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Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Mesqueeb - 2009-06-22
I wrote this for my English teacher. A Thesis of exactly how I studied for the past year. I have lived in Japan for a year. Somehow I wanted to share this, not sure why. ^^
Some sentences may seem to have come out of Khatzumoto's mouth, because it probably is like that, he inspirered me. Enjoy!
*Edit: 2 small mistakes in thesis, kudos to Hashiriya and Jarvik7
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Thesis on Japanese Studies
By Lucas Van Ammel 22/06/2009
Foreword
Greetings, I am a little Belgian boy with gold hair who goes by the name of Lucas Van Ammel. I am here to tell you about how I acquire Japanese. I have lived in Japan for one year and most people say I made remarkable progress in only one year. But first let us jump back four years.
The beginning of something new
I was living a peaceful life in Belgium, with not too much to worry about. I always wanted to come to Japan, and therefore I decided to go to Japanese evening classes for one year. (Autumn 2005) In the evening classes I came to understand only a few things. How to read and write Hiragana, and how basic sentences are structured with particles and the Subject-Object-Verb order. However, after a half year I got bored of it and quit. (Begin 2006) However, I equipped myself with a strong belief that I will someday go to Japan. I believed this strongly even though that dream seemed impossible. Two years later, (Begin 2008) I found out about AFS, an exchange student program. With AFS I was Finally able to go to Japan for a whole year. This meant I should get off my lazy behind and start learning Japanese again! In the two years that had passed I did not study any Japanese. I had forgotten all Hiragana, and had to start over from zero. In my last half year before I left Belgium I learned some basic phrases and learned all Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). I knew about five Kanji and I could say basic sentences like “This is an apple.”
With an open mind I left for Japan on August the 23rd 2008.
Bad study method
I arrived in Japan with, as how the Japanese would say it, blue buttocks. I was a complete rookie who could only read about five Kanji, and I didn’t understand anything! With this exchange program I lived in a Japanese family, which helped my listening and speaking skills, but Kanji must be studied. Just as most other exchange students, I started studying Kanji with brute memorization. This first book I bought had taught me 100 Kanji in 10 days. Ten Kanji a day. It wasn’t much of a sweat since they were the simplest Kanji there are. After that I moved on with another 200 Kanji. Soon I realized that it kept becoming more and more difficult. Often I could barely read the Kanji I learned, so let alone writing it! It is just too much for the mind to handle 300 Kanji! What? Is that really true? Most Japanese know over 3000 Kanji! Why can’t I do the same? Probably because Japanese children study Kanji their entire school career, they take more time. But I don’t want to spend 12 years learning Kanji, because it’s not FUN! In my first three months in Japan I learned about 250 Kanji, but was unable to learn any more. At least not the way I was studying now. So I decided to stop what I was doing: Study Kanji by brute force.
Remembering 2000 Kanji
This is when I found out about a book. It was the best Kanji book I had ever found. It was one book to rule them all. The book I am talking about is ‘Remembering the Kanji’ by James W. Heisig. With this book I learned to write 2000 Kanji in three months. Read my sentence carefully. “Write”. This means I can’t read the Kanji with their Japanese on- and kunyomi readings.
HOW? The book is entirely in English. First of all, all the Kanji are linked with one keyword. One English keyword. In the beginning you learn two Kanji (I am sad to confess) by brute memorization. Only two. Which are日 ‘sun’ and 目 ‘eye’. You link the shape of the Kanji in your head with these English keywords. Now we know two Kanji. The next Kanji we learn is 冒 which we give the keyword ‘risk’. We see an eye below a sun. We remember the Kanji by making a little story. “If you look with your eyes straight into the sun above, it is a risk, your eyes might get damaged.” It’s as simple as that! We move on to the Kanji 一 ‘one’ you learn it by memorization which is obviously not so hard. Now we can combine this new Kanji with Kanji we already know. An example is亘 ‘span’. We see a 日 with a一 above and below it. Every time you see一in another Kanji it’s easy to give it one more meaning which is ‘horizon’. Our story: “The sun spans from one horizon to the other horizon in one day.” And so we have learned another kanji, 亘 ‘span’! Do you see where I am going? Let’s learn one more basic Kanji for our last example. We link the Kanji 土 with ‘soil’. Now we can make the combination 垣 ‘hedge’ combined from ‘soil’ and ‘span’. A story would be: “A hedge is something that spans the soil.” Easy as pie!
These were some examples to give you a global view of what the book does. Note that the book teaches you uncommon Kanji even from the very start like垣, but in the long run we want to learn all Kanji anyway, so the order in which we learn them is not so important. It is a very structured book. It always adds one keyword/kanji, and then you learn all the combinations you can make with this new keyword combined with previously learned kanji. Eventually you will see that you only need to learn about 50 Kanji with brute memorization, all other ~1950 Kanji can be combined with pieces we already know. In the beginning of the book the author gives you stories to help you, but after about 400 Kanji you are on your own to make the stories, and he only gives you the keywords of which the Kanji are made of. I finished the book in three months, with a pace of about 25 Kanji a day.
What are the benefits after you learned 2000 Kanji, each time linked with one English keyword? After spending so much time with these Kanji you still can’t speak or read Japanese, so why bother? Well indeed you spend a lot of time learning them with English keywords, but what you create is a sort of close bond with the Kanji. You are befriended with the Kanji, you have come to love Kanji (it’s what I hear from everyone who has done the book, and I too love Kanji), and each Kanji has a place in your heart. If I saw a Kanji somewhere before I studied it with this book I forgot it the instant after I saw it. After finishing ‘Remembering the Kanji’, I saw a Kanji somewhere, and I could remember it until I came home to look it up, and had no problems with writing it on a paper to ask a friend.
The way to fluency
But there I was in Japan, I knew 2000 Kanji after three months, but in fact I didn’t know them at all! I ‘sort of’ knew them. I could often guess their meanings, because their meanings are often very close to the keywords I used, but I still can’t read any Japanese!
I started searching the internet for good study methods and my eyes fell upon a certain website called ‘All Japanese all the Time’. (http://alljapaneseallthetime.com) It was about someone who had learned Japanese until native fluency in 18 months by having fun. The first thought that pops up into any man’s head: “Whaaaat?” I know it sounds impossible, but after reading a lot on his homepage I started to believe it is possible. “If I can do it you can too.” Is what he kept saying. So I did, and my Japanese made a huge progress in my last five months of my stay. Now I am in my last month here, and my future is smiling at me, because even in Belgium I know I will continue to progress at high speed. Fluency in 18 months, just by having fun? I’ll tell you what I learned from this website.
HOW? The first step is: You have to believe in yourself. You CAN become fluent in Japanese. For me having belief is not a hard thing. It is what brought me all the way to Japan. If your mind is made up, you have a strong desire to learn Japanese and you believe in yourself, we can move on to the next step. How ironically, the next step is to pick up ‘Remembering the Kanji’ by James W. Heisig, and finishing the book. This book really is the path to fluency. There is no way around Kanji, so do it now. Before or after that book you’ll also have to learn Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). Since I had already finished the book in three months, and could read Kana, I was ready for the next and final step to fluency.
All Japanese all the time
Final step, part A: Start having fun in Japanese. It was literally what the title of the website was, all Japanese all the time. If you exclude all other languages, and you make sure you spend every day in Japanese, you will become fluent. It is how babies learn to speak. Turn you environment Japanese. The website author had a job and went to collage in the USA and he still became fluent in 18 months, without going to Japan once. For me it was a huge bonus to live here in Japan, but it’s not a requirement. Even in another country you can turn your environment Japanese. While on the move, always be listening to Japanese music, or even better Japanese pod casts. Besides that there are Japanese movies, Japanese animation, Japanese friends, monolingual dictionaries (Jap-Jap), and of course Japanese Manga. Japanese 24/7. The best way to do this is by putting away all English related things, like books, movies and music, and storing it in a box for a few years. If you really want to become fluent in Japanese these things won’t stop you right?
Final step, part B: Review native Japanese sentences using a Spaced Repetition System, also known as an SRS. It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards. Flashcards in the form of a question and an answer. The SRS I used, and I also advice it, is called Anki. (http://ichi2.net/anki/) It seems difficult, but is actually not so complex. For example, you read a Manga. Manga is a great tool to start out with, since it has Furigana (Little Kana besides the Kanji). You are reading and you come upon a sentence you don’t fully understand or you don’t know the Kanji. Open your SRS, and you create a new flashcard. First you write this sentence on your flashcard in Hiragana in the field ‘Question’. Then you write this sentence again with the Kanji in the field ‘Answer’. In a monolingual dictionary you look up words you don’t understand, and add the definitions on your flashcard. A monolingual dictionary seems to scare a lot of people off in the beginning. Your first month or so you can add minimal English words in definitions here and there, but soon make the switch to Japanese only. Even if you don’t fully understand it, just by doing everything in Japanese all the time, you’ll get the hang of it before you realize. When you added the sentence in your SRS, you read on until you find another sentence you want to add. I add daily about twenty new sentences. Besides adding the sentences there is also repeating them. Every day you do your reviews. You read the question (a sentence in Hiragana), and you write it out in Kanji. If you were able to write it correctly that sentence will take longer before it comes back. First a few days, then a week, a month, a few months, and so on. If you wrote a mistake it will come back tomorrow. That is how a SRS works.
While having fun in Japanese do not be a perfectionist! You don’t have to understand everything when reading a Manga, as long as you have fun it’s good. If you are bored, get rid of the Manga, and seek another Manga or something else in Japanese that you find interesting. If it’s fun you won’t get burned out. Also only add Japanese sentences to your SRS which you really want to learn. If a sentence is too long or too hard even if you looked it up, skip it. If it is really important it will pop up again anyway. Never watch movies or animation with subtitles because you will unconsciously concentrate too much on the subtitles. If you watch a lot without subtitles you’ll start picking up words fast. This final step’s summary: Have fun in Japanese, and copy native Japanese sentences you find on the way into your SRS.
Like this I have spent my last five months in Japan. In the early morning I do my reviews with Anki (my SRS program). That takes me about two hours. Remember, the reviews I do are all flashcards which I made myself. After two hours I start reading Manga while adding sentences from it into my SRS. Besides that I just live my life in Japanese, and I go have fun with Japanese people on the weekends. But when I return to Belgium I will continue this way of living. Where there is a will there is a way. In Belgium I still have to do my final year of high school, after that I will enter a Japanese university. So for that purpose I will do my very best. I make my environment Japanese, I do my reviews every day, I continue to add sentences, and most important of all: I have fun in Japanese!
Closure
That is my way to fluency. It’s fast and it’s fun. Be like a baby reborn in Japanese. If a baby can speak before the age of two, you can do it in two years or less! The author of ‘All Japanese all the Time’ did it, I am doing it, and now it’s your turn. Let us leap into Japanese and have a great time with it!
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - alyks - 2009-06-22
I approve of this, as well as your golden hair.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - liosama - 2009-06-22
I await your antithesis and synthesis to follow
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Hashiriya - 2009-06-22
"However, I equipped myself with a strong believe that I will someday go to Japan. I believed this strongly even though that dream seemed impossible."
-believe should be "belief"
but nice read
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Mesqueeb - 2009-06-22
Arrrrr!! Thanks me lad! Nice notice, I will say it also to my teacher that I made a mistake there. Really thanks!
Alkys, thanks for reading my Thesis. ^^
What is an antithesis and synthesis ? >,<
-Mesqueeb
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Nii87 - 2009-06-23
I think those words are just a play on the word 'thesis'.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - scuda - 2009-06-23
Yeah, antithesis = what happens after the story (i.e. after you give the speech), and synthesis = your write up of that too.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - kazelee - 2009-06-23
Be like ベービ.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - hotkiller123 - 2009-06-23
Mwahaha, I also use the 冒 example when asked about RTK. It's the perfect example.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Tobberoth - 2009-06-23
Is thesis what you write to become a bachelor? Because if it is, that's pathetically short... my thesis in informatics was over 100 pages long...
The content is of course very interesting though! Will read it more in depth when I get back from work.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Evil_Dragon - 2009-06-23
You had me at gold hair!
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - woelpad - 2009-06-23
I think it's just a final paper. He writes that he still has one more year of "high school" before moving to a Japanese university. Not sure if this refers to the Japanese term of junior high school (which would put him at age 16-17) or the Belgian form of non-universitary post-mandatory (i.e. after age 18) studies called "Hogeschool", in which case he's most likely between 19 and 21 years old. Lucky guy anyway. I hadn't heard of such a program in my time, but then I wasn't particularly looking either.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - dat5h - 2009-06-23
Nice, congrats on your hard work
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Jarvik7 - 2009-06-23
Tobberoth Wrote:Is thesis what you write to become a bachelor? Because if it is, that's pathetically short... my thesis in informatics was over 100 pages long...You generally don't write a thesis for undergrad degrees in North America, unless you are doing an honors degree. I think the longest paper I ever had to write was 14 pages on buddhist themes in secular pre-modern Japanese literature (for a third year class on Japanese religious literature).
I'm glad I never had to write a thesis.. Maybe I could just cut & paste all of my forum posts. One of my texts on translation theory was just a log of an exchange between two people on a mailing list afterall.
I haven't read the thesis, but this mistake jumped out at me as I was scrolling down:
Quote:It wasn’t much of a sweat since it were the simplest Kanji there are.it were→they were
Also, kanji isn't a proper noun.
It seems pretty casually written for a thesis. Maybe it's really a personal essay. He did say it was for his English teacher afterall.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - dat5h - 2009-06-23
My undergraduate thesis was 46 pages. Luckily, engineers use figures and pictures to convey ideas. They take up a lot of space, I found
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - liosama - 2009-06-23
Sorry i was trying to be witty, yes i meant in in Hegel's sense of the term
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - aaronvanvalen - 2009-06-23
It should also be golden hair as it is not made of actual gold. (I assume)
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - theasianpleaser - 2009-06-23
My hair is that fake gold rock's color. Also, 25 page thesis as an undergrad finding the maximum mass of a star before it collapses in on itself and forms a black hole. It was sexy
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - dat5h - 2009-06-23
Astrophysics is pretty sexy
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - welldone101 - 2009-06-23
Awesome write up. Awesome name. Awesome forum handle. Is there anything not awesome about this thread?
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Mesqueeb - 2009-06-23
Thanks so much people! ^^
I thank everyone who has been to this thread! Sank yi!
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Who am I?
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I am an exchange student between my 5th and my 6th year of high school. I guess it's highschool in america, but we call it "middelbaar" in Belgium. xD In Japanese system I went to Japan between my 2nd and 3rd year of Senior High School (Koukou 高校)
My birthday was a few days ago: 1990/06/22 I turned 19.
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Thesis or not?
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Actually I don't really know what it is. My English teacher here in Japan (we never followed classes together, I just know her from speaking to her once in a while) wanted to know how I studied Japanese. So she asked me to write it down for her.
So I wrote it down, and searched on google: "define:thesis"
And it said:
an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument
dissertation: a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research; (usually a requirement for an advanced academic degree)
I don't know the specifics about the word thesis, but I thought it fitted what I wrote pretty well, since my statement was unproved and put forward and all that. ^^
Anyway this thesis I wrote is just something unofficial, I did it with lots of fun and it has nothing to do with grades.
-> My English teacher came to me the other day and said it was a clear and great read! She understood it all very clearly she said and she asked me if she could share this information in a congress or something. Apparently she has a lot to do with exchange students in Japan even those not from my program. And she wanted to let more people in Japan who are learning Japanese know of my point of view (and with that also Khatzumoto's point of view ofcourse. ^^ And Mr. Heisigs ofcourse)
So I said: Yeah! Go ahead! Spread the word! Let the world know! And all bow down before me! (that last one was a joke >,<)
That's all folks! (Catch 'em catch 'em gotta catch'em all, GOTTA CATCH 'em ALL! Pokemon!)
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - woelpad - 2009-06-24
"Secondary school" should come pretty close without the confusion of the various forms of high school (ok, so it was senior high school, my bad). "Thesis" and "closure" are quite loaded words, especially in mathematics. Try "essay" or "paper" (avoid also "dissertation"), and "conclusion".
I'm wondering how many people understood the "little Belgian boy" reference in the introduction. Chances are that this does not describe any physical aspect (apart from sex), but rather refers to the stereotype of "kleine Belg/petit Belge", the fact that the country is small somehow reflects upon its inhabitants, making their presence a priori insignificant. Call it modesty, call it cute, but in the end it's just a stereotype. In the context here it roughly translates to "I'm just a nobody going into the big, wide world." Since "little Belgian" is already a concept, I wouldn't think you can simply combine it with "boy" as was done in the text, without confusing the reader, unless indeed the author is of rather short build (and/or seriously underage).
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Tobberoth - 2009-06-24
What thesis mean with the definition "an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument" is not a text like yours. It's more along the lines of a hypothesis.
"Let's assume that people are generally less educated in Africa than in the US" <- thesis
"We can therefor assume that no one there will be interested in buying those products."
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Nii87 - 2009-06-24
To me, a thesis is a massive year long project that I did for my honours at uni, which I don't want to ever, ever, do again.
Thesis - Japanese Studies (my past 1 year) - Mesqueeb - 2009-06-24
I was indeed being modest (since it gave a Japanese feeling to it) by saying "Little Belgian Boy". I am indeed a Boy, and I was little my whole life, but lately I had become normal size in Belgium, and to the big size in Japan, so I was just a late grower! But it was more about Belgium being a small and cute country. ^^
But it doesn't really matter what the reader thinks, not like I will meet him anyway.
As long as it reads smooth. ^-^
-Mesqueeb