2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Printable Version

+- kanji koohii FORUM (http://forum.koohii.com)
+-- Forum: Learning Japanese (http://forum.koohii.com/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: General discussion (http://forum.koohii.com/forum-8.html)
+--- Thread: 2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions (/thread-8672.html)

Pages: 1 2 3 4

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Rina - 2011-12-31

How are you going to study for kanji kentei?

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Fillanzea - 2011-12-31

I have one of the official 5級　test prep books (漢字学習ステップ）. My plan is to put all of the questions into Anki -- the book has sections for radicals and stroke order and things like that, so it should cover most of the kanji-specific questions that will be on the test, and then I'll just try to add in a couple hundred example sentences for common vocabulary words -- things like

チイキの防災について話し合う

修学旅行のスライドをウツす

where you have to put the word into kanji. And not pass the card unless I can correctly write the kanji with the right stroke order and right proportions and right little details.

Kanji Kentei, from what I've seen in test prep books, is about 1/3 knowing how to correctly write any given kanji, 1/3 vocabulary (including, for example, the difference between 移す　and 写す　and 映す), and 1/3 things like radicals and okurigana.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Nuriko - 2011-12-31

Fillanzea Wrote:1. Read at least six Japanese books, including at least one pre-1950 work by an author of literary significance.

Really good resolution! May I suggest Mishima? Smile

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Fillanzea - 2011-12-31

Mishima is definitely a possibility! I am leaning toward 人間失格　or something else by Dazai Osamu, since I have never read anything by him (I have read just a tiny bit of Mishima, not a whole novel) but it will most likely be a few months before I make up my mind.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Hotpotato - 2011-12-31

2011 goal
Recover from my ‘Great Break of 2010’ which had lasted for about 8 months. There are still a few words that I need to unpause in anki but overall, it was a great success.

2012 goals
Japanese:
1. Read a minimum of 32 books but aim for more around 82. I have 18 cataloged so far (I’ve read more over the years but have only recently starting keeping track) so my total goals are 50-100.

2. Try to make myself practice speaking, writing (typing on a computer not handwritten) or listening. It’s been frustrating to be advanced with reading yet still struggle with the other skills…

Mandarin:
1. Master (reading wise) a minimum of 1000 mandarin words (correct tone, meaning and pronunciation). It’s a very small amount but I’m just learning it on the side until I can read Japanese fluently.

Good luck everyone Smile

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Sean2 - 2012-01-01

Wow!
I'm impressed with everyone's goals.

My 2012 goals.
1) Give RTK another go with 10 Kanji a day.
2) Take a dance class.
3) Keeping plugging away at Spanish.

I'm in Mexico this year, so Japanese has to come second to Spanish. I saw the Spanish version 1Q84 in a bookstore today and was tempted.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - HonyakuJoshua - 2012-01-01

Exorcise my Japanese grammar demons.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Bokusenou - 2012-01-01

Fillanzea Wrote:Mishima is definitely a possibility! I am leaning toward 人間失格　or something else by Dazai Osamu, since I have never read anything by him (I have read just a tiny bit of Mishima, not a whole novel) but it will most likely be a few months before I make up my mind.

Dazai is really interesting, and not that hard to read. I'm reading 人間失格 currently and really enjoying it.^^

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - howtwosavealif3 - 2012-01-12

Learn as much as korean as possible which is not a lot since I like too much japanese shit.

But anyways from dramas and music and korean tv shows.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - undead_saif - 2012-01-14

2011 Goals:
-No Japanese related.
-Graduate as soon as possible-> Done
-Work -> Done
-Get into research -> failed, horribly, not my fault though

2012 Goals:
I've a huge resolution to learn Japanese, actually I've been denying myself from learning Japanese! This is how much I'm motivated.

Generally, I want to be functional in Japanese by the end of the year, maybe to the point of playing video games and reading manga. Here's the list:
-Redo RTK1 (with writing)
-Tae Kim's guide and deck
-Core2k
-Mining sentence or do Core6k
-Add 300 new Kanji
-Listen to a HUGE amount of Japanese. Already preparing music and podcasts, even if I don't understand! >_> Hearing Japanese every now and then made my ears more comfortable with the language.
-Watch at least 3 dramas and try sub2srs.

Other things that I hope won't interfere: Job, second job, and my engineering passions.

Can't wait to reread this in Jan 1st 2013 Big Grin

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - HonyakuJoshua - 2012-01-14

2011 I'm so glad I finally went to Japan. I turned down a trip at university because I didn't like the restrictions on my spare time.

I'm glad I got a publishing deal for a book I translated with my GF

I am glad I met a high up Japanese person for a meal

I am glad I apologised to someone I insulted

I am glad I completed kanji gold

2012

I am going to try and master Japanese grammar.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - jettyke - 2012-03-01

＞＜ I already feel that my goals are unrealistic.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Asriel - 2012-03-01

Asriel Wrote:Goals for 2012
-Get back to studying seriously
-Get a job in Japan. If I can't find one, see if I can't teach english for a while and look around for a computer job.

I've probably mentioned it in other threads, but seeing this one pop up made me interested to say what I put for this.

I did it. I found a job in Japan that's related to my major! I'm actually working on mobile applications for language-learning, which people here may or may not be using. But don't worry, I won't be spamming it. Let me know if you've got ideas though.

I still haven't started studying seriously again though. I'm not sure that'll ever happen again. I know enough to get by, even if there's a ton of stuff I don't know. I feel like I'm at a lazy plateau -- unless I get some sort of motivation to improve, I probably won't.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - nadiatims - 2012-03-01

Congrats on the job. Especially on bypassing the english teaching step.

You may think you've plateaued, but I bet your level is still going up so long as you're actually using japanese at work. Go read something you found difficult a few months ago. There have been times when I slack off on my japanese media consumption and when get back to it later I can still feel the improvement. In fact sometime you may need to take a break to notice it. If you're always comparing yourself to how you were yesterday the growth can be hard to notice.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - Jarvik7 - 2012-03-01

Mobile dev is a pretty good field to get into now in Japan; since Japan was behind the west in moving to smartphones the boom is now. Unfortunately shit vendors like GREE have caught wind though.

It's actually very easy to plateau at work even if you use Japanese all day. Most of your conversations will be exactly the same and most of what you work on will be variations on a theme. I haven't learned a new word from work in months. You will always need to proactively study unless you are happy with your present level.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - nadiatims - 2012-03-01

Well I guess it depends what you're doing and a bunch of other factors. I've found now that now I work in a Japanese company and my daily communication is 95% japanese only my ability to express myself just gets better and better even if I don't really do anything else. And that's having a kind of holistic effect on everything else, like my reading and listening. Then there's also things like constantly writing email, having to research things, occasional reports, meetings, occasional translation and interpretation duties that get handed to me. I guess if you're a programmer you spend less time using japanese at work, but if your job involves a lot of communication that extra usage time can really start to add up.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - vonPeterhof - 2012-03-01

Congrats on getting the job, Asriel!

I was gonna save this for the "2012 Reflections and 2013 Resolutions" thread, but now that this one has been necro'd I would like to share this short talk on why publicizing your goals might not be such a good idea - http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - jishera - 2012-03-01

Did not do well with my goals last year at all. But I am progressing in spurts, sometimes with long breaks. I've been stressed out about various things recently and it messes with my studying, but that's no excuse :-). I do keep coming back to Japanese though, which is the important part, right?

Here we go:

Finish RTK1 (I'm almost 75% done)
Finish Japanese for Everyone

For now those are my goals. Maybe not as amazing as other people's, but I think they are still good.

2011 Reflections and 2012 Resolutions - howtwosavealif3 - 2013-12-28

i Looked at the old thread (2011-2012) and i brief wrote

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:Learn as much as korean as possible which is not a lot since I like too much japanese shit.

But anyways from dramas and music and korean tv shows.

and... it's the same lol. threre's way too much japanese media that i want to consume that korean barely gets time of day (some random days i go on a korean binge but it's usually japanese) My korean has definitely improved since then (with daily conversation comprehension that i hear in korean talk/variety) because I do do stuff in korean from time and time and look up words and add it to my deck and whatnot. My goals with korean is different with japanese so I feel comfortable with my slow/gradual /relaxed pace.

My goals for japanese is to treat it as non-special as i treat english like do more tobashi-yomi or just stop reading books that suck in the middle or just read the last page (just so i'm over it ) etc etc lol. There are some authors that are amazing and i read every word but not every book is by someone who has talent or at least writes in the way that I like. My goal is to to find and enjoy as much japanese media as I can get my hands on and learn from it and to get better rejecting japanese stuff that isn't fun/enjoyable/quality. Like for example I was reading a book and I didn't start doing tobashiyomi till i was half-way in and then by tha time I realized i should've tobashi-yomied from the 2nd or 3rd page (the writer just does not work for me or just skip to the last chapter or just stop or something). In case anyone's wondering that book was himitsu by higashino keigo (awards my ass lol) and the most recent book i read that captivated me and was definitely one of those authors i'm compatible with where i'm reading every syllable and it's "enjoyable" (though this book isn't necessarily best-described with the word enjoyable... maybe fascinating?) to read. To anybody venturing into japanese books you have the right to stop and go to another book or another author or do tobashiyomi if the book sucks.