Comments on: Learning Japanese, another perspective http://www.flockofcats.com/ranmafan/japanese/learning-japanese-another-perspective/ Politics, Video Games, Japan, Random Stuff, Etc Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:11:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: ranmafan http://www.flockofcats.com/ranmafan/japanese/learning-japanese-another-perspective/comment-page-1/#comment-100 ranmafan Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:20:20 +0000 http://www.flockofcats.com/?p=382#comment-100 Yeah you're right that those three areas have helped boost my conversation skills. I'll be talking about all of them in my part two post. Time has been good and bad for me in some ways. Remember I studied for four years before Sophia, but had difficulties cause of the times I had to leave UT due to unforeseen circumstances. But it has helped me grasp things too. Immersion and consumption do help, but its also the right type of immersion and consumption that is the key, which I will talk about. You can watch all the anime in the world in Japanese only and still not learn anything. Finding the right balance helped me a lot. For me also its the small things I've done that have gone a long way. Ill talk about those in more detail too, like how I was able to really improve my pronunciation and intonation thanks to my interest in Japanese music. But yeah just using it is the key. And doing things where you will need to use it is most important. Yeah you’re right that those three areas have helped boost my conversation skills. I’ll be talking about all of them in my part two post. Time has been good and bad for me in some ways. Remember I studied for four years before Sophia, but had difficulties cause of the times I had to leave UT due to unforeseen circumstances. But it has helped me grasp things too. Immersion and consumption do help, but its also the right type of immersion and consumption that is the key, which I will talk about. You can watch all the anime in the world in Japanese only and still not learn anything. Finding the right balance helped me a lot.

For me also its the small things I’ve done that have gone a long way. Ill talk about those in more detail too, like how I was able to really improve my pronunciation and intonation thanks to my interest in Japanese music.

But yeah just using it is the key. And doing things where you will need to use it is most important.

]]> By: <img src='http://www.flockofcats.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/rpx/images/google.png'/> sneaky http://www.flockofcats.com/ranmafan/japanese/learning-japanese-another-perspective/comment-page-1/#comment-96 sneaky Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:14:13 +0000 http://www.flockofcats.com/?p=382#comment-96 Your speaking is a lot better than mine...I'll talk about speaking more in a later post...but I'm sure there are several things that account for this: 1) Time - You've been studying for 11 years whereas I'm only at 3.5 years, which I'm sure helps. Nothing is better than getting the chance to use grammar or vocab in conversation that you learned a long time ago, but haven't really used, and getting it right on the fly. I think successfully pulling stuff from precariously stored long-term memory is great for cementing into your brain and working Japanese arsenal. Regardless of other studying methods, time definately helps with this. 2) Immersion with pressure - I'm immersed in Japanese, but under very little pressure to use it. Of course there are times that using Japanese helps me greatly, and that motivates me, but your courses at Sophia sound like an even more helpful immersion environment. 3) consumption of Japanese media - You are a much, much bigger fan of anime, manga, Japanese TV etc than I am, and that undoubtedly helps. One thing I do now is keep the radio in my car tuned to a Japanese station at all times. Even this small thing has greatly helped my listening ability...only 20 minutes of car time a day on average commuting to work, but it seems very effective. As for kanji, yeah...radicals (or in Heisig, primatives) are key. Any way of learning kanji that doesn't break down the characters is a waste of time. Your speaking is a lot better than mine…I’ll talk about speaking more in a later post…but I’m sure there are several things that account for this:

1) Time – You’ve been studying for 11 years whereas I’m only at 3.5 years, which I’m sure helps. Nothing is better than getting the chance to use grammar or vocab in conversation that you learned a long time ago, but haven’t really used, and getting it right on the fly. I think successfully pulling stuff from precariously stored long-term memory is great for cementing into your brain and working Japanese arsenal. Regardless of other studying methods, time definately helps with this.

2) Immersion with pressure – I’m immersed in Japanese, but under very little pressure to use it. Of course there are times that using Japanese helps me greatly, and that motivates me, but your courses at Sophia sound like an even more helpful immersion environment.

3) consumption of Japanese media – You are a much, much bigger fan of anime, manga, Japanese TV etc than I am, and that undoubtedly helps. One thing I do now is keep the radio in my car tuned to a Japanese station at all times. Even this small thing has greatly helped my listening ability…only 20 minutes of car time a day on average commuting to work, but it seems very effective.

As for kanji, yeah…radicals (or in Heisig, primatives) are key. Any way of learning kanji that doesn’t break down the characters is a waste of time.

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