Ok i wanted to post my progress for Japanese so far. Also i want ppl who are veterans of japanese( People how have been learning and gotten to a considerably high level of japanese in around 1-2 years or so) or if anyone else feels they can give me some good pointers to help improve my japanese.

So far i've been following the ajatt method, but obviously i've been doing other things on the side as well not just AJATT alone. It took me around 3 months to learn 3007 kanji. And i've been keeping my immersion environment up a lot b/c it helps me out a lot. I learned hiragana a while before, due to taking a level one japanese course. And katakana i learned through massively writing it down, immersion helped with the readings alot.

So i've added sentences to around 2000 sentences before i started going to monolingual sentences. I tend to collect sentences from j-music,j-dramas,j-shows,manga,anime, news,etc. And also grammar such as tae kim guide for grammar. As of now i've reached around 6200 sentences. I also been using dictionaries for sentences as well and trying to decode things as well. So i keep my immersion environment up almost everyday and it helps a lot. I do kanj to kana production cards, but nowadays i started mixing it up with kana to kanji production cards because i want my writing skills to grow. So far in these 5 months of sentences and immersion has made understanding anime,reading manga, reading sites, have become so easy now. But obviously i'm still having trouble with new sites and all those massive kanji compounds i do not know. But i have been noticing nowadays i can pretty much see lots of kanji compounds and be able to read them all pretty easily now. I think this will improve as i keep exposing myself to kanji and trying actively to learn them. So basically i have lots of immersion, good amount of context filled sentences with kanji going from kanji-kana and kana-kanji. Keep reviewing kanji of course, practise writing kanji daily if possible. I'm able to write basic sentences out well, understand japanese pretty well so far and with the addition of subtitles it makes my understanding go higher.

And last note, is there anything else i can do to improve any techniques i'm using so far? or am i going at a good pace and should just keep it up until a full year has come by. I use anki for SRSing. Thanks for you're time everyone.

You mean you have time to do something else in addition to what you are already doing?!

Just a beginner here, but it seems to me like if there was anything you could be missing it might be working on speaking/pronunciation.

Although I'm not sure if that is an issue or not. I've read some folks who say that it just comes naturally as you understand more and more *shrug*.

You a MACHINE! I'm by no means a veteran, but I say stick with whatever you're doing, because it's obviously working well for you. Seriously, that kind of progress is craziness.

Perhaps practice output on Lang-8, if anything. A bit of output practice can go a long way.

Maybe start moving away from sentence mining into reading things that interest you. Like teen novels or magazines.

Interested in taking the JLPT? Looks like you might be ready to start studying for level N3.

Yea exactly. Novels i'm going to buy soon. Manga i already have, and i can read it pretty easily now and understand it well. Yea i need to practise output both verbally and written. I think if i work on those two the most, then i'll be getting good in japanese soon!!!

Sounds to me like he's ready for N2, but that of course depends on what he's been immersing in. If it's just anime and manga, he won't be ready for N3, but if there's news and such included, it might well be possible.

I think you should start reading novels and watching news. You say manga and anime is easy now, that probably means you need to get into more mature stuff which uses more complicated terms and more synonyms.

Other than that, sounds like you're making great progress and you should probably keep it up. I would also recommend that maybe you should start to work on your output. Get some Japanese people on Skype and start chatting with them, move over to talking over Skype once you feel chatting has become easy.

God damnit, 5 months? Seriously

This site is really the only place my hopes get belittled. I'm going back to regular forums where people are troubled by kana.




PS Good work!

@ Burritolingus
LOL i'm not a machine. I still think of myself as a lazy person. I do have school, part-time work,etc,etc stuff to do. But i always try to get everything done in 1-2 hours at the most and then just immerse myself the rest of the day, even if it's background music to when i have to do school work,etc. Somedays i actually do nothing but japanese as much as possible. But these are days when i;m off school or work. But it's all good soo far.

@Womacks23
Yea JLPT does interest me. I think i'll definitely will take that after 1 full year of sentences+grammer+SRSing. It's only been 5 months. Also for some reason i still think i'm not progressing as i want to. Like you know that feeling that you're like "Ahh man, i'm only at this spot? i want to be able to read everything!!! understand everything!!! when will it comes????" That type of thing concerns me. But most ppl say that don't worry, fluency always seems to come slowly, and you usual don't know you're already at that level until you compare you're progress to other people. But i think that i should be nicer to myself. Like i';ve gotten this far already and my progress is nice. One of my japanese friends is like, "Whatttt you can understand japanese drama's 85% of the time????" i'm like "noooo it really depends on what i'm watching, but i did borrow a drama from my friend and he's like if you can understand this, then you should definitely start practicing some output"

@Tobberoth
Yea i started going into commericals,japanese television stuff. Because those are what interests me now. I mean yea animes such as bleach,naruto i can understand without subs no problems. And even other animes i can understand pretty well. So i think it's time for me to go into mature japanese things. And practice outputting in speaking and writing back,etc on msn on skype things like this.

@Erubey
"This site is really the only place my hopes get belittled. I'm going back to regular forums where people are troubled by kana."

LOL
Kana? the only that might have me troubled are all those kanji compounds and rare kanji that i haven't seen and outputting. I'm confident the rest in a full year i';ll be near fluent or close to fluent in terms of understanding+reading. So that just means i need to practice outputting in large amounts. Definitely will need to buy a headset and practice via online. People say that with the addition of immersion speech does become easier as time goes on. My take on is that, it definitely helps with reading easier and you'll get a flow of japanese easily as you keep listening. But as for speaking it hasn't come to me yet, but there's nothing wrong with trying to practice outputting. Also i think my english may be suffering both grammer-wise and speaking wise. I was like doing a presentation in-class. And i had to read someone name during a presentation and it said Seton. I said せとん in a japanese accent-way. I was like urghhhh SETOnnnnn. I mean Seton.

My immersion environment is basically from anime,music,shows,dramas,commericals. Not so much news yet. Although i've started watching talk-shows nowadays. Also as for JLPT i';m very interested into doing them. But i'll wait a train myself for around a full year of doing the same routines i've been doing and abit more before i practise for those specific tests. Because since it's a test, i'll have to treat it by one and prepare for it beforehand.

Erubey Wrote:This site is really the only place my hopes get belittled. I'm going back to regular forums where people are troubled by kana.

It sure feels that way sometimes. But don't be discouraged. Since they are more noticeable, the most dedicated hardcore learners seem more common than they really are (and also sometimes they are also a bit optimistic in their self evaluation of progress, no offense to the OP, I'm just speaking generally there).

Erubey Wrote:God damnit, 5 months? Seriously

This site is really the only place my hopes get belittled. I'm going back to regular forums where people are troubled by kana.

Meh, my hopes get dashed every time I go outside. It's like my brain is a sieve with Japanese-sized holes; no matter what I do or how much I study, it never seems to make a noticeable difference in any facet of my Japanese ability. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go trawl forums until I can find someone having trouble with ツ シ ソ ン and ノ so that I can make fun of them. Maybe that will make me feel better.

Pssssst you're supposed to be inspired by greatness and disappointed by mediocrity, not the other way around
pssssst

Yeah, don't be discouraged. The difference in numbers between adept and inept learners of Japanese as a foreign language is bigger than a pyramid of sumo wrestlers It takes an extreme amount of time and dedication to reach a high level of proficiency. For every student that knows a word like「詠じる」there are a thousand that don't know how to read「東京」

yea don't get discouraged. I don't think of myself as being any better than anyone else or anything. As long as you have the will to learn and enjoy it, you'll reach levels you never thought possible. Example so much kanji readings, all i did was immersion to it's fullest and sentences+context alot and just kept practicing it. Nowadays i'm focusing on writing output on basic sentences,describing myself, and basic output. For me the only past experience i had in japanese was watching subbed anime and level one course for japanese. 3 months for kanji and 5 months for immersion+context filled sentences to SRS. In any event don't worry too much about numbers. I mean in the beginning everyone is focused on numbers. Like "Will it take me 8000 hours to become fluent? by doing this and this?" I mean i used to think like that, i kinda still do. But in any event just keep at it and you'll reach you're goals in any language you wish to learn.

You were probably in the same situation that I was in a year ago. Based on what you wrote, it seems like you are progressing well. That is a good thing. However, go watch some drama and see if you can understand it. By understand, I mean if you here someone say a line would you be able to repeat just like they said it? The main thing I want to say is to challenge yourself. Get exposed to different kinds of Japanese. Go watch Sanma'san videos or something. That guy is not so easy to understand lol.

Yea i hear yea. I do nowadays watch different things. And i know that i don't understand alot of things. Anime+manga use a certain amount of vocab and context throughout all of them, so it's easier to understand them. As for drama's, the vocab can change greatly and probably mean i understand less, but with context i can understand it alot. Nowadays i want to watch news,shows,commericals,more drama's. I even play games in japanese in my spare time. Althought i don't play much games, it's still good once and while to see if i can understand the japanese in the games. Example are games such as metal gear solid. Which are known to use diffcult terms. I watched a trailer of it and i seriously didn't understand alot of what was being said. Like i could understand some of it and some i'm like "Huh?".

As for challenging myself. Definitely. I'm going to keep trying different contexts of japanese, not just anime+manga. That's only one side of the story. There's still shows,drama's,news,etc out there. As for repeating lines from different contexts, it's not that hard anymore. Like when i look at a sentence i know now, i can say it pretty well and there will not be any pauses. I'm definitely going to keep building my listening+reading skills and keeping up my immersion environment. But as for my other skills, like writing+practicing speaking. Those i'll have to definitely practice. For writing i'm thinking of writing down basic sentences, describing myself, the time,the weather,etc,etc. And i'll check them up via a basic phrases,etc(For writing purposes of course). And ppl say speaking, just dive in and keep failing at it, b/c eventually you should gain some good abilities in speaking as well. All it takes is time and effort and the enjoyment of learning japanese.

Erubey Wrote:Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go trawl forums until I can find someone having trouble with ツ シ ソ ン and ノ so that I can make fun of them. Maybe that will make me feel better.

Oh no, you can just stay right here and laugh at me. I have no problem with ひらがな and I'm doing fine with the 漢字 I've studied or learned from exposure, but I seem to have a mental block about カナ in general and those little suckers you mentioned in particular.

I kinda agree when it comes to katakana. Hiragana i've mastered well. Katakana even though i know, sometimes i still kinda stumble on it, it's not as fast and well as my hiragana reading abilities. but i manage. I think people just need more exposure to it and write more. Since i'm sure alot of people majority of the time write hiragana+kanji out a lot. But katakana doesn't usual get the same treatment I suppose.

Oh yea. I wanted to ask people. I basically do all my reviews, that's two kanji decks, one kana deck, one sentence deck and tae kim grammer deck at the moment. The rest i kinda use for school and such. But basically i do all my reviews, write the kanji down a few times not all those sentences. And immerse myself for almost the full day if possible. I want to focus more on my writing skills and speaking(although speaking i'm not going to worry yet, i want to get at a good level of understanding before i practice speaking out). Is there any good ways or practicing writing skills?

I was thinking of writing basic stuff such as my name,date,numbers,basic grammer,etc. From memory and check them via online if they are correct. Can anyone offer some good tips on improving writing? I'm already confident i can get high level of reading+understanding.

What works for me is exchanging emails with a Japanese friend. Her 英語 is much better than my 日本語 (semi-fluent vs. functional), so we started out mostly in english and simple Japanese, and have progressed to mostly Japanese. I used to really struggle with it, having to look up most of the vocab and kanji, and a lot of the grammar, but it's the best kind of practice, since it's purely real-world functional and involves both reading and writing of grammar, vocab, and kanji. It's just been enormously helpful. The only down-side is that she's way too polite to correct me, but I'm planning to talk to her about that when she comes to visit next month.

Anyway, I wonder if there are any resources similar to Lang8, but for writing rather than speech. In fact, Lang8 might be a place to meet someone who'd be interested. Just an idea.

Also, I've seen other people here mention keeping a journal or diary in 日本語. I think you can go back and correct or not, depending on your purpose in doing it.

that sounds useful. Yea journal writing is something i should definitely do. Then i can post it on Lang8 and get it corrected. I guess getting a penpal would be alright or signing up for some sort of exchange program would be nice. Because i feel for speaking wise the only way i can get it better is to practice it out.

maybe consider doing the vocab srs method. There was a thread before about people who learn words instead of sentences b/c/ they already learned/comforatable with all the basic/intermediate grammar etc.

here's the link:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4602

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:maybe consider doing the vocab srs method. There was a thread before about people who learn words instead of sentences b/c/ they already learned/comforatable with all the basic/intermediate grammar etc.

here's the link:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4602

Works brilliantly once you're at the point where you can read a sentence and the only thing stopping you from understanding it is that you don't know a vocab word. Still going strong with this method and won't go back to sentences for vocab but do advocate them for your first 2000 - 3000 vocab to get an understanding of grammar. Do use sentences for output these days too (English on the front > outputting Japanese on the back) though I don't have a daily qouta for these, I pick them when I'm truly ready for them.