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+--- Thread: Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? (/thread-3894.html)
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-08-31
i`ve been reevaluating the way i have been studying recently... i have completed 900 kanji on smart.fm`s Kanji Odyssey lists... one of my biggest problems lately is a diminishing study time compared to what i used to study... i maybe study about an hour a day at the most recently... i don`t feel that i am moving at a speed that i would like to be moving at and i thought a change of the way i was studying might be in order.. i`ve been thinking of doing the Anki only route and inputting the easy to understand definitions from this dictionary http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/why-i%E2%80%99m-in-love-with-my-japanese-japanese-dictionary and practicing them until i complete it... i think i am using waaay too much english in my reviews now and it is giving me mental exhaustion... anyways, i was just wondering if anyone out there is using one of these basic monolingual dictionaries and how it is working out for them so far...
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - mezbup - 2009-08-31
If you've completed that much of the KO lists on smart fm you should be able to handle a monolingual dictionary.
I'm halfway through the KO deck in Anki and I'm starting to easy myself into using my dictionary monolingualy (it has both). So I say go for it.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - ropsta - 2009-08-31
Yes. And while you're at it, let me choose the next car you get, too.
I've being doing monodic, but sometimes the definitions are just beyond my comprehension. I especially hate when the kanji I look up is a part of the definition. I think you'll be alright, though.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-08-31
the next car i plan on getting is a Nissan GT-R
i`m just going to have to save up for awhile (yeh i`m driving a 1985 Mazda Rx-7 now lol) i`m looking at the definitions right now... i guess あのように and ああいうふうに mean the same thing.... i guess my wife could help me if i needed help with anything though..maybe by the time i become fluent in Japanese i can afford a GT-R
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - igordesu - 2009-08-31
Yes, use the monodic. Actually looking up really, really simple words you already know the definition to helps loads:
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-to-really-make-the-transition-to-monolingual-dictionaries
In fact, I start using a monodic a few weeks ago like that. I started out that last. In the beginning I could barely use it at all. Now, I'm very accustomed to it. I still have trouble now and then, but the progress I've made is incredible.
And once you start to get accustomed to the monodic, it's amazing how irritating the definitions suddenly are in bilingual dictionaries.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - ropsta - 2009-08-31
Skyline's a beautiful beast. Once knew a guy whose brother ran a tuning shop. He had his brother install a skyline engine in his sentra.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Delina - 2009-08-31
GT-R, huh?
If you haven't seen Initial D or Wangan Midnight, do.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-08-31
Skylines are great, but the newest Nissan car just goes by GT-R... they dropped the Skyline models.. they sell the GT-R model in the USA now too, i actually saw one recently..
btw: i used to have a Nissan 240sx coupe with a SR20DET engine... about 300hp... soo fun to drive.. too bad i had to get rid of it...
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Nukemarine - 2009-08-31
Straight mono-lingual? Probably not. Looking up the definition of glass in a good English dictionary should show why that's not a good idea. I think someone showed there's five very lengthy definitions.
A good monolingual and J-E dictionary? Great idea. Use the monolingual for the words that have simple definitions you can follow. The J-E for words that have difficult definitions in Japanese.
The reason I'm giving myself for not going straight J-J dictionary is the reason I advocate Heisig: I have a powerful tool called English that helps get concepts across very, very fast. Why ignore the benefit.
Another reason I'm using a good J-E more are for the simple phrases you will not find in J-J that you won't figure out yourself without three of four different cases of context. Since I'm using EBwin, I do a "Find all" feature which has helped immensely for these such as (Pardon my romaji): 'wagamichi wo iku', 'dochirasama desuka', 'dounasaimasu', 'dounafuni' which pop up a few example sentences even though there were no main entries for them.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - mezbup - 2009-08-31
Nukemarine Wrote:Straight mono-lingual? Probably not. Looking up the definition of glass in a good English dictionary should show why that's not a good idea. I think someone showed there's five very lengthy definitions.I agree this this. If a monolingual definition is giving you too much of a headache, theres no harm in getting a bilingual one to fill in the gaps.
A good monolingual and J-E dictionary? Great idea. Use the monolingual for the words that have simple definitions you can follow. The J-E for words that have difficult definitions in Japanese.
The reason I'm giving myself for not going straight J-J dictionary is the reason I advocate Heisig: I have a powerful tool called English that helps get concepts across very, very fast. Why ignore the benefit.
Another reason I'm using a good J-E more are for the simple phrases you will not find in J-J that you won't figure out yourself without three of four different cases of context. Since I'm using EBwin, I do a "Find all" feature which has helped immensely for these such as (Pardon my romaji): 'wagamichi wo iku', 'dochirasama desuka', 'dounasaimasu', 'dounafuni' which pop up a few example sentences even though there were no main entries for them.
You'll find yourself needing them less and less though.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-08-31
i can understand almost every definition in my dictionary that i posted a link to... the definitions are made for elementary students and it`s quite easy to understand... they are dumbed down definitions... i think the website has some examples.. check it out: http://www.benesse.co.jp/jiten/jiten/syou4.html
also, my dictionary is entirely in furigana
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Nii87 - 2009-09-01
Cool dictionary, Hashiriya... But its 1.1k pages! That thing must weigh a ton!
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - coverup - 2009-09-01
Yeah I actually think that just today I realized I could use a monolingual dictionary effectively. Some concepts are just better communicated more clearly in Japanese. I'm happy I waited though. I'm at almost exactly 1000 native sentences - though I have been very slow about adding those since February when I finished RTK.
I avoided the headache of looking up words of definitions and looking up more words in those definitions... that was too slow and discouraging. I usually allow myself to go one level deeper - if I don't understand one word in a J-J definition I can look it up, but I don't let myself look up words in that definition. What I found is that without even knowing it I naturally came to be able to understand monolingual defs with minimal headache.
I have the dic that Hashiriya posted about, and even though it was very easy to understand even at the beginning, it was just too slow looking up words in a paper dictionary so I cut it out.
My advice is to try the J-J. If it still seems too hard, keep working and try back next time until you feel like 'hey, I can see how well this would work now.'
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - bombpersons - 2009-09-01
I actually started doing this without really noticing / trying. Try to understand the Japanese definition, if you can't do that, use rikai-chan on the definition and if you still can't get it, look it up in and english dictionary.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-09-01
while i have only been doing this for about a day so far, i feel that going monolingual with this dictionary is the right thing to do for me at this point... my japanese wife was sitting beside me last night reading the dictionary to me while i was putting the words in Anki.. i was amazed at how much i already knew and she was right there to answer any questions i might have... another thing i could do really well was listen to japanese in the background also.. that is compared to smart.fm, where i would have trouble following whats going on in the background because of concentrating on the japanese sentences and the english sentences... i still think smart.fm was necessary though to bring me to the level where i am now and i agree that English did a good job of helping me get here but now i feel like i know the basics enough to use the monolingual dictionary only... let me give you an example of my card:
front:合い言葉
back:（あいことば）
1 仲間であることを確かめる為の、前もって決めておく合図の言葉。
例：「山」と言ったら「川」と答えるのを合い言葉にする。
２ グループの目標として決めた短い言葉。
例：このチームの合い言葉は、「ファイト」だ。
it`s so easy to understand isn`t it?
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Nukemarine - 2009-09-01
front:合い言葉
I'm going to guess "motto" or "password", though I would have thought password just from the word itself.
Hmm, maybe I am running to the J-E a bit too fast now and again. However, just the sight of eight different entries though makes me think that the nuance is a bit too much and it's time to search for sample sentences that match the word and the phrase it's in.
Considering finally going monolingual.. should I? - Hashiriya - 2009-09-01
the 1st definition is password, while i understand the 2nd definition perfectly, i just don`t know how to say it in English...
but the #1 thing i think that is good from studying from a monolingual dictionary is that even if you know the word in japanese, can you explain it in japanese also? if you can, even if you forget the word in conversation, you could explain enough about it for someone to understand what you want to say... i think a monolingual dictionary is the secret why Khatzumoto became "fluent" as quick as he did... even if he might forget a word, he could explain himself out of a hole real fast...