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+--- Thread: Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here (/thread-3362.html)
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - ta12121 - 2011-10-30
Tzadeck Wrote:True, that has happened to me before. When I think about it carefully, I've only had two Japanese dreams ever. One was just about me recognizing kanji when I was done the RTK phase of learning Japanese. Another was about close to 1 year mark, the dream was just talking about numbers for some reason. I was talking to a few Japanese people I seen in some dramas for some reason. It was a random dream but I still remember it. Other than those, I haven't had any more JPN dreams. Strange since I'm way better than I was 1 year ago.ta12121 Wrote:they say dreaming in Japanese means your close to fluency or at least heading into that direction. I think once you have a complete dream in Japanese, you know your fluent for sure(well most of the time)Yeah, this is kind of a myth. I've had dreams in Japanese in various stages of my learning. See, if you have situations in real life involving the language you're learning, if you have a dream about that situation it will be in that language. This is true regardless of how good you are.
I knew a science teacher at one of my old schools, who didn't speak English. But we tried to talk as best we could in Japanese from time to time. I had a dream where I was talking to her back when my Japanese was a lot farther from fluent, and of course it was in Japanese because the dream was a reflection on our actual relationship.
Another thing is that your brain also just makes up shit, especially when you're not so good. Like you'll be having a conversation with someone in Japanese, and your brain will just make up fake Japanese and you'll understand it since you're ultimately the person who made it up. So you can have fairly complicated conversations in Japanese in dreams, because your brain will fill in the parts that are too complicated for you with fake Japanese.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - IceCream - 2011-10-31
多読 just finished for me in in the UK... i carried on with it all month!!! i read 4 and a bit books, and although i didn't keep to the original goal of reading some news article every day, by the end i had read over 100 pages of news, which works out at an average of around 3 day, so i'm happy with that.
i feel like my reading fluency has really improved over the month, and i've learned plenty of words along the way... it's definately the most i've ever read in Japanese in one month.
It was fun!!! So, definately gonna do that again. It's really nice motivation to do it with everyone else and see what kind of things they're reading too, rather than just on my own.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Thora - 2011-11-01
That's great, IceCream! You deserve to enjoy it.
You've just inspired me. 2012 - Japanese fiction! (I said that in 2007) :-(
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - erlog - 2011-11-01
This isn't a hard milestone, but I feel it's significant enough to post here. I've been studying Japanese every day for the last 8 months. I haven't run flashcards absolutely every single day, but every single day I'm increasing my level of Japanese. In December I will take JLPT1, and I probably won't pass this time. Next July, though, for sure I'll pass since I'll have had time to finish a bunch of the textbooks I started in February/March of this year. I also live in Japan so my listening will be that much better thanks to actual conversation practice.
It's also looking like for the first time in the past 7 years of attempts I will actually finish Heisig. I'm around frame 1600 now, and doing about 150 new cards a month. I keep Heisig to a slower pace than everything else because it's something I'm going to keep doing in the long long term. My Heisig deck is actually the most consistent with reviews. Even if some days maybe I don't study anything else, I can usually make it through my 100-150 Heisig cards since they go quick and they're fun.
The key to all this actually hasn't been studying more. It's been forcing myself to study less. I used to get all excited and study for like 6 hours a day, and then not be able to keep it up. Now I force myself to keep it to 1 hour. If I want to do more after that then I watch Japanese TV or play a video game in Japanese. I don't continue "studying," though.
Being able to keep a consistent slower pace has been the key to finally breaking through intermediate level.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Balaam - 2011-11-01
For the last few weeks of October I finished most of my goals
Another 3 grammar points added
Read the first volume of Bleach (I've been dipping into a few different manga but I want to read another full volume as soon as I find something I like)
Added another 100 heisig cards to Anki.
Made an LR text of Harry Potter chapter 6 and read it. (I find this one of the most helpful things I've done apart from Anki).
I didn't get round to chapter 7 as I've moved and don't have access to the materials which is irritating
Also I've been using a Junior Highschool paper dictionary for looking up definitions and then adding those as close deletion cards in Anki. I'm very happy that I can often understand every word of these definitions and the meaning - or I can get to this stage by looking up a few more words.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Tori-kun - 2011-11-01
dtcamero Wrote:tori, try this... people will say it's nonsense but it got me over the listening slump when I was in your exact place...In a way I'm really demotivated and have lost somewhat trust in any advise people gave me or what I read here and there helping my listening to get to the next level. I don't want to accuse you now of lying but this method seems somewhat obscure, dtcamero! I just can try it out, though, right? I guess I will do that, although I doubt my mp3-player will be able to play a whole night. I will see. I have read that Khatz did so, too, and said it had some wonderful effects on him, so it might be the right time starting with more uncommon and inconventional methods.
ta1212 Wrote:What I recommend is, get transcripts. SRS them and keep listening to those+new things as well. I guarantee in a few weeks you should notice some sort of improvement. This may seem like bad advice but keep at it, even if it hurts(not literally).I'm doing what you advised me to do already a few several times and that over a bit more than a month already. Probably I just cannot measure objectively my own understanding/success (how much did I listen in fact VS how much has my 聴解 improved?), but I do realise that I pick more words more often, although I'm 'just' relistening to podcasts I had been listening to already 5 times (I count the times conventiently in iTunes). I guess I will just need to continue doing so. The only 'solace' is in a way that I keep telling myself bravely that one does not learn a language in a month, a few months or a year even... The point is, I hear words but - as so often used as a metaphora - I have a pool of words, a sea, a porridge in my brain. >.<
I haven't though about the transcripts yet. If you can provide me a sample/own deck, I'd be grateful. I keep reading along the simple sentences from core6k while reviewing with audio. I have no interest in audio books, I realised. I f.e. found "The little Prince" bloody boring and exhausting to read only in kana without kanji...
Nagareboshi Wrote:I haven't been listening to any Podcasts before. Those are interesting! This is why I've been listening to two full casts while doing my reps. I didn't expect it before starting to listen, but I was surprised how much I was able to understand. The one was about 弁当, and in the other they were talking about the new Iphone. I was able to understand them easily. I couldn't understand everything, but it was more than enough to understand most of their conversation, and what it is all about. Later on, I was re-listening to the two casts, kept a file open and typed the words and some sentences in, to look them up. Again no problem. This very positive experience made me all the more curious what your problems with listening really are.The point is, I cannot even measure how much I understood, f.e. in percentages. I understand these overall phrases like ありがとうございます、またね、～いただきました、次回は・・、etc. but see for a more detailed description above.
I've started listening to Japanese with Anime (plus eng-sub) long time ago before even studying Japanese, but then started off with Genki1-2 with Audio (which I understand without problems). I relistened most of HOTCASTs audio files up to 5 times - passively, never actively, while reviewing or even writing this.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - howtwosavealif3 - 2011-11-01
i think listening to japanese with anime with eng-sub doesn't count. it sure as hell didn't do shit for me and that's what AJATT says too....
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - IceCream - 2011-11-01
Thora Wrote:That's great, IceCream! You deserve to enjoy it.thanks
You've just inspired me. 2012 - Japanese fiction! (I said that in 2007) :-(
the next 多読 is in January, you should join!!! after a month of doing it you don't really wanna stop...
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - SomeCallMeChris - 2011-11-01
I dug out my old copy of Magic Knight Rayearth - the first manga I ever read in the original language, struggling along with paper dictionaries and an inadequate textbook, a weeks or months long endeavor....
I picked it up and re-read all 200 pages of the first volume within the same day, maybe 6 hours of reading. Only had to look up a couple dozen words in the dictionary (or try to, some of them are apparently made up and others just very rare).
Especially nice is that this time I could read the tiny little scribbles of hand-written amusing dialogue and recognize many of the 'sound affects' as actual onomatopoeia. Much more enjoyable than the first time I went through it.
(Of course it does have furigana, but I did my best to ignore that...)
Not sure reading a manga as I procrastinate about my kanji study is a -milestone-, but it was a nice confirmation of my progress, especially after the headaches that reading Boss (the novelization of a detective TV show) has been giving me.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - ta12121 - 2011-11-01
IceCream Wrote:That has actually helped me think of good ideas for a online business (tadoku). It will be definitely about helping people learn effectively. I'm going to gear it towards students(this can mean anything, when you think about it). Once I get a business plan working and running. I might want to adopt a similar system and join with anki in implementing it(will contact author about this and see if he would help me out)Thora Wrote:That's great, IceCream! You deserve to enjoy it.thanks
You've just inspired me. 2012 - Japanese fiction! (I said that in 2007) :-(
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - ta12121 - 2011-11-01
howtwosavealif3 Wrote:i think listening to japanese with anime with eng-sub doesn't count. it sure as hell didn't do shit for me and that's what AJATT says too....After a while, I ditched English Subs all together. It will does hinder what you "really" understand in JPN. I've found that when you truly understand something in Japanese. You will be able to understand without every translating in your head(until the language becomes internalized, this will be hard). I'm not too sure how I did it but it came from listening to the language at huge amounts.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - ta12121 - 2011-11-01
Tori-kun Wrote:hmmm, you should be improving. How about telling me what you do exactly to improve these skills. Maybe I'm overestimating others and my own ability but it shouldn't take more than a certain amount of time to get good at this. The main skills people need in the beginning is listening and reading(some people will say listening,speaking,reading and then writing. I tend to favor understanding first and then going all out in improving speaking, since this does help in so many levels).dtcamero Wrote:ta1212 Wrote:What I recommend is, get transcripts. SRS them and keep listening to those+new things as well. I guarantee in a few weeks you should notice some sort of improvement. This may seem like bad advice but keep at it, even if it hurts(not literally).I'm doing what you advised me to do already a few several times and that over a bit more than a month already. Probably I just cannot measure objectively my own understanding/success (how much did I listen in fact VS how much has my 聴解 improved?), but I do realise that I pick more words more often, although I'm 'just' relistening to podcasts I had been listening to already 5 times (I count the times conventiently in iTunes). I guess I will just need to continue doing so. The only 'solace' is in a way that I keep telling myself bravely that one does not learn a language in a month, a few months or a year even... The point is, I hear words but - as so often used as a metaphora - I have a pool of words, a sea, a porridge in my brain. >.<
I haven't though about the transcripts yet. If you can provide me a sample/own deck, I'd be grateful. I keep reading along the simple sentences from core6k while reviewing with audio. I have no interest in audio books, I realised. I f.e. found "The little Prince" bloody boring and exhausting to read only in kana without kanji...
The point is, I cannot even measure how much I understood, f.e. in percentages. I understand these overall phrases like ありがとうございます、またね、～いただきました、次回は・・、etc. but see for a more detailed description above.
I've started listening to Japanese with Anime (plus eng-sub) long time ago before even studying Japanese, but then started off with Genki1-2 with Audio (which I understand without problems). I relistened most of HOTCASTs audio files up to 5 times - passively, never actively, while reviewing or even writing this.
Transcripts helped me,because I add vocab and sentences from there into my sentence deck but I'd say my vocab deck is what helped me reach a solid level of understanding. I did listen to Japanese to the point I could easily call it listening to my native language all day long. I'm sure this had a positive effect in the long-term, since i can't really stop listening. Eventually once I start my learning business, I will explain all this in detail and an good english(yes the grammar too!)
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Harpagornes - 2011-11-02
Tori-kun Wrote:Hit the 7.4k mark with my anki decks... Somehow reaching more and more words does not give me any feeling of accomplishment.I'm sorry you are feeling unfulfilled. I wonder if it would be worth while finding something that you really like in English, and then listen to it in Japanese. Some people don't approve of this but I have found it helpful on the past. I am not sure what your interests are, but often transcripts are available. Ask around on this forum. It would be great to find something that you enjoyed and that got your sense of accomplishment back.
BTW 7.4k cards sounds great. I haven't got any except for the ones on this website.
@dtcamero
I tried the ear plugs in bed last night and listened to a couple of hours Japanese, A gentle preparation before I go through part of the transcripts today. Yes, on the past this has caused Japanese dreams. What fun to wander around Tokyo in my sleep.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Tori-kun - 2011-11-03
@ta12121: The secret behind transcripts, f.e. from japanesepod101.com, is that you use them like a textbook - studying. Perhaps that's what I need: learning the sounds by heart, like I did with learning the kana/kanji/compounds by heart in Anki. I somehow could never find the 'vocabulary_audio' for core6k available on the internet.. After I finish core6k, I'd like to change the deck structure to exactly try this: not hearing whole sentences, but first single words, only.
@Harpagornes: I have a decent interest in literature, especially such master pieces like 告白. I'm thinking of srsing a drama again (this movie perhaps?), but there are no japanese subtitles:( 7.4k words sounds a lot, but I do not regard that as "enough" just yet. I'm also interested in piano playing, psychology/philosophy and language exchange etc. (I'm very active on lang8).
I guess I need to take at some point the challenge speaking Japanese on Skype with some of my friends from lang8 - despite of the fear making errors or producing something incomprehensible....
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - pudding cat - 2011-11-03
Tori-kun Wrote:I guess I need to take at some point the challenge speaking Japanese on Skype with some of my friends from lang8 - despite of the fear making errors or producing something incomprehensible....That fact is that in the beginning you will make mistakes and at some points be incomprehensible so just don't bother worrying about it! If you're skyping you can always type to explain what you mean and the other person can correct you so just go for it
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Harpagornes - 2011-11-03
Tori-kun Wrote:I'm thinking of srsing a drama again ( ...告白... perhaps?), but there are no japanese subtitlesHow irritating. This sort of thing drives me crazy. They would have been included on the original Japanese DVD so I guess someone made the decision to strip them out for absolutely no good reason at all. I guess you could always ask a lang8 friend to purchase copy for you and post it out but then there would be no English subs.
As an aside, does anyone know where to obtain Japanese screenplays? This would be extremely useful.
Tori-kun Wrote:( 7.4k words sounds a lot, but I do not regard that as "enough" just yetWe can never never have enough words... There are always more.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Zorlee - 2011-11-03
Made a lot of new, Japanese friends (and even got a date with a cute girl!) just by reading 橋ものがたり (an awesome book btw!) in the cafeteria at my Uni.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Tori-kun - 2011-11-03
@Harpagornes: Yeah, it's a pity. I can find the cantonese/mandarin subs so far, but nowhere the Japanese ones. It is a pity I cannot use PD/share as my father rejects opening ports :x
Though, I've made a friend on Lang-8 writing a film review about this movie. The best one I've ever seen so far...
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - ta12121 - 2011-11-03
Tori-kun Wrote:@ta12121: The secret behind transcripts, f.e. from japanesepod101.com, is that you use them like a textbook - studying. Perhaps that's what I need: learning the sounds by heart, like I did with learning the kana/kanji/compounds by heart in Anki. I somehow could never find the 'vocabulary_audio' for core6k available on the internet.. After I finish core6k, I'd like to change the deck structure to exactly try this: not hearing whole sentences, but first single words, only.What worked for me is: whenever I knew a word in Japanese by listening but not it's kanji. I would just understand it's English equivalent (what it means in English) if the kanji wasn't available. Now the other way around, I would understand it via it's kanji(by reading) and whenever I would hear it in real context, it would instantly make sense to me.
This doesn't work by just trying it a few times, it's geared towards the long-term. It's only when I kept going, it started to make prefect sense. I think the key here is audio for you. There is a plugin in anki that generates MP3 based on vocab or sentences(whatever your studying, it read it). You can set it up to automatically play it, after you tried reading it yourself. It's called GoogleTTS(it's in the plugin section of anki)
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - blazen - 2011-11-03
250 sentences - Genki volume 1 complete! - Bought some Japanese ps3 games and have a small manga collection. Can sing the chorus to one of my favourite songs. All is good and pure in the world!
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Tzadeck - 2011-11-04
Recently I got my anki cards down to zero for the first time in 18 months, haha. And I've even been adding new cards. After my friend came to visit Japan last summer, I didn't do my cards for two weeks and they piled up. I eventually gave up the battle to get them back down.
But, I decided I really need to study if I want to pass N1 in December, so I made the push.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Nagareboshi - 2011-11-04
Tori-kun Wrote:The point is, I cannot even measure how much I understood, f.e. in percentages. I understand these overall phrases like ありがとうございます、またね、～いただきました、次回は・・、etc. but see for a more detailed description above.I've been passively listening to Japanese Anime, Videos on youtube, etc. for thousands of hours. My lack of vocabulary made it incomprehensible without subtitles. But now I can understand, and 聴解 seems to be my strongest suit in Japanese, with 読解 being the second strongest. There is still soooooooooo much more I have yet to learn.
I've started listening to Japanese with Anime (plus eng-sub) long time ago before even studying Japanese, but then started off with Genki1-2 with Audio (which I understand without problems). I relistened most of HOTCASTs audio files up to 5 times - passively, never actively, while reviewing or even writing this.
I've been listening to everything, and when I found something that was too difficult, I didn't waste my time to re-listen until I understand it. It doesn't matter if you understand one thing to a 100%, or even 90% or below that. By listening to as many different things as you can, you will start to understand more and more. And when you come back to something you didn't understand before, you will probably understand it then. My point is that it is worth nothing when you can understand 100% of one thing, vs. 90% of a wide variety of things you are going to hear.
Hint: You can already tell apart what you can understand. Why don't you start listening actively, and see what you can't understand, to look it up? ;-)
This is why I suggest you to start exploring as many different movies, Podcasts, or other things as you can, and listen to them. Mind you, listening only. I have told you that already. You are able to read, and when you read to understand, it will not help you to understand what you are hearing.
Give the following a try and you will understand what I mean. Search for a random Drama, with Japanese subtitles - should be available online somewhere, and read while you are listening. Don't add anything to your SRS or take notes. Then go back and watch without the subs, or by covering them, in case it comes with hardsubs. And now see how much you are able to understand now.
Why not use English subs as well, if there are any available? Some say that you should avoid English subs. But why not use them? If you don't understand something in Japanese, but have the English sub, you should be able to tell what means what. Use whatever you can find that has the potential to help you. You are learning, and you are not the next guy, who does this and that - avoids English, uses this or that method.
And if all else fails, well ... We'll always have Paris.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Harpagornes - 2011-11-04
pudding cat Wrote:The fact is that in the beginning you will make mistakes and at some points be incomprehensible so just don't bother worrying about it! If you're skyping you can always type to explain what you mean and the other person can correct you so just go for itThanks for this advice. I haven't spoken any Japanese for about five years (don't ask) and I have been feeling very shy and self conscious about pitch accent, 重い外人なまり、知らない単語、など、等、 畜生、etc.
Tonight I picked up the phone and rang up a Japanese friend who had me to stay, and visited me in New Zealand once. It all went fine. He was delighted to hear from me. I found my muscles hadn't atrophied and we stumbled along using a mixture of bad Japanese and broken English. Just like old times really. A beer, and not reading the pitch accent thread, would have helped.
The only word I absolutely could not say correctly (well that's not quite true) was ukulele. It looks as though it would convert to katakana very easily but my pronunciation was so off I ended up talking about あのハワイの小さいな楽器. God knows where I put the pitch accent but it seemed to work. We talked for about half an hour and promised to keep in touch.
Edit: Added a "not".
A big thanks to all of you on this site for all the good examples you provide.
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Tori-kun - 2011-11-04
Nagareboshi Wrote:Hint: You can already tell apart what you can understand. Why don't you start listening actively, and see what you can't understand, to look it up? ;-)OK. I tried transcripting a podcast (about beer? haven't listened it completely yet and had to relisten the first part very often in iTunes), so here comes the mini script.
(The name of the podcast was 月夜と東北ホップ100％ and it was downloadable in iTunes.)
はい、お皆さん、お元気でしょうか。おダイデラです。今回はですね、あの、外に出てきてまいりました。あの、中秋の明月(?)で満月の予定だったんですが、今まったく空は満月、(?)月も星も見えない、曇りづらい(?)です。 [...]
Edit: I did pick up the words and somehow - as they are not especially difficult - some sense scrambled in fact together. The fact that he is speaking alone while being outside drinking beer (getting dull?) it is easier than HOTCAST to understand.. just an impression.
Edit: Since I'm counting how often I listened to podcasts in Anki, I can calculate based on an average length of 23 minutes, how many hours I listened to Japanese already passively while reviewing: ~40 hours. (Sounds like a lot...)
Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here - Es2Kay - 2011-11-04
I've finally gone monolingual （イェイ） Using 広辞苑第六版 and sometimes 三省堂 ＋ 大辞泉