それから、韓国語がわかります。
I can say that a lot better than I used to be able to. This week I'm doing the first half of Unit 2, intead of the whole thing. As the sentences get more complex it will be better to do more repetitions...
Man, I was going to attempt another song translation today, but I have a lot of stuff to study. Might be better to do it tomorrow? We'll see. There is a crisis of laundry building. I wish I had a bigger laundry bag so I could just take everything to the laundromat at once and read Haruki Murakami allllllllll afternoon...
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Hrm hum hrm: New Approaches
Heisig has once again lost his luster. By the end of the book he becomes way less helpful, offering only some key terms instead of full breakdowns of stories. Obviously it gets harder the more complex the characters get, but studying kanji is hard anyhow, so you might as well be absorbing some actual Japanese along with it.
In the meantime, I've also discovered the limitations of learning from Japanese materials for kids. Not that they aren't obvious from the beginning, but basically, you're learning at a kid's level when you need to be gearing up to speak as an adult. It's a fundamental paradox of social venue (or something).
Enter the Kanji in Context books from The Japan Times. As it turns out, The Japan Times is my best friend. I think of all the textbooks I have used, theirs have felt the most targeted to my needs. I used the Genki books in college, and although the sitautional conversations are useful, I felt like for a beginner, themed vocab lessons work better (for instance, I still don't have a good grasp of "around the house" type of words). The intermediate --> advanced pair of books they have on grammar and vocab will be a big help, I think, and I'm finally almost ready to start using them. (It's been slow going, clearly, over the past year, but I'm intending that to change.)
*Vocab tangent* Think about a word floating in space. Say, 雲。So you have 雲 just hanging there, in the sky, say. This is speaking generally, not with specific reference to Genki, by the way... If you learn it with a bunch of random words like "chair," "lawyer," "puppy," and "DVD" (but 50 words instead of 5) you may not remember it as well. But if you learn 雲 with words like 晴れ, 雨, 天気, 空, then you have more of a picture (of the weather/sky). Then you can do lists for furniture, professions, animals, and movies. Incidentally, I think you can benefit from this kind of training no matter what level you are at. There are always gaps in vocabulary that can be filled in... *end tangent*
Anyways, I think I was going to talk about Kanji in Context. It's yet another book that I feel is intended exactly for me. Let me quote a bit from the introduction (bold is mine, italics are theirs):
"...created specifically for learners who have just completed a beginning course or have already learned a fair number of kanji at the intermediate or advanced level but would like to amplify their knowledge of kanji and kanji-based vocabulary in a systematic fashion."
Theoretically, I should know way more kanji than I do. I DID complete a beginner's course, and I used to be THE MAN when it came to kanji. What happened? Well, I didn't use them enough. I think this book will be a pretty big challenge for me, but I also am beginning to think that that is what I really need. I've done enough beginner style review to know that it isn't kicking my ass over the intermediate hump.
"At the intermediate level and above, the number of kanji needed by learners rises sharply. In order to effectively meet this growing need, it is not adequate to learn each new character randomly..."
Couldn't. Agree. More. This is one of my main problems, just the way that regardless of what goals in communication you are working on, regardless of what vocab you are trying to acquire, kanji has always sort of been its own beast. Hopefully this system will help give me some...CONTEXT ;)
"...traditional kanji textbooks have focused excessively on the study of characters one by one, providing only a sprinkling of vocabulary which , more than often , have little practical use for learners."
I'm really excited to get some practical use out of kanji. That is the only way to keep them around.
"The frequent contact with a particular kanji or word will reinforce its acquisition, while at the same time relieving learners of the pressure experienced under the single-presentation approach."
It is really hard to learn kanji or vocab when you only see them in one example.
I also picked up "the" Shadowing book (that you may also see everywhere, tempting you, the one with green all over it), and from initial exposure last night, I am really exited. The speakers sound pretty energetic, but also follow the intonation patterns I know already. I'm especially psyched to get into more complicated conversations, because it seems like the longer the sentences get right now, the more my intonation breaks down (which makes sense, which is why the book is arranged like it is.
So, (...as usual) I am really really really ready to just study forever. More than anything, it's about time, and I have taken some additional steps to free some up (like quitting my last freelance writing job). I really believe that if I make this as high a priority as possible, that I can really accomplish something. I must be able to! Gotta just...do it.
In the meantime, I've also discovered the limitations of learning from Japanese materials for kids. Not that they aren't obvious from the beginning, but basically, you're learning at a kid's level when you need to be gearing up to speak as an adult. It's a fundamental paradox of social venue (or something).
Enter the Kanji in Context books from The Japan Times. As it turns out, The Japan Times is my best friend. I think of all the textbooks I have used, theirs have felt the most targeted to my needs. I used the Genki books in college, and although the sitautional conversations are useful, I felt like for a beginner, themed vocab lessons work better (for instance, I still don't have a good grasp of "around the house" type of words). The intermediate --> advanced pair of books they have on grammar and vocab will be a big help, I think, and I'm finally almost ready to start using them. (It's been slow going, clearly, over the past year, but I'm intending that to change.)
*Vocab tangent* Think about a word floating in space. Say, 雲。So you have 雲 just hanging there, in the sky, say. This is speaking generally, not with specific reference to Genki, by the way... If you learn it with a bunch of random words like "chair," "lawyer," "puppy," and "DVD" (but 50 words instead of 5) you may not remember it as well. But if you learn 雲 with words like 晴れ, 雨, 天気, 空, then you have more of a picture (of the weather/sky). Then you can do lists for furniture, professions, animals, and movies. Incidentally, I think you can benefit from this kind of training no matter what level you are at. There are always gaps in vocabulary that can be filled in... *end tangent*
Anyways, I think I was going to talk about Kanji in Context. It's yet another book that I feel is intended exactly for me. Let me quote a bit from the introduction (bold is mine, italics are theirs):
"...created specifically for learners who have just completed a beginning course or have already learned a fair number of kanji at the intermediate or advanced level but would like to amplify their knowledge of kanji and kanji-based vocabulary in a systematic fashion."
Theoretically, I should know way more kanji than I do. I DID complete a beginner's course, and I used to be THE MAN when it came to kanji. What happened? Well, I didn't use them enough. I think this book will be a pretty big challenge for me, but I also am beginning to think that that is what I really need. I've done enough beginner style review to know that it isn't kicking my ass over the intermediate hump.
"At the intermediate level and above, the number of kanji needed by learners rises sharply. In order to effectively meet this growing need, it is not adequate to learn each new character randomly..."
Couldn't. Agree. More. This is one of my main problems, just the way that regardless of what goals in communication you are working on, regardless of what vocab you are trying to acquire, kanji has always sort of been its own beast. Hopefully this system will help give me some...CONTEXT ;)
"...traditional kanji textbooks have focused excessively on the study of characters one by one, providing only a sprinkling of vocabulary which , more than often , have little practical use for learners."
I'm really excited to get some practical use out of kanji. That is the only way to keep them around.
"The frequent contact with a particular kanji or word will reinforce its acquisition, while at the same time relieving learners of the pressure experienced under the single-presentation approach."
It is really hard to learn kanji or vocab when you only see them in one example.
I also picked up "the" Shadowing book (that you may also see everywhere, tempting you, the one with green all over it), and from initial exposure last night, I am really exited. The speakers sound pretty energetic, but also follow the intonation patterns I know already. I'm especially psyched to get into more complicated conversations, because it seems like the longer the sentences get right now, the more my intonation breaks down (which makes sense, which is why the book is arranged like it is.
So, (...as usual) I am really really really ready to just study forever. More than anything, it's about time, and I have taken some additional steps to free some up (like quitting my last freelance writing job). I really believe that if I make this as high a priority as possible, that I can really accomplish something. I must be able to! Gotta just...do it.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Smart.fm
This is a very useful study site for any flashcardable material. The thing that really blew my mind, though, was the audio samples for nearly every word I input. (I'm EmaWii -- so far I have made a list of all the words I am looking up from the first grader kanji くもん drill book.) It's pretty fantastic, actually.
Supposedly the unaffiliated (i.e. using the API) iPhone app allows you to download all your lists, sound files intact, and study them away from the computer -- although the fancy quiz feature (which I haven't really played with yet) is not available...
Looking forward to putzing with all of this more. It's ten times better than anything else I've seen, with all these audio samples just sitting around. You can even create and upload your own, so I could make a list of English vocab and upload me saying all of it in my perfect native English. Sort of interesting.
Doubly interesting is the Twitter Vocab list. That said, I think I am going to create my own version. They seem to be putting in a lot of stuff that is quite targeted enough for my liking ("time?" really? That's useful, but doesn't have THAT much to do with Twitter).
Supposedly the unaffiliated (i.e. using the API) iPhone app allows you to download all your lists, sound files intact, and study them away from the computer -- although the fancy quiz feature (which I haven't really played with yet) is not available...
Looking forward to putzing with all of this more. It's ten times better than anything else I've seen, with all these audio samples just sitting around. You can even create and upload your own, so I could make a list of English vocab and upload me saying all of it in my perfect native English. Sort of interesting.
Doubly interesting is the Twitter Vocab list. That said, I think I am going to create my own version. They seem to be putting in a lot of stuff that is quite targeted enough for my liking ("time?" really? That's useful, but doesn't have THAT much to do with Twitter).
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Major update AND Hello again
The first thing you will notice is that I have hooked up my Japanese Twitter account to this blog. Makes much more sense. When I started this blog, I didn't HAVE a Japanese Twitter account. Yay, progress.
The second thing you will hopefully start to notice in the future is me actually using this as a hub for my study activities. For starters, let me just expound a bit on recent happenings:
*I started a Japanese cooking club with a couple friends and one of the members is a pretty hardcore Japanophile, which makes me happy. He speaks conversationally quite well, it seems, and all from some close-watching/listening of J-dramas. Granted he is currently not working or in school, living at home, but I think we can all learn a bit from his dedication.
*NEW PEOPLE opened in San Francisco and I hang out there a lot. This will become apparently if I keep up with this blog like I intend to, because I go to see a lot of Japanese movies there, which is listening exposure, even if you do have the subtitle crutch.
*Bumped my tutor down from an hour to a half hour a week. Basically, I just want someone to chat with and whom I can bounce questions off of. I appreciated her efforts in personalizing a class for me, but I have way to many aspirations to be locked into a set schedule of quizzes and things.
Main study resources, currently:
*文法が弱いあなたへ is a great grammar review book. I have probably mentioned it here before, but since I have only just finally gotten into a good study habit, I'm still using it. To recap: it's perfect for an intermediate student (the book is all in Japanese) who wants to review some points.
*くもんの小学校ドリル, where have you been all my life? The 国語 kanji workbooks are KILLER. I wish I had had these in high school. TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TEACHING YOURSELVES JAPANESE: please go out and buy these workbooks. Oh. My. They are meant for Japanese elementary school kids, so not only are you learning the kanji in the order that Japanese kids learn them, but you are learning them along with the readings and vocabulary that Japanese society deems necessary for kanji n00bs. I went back to 一年生 for some review, but I am already learning stuff I never did before.
*Have been doing Pimsleur Japanese level 3 audio lessons, which are a decent mix of making me think a little and way too easy. I like that they are throwing in some formal language, but the scenarios are feeling a bit simple for the level of politeness they are throwing at you. That said, anything that gets me saying Japanese words out loud is a plus. I am shy and I think this sort of listen and repeat stuff is what I need to get my tongue all 日本語'd up and ready for action.
*にほんご敬語トレーニング has been my keigo book of choice, although I haven't delved too far in yet. Rumor has it there is some sort of ultimate keigo book out there that I must own. I heard it might be in the mail to me. We shall see :)
*The latest addition to my growing stack of extremely useful and practical (no joke) Japanese language books is 日本人の知らない日本語, which has been a huge best seller in Japan. No wonder it was so easy to find at Kinokuniya this afternoon! It's done in "comic-essay" form, and teaches, as the title states, "Japanese that Japanese people don't know." Seems very entertaining, and since it is entirely in Japanese, for Japanese people, about things that even they may not know or do correctly, I am really excited to prioritize this in my study sessions.
*Kotoba! for iPhone is a pretty decent Japanese dictionary. I figured something was better than nothing and this was free (if I remember correctly?) More often than not, the word I have been searching for has been in there and they have translations to multiple languages and even kanji details.
*iEijiro (iPhone) is a dictionary for more advanced usage and...whatnot. Haven't had much luck with this, honestly. It seems extremely useful, but for more limited purposes, maybe?
*Check out the latest Otaku USA for an article I did about iPhone kanji apps :)
*Japanese Flip is a great flashcard program (iPhone) for JLPT vocab.
*Mnemosyne is back in style with me and I'm actually in talks with someone to get an iPhone port going, or at least a comparable program. This is very exciting, especially if we can make it so you can sync your stacks and grade levels. Then I can take all the vocab I'm working on with me in my pocket, where it is far more accessible than on my laptop.
*KeyholeTV is a MAJOR discovery. Not much more to say besides that it is streaming Japanese TV and radio. We should all just let our jaws hang open in awe that this exists.
Main study tactics at the moment:
*Aiming for an audio lesson a day, but not quite making it.
*Doing three lessons of くもん drill at a time, which right now is around per day, but not sure how that will scale, especially since I want to try to absorb all this really good vocab.
*Thinking of how to work in more keigo practice. Might wait until after the audio lessons are exhausted.
*Very interested in looping in more work-related Japanese stuff. Might begin the pain in the neck yet very instructive task of going through all my Japanese language mail from the week and pulling vocab for Mnemosyne cards as well as just instilling proper everything from my Japanese co-workers.
*Also really need to look over the Japanese versions of the site, help materials etc. This is something I mean to do long ago, but I just need to set aside time.
*I'm also interested in doing a translation project now and then. I'm not sure what I would like to translate, but I will probably start with news articles about work, since that could prove to be doubly useful.
Luckily, since Japanese has been placed as one of my three whole areas of priorities in life (right up there with work and health) it has been really easy to find more time to do it lately, which has been making me very happy.
But now look how long I spent updating this blog when I could've been actually studying. We'll see, we'll see ;) Anyways, for now, hopefully someone will find all those recommendations relevant. I will try to update with some less obvious ideas (the ones that aren't "surround yourself with study opportunities" and "take them") as they come up and maybe log some progress/questions and answers from my tutor/etc. Or I could get too busy to update for another few months.
There's a lot of passion here, but I'm not sure it's for the blog. I'm pretty sure it's for the doing and the studying. This is a problem I have had with all my blogs lately, even the ones I bought domains for, so...
yeah. We'll see.
The second thing you will hopefully start to notice in the future is me actually using this as a hub for my study activities. For starters, let me just expound a bit on recent happenings:
*I started a Japanese cooking club with a couple friends and one of the members is a pretty hardcore Japanophile, which makes me happy. He speaks conversationally quite well, it seems, and all from some close-watching/listening of J-dramas. Granted he is currently not working or in school, living at home, but I think we can all learn a bit from his dedication.
*NEW PEOPLE opened in San Francisco and I hang out there a lot. This will become apparently if I keep up with this blog like I intend to, because I go to see a lot of Japanese movies there, which is listening exposure, even if you do have the subtitle crutch.
*Bumped my tutor down from an hour to a half hour a week. Basically, I just want someone to chat with and whom I can bounce questions off of. I appreciated her efforts in personalizing a class for me, but I have way to many aspirations to be locked into a set schedule of quizzes and things.
Main study resources, currently:
*文法が弱いあなたへ is a great grammar review book. I have probably mentioned it here before, but since I have only just finally gotten into a good study habit, I'm still using it. To recap: it's perfect for an intermediate student (the book is all in Japanese) who wants to review some points.
*くもんの小学校ドリル, where have you been all my life? The 国語 kanji workbooks are KILLER. I wish I had had these in high school. TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TEACHING YOURSELVES JAPANESE: please go out and buy these workbooks. Oh. My. They are meant for Japanese elementary school kids, so not only are you learning the kanji in the order that Japanese kids learn them, but you are learning them along with the readings and vocabulary that Japanese society deems necessary for kanji n00bs. I went back to 一年生 for some review, but I am already learning stuff I never did before.
*Have been doing Pimsleur Japanese level 3 audio lessons, which are a decent mix of making me think a little and way too easy. I like that they are throwing in some formal language, but the scenarios are feeling a bit simple for the level of politeness they are throwing at you. That said, anything that gets me saying Japanese words out loud is a plus. I am shy and I think this sort of listen and repeat stuff is what I need to get my tongue all 日本語'd up and ready for action.
*にほんご敬語トレーニング has been my keigo book of choice, although I haven't delved too far in yet. Rumor has it there is some sort of ultimate keigo book out there that I must own. I heard it might be in the mail to me. We shall see :)
*The latest addition to my growing stack of extremely useful and practical (no joke) Japanese language books is 日本人の知らない日本語, which has been a huge best seller in Japan. No wonder it was so easy to find at Kinokuniya this afternoon! It's done in "comic-essay" form, and teaches, as the title states, "Japanese that Japanese people don't know." Seems very entertaining, and since it is entirely in Japanese, for Japanese people, about things that even they may not know or do correctly, I am really excited to prioritize this in my study sessions.
*Kotoba! for iPhone is a pretty decent Japanese dictionary. I figured something was better than nothing and this was free (if I remember correctly?) More often than not, the word I have been searching for has been in there and they have translations to multiple languages and even kanji details.
*iEijiro (iPhone) is a dictionary for more advanced usage and...whatnot. Haven't had much luck with this, honestly. It seems extremely useful, but for more limited purposes, maybe?
*Check out the latest Otaku USA for an article I did about iPhone kanji apps :)
*Japanese Flip is a great flashcard program (iPhone) for JLPT vocab.
*Mnemosyne is back in style with me and I'm actually in talks with someone to get an iPhone port going, or at least a comparable program. This is very exciting, especially if we can make it so you can sync your stacks and grade levels. Then I can take all the vocab I'm working on with me in my pocket, where it is far more accessible than on my laptop.
*KeyholeTV is a MAJOR discovery. Not much more to say besides that it is streaming Japanese TV and radio. We should all just let our jaws hang open in awe that this exists.
Main study tactics at the moment:
*Aiming for an audio lesson a day, but not quite making it.
*Doing three lessons of くもん drill at a time, which right now is around per day, but not sure how that will scale, especially since I want to try to absorb all this really good vocab.
*Thinking of how to work in more keigo practice. Might wait until after the audio lessons are exhausted.
*Very interested in looping in more work-related Japanese stuff. Might begin the pain in the neck yet very instructive task of going through all my Japanese language mail from the week and pulling vocab for Mnemosyne cards as well as just instilling proper everything from my Japanese co-workers.
*Also really need to look over the Japanese versions of the site, help materials etc. This is something I mean to do long ago, but I just need to set aside time.
*I'm also interested in doing a translation project now and then. I'm not sure what I would like to translate, but I will probably start with news articles about work, since that could prove to be doubly useful.
Luckily, since Japanese has been placed as one of my three whole areas of priorities in life (right up there with work and health) it has been really easy to find more time to do it lately, which has been making me very happy.
But now look how long I spent updating this blog when I could've been actually studying. We'll see, we'll see ;) Anyways, for now, hopefully someone will find all those recommendations relevant. I will try to update with some less obvious ideas (the ones that aren't "surround yourself with study opportunities" and "take them") as they come up and maybe log some progress/questions and answers from my tutor/etc. Or I could get too busy to update for another few months.
There's a lot of passion here, but I'm not sure it's for the blog. I'm pretty sure it's for the doing and the studying. This is a problem I have had with all my blogs lately, even the ones I bought domains for, so...
yeah. We'll see.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Audio Lessons
I was having a good experience with Spanish audio lessons, so I decided to try some in Japanese, too. Pimsleur is pretty awesome, not only for the listening, but for the SPEAKING. Listening and repeating (and repeating and repeating) is a really good way to get your tongue and head wrapped around the vocabulary. You feel way more confident when you can just rattle stuff off. Plus it's real people talking, not anime characters ;p
Friday, October 10, 2008
Still here (Mnemosyne, TBS Radio podcasts)
and trying to study Japanese 2 hours a day.
It's in the schedule, so I think it's possible. Of course, it's the second thing (after fiction-reading) to get cut in emergencies, but I have a new kanji stategy involving Mnemosyne, a sweet flashcard program that spaces out repetition for you so you don't have to worry about when to review. Just spend some time in the program every day and give it accurate feedback on how hard you are working to answer the questions. I can already tell the difference from just flipping through flashcards on my own, and it's only been a couple days.
Note: This does not mean you should not have awesome hard copy flash cards. I still highly recommend getting the White Rabbit Press sets because of the extremely useful list of six compounds given for each kanji. You can feed whatever you want to learn into Mnemosyne, and keep the cards handy just for when you're on the road.
That said, I wonder if there is a mobile version of this. Could you imagine how awesome it would be to have it on your iPhone or something? o_o
My other new MOAR JAPANESE tactic is TBS Radio. (Incidentally, I got both of these links from All Japanese All the Time, a website by a guy who taught himself Japanese in 18th months or something, i.e. one of those guys we all hate because we are actually bitter and disappointed with ourselves for not trying harder. Fear not, you rock and so do I. Just steal his links and kick ass however you see fit.) I haven't done too much extensive listening there yet, but it's VERY IMPORTANT to listen to people SPEAKING JAPANESE who are NOT in character for an ANIME.
It's in the schedule, so I think it's possible. Of course, it's the second thing (after fiction-reading) to get cut in emergencies, but I have a new kanji stategy involving Mnemosyne, a sweet flashcard program that spaces out repetition for you so you don't have to worry about when to review. Just spend some time in the program every day and give it accurate feedback on how hard you are working to answer the questions. I can already tell the difference from just flipping through flashcards on my own, and it's only been a couple days.
Note: This does not mean you should not have awesome hard copy flash cards. I still highly recommend getting the White Rabbit Press sets because of the extremely useful list of six compounds given for each kanji. You can feed whatever you want to learn into Mnemosyne, and keep the cards handy just for when you're on the road.
That said, I wonder if there is a mobile version of this. Could you imagine how awesome it would be to have it on your iPhone or something? o_o
My other new MOAR JAPANESE tactic is TBS Radio. (Incidentally, I got both of these links from All Japanese All the Time, a website by a guy who taught himself Japanese in 18th months or something, i.e. one of those guys we all hate because we are actually bitter and disappointed with ourselves for not trying harder. Fear not, you rock and so do I. Just steal his links and kick ass however you see fit.) I haven't done too much extensive listening there yet, but it's VERY IMPORTANT to listen to people SPEAKING JAPANESE who are NOT in character for an ANIME.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
24 is not enough
I should be sleeping, but instead I'm going to pop in here to say that I'm ridiculously busy. Partially, though, because I'm interviewing for Amity on Saturday. Maybe I'll get to go to Japan! My clothes are already being dry cleaned, so...now I just need to come up with a half hour lesson plan and be creative, etc. I think I can, I think I can...
In the meantime, I know you've seen this before if you read my other blogs, but check out ケロログ for voice blogs by Japanese people. I've half a mind to start one myself (in all sorts of bilingual glory...ooooorrrrr something haha) but it'll have to wait.
明日多分日本語を話すチャンスがあるんだ。日本から来たルームメートと彼のお父さんといっしょうに朝ごはんを食べるはずだ。眠そうな顔を消さなくちゃいけないよ。もう午前１時４０だけど、もう少し仕事したほうがいいかな。。。
In the meantime, I know you've seen this before if you read my other blogs, but check out ケロログ for voice blogs by Japanese people. I've half a mind to start one myself (in all sorts of bilingual glory...ooooorrrrr something haha) but it'll have to wait.
明日多分日本語を話すチャンスがあるんだ。日本から来たルームメートと彼のお父さんといっしょうに朝ごはんを食べるはずだ。眠そうな顔を消さなくちゃいけないよ。もう午前１時４０だけど、もう少し仕事したほうがいいかな。。。
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