Comments on: On Learning Japanese: Part 1 – A Rocky Start http://www.flockofcats.com/sneaky/japanese/on-learning-japanese-part-1/ Politics, Video Games, Japan, Random Stuff, Etc Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:11:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: On Learning Japanese: Part 2 - Remembering the Kanji | Flock of Cats http://www.flockofcats.com/sneaky/japanese/on-learning-japanese-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-86 On Learning Japanese: Part 2 - Remembering the Kanji | Flock of Cats Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:18:24 +0000 http://www.flockofcats.com/?p=305#comment-86 [...] my first post about learning Japanese, I described some of the problems I encountered as a new student of Japanese, one of the main [...] [...] my first post about learning Japanese, I described some of the problems I encountered as a new student of Japanese, one of the main [...]

]]> By: ranmafan http://www.flockofcats.com/sneaky/japanese/on-learning-japanese-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-82 ranmafan Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:13:29 +0000 http://www.flockofcats.com/?p=305#comment-82 I know how you feel, as in many ways I also had a little bit of a rough start. US College Japanese is very good, but it lacks two important aspects I needed to boost my level to 2 kyuu. One of which you had from the start thankfully, immersion. My first few years of study was in classrooms at UT, and to be honest the chances to speak real Japanese conversation was quite low. Plus even though I had classes every day each week, one hour of a combined vocabulary, grammar, and kanji lesson was both daunting and limiting. That all changed for me when I went to Sophia in Tokyo. When I arrived my Japanese was at the basic conversation level. The whole year I spent completely focused on my studies, taking intensive courses in Japanese. 5 hours a day, including a kanji only class which I think should be mandatory in all Japanese curriculums in America. Plus actually being immersed in the language, using it everyday, did more for my retaining vocabulary, kanji, and grammar than any bit of studying did. Just seeing the kanjis in everyday life was enough to help me retain their meanings and sayings and writings. I still to this day wish I could've stayed at Sophia. Another year or 2 of intensive studying there would've gotten me to 1 kyuu I believe. The program was that good. One of the best rewards, and gages of my Japanese ability I can think of was actually from this past Monday night, when I went out with some old friends from Nova. They had never heard me speak Japanese and had been waiting for this day. I spent the entire night speaking it, and I was told quite frankly it was really high level, few or no mistakes, and I had amazing pronunciation and intonation. And it wasn't the "あなたの日本語は上手ですね！、”　comment you hear always, it was a real compliment. They truly were amazed. I know how you feel, as in many ways I also had a little bit of a rough start. US College Japanese is very good, but it lacks two important aspects I needed to boost my level to 2 kyuu. One of which you had from the start thankfully, immersion. My first few years of study was in classrooms at UT, and to be honest the chances to speak real Japanese conversation was quite low. Plus even though I had classes every day each week, one hour of a combined vocabulary, grammar, and kanji lesson was both daunting and limiting.

That all changed for me when I went to Sophia in Tokyo. When I arrived my Japanese was at the basic conversation level. The whole year I spent completely focused on my studies, taking intensive courses in Japanese. 5 hours a day, including a kanji only class which I think should be mandatory in all Japanese curriculums in America. Plus actually being immersed in the language, using it everyday, did more for my retaining vocabulary, kanji, and grammar than any bit of studying did. Just seeing the kanjis in everyday life was enough to help me retain their meanings and sayings and writings. I still to this day wish I could’ve stayed at Sophia. Another year or 2 of intensive studying there would’ve gotten me to 1 kyuu I believe. The program was that good.

One of the best rewards, and gages of my Japanese ability I can think of was actually from this past Monday night, when I went out with some old friends from Nova. They had never heard me speak Japanese and had been waiting for this day. I spent the entire night speaking it, and I was told quite frankly it was really high level, few or no mistakes, and I had amazing pronunciation and intonation. And it wasn’t the “あなたの日本語は上手ですね！、”　comment you hear always, it was a real compliment. They truly were amazed.

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