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    Thread: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah
Post: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah

Just got back from NYC JLPT4. As expected, listening PWNED me. I think I did alright on the rest, but regardless, the listening score is going to mean epic fail. It's harder to drill listening than v...
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 95 17,384 2009-12-06, 4:45 pm
    Thread: please help me with my life!! ^_^
Post: please help me with my life!! ^_^

donjorge22 Wrote:futnuh Wrote:University doesn't teach skills, it teaches you how to think. I think that's the most profound thing I've heard all week. Thank you sir, you just renewed my enthusiasm f...
plumage General discussion 38 8,157 2009-12-05, 10:29 pm
    Thread: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah
Post: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah

Good luck to everyone taking it Sunday! Get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast, both of which are proven ways to improve cognition on a day like JLPT day.
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 95 17,384 2009-12-05, 10:09 pm
    Thread: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah
Post: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah

WHEW. Thanks Jarvik. I think I can handle that.
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 95 17,384 2009-11-10, 9:12 am
    Thread: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah
Post: 4 weeks till Level 3 - wah

"Writing-Vocabulary"? I saw this on my packet today. How did I miss that? I've been drilling the vocab, but not with production. Ack. RtK helps, but only so much. Crap, now I have more work cut out ...
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 95 17,384 2009-11-10, 1:41 am
    Thread: Reasons for learning Japanese and expectations
Post: Reasons for learning Japanese and expectations

Learning a language takes time. That time could have been used/wasted watching tv you don't care about just because it's on. Since starting to learn Japanese, I've basically stopped watching all Engli...
plumage The Japanese language 16 3,004 2009-10-17, 10:45 pm
    Thread: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of a self-intro :)
Post: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of ...

Thanks for the clarification, Sammy. I saw user names next to sentences that came up, so just assumed they were user-created.
plumage Learning resources 10 2,819 2009-10-13, 8:21 am
    Thread: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of a self-intro :)
Post: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of ...

I'll give the Yahoo Dictionary a go, then. This sort of sentence mining is useful when learning new words--sometimes I encounter them in places like Tae Kim (which I'm going through) or JLPT study li...
plumage Learning resources 10 2,819 2009-10-13, 12:15 am
    Thread: Playing RPGs to improve your reading pace
Post: Playing RPGs to improve your reading pace

I recently started Zelda Phantom Hourglass. It's really gratifying being able to fully read or at least get the gist of entire dialog bubbles from time to time, without revealing the furigana. However...
plumage Learning resources 87 21,501 2009-10-11, 11:36 pm
    Thread: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of a self-intro :)
Post: Questions regarding sentence mining (and a bit of ...

If Jim Breen's sentences are bad (basic ones, which are the only ones I use, tend to seem fine), what's a better source that would do similar work; where you look up a word and find links to sentences...
plumage Learning resources 10 2,819 2009-10-11, 11:21 pm
    Thread: Does a JLPT list of Listening's vocabulary exist?
Post: Does a JLPT list of Listening's vocabulary exist?

Unfortunately, the guy speaking (at least JLPT4 files) has a horrible gaijin accent. Useless for listening to for JLPT native-speaker listening training. The lists are good though they may be better ...
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 5 2,154 2009-10-08, 8:47 am
    Thread: Japanese-language items sale thread
Post: Japanese-language items sale thread

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a unified thread for items we have that we might want to sell to one another? I know every once in awhile we've had people sell books in separate threads and su...
plumage Off topic 2 716 2009-09-09, 8:40 pm
    Thread: how to see japanese tv
Post: how to see japanese tv

So far so great with TVAnts--thanks! Had used Keyhole for awhile but it's hard to get motivated to have it on all the time--the sound and vid quality were middling, and the sound sync was always like ...
plumage General discussion 88 27,522 2009-09-07, 11:42 pm
    Thread: Games that are good for building vocabulary
Post: Games that are good for building vocabulary

I really wish they'd translate WoW into Japanese.
plumage Learning resources 54 19,354 2009-08-09, 12:45 am
    Thread: Dec. JPLT Registration in the US Starts Today
Post: Dec. JPLT Registration in the US Starts Today

Signed up for JLPT4 NYC. So if I pass I can "progress" to JLPT4 in 2010 with the new system. lol Thanks for the heads-up!
plumage JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 22 3,647 2009-08-04, 12:51 am
    Thread: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread
Post: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread

synonyms pt.2 (of course the alternate meanings sometimes differentiate them). In this case both seemed to suggest the base meaning of "secret." ひみつ[秘密] ・ ひけつ[秘訣]
plumage The Japanese language 8,332 1,453,202 2009-07-31, 8:32 pm
    Thread: Japanese Game Method
Post: Japanese Game Method

nicksan Wrote:Any suggestions for fun, simple DS games? I'd like to play DQ9, but that might be a bit wordy. I'd recommend non-RPG DS games to start out with, if you're not so great at Japanese yet. I...
plumage Learning resources 51 12,306 2009-07-31, 8:28 am
    Thread: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread
Post: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread

Thanks magamo. As expected, it's complicated. The places where I extracted both from are simple sentences, which makes whatever subtlety involved even less discernible than your examples.
plumage The Japanese language 8,332 1,453,202 2009-07-31, 8:21 am
    Thread: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread
Post: The "What's this word/phrase?" thread

Quickie. I find that without really knowing a lot of Japanese, things like synonyms can become easy to trip on. Because what seem like synonyms may have shades of meaning dictionaries or simple senten...
plumage The Japanese language 8,332 1,453,202 2009-07-30, 3:57 pm
    Thread: Spanish
Post: Spanish

Yes, Spanish is super-easy for an English speaker, compared to Japanese or even French. And once you get Spanish, you're well on your way to either Italian or Portuguese. I learned Spanish fairly well...
plumage Off topic 19 2,927 2009-07-28, 6:45 pm
    Thread: Spiderman
Post: Spiderman

I've now watched like 6 episodes of Japanese Spiderman (in the background, while working). Man it's awesome in a WTF kind of way. It's got me thinking about Netflixing Ultraman DVDs, which have Japan...
plumage General discussion 18 5,458 2009-07-28, 6:42 pm
    Thread: Spiderman
Post: Spiderman

How did I miss this? 11 episodes online, so far. http://bit.ly/x9u3
plumage General discussion 18 5,458 2009-07-23, 11:11 pm
    Thread: Flickr photos of Japanese + desktop background changer = win
Post: Flickr photos of Japanese + desktop background cha...

awesome, using it now. lots of good stuff to mine, potentially.
plumage Learning resources 7 2,461 2009-07-23, 11:20 am
    Thread: Ever failed a card, changed story, then used the initial story?
Post: Ever failed a card, changed story, then used the i...

Yeah, happens maybe 30% of the time where I'll change a story completely then find I need to revert back to it later. The rest of the time the new story is so much better (or the old one so bad) that ...
plumage Remembering the Kanji 4 867 2009-07-22, 8:17 am
    Thread: Dragon Quest IX: 星空の守り人
Post: Dragon Quest IX: 星空の守り人

awesome. does anyone know if the ds rereleases of dq4-6 are also furigana-full?
plumage Learning resources 23 3,338 2009-07-11, 1:49 pm
    Thread: An Argument for Vocabulary Drilling.
Post: An Argument for Vocabulary Drilling.

I drill vocab and sentences together. I mine sentences that are I+1 (mostly words I know, with a couple new ones). I also make cards for the new words themselves.
plumage The Japanese language 40 5,926 2009-07-11, 1:47 pm
    Thread: What kind of blue is 蒼?
Post: What kind of blue is 蒼?

Thanks for the info Aijin. Perhaps you can flesh out this different mental image? We obviously have different words for blue, but they usually mean different RGB blues. Azure, navy, sky, periwinkle (l...
plumage The Japanese language 33 7,964 2009-06-26, 9:55 pm
    Thread: Struggling with the method
Post: Struggling with the method

igordesu Wrote:When you start out doing sentences, you don't look for sentences. You look for interesting Japanese. When you come across something that you *really enjoy* while reading interesting J...
plumage Remembering the Kanji 65 10,387 2009-06-26, 1:03 pm
    Thread: Japanese music - Where can I listen to it, before I buy a CD?
Post: Japanese music - Where can I listen to it, before ...

bombpersons Wrote:In this day and age I seriously can't justify spending money on a 3 minute audio file anymore... Hopefully one day musicians won't say they just can't justify spending the time to cr...
plumage Off topic 19 5,547 2009-06-17, 8:56 am
    Thread: Japanese music - Where can I listen to it, before I buy a CD?
Post: Japanese music - Where can I listen to it, before ...

In terms of finding new Japanese bands, MySpace is great for that. Find one Japanese band you like, then follow their top friends, who are often other bands that *they* like. Rinse, repeat until you h...
plumage Off topic 19 5,547 2009-06-17, 8:55 am