Today I completed the JLPT word list. What initial interest I had in Japanese culture and media has mostly died, and now I'm stuck with a language which I had invested a lot of time in but little future use for. But anyways, it is my belief that not using immersion was absolutely the most efficient way of learning this language within the time I spent. Instead, devouring the sentence packs KO2001 and Core6k is a lot better use of your time than random word lookups when you come across it, or other strategies that just seem to creep along, compared to such streamlined learning.

I do have one more goal, which is to learn the grammar around levels JLPT 1 and 2, but I think it is sufficiently obscure enough that I could learn it as I go along. So I think I will stop learning Japanese for now, as I am happy just to maintain whatever I have now with SRS. I guess it really nags me that there's no way to achieve at least native fluency in a foreign language no matter how deep you study.

crptone Wrote:Today I completed the JLPT word list. What initial interest I had in Japanese culture and media has mostly died, and now I'm stuck with a language which I had invested a lot of time in but little future use for. But anyways, it is my belief that not using immersion was absolutely the most efficient way of learning this language within the time I spent. Instead, devouring the sentence packs KO2001 and Core6k is a lot better use of your time than random word lookups when you come across it, or other strategies that just seem to creep along, compared to such streamlined learning.

I do have one more goal, which is to learn the grammar around levels JLPT 1 and 2, but I think it is sufficiently obscure enough that I could learn it as I go along. So I think I will stop learning Japanese for now, as I am happy just to maintain whatever I have now with SRS. I guess it really nags me that there's no way to achieve at least native fluency in a foreign language no matter how deep you study.

The problem is that you probably have horrible listening skills now since training word lists does nothing for your ability to comprehend fluent Japanese. That's where immersion comes in.

It's also a misconception that JLPT2 and JLPT1 grammar is obscure. I recommend anyone who has studied all the grammar for JLPT2 to pick up a novel and check every line for JLPT2/1 grammar. You'll be surprised just how often it comes up.

Tobberoth Wrote:The problem is that you probably have horrible listening skills now since training word lists does nothing for your ability to comprehend fluent Japanese. That's where immersion comes in.

It's also a misconception that JLPT2 and JLPT1 grammar is obscure. I recommend anyone who has studied all the grammar for JLPT2 to pick up a novel and check every line for JLPT2/1 grammar. You'll be surprised just how often it comes up.

I already have horrible listening skills to begin with, but certainly studying vocabulary and sentences couldn't have made it worse. I'd have to read novels to know about the grammar points themselves too, and whether to study grammar all at once or as I go along. But I need allocate more time and interest, and it would have really helped if I had any Japanese friends. But I just have reading skills and I guess that's all can manage, language learning is a real black hole and that's pretty discouraging.

Doing any kind of study doesn't hurt your listening skills. The point of any kind of study is to increase your [...]skills. Audio immersion does that for listening. By the look of it, immersion in general would have been really valuable for you. You would've either enjoyed Japanese better or would've found out sooner that Japanese is not really your thing.

I know I certainly would hate Japanese by now if I never used it (often?) out of the SRS context.

I agree, if you don't listen to the language or do stuff with native materials,drama's,games,mangas,novels,animes,etc. I've gotten to the point where If I didn't do my srs reps daily or do stuff with native material. It would be weird, since it's so interrelated to what I do now.

A few days ago, I chatted in japanese for about an hour with someone (not a native speaker, though)...

I was quite surprised to manage so well as I only started learning vocabulary and grammar 2-3 months ago, mostly after finishing RTK1.

Finally hit 1,100 in RtK. It feels sooooo good to be past the half way point! And the kanji are just flying by now. Making stories is way easier after the half way point (at least for me it has been).

ta12121 Wrote:Basically what I do is this. Before I go to school I finish my srs reps within 1 hour.

I think you also mentioned you having 5 decks, with sentences, kanji and vocab. And you having 10.000 sentences already. How in the world are you managing that in 'only' 1 hour?

kame3 Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:Basically what I do is this. Before I go to school I finish my srs reps within 1 hour.

I think you also mentioned you having 5 decks, with sentences, kanji and vocab. And you having 10.000 sentences already. How in the world are you managing that in 'only' 1 hour?

Yea i do have 5 decks but 2 of them are kanji(meanings) and the rest are vocab,sentences,production. My two kanji decks/production don't take much time. So for vocab/sentences I only read it out loud to myself and check if the readings are correct and if i got the general meaning for it. I remember when I first started I looked up everything and it seriously took so much time. Eventually when I became more accustomed to Japanese I didn't need much translation. When I say I did it in an hour I did it in breaks. Like i did one deck and then took small break, then go at another deck,etc.

As for the "1 hour" it varies man. It can usual be between 45mins-1:30 for how long it takes me to do all my decks. But regularly I've been able to finish everything in under 1 hour, like 55mins,etc.

8000+ Sentences
2k to go.
I SHALL reach 10k by the end of July, and will then move to Nankai for a year. Woho!

(No, I don't care much for AJATT anymore, BUT 10k is a wonderful goal!)

Finally got around to making a daily/weekly/etc. schedule for my Japanese studies, using MLO (My Life Organized), something I'd started using with a series of comments here last year or so, but which kind of fell by the wayside as I kept devising new strategies, finding new materials and incorporating the new tools our programmer-gods here at RevTK make...

I must say, I'm much more at ease now, I was getting rather overwhelmed and had been avoiding just sitting down and breaking it all into manageable pieces. It was only then that I was able to combine it all and make sure it's flexible and flows together (i.e. not a rigid 'thing' I adhere to like a chore).

Perhaps part of the delay in doing this was simply needing to develop my self-study skills at the same time as reaching a point where being completely unscheduled and spontaneous just wasn't cutting it...

Sat next to a group of Japanese girls on the train yesterday, and I could follow their conversation!

Admittedly they were mostly talking about how cold and wet the weather in London is, but still is was awesome-o.

The grammar I'm looking up now is not in my Basic Japanese Grammar book but my Intermediate Japanese Grammar Book. Yay...!

40 min. Skype conversation - no fatal crash and burn situations. Understood around 95% of what was being said, and could make myself understood, though in a primitive way at times...

I'm sooo jinxing myself by writing this. Sigh.

I have reached 3 milestone achievements today and all 3 have to do with RTK ^^.

1) I reached more than half of RTK in the 4+reviews with 1042 kanji. This means 1/2 of RTK is in my long term memory .

2) I reached over 10,000 reviews here on this RTK site with 10,042 .

3) after 11 months of hard work I finally reached the 1500 kanji mark.

Boy do I feel proud of myself, it's really nice to see when hard work pays off. lets keep the achievements coming everyone!

Halfway through Core 6000

Just passed 10,000 reviews myself.

Groot Wrote:Just passed 10,000 reviews myself.

Great!

Today I passed the last of four stages of hiring (in Japanese) to get a new job that pays ~$21k (USD) more than the last. (technical translator for automotive industry)

Who says majoring in Japanese is a bad idea?

Four stages, you mean like in Sasuke?

Congrats on making it through.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Today I passed the last of four stages of hiring (in Japanese) to get a new job that pays ~$21k (USD) more than the last. (technical translator for automotive industry)

Who says majoring in Japanese is a bad idea?

nice. Technical translator this was something I want to do. But still deciding.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Today I passed the last of four stages of hiring (in Japanese) to get a new job that pays ~$21k (USD) more than the last. (technical translator for automotive industry)

Who says majoring in Japanese is a bad idea?

People who wouldn't want to spend all day reading automotive technical manuals? jk

Congratulations J7! Sounds like a pretty involved interview process.

Try to learn the industry while you're at it - there are several directions you could go if you decide you want a change of pace later. Some egs that might inspire:

A friend parlayed his translator job into a low management position at an automative company in Japan. As a bilingual, experienced and trusted member of the head office, he ended up getting promoted to high position at their US office (a position he might not have qualified for otherwise - no MBA, etc.) Another was an auto industry analyst at a foreign bank who covered the research in Japanese (and made silly banker $$.) Another became a reporter (English) and consultant b/c of his contacts, industry knowledge and language skills. You might also be well-positioned for industrial espionage (also big $) ;-)

Actually yea about the technical translation Thora lol. It would probably get really really boring if you kept doing it for a living. So I think for now I'll just concentrate on getting my japanese to a high level.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Today I passed the last of four stages of hiring (in Japanese) to get a new job that pays ~$21k (USD) more than the last. (technical translator for automotive industry)

Who says majoring in Japanese is a bad idea?

You should invest that money in some property in Japan, and open up a RevTKer boarding house or something. Maybe a 'geek house' as seen on blogs: http://www.japanprobe.com/2010/05/05/jap...eek-house/

I've found a new language swap partner (via the amazing gumtree.com). She seems pretty keen, and wants to do regular meetings from next week onwards.

This is bad cos my 日本語 speaking / listening absolutely sucks, but good because it forces me to study and prepare; I can't just turn up and having nothing to say! Also trying a new experimental format - we've decided to pick 1-2 topics to discuss before each meeting, so can prepare roughly what to say, brush up on vocab etc. Should be useful..we'll see..