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2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - ta12121 - 2011-11-20

Zorlee Wrote:
ta12121 Wrote:LOL you actually asked that?
Oh yes...
haha, that must have been awkward.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Tori-kun - 2011-11-20

@Zorlee: Just an offtopic question, if you allowSmile How did you study vocabulary? I went through core6k by now and I really liked this system which makes me think to continue with core10k, too, keeping at adding 20 new cards per day. I have a separate Rikai-sama deck I add words I encounter in books etc. to.
I re-watched your uploaded video and I'm still.. confused how you could get your 聴解 score so high, I mean, you simply understand/decode what they say. You must be god LOL

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Zorlee - 2011-11-20

I went through KO2001, then mined sentences from native material up until I reached 9k sentences-ish. It was taking too long (I spent like 6-7 hours to find 30 good sentences. Yeah, waste of time if you ask me, but anyway).
I add 30 cards a day, single words only. I add example sentences on the answer side to make sure I understand the fact completely. I mainly study words from books I read (I always mark unknown words while reading and look them up / add them to Anki later. Takes no longer than a second, but makes studying much faster afterward.
About listening, vocab is everything. Learn more words and you'll understand more.
Also, living in Japan / hanging out with Japanese people will help A LOT when it comes to listening. I don't agree with the "Go to Japan, and Japanese will take care of itself" opinion that a lot of people have on here, but listening comprehension was definitely the one thing that I really improved in during my 10 months in Japan.
Hope this answers some of your questions. If not, send me a mail Wink

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Asriel - 2011-11-20

Zorlee Wrote:- Never ask my friend's mother for the meaning of 産道 ever again. Oh, awkwardness! >_< Yeah... Didn't do this either
I'm curious as to how you got yourself in these kinds of situations! What were you reading where you would come across such vocab?

Related, although　産道 might be somewhat off-putting, don't worry about buying products that are　道産, particularly milk! Mmm..

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Zorlee - 2011-11-20

Haha. My friend asked me if I knew the meaning of 参道, showing it to me on his keitai. I said yeah, he was like "cool, I'm going for a piss", he left, I saw "産道" on the list of other 変換 options, I asked his mother about the meaning, and... FML

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Splatted - 2011-11-20

Splatted Wrote:For 2011 my aims are to:

1-Finish RTK (obviously)
2-Learn core 6000
3-Do something everyday(ish)

I estimate I can probably do this in the first 6 months, so I'll try and think of something more for the rest of the year.

Edit: I also need to

4-finish Tae Kim
5-start on http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/index.html , which is a grammar guide in Japanese.
1-Success!!(ish) I got bored and decided to just forget about it and move on. I'm not counting counting this as a fail because I feel I got what I needed to from RTK and then made better use of my time.
2-Fail! I found this really boring, and wasn't really seeing much improvement to my Japanese so I found it really hard to motivate myself and made terrible progress. I now think reading is a much better way of learning, but since I only started doing that recently and made almost no progress for most of the year, I'm still going to count this as a fail.
3-FAIL!!! Sad See 2
4-Fail I don't intend to finish Tae Kim, but I do think I need to work on grammar some more.
5-Success sorta. I did start it, but I stopped almost immediately. My reason for wanting to read it was that I thought anything I read in Japanese would be too dificult to really enjoy, so I might as well read something educational. A grammar guide seemed like the thing that would give the biggest pay-off in terms of Japanese ability.

Looking at the year as a whole I achieved a lot less than I hoped, but I'm really pleased with my recent progress, partly because I actually achieved a goal that I didn't write down because it seemed way too dificult: To get to a level where I can form opinions about writing style, as well as just content. I thought it would take years before I was able to pick up a book and think "I like how this is written. I want to read more". I even thought I might never get to this level, so I'm really pleased that I already have.

Goals for 2012:

1-Read lots, including things written in the style expected by the edexcel exam board.
2-No stagnating!
4-Write stuff on lang-8
3-Get an A* on my Japanese A level (or at-least AS). I'm putting in way more time than is required for an A level so I don't think i should be satisfied with anything less. My dad did a Japanese course that was supposedly AS level and I'm confident I passed his level a long time ago, but the test contains "essay questions". For his course they were basically told what to write in advance and just had to slot in the right words to fit the specifics of the question. The A-level tests don't seem that simple, but I'm worried that I may be at a severe disadvantage self-studying if other students are getting this kind of preperation. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to have a few lessons with a private tutor to do specific exam prep.

vonPeterhof Wrote:5. Not done - 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 proved to be way out of my league for now, and after I gave up reading it I turned all my attention to manga. After reading this post I decided to try again, this time with ゼロの使い魔. Got the book last week, haven't started reading yet.
Glad you found my post useful, but I think I should probably have mentioned that since it's a fantasy book there's probably not that much overlap with the vocabulary in core 6000. This wasn't really an issue for me because I gave up on Core quite quickly, but if you've done a lot of it ゼロの使い魔 might seem quite hard compared to 死神の精度 or something else set in contemporary Japan.

Edit:
Zorlee Wrote:- Never, EVER ask a random, Japanese girl for the 読み方 and meaning of "膣" on the train again. >_< Done! Lol!
- Never ask my friend's mother for the meaning of 産道 ever again. Oh, awkwardness! >_< Yeah... Didn't do this either
Lol! What were you reading on the train?

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - vonPeterhof - 2011-11-20

Splatted Wrote:Glad you found my post useful, but I think I should probably have mentioned that since it's a fantasy book there's probably not that much overlap with the vocabulary in core 6000. This wasn't really an issue for me because I gave up on Core quite quickly, but if you've done a lot of it ゼロの使い魔 might seem quite hard compared to 死神の精度 or something else set in contemporary Japan.
Nah, I'm okay with fantasy. It's not like I've been learning vocabulary solely from Core.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - voiii - 2011-11-21

Tzadeck Wrote:You might wanna up the number of words and kanji you are learning a day. If something like 8,000 vocabulary words is what you need to start being fairly comfortable in Japanese, then if you are only learning two words a day that will take 11 years.

Learning two thousand kanji will also be just shy of three years at two a day.
Have you heard of the story "The tortoise and the hare"?
Well my study methods tend to be more hare paced, I'll be quick being like "ohh I'm gonna get there so much faster getting 100-200 of these memorized 8D"
I'll do that for 3-7 days but then I end up quitting for longer [aka taking a long 'nap'] and pretty much the majority of my effort was for naught anyhow.

In a way, with the 2 a day thing, its more of like a trying to trick myself experiment.
My goal is to reach that, but that doesn't mean I can't do more, Its nicer and more encouraging to only think you have 2 you require of yourself, but if the situation strikes, you'll do more.

Best for me to get there eventually at a steady pace, than give up completely right?

I mean I let 5 years pretty much slip me by [I probably know approx. 350-400 kanji's in partial ways varying kanji to kanji, and probably about 1000 words], imagine if I just did two new ones each day, I'd probably be further than I am now ahahah XD [maybe not, whose to say for sure, maybe its the same pace, just less stress along the way due to removing unreasonably high standards for myself]

I'll probably up the two 'required' a day to 3-5 a day in a few weeks from now though. I actually hate 'limiting' myself so much, but if I put to much emphasis on forced memorization too quickly, its gonna end with failure.

But yeah I know what you mean, seems super slow, its annoying I hate slow, but I need to force myself to go slow to get somewhere 'faster' I guess you could say ahaha.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - einahpets - 2011-11-21

Nice idea for a thread...

I just re-started my Japanese studies after a long break last month so I didn't have any 2011 resolutions. At that time I thought I would finish RTK1 by the end of the year, but it's taking longer than I thought, so that's moving into the 2012 goals...

I'm trying to make my goals more about creating habits than about covering certain material (except finishing RTK1 - just want to get that done!):
-listen to Japanese audio as much as possible throughout the day
-spend some time reading every day, even if it's only a short amount of time (thanks to Nuriko for introducing me to 読書ミーター!), also trying out different level materials so I can incorporate more extensive reading
-probably not everyday, but several times/week - watch Japanese drama/movie, etc. either w/o subtitles or with Japanese subtitles
-seek out opportunities to speak Japanese (currently about 1x/week - continue with at least this much if not more)
-have some dedicated study time each day - at first this will be for finishing RTK1, then for whatever area I think needs the most work as I progress

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Splatted - 2011-11-21

vonPeterhof Wrote:
Splatted Wrote:Glad you found my post useful, but I think I should probably have mentioned that since it's a fantasy book there's probably not that much overlap with the vocabulary in core 6000. This wasn't really an issue for me because I gave up on Core quite quickly, but if you've done a lot of it ゼロの使い魔 might seem quite hard compared to 死神の精度 or something else set in contemporary Japan.
Nah, I'm okay with fantasy. It's not like I've been learning vocabulary solely from Core.
That's fine then. Enjoy. Big Grin

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - NoSleepTilFluent - 2011-11-22

These are great motivational stories I read here.

My goals were (while not officially) as follows:

- Finish Core6k
- Finish Kanji Odyssey 2001
- Finish RTK 1 + 3 and keep up my reviews

I got through RTK1 and the supplement + missing joyo kanji but havent been keeping up on reviews and am about 1100 behind. I figured that Core6k and my own personal deck would take priority over those. I don't regret stopping but wish I could pull myself to finish off and maintain that Kanji deck again. The main reason I stopped is I want to add the words from Core or any other example words onto the cards but it takes too long to do that and work through reviews.

Made it halfway through Core6k so just under 3000 but I really wanted that to be done before september. I went to Japan and spent all my time drinking and partying and chasing girls so I didn't get much studying done.

Also I'm taking ２級　in a couple weeks but my chance of passing is equal to none. Oh well good experience I imagine.

F@#$ Kanji Odyssey =)

For 2012:

Get off my ass and work before play but keep the play time to a maximum.

- Finish Core 6k (Priority 1)
- Work through my kanzen master 2 kyuu grammar and reading books. Listening too. (Priority 2)
- Pass 2級 (Priority 3)
- Finish RTK 3 (Priority Non)
- Output Output Output Use the Japanese I know. (In Progress)
- Add to my own deck short sentences that I find interesting.
- Drink Less
- Exercise More
- Take on Primal Life diet.
- Party.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - captal - 2011-12-13

captal Wrote:
Quote:2009:
Live in Japan and see where that takes me... (08/08->12/09)

2010:
Move to Australia and get back into "real" work(02/10->)
Finish KO2001 Anki deck [DONE and still reviewing]
Read all of the Japanese books I bought since I'll be leaving (lots of Murakami and some others) [Only read 1 book]
Lang-8- I'm so inconsistent with lang-8 but I love it when I'm doing it- maybe I should just go for once a week and see where that takes me... [did 2 entries, hah]

Luckily, I'm moving to Australia with my Japanese girlfriend, and I'm hoping she's so sick of speaking English during the day that she'll be keen to speak Japanese when we're together. My Japanese is heaps better than when I moved to Japan, but I still have a long way to go- I thought about sitting 2級 this year but there wasn't much point since I'm going to Australia. I also didn't really feel like busting my ass to get all the grammar down If I'm not moving around too much this time next year in Australia, I plan on smacking 2級 around.[definitely did not smack 2級 around]
My year focused on traveling around Australia trying to get back into career work. Unfortunately, I was on a work & holiday visa and no one would seriously consider me for work in my field because the visa has a clause that only allows 6 months of work per company. Not being able to find a real job threw my 2010 into a massive tailspin- all I've done this year is admin and bar work while also looking for jobs abroad. I had a really good interview for a job in Chicago, but unfortunately it didn't work out.

As a backup, in case I wasn't able to find work anywhere else, I interviewed via Skype and was offered a job teaching at an Eikaiwa in Tokyo, starting Feb 2011. It's looking like that's what I'll be doing.

Positives for 2010: Finished KO2001, a Murakami book, Tales of Rebirth on the PSP, listened to heaps of JUNK comedy podcasts, started a travel company and got engaged to my long-term Japanese girlfriend- that was definitely a highlight

Resolutions for 2011: Pretty sure I didn't pass 2級 when I sat it in December. I was really confident because I felt the listening was really easy, and during the test it was easy, I just made some silly mistakes or lost concentration at a crucial moment. So resolution #1 is pass 2級.
#2 Work on my travel company, aiming for 1-2 tours this year
#3 Reconnect with old Japanese friends and make new ones
#4 Have a real life plan in place by the end of 2011

2011 doesn't have to be super Japanese focused for me- I know how hard it was for me to improve being away from Japan for a year, but I'm happy enough with my progress this year. I've gone out many times with Japanese friends I made in Australia and spent the entire night speaking only in Japanese, and to me, that is the most important thing to be able to do in Japanese- communicate with others. I'm rusty right now due to lack of said Japanese friends and my fiance being back in Japan, but I know that moving to Tokyo I'll be fine, and that my Japanese will get better and better.

Remember, it's not a race and it's important to enjoy yourself along the way
So I haven't been on in a while, but I'm happy that I found this thread and my goals from the last couple years!

I did pass 2級 last December, but it was giri giri. Unfortunately, my Japanese has only gotten worse since then. At the beginning of the year we moved to Tokyo- a month before the earthquake. After that, I was offered a really good opportunity in Singapore, which I took. Work was very busy so I stopped all of my Japanese study, which was a mistake Sad (I also bought a computer and spent way too much time with Starcraft 2... also to the detriment of my Japanese). I've still spent some time doing Japanese things, like PSP games, reading, listening to music, anime, etc, but I haven't spent any time studying or doing Anki reviews.

For 2012 I'd like to get back into the swing of things, but that comes after getting a job (my contract in Singapore ended about a month ago, and we're in Chicago with my folks) and figuring out where we will live. I already have Tales of Xillia and another Tales of ready to go. So it will go Job -> house/apt -> TV -> PS3 -> Japanese study Smile I definitely want to finish both of those games next year.

I would like to make some Japanese speaking friends wherever we end up- that'd be great as I haven't gotten much speaking in aside from day to day stuff with my wife. Oh yes, I got married in Singapore in June Smile

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Chadokoro_K - 2011-12-14

Zorlee Wrote:I add 30 cards a day, single words only. I add example sentences on the answer side to make sure I understand the fact completely. I mainly study words from books I read (I always mark unknown words while reading and look them up / add them to Anki later. Takes no longer than a second, but makes studying much faster afterward.
Would you please explain the process you use to do this so fast and easy?

Are you using an e-reader and if so, which one? And what software do you use to highlight/lookup/add words to Anki?

Thanks!

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - eggcluck - 2011-12-14

2011

No goals other than to find a language to study that I like - DONE!
- settled on having German, Pali, Japanese, Hebrew, Hindi, Chinese and Latin as "one day" targets after looking at them and :-
Xhorsan, Italian, Norweigan, French, Vietnamise, Thai, Czech, Russain, Spanish, Punjabi, Polish and Gaellic.

Time to stop playing around with little bits of many things and actually learn one of them!

2012

Jap
Finish RTK 3
Start + finish core 6000
Get those damn core 2000 reps down, though my audio has broken and some listen cards are silent now Sad
Subs 2 SRS at least 1 Drama
Read all yotsuba books
Do Tai kim
one lang8 a month

Chi
Watch at least 1 hour of Chinese TV a day (hopefully something better than the terror of CCTV8 ^^)
Complete Assimil course
2 lang8 a month
Do RTH (with readings)
Find and read 1 Childrens book a month
One lingq session a day ( Lingq is new to me so just to try it really)
Hopefully find some core 2000 core equivalent that does not use non native sentences.

Pay less attention to subjective ill-informed comments being stated as facts on the all too high number of forums I read. Smile


I only work 20 hours a week and some of the above seem short enough, so we will see how I do.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - einahpets - 2011-12-14

captal Wrote:For 2012 I'd like to get back into the swing of things, but that comes after getting a job (my contract in Singapore ended about a month ago, and we're in Chicago with my folks) and figuring out where we will live. I already have Tales of Xillia and another Tales of ready to go. So it will go Job -> house/apt -> TV -> PS3 -> Japanese study Smile I definitely want to finish both of those games next year.

I would like to make some Japanese speaking friends wherever we end up- that'd be great as I haven't gotten much speaking in aside from day to day stuff with my wife. Oh yes, I got married in Singapore in June Smile
Since you mentioned you're in Chicago - do you know about the Japanese language meetup groups (easy to find on meetup.com)? There's one based in Chicago that I help organize and another based in the suburbs. It's a nice way to meet other people interested in studying Japanese and native speakers. Let me know if you'd like more info.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Tori-kun - 2011-12-14

Started 'learning' Japanese after RtK1 on 08.01.2011.

Goals were:
* Get started and used to Anki. DONE!
* Finish of core6k before end of the year. DONE!
* 10k words all in all after 12 months. Nah, almost. I guess if I continue like this I will have about 8500 words in Anki by 08.01.2012.
* Writing on Lang8 and make friends. Greatly done! This is really fun and since Decembre as I have no exams any more, I write daily.

Goals for 2012:
* Reading and listening comprehension to 80%.
* Improving on particles (by reading, see above).
* Definitely 10k words, keeping Anki running, adding cards further with Rikai-sama.
* Skype in Japanese (voice-to-voice, no text-chat).
* Translating my poems and short-stories into Japanese by myself.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - fifo_thekid - 2011-12-15

2011 Reflections:
I've started studying Japanese Language once I came to Japan on April of this year.
In the beginning, I tried a conversation book for a week or so but soon I realized that this type of books doesn't fit me as I usually prefer a more comprehensive approach. So I started with Genki I, finished it in a month, then jumped to Minna no Nihongo I while taking intensive courses using the same book in my university. During that time, I accompanied my studies with studying the kanji supplementary book. After about a month of studying, I found that it was really hard to maintain what I've learned for a long time, and that's when I found this forum. I started studying using RtK1 6th Edition on the 20th of July, and, with some short stops, I could reach kanji number 1800 in the book today. I'm planning to finish the book by the end of next week since I'm super-motivated by the results I'm getting!
In addition to studying using RtK, I also finished Genki II and Minna no Nihongo II while solving the exercises in the supplementary books. Currently, I'm on an intensive course that teaching me (again!) Minna no Nihongo II. Although it is a repetitive process, but I'm getting tremendous benefits be exercising what I've learned before with my colleagues and kind teachers. Oh! and I had N4 this month. I expect that I solved at least 92% of the questions correctly Wink

2012 Resolutions:
A- Kanji:
1- Jan to April: KO2011.
2- May to August: RtK2, probably supplied with some chaining method (I'm still exploring the available options).
3- September to end of December: Kanji in Context
B- Reading:
Jan to July: using Learning with Texts to read some simple stories, to be replaced as soon as possible with news, blog posts, and finally, with my scientific curriculum that I'll be studying starting from April.
C- Writing:
July to December: I'm planning to start translating (too ambitious?!!) scientific documents starting from July. Of course, the translation will be done for free, accompanied by a hired teacher that will keep on guiding me while decreasing the guidance process gradually.
D- Grammar:
January to March: Nihongo So-Matome N3
April to June: Mimi kara oboeru
July to December: Studying N2 material (not decided yet).
E- Vocab:
I think that I'll be using the dock containing around 20,000 sentences for studying vocab. I'm planning to finish around 10,000 of them during the year (I already know at least 2,000 of them).
F- Listening:
Nothing special for that year, as my main focus will be on reading and writing. However, I'll just use the listening exercises accompanying the JLPT preparation sets, in addition to the exercises in my college Japanese language lectures. At the end, I'm living in the country side of Japan, so basically the whole day is a listening exercise for me Big Grin
G- Dialogue:
Again, nothing special. I allocated an hour a week for conversation with one of my colleague. He's smart and he knows how to make a long conversation that has new vocabulary and grammar structures
H- JLPT
N3 & N2

If I can follow the plan above closely, I think that I'll be at a level allowing me to have a comfortable conversation about any topic I want!
Although, with my current Japanese language experience, I can usually make my way through the day with only Japanese Smile

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - qwertyytrewq - 2011-12-15

After being frustrated for far too long not being able to recognise Kanji consistently, I have decided to devote all my mental resources to the goal of finishing Heisig's Vol.1 book in 1 month. However, it would of course take a bit longer (maybe 2 to 3) months for the Kanji to settle in mind, but by reading it in 1 month, I can plant the seed as quick as possible. When that time comes, hopefully I can come back here and confirm that my goal was accomplished.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - ta12121 - 2011-12-15

qwertyytrewq Wrote:After being frustrated for far too long not being able to recognise Kanji consistently, I have decided to devote all my mental resources to the goal of finishing Heisig's Vol.1 book in 1 month. However, it would of course take a bit longer (maybe 2 to 3) months for the Kanji to settle in mind, but by reading it in 1 month, I can plant the seed as quick as possible. When that time comes, hopefully I can come back here and confirm that my goal was accomplished.
From experience, reading will take time. It took me 1.5 years to reach a high level of reading. I know that may seem long but it's just one of those things that will take no matter what you do. It's possible though and having fun here is key. I am at a point where learning new kanji is fun and increasing my knowledge to new heights is amazing. Sure it was so hard at the beginning but it's thanks to that I can enjoy Japanese media in both reading and listening.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - jettyke - 2011-12-16

2012 Resolutions

Okay, here I go.
As I think that making realistic goals is better than writing every trivial thing down that's on my mind then I'll write only 4 most important things:

1) Pass N1
2) Be able to read books in Japanese almost as well as in English.
3) Learn and finally understand how to use Anki efficiently(time-efficiently, most of all) for studying.
*Knowing how to create the best cards
*Knowing which ones to delete
*Knowing the best format for cards
4) Increase my English vocabulary by about 1k words by adding words that I encounter to Anki. And make it a habit that I look up every single little word up when I read if in doubt about the meaning.

This should enable me to speed-read English more comfortably and consequently save me a lot of time because of being increasingly comfortable with speed-reading.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - jettyke - 2011-12-16

2011 Reflections



Reading

*From struggling to read Japanese I became able to read easier Japanese books even comfortably enough to read.

*From reading and struggling with childish manga like Chobits, became able to read stuff like Death Note feeling like it's a piece of cake. Totally immersed in the story, started not even paying attention to the fact that reading Death Note is studying Japanese.

* Became able to predict meanings of words and 読み方　of Kun - and On - yomi to a certain extent due to increased exposure to reading.

Listening etc

*From talking to friends in Japanese and thinking excessively about grammar and talking about boring topics, became able to abstractly discuss also things like social issues without problems.

* This year, I started thinking in Japanese. Japanese finally feels like my own language. I feel that I can learn Japanese in Japanese like Japanese children etc...

* My listening, concerning the vocabulary that I know at the moment, became the total maximum that it can be. No more thinking pauses, can listen to Japanese in every condition and even half-paying attention and still understand what's going on.

Speaking

Started speaking fluently on daily topics, feeling like I'm a native. ( ... until i encounter some unknown words and the topic gets out of daily stuff. In that case it gets totally out of hand).

Writing

*Improved from writing totally strange things with a bad flow, to writing things with a good flow. My flow improved. Not perfect yet, but not that embarrassing either.

Other

*This is the year when I started living in Japan.

*Passed N2



Summary

From learning (lower/middle) intermediate Japanese to commencing studying Advanced Japanese.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - apirx - 2011-12-16

2011

-started learning Japanese
-learned Kana
-started and finished RTK1
-started RTK3 at a very slow pace, less than 5 new kanji a day
-read Tae Kim while doing RTK, don't know everything in there very well though as of yet
-wasted a lot of time trying different methods to study vocab and sentences
-finally studied 3000 vocab and 1000 sentences
-watched lots of anime
-was amazed at how many words I can single out while watching anime, grammar is lacking though
-had a lot of fun guessing at how the subtitles could have been translated more literally
-overall I found anime to be a lot more enjoyable than when I knew absolutely no Japanese, I guess this will even get better in the future

edit: I also found that while watching anime together with a friend, I was laughing/enjoying it a lot more than he was, especially dialogue heavy or slice of life anime. I really like K-ON! now, when a year ago I thought it was pretty boring. It even made me pick up the guitar.


2012

-get vocab up to 15000, sentences maybe 2-3000
-finish Tae Kim while entering lots of example sentences
-finish RTK3, should be done by March at my current pace
-travel to Japan for 2 months : D
-start reading a Japanese book or maybe the Japanese wikipedia as soon as I feel I know enough words to read comfortably without being overwhelmed by new vocab
-try N2 or maybe even N1 at the end of the year, I know I will most certainly fail, but I want some feedback on my ability by then

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Betelgeuzah - 2011-12-16

2011:

-After few years of stumbling to figure out how the hell one can learn this language without hitting his head to a wall for 5 years, taking University classes that ultimately didn't satisfy me efficiency wise, figured out the RtK method.

-Started RtK while a bit skeptical as to whether the method would work as well as people said. Kept going for the Spring ending up at around 900 kanjis.

-Stopped learning Japanese for the Summer due to work and RL taking up too much time. Partially lost interest too, sadly.

-Started learning RtK again in November. Catched up in few weeks which was honestly quite a brutal task. Now I'm up to 1500 and attempt to finish the 2200 characters by the end of the Christmas holidays. So far so good. Trying to understand the basics of grammar through Tae Kim's guide simultaneously.

2012:

-Start on vocab, try to get done as much as possible in that area. Attempt to attain decent grasp at basic grammar rules, slowly learning more grammar rules. At some point start reading native material in forums and such, perhaps manga. Practice listening by watching some of the easier to grasp animes. Practice writing by talking on forums and possibly in-game (MMO). Possibly postponing writing to 2013.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - nohika - 2011-12-16

I don't even want to look at my 2011 resolutions...I failed so badly. Anyways.

I have one simple main goal for 2012:

Study Japanese every day. Even if it's just one review.

Lesser goals which would be nice but not required:

-finish core 6k
-finish RTK (doing it part time)
-make it through dictionary of basic Japanese grammar
-try to read at least two volumes of manga over the year (I know that sounds bad, but my skills aren't very high right now and I'm insanely busy when in school).

Short, simple goals seem to work the best for me, I guess...or rather, we'll find out.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - jmofro13 - 2011-12-16

I'm going to stop lurking, now.

---2011 Reflection---

This is when I started studying Japanese. I knew of the word "konnichiwa," but I wasn't sure what it meant. In the Spring I took JAPN1A at my college because my friend who likes anime wanted someone along for the beginning of his excursion into understanding Japanese (he's since given up on it; waiting for English fansubs will suffice).

Honestly, I went through JAPN1A hating it. It wasn't until I was cramming for the final that I fell in love with the language and lusted for Japanese comprehension.

*Accomplishments:
-Discovered RtK on July 10th, finished it August 13th maintaining a 95%+ retention rate (on RevtK) throughout and up until this point.
-Completed Tae Kim's guide through the Essential Grammar section using Nuke's pre-mined deck. I did not and still don't intend to pursue the last two sections.
-Mined a few hundred sentences from my paper J-E dictionary
-DLed a core2k deck, and I'm currently somewhere in the 60-70% completion zone.

***HAD FUN*** and rarely missed a day of study--and if I did, I was kicking myself the next day to make up "lost" ground. RELAXED and told myself in moments of frustration that that damn kanji or vocabulary word was going to be with me for life, despite feeling so low for failing it. Spent quality time in Japanese watching countless 実況プレイ on YouTube and defeating the Elite Four in ポケットモンスターソウルシルバー on my DS.

---2012 Resolutions---

-Complete core2k and core6k.
-Read my Japanese PopSister and Rolling Stone from cover to cover.
-Obtain some novels and read them.
-Hold someone's hair as they barf into a public toilet (only valid if they've hit rock bottom).
-Practice Japanese production skills, both writing and speaking.
-Relax and be comfortable with my current level of Japanese at any given time. Don't sweat rep failures, and concentrate on having fun and studying often.