need right at my finger tips and not all of it online. Sometimes it's nice to have a good book.

I've been making progress on my vocabulary. It's going pretty good, but it's a little more difficult than how I had been doing things before. I have three Anki decks that I have set to give me 35 new cards to study each day. One of those decks is for Kanji that I already studied using a JLPT app, but I thought I would continue studying them using the Anki deck so that I can keep them in my memory even better while I'm still beginning. The other two decks are very similar to each other but are slightly different. They both have a lot of the same words (at least that I've noticed so far) but the study styles between them are different and it helps me to have both even though there is a lot of word overlap.

My goal is to know between 8,000 to 10,000 words by my one year anniversary of beginning Japanese. That will be on September 21, 2016. I'm trying to learn 35 new words each day to reach my goal. It's been a little hard this week starting my Anki deck and being better at studying. I've really been trying to get down the various readings that can be associated with each kanji. The deck I downloaded and that I consider my main study tool really focuses on all the different words and thus different readings all involving the same kanji. It's been harder at first for me but I know over time it will be worth the extra work and effort to really know these things.

Until next time!

じゃまた。

Four Months a.k.a. 123 Days of Japanese and 65 Days of Kanji

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。

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。

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。