So, Yonosa's back with you guys for a bit! Needs some consideration from a few more minds, and also he desires to know if his justifications are ok.

So here's the situation Bitches.
Got my Mandarin and Japanese studies going pretty well... BUT. pace sucks for both, I',m living in Shanghai right now and am entirely too busy to run through my reviews for both Japanese and Mandarin. Also, I have a desire to pick up the pace on the mandarin, I don't much desire to have Japanese covering half my study time when I'm in China and Mandarin needs my attention. I have just thought about using the HSK word list, its only 8000 and some words, and after I did the math it would only take 6 and a half months to run through those at a comfortable pace of 40 a day, which is cake for me. Basically, I just want to free my Japanese SRS and media time so that I can learn Mandarin like mad, the class that I'm in is totally useless by the way...I've attended 3 days out of 3 weeks or school so far, biggest hate is how retarded the pronunciation of my fellow classmates are, it's as if they never hear Mandarin spoken outside the classroom even though they live in China.

Well anyways, should I continue to review the Japanese? Sentences that is? I plan to continue RTK no matter what. It's just such a drag at the moment. I probably should at least continue to review huh? Maybe this is more of a rant. Opinions requested none the less.

No opinions from Beginners still going through RTK please...

how many sentences have you done already?

Go ahead and quit, since you called me a bitch......

zazen666 Wrote:Go ahead and quit, since you called me a bitch......

haha i completely missed that part of his post. i don't think he meant it in that way.

Be a rebel. Quit Mandarin instead.

Be a rebel. Start learning yet another language.

Be a rebel. Think for yourself for a change.

be a rebel and don't even rebel.

I can barely understand your post. Maybe you should quit both Mandarin and Japanese and focus on English for a while.

I guess it's obvious what your priority has to be. That doesn't mean you have to completely give up Japanese. But consider it a low priority hobby. Even if you don't have the time to make a lot of progress, it's better than quitting completely. Also there are probably going to be times when you're going to be sick of Chinese all the time, when that happens maybe Japanese will provide a nice change that will allow you to rebound?

As some other posters suggested, put it on the back burner. Stop adding sentences but keep reviewing and your daily workload for Japanese will go down.

I was in China for a while and I started learning Mandarin as well as continuing Japanese. However, although I had barely spent any time on Mandarin compared to Japanese, I found I was learning it a lot quicker living in China. So, my advice is take advantage of being in China whilst you can - it just doesn't make sense to focus on Japanese when you're surrounded by a Chinese environment. It's like AJATT minus the effort of creating the environment in the first place. Good luck with it.

Focus on Mandarin, man!
If you want to learn Mandarin eventually, then go for it 110% when you´re over there. Keep up your reviews in Japanese, if you feel like it, but other than that, do whatever you can to up your Mandarin skills. Living there is perfect for learning the language...
You can always learn Japanese later!

But hey, that´s just my opinion!

Zorlee Wrote:Focus on Mandarin, man!
If you want to learn Mandarin eventually, then go for it 110% when you´re over there. Keep up your reviews in Japanese, if you feel like it, but other than that, do whatever you can to up your Mandarin skills. Living there is perfect for learning the language...
You can always learn Japanese later!

But hey, that´s just my opinion!

I agree. Now just doesn't seem like the time to be learning Japanese.

Tzadeck Wrote:

Zorlee Wrote:Focus on Mandarin, man!
If you want to learn Mandarin eventually, then go for it 110% when you´re over there. Keep up your reviews in Japanese, if you feel like it, but other than that, do whatever you can to up your Mandarin skills. Living there is perfect for learning the language...
You can always learn Japanese later!

But hey, that´s just my opinion!

I agree. Now just doesn't seem like the time to be learning Japanese.

I agree with both. Scrap Japanese and focus on your Chinese. If you want to pick up Japanese later it will still be there waiting for you.

Yeah, I think this is a no-brainer: If you're living in a place that uses another language that you don't know that well, focus on that language... Obviously (as you describe), studying Japanese in addition to it is getting in the way, so.

ask yourself how important is it to you at this time to learn Japanese... the reasons can be for your current living situation or personal hobbies... if it isn't that big of a deal, then just pursue Mandarin.

As I recall, Yonosa will be living with his Japanese girlfriend in Shanghai and will attend Tokyo University in 2 years. So he might need to keep working on Japanese. I also recall that becoming fluent in both Chinese and Japanese within that time will be a piece of cake for him, so there shouldn't be any need to choose. But if that was a case of 'irrational exuberance', then the focus-on-Chinese-now advice seems sensible. If not, then he ought to welcome the advice of fellow beginners. ;-)

good luck with whatever you decide yonosa

That is indeed the situation Thora chan. Except Todai should be more 4 to 5 years down the line, I plan to work in Japan as an English teacher while continuing my studies of Japanese for a while until I am prepared to make a good impression. I mean, I can speak basic Japanese to my girlfriend as it is... but then again Todai requires advanced Japanese knowledge. I am sure I will learn to speak more naturally from the time I share with my girlfriend so hopefully putting Japanese on a "review only" status won't be too detrimental to my overall progress later on, and I'll benefit from learning a bit of "flow". But it just seems fully focusing on Mandarin now might yield some really acceptable results, so that is why I am thinking that way at the moment.

Quit it. You'll hit a spot in Chinese where you know 90% of a native, but getting that last 10% will take longer than the 90% you have. At that time, it won't hurt to pick up another language because studying Chinese at that point will feel pointless

Have you at least graduated an Ivy? 東大 is no joke biyotch.

I say quit it but don't completly quit it and spend 10 min. a day just like you are planning.

masaman Wrote:Have you at least graduated an Ivy? 東大 is no joke biyotch.

I say quit it but don't completly quit it and spend 10 min. a day just like you are planning.

I am not that set on Todai, I just am aiming high, I would be satisfied with a middle level university in Japan, but aiming high will probably guarantee that I can enter at least a decent one of those. So I am aiming high because, hell... why not? I think Todai isn't that keen on foreigners from what I've heard/read, so if I don't get in then its not big deal, there are plenty of good universities in Japan I should be able to enter. ねぇぇぇ　
頑張ろう！

About the "Ivy League"
No, I haven't finished my Bachelor's quite yet, I'm actually going to finish at the Fudan University in Shanghai though, I've heard of graduates of that school attending Todai, so, it's not impossible, we will see. I'll post, if and when that happens.

Yonasa,

You might want to read 東大へ行こう！

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4063720381

Although I expect the standards for non-Japanese students are probably considerably lower.

C.J.

Haha, I've watched the Drama version with Abe Hiroshi. FUN STUFF. My girlfriend referred me to that.