Hi all,

I bought some delicious milk a few days ago and noticed that the expiry date is March the 1st. So by the time that delicious milk expires, it will be one sixth of the year already up. That was fast.

In the past I think I usually forget most of my new years resolutions this far into the year, so I thought I would write a post to keep them going. This post is about two main things:
1. How have you gone with your new years resolutions so far?
2. What of the parts that you still have to do;
a. Will you altar your original goals?
b. What are you going to do to meet your goals?

Here is my account:

So far I am happy with my progress. I started RTK3 in January and finished the writing/meaning part in 3 weeks, which was much better than my original goal (it had taken me 6 months to get through RTK1).

Between finishing RTK3 and now, I have been a bit slow, spending a bit of time deciding which way to go (RTK2, or sentences). For now I have decided upon sentences and have being going OK since finding a deck that I feel fits me (by Nukemarine I think).

In terms of goals, I aim to be able to read Harry Potter by the end of the year. For my level, this seems a bit far away, but I have developed a technique that I think will be very helpful. I am calling it "All Harry Potter All The Time." Pretty catchy hey (I thought of it myself). I joke (but not about the part of being able to read Harry Potter).

But I have taken some inspiration from AJATT through the sentences and now through listening to Japanese as much as possible. For me it is the Philosopher's stone. This has some draw-backs though. It was only this morning that I was woken up by a weezing Lord Voldermort "ハリー・ポッタアアアアアア", which freaked me out a bit - that guy has got some issues. But I feel it is paying off - I am able to get much more of the meaning now than when I first started. I think Harry Potter is good for me because;
1. I really like it,
2. I can _almost_ guess what they are saying without understanding any of the Japanese as I have read the English so many times. So this means that I don't need to understand many of the words to understand what they are saying. This keeps me interested and able to keep pressing the repeat button (well, it is automatically set on repeat, but I meant in a figurative way). I originally started with some pod-casts that came recommended, but I found I was bored by them and not really listening. Harry Potter has had more success.

I am adding a goal (not present NYE) of passing some Kanken tests. I think this is good for me as I have found I really like kanji. At the moment, I think I would fail level 10, so that is where I am starting. A Kanken study book is in the mail from Amazon. My goal for the year is to pass level 7, which I think (without much research) seems a reasonably achievable goal.

So in summary:
* Be able to read Harry Potter and pass Kanken. Main study method is through sentences.

I would be interested to hear how other people are doing. Cheers.

Link:
The 2011 resolutions thread (thanks jcdietz03)

----
edited: added link and fixed spelling mistake and another mistake pointed out by Dustin_Calgary :|

I was just about to start one of these -- amazing timing there.
That's great that you're doing HPATT. I'm doing ANATT (Narnia, all seven up them)
I think you will be able to read them faster than you think though. :o

10 Month Plan)

I decided to change my goals entirely -- I love Chinese (even more than Japanese) but I'm not just there with my Japanese. So I'm doing 10 months of Immersion + hardcore study to get there. So no more juggling with 3-4 languages -- at least for 10 months. I teared up as I got rid of all my Chinese/Korean music.

My Anki decks all got deleted sadly, but now is a great time for change. I'm going to redo RTK 1-4 (check the link for what I call RTK4) through Feb-March and I will do as many sentences I can from Narnia, 聖書 (Bible), some texts, as well as games and music. Japanese is pretty darn helpful in the video game world since so many games are made their first.

I'm thinking 1000 sentences a month so around 10,000. Maybe I can do more?

I'm looking for someway to watch Japanese TV on a Mac and so far I have found nil. Any advice for this would be greatly appreciated.

(http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/...lement.pdf)

Summary)
1) Start AJATT for real (in only one language)
2) Do RTK1-4
3) Do 10,000 sentences
Goal) Read Narnia
Goal) Read though Bible
Goal) Able to watch Japanese TV/movies with at least 90% comprehension.

This thread has everyone's 2011 resolutions:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=6877&page=1

I didn't make any resolutions because no matter how small the goal, I believe I cannot achieve it. I have things I want to do in Japanese, I just don't think I can achieve them, ever. For example, I want to watch cartoons (anime) in Japanese without the subtitle and understand them. I didn't really resolve to do it, but I just started doing it anyway, minus the understanding part. I try to watch Sunday morning cartoons on Asahi every week. I am able to understand enough so that I'm not totally bored. I still don't think I will be able to completely, or even 90%+ understand these programs. At least not in the 2011 timeframe.

What will you do to reach the goals?
For Precure, my favorite show, I will download the subtitles when available and process them using the jcdietz03 processing method into Anki decks using the default Japanese card format: unknown word's kanji form (kanji+okurigana) on the front, meaning and reading on the back. And then study those. It takes awhile for even just one episode because there are so many words I either don't know or don't know the kanji for. Even though kanji won't help at all when it comes to understanding a show. I'm only 1/3 of the way through the first episode, but I suppose things will go faster once I have a system down. For both Precure and the other shows (Super Sentai and Kamen Rider OOO), I will watch them with a subtitle after watching the live stream without the subtitle.

I think all you can do for mac is download and play... You can't do much on a PC either (just Keyhole). GG fansubs does streaming of cartoons at various times each week, One of the times is Sunday morning for Asahi so that's how I know. Site: http://salmon.gundam.eu/streaman/
VLC media player, which runs on a mac, is able to play the stream. Though I don't think it is the best program if you are a PC user.

I've stopped with the resolutions, they don't' help me at all. Why? Almost always I fail to gain them by the end of the year.
I like to think of my progress is daily effort(fun).
So what I do daily is, all my reps+100 new cards(spread throughout all my decks)
listen/watch fun stuff/read transcripts/audio/play Japanese game/watch anime/read news/watch
-also write all my production cards out daily.
I'm working my way through adding a lot of jp names to my vocab deck+my sentence deck I'm adding a lot of fun sentences in there.

Outside of this I'm planning on getting Japanese workbooks(designed for Japanese people),learn math in japanese,chem(for fun)
So far I have the whole set of rurouni kenshin manga books+some naruto+bleach manga+a few full novels.
I'm learning to do some heavy shadowing(kinda do, I just keep copying from the stuff I listen to).
I think I should do a lot more than this, but if it isn't fun to me then I'm not doing it.

Huh, I knew I meant to make a NYR other than "deadlift 405lbs"

Damn.

"Outside of this I'm planning on getting Japanese workbooks(designed for Japanese people),learn math in japanese,chem(for fun)"

I think "成り立ちで知る漢字のおもしろい世界" was fun. I got it from a friend as a present.

gyuujuice Wrote:"Outside of this I'm planning on getting Japanese workbooks(designed for Japanese people),learn math in japanese,chem(for fun)"

I think "成り立ちで知る漢字のおもしろい世界" was fun. I got it from a friend as a present.

Looks cool so far(reading a bit of amazon.jp)

Lately I've been thinking that, in order to master a language fluently/fully. All you need to do is learn within the language. Do stuff that natives do, so that way you won't create barriers in understanding,reading,writing and speaking.

No matter what the language is, anyone can master it. Lately i've been thinking that 3-5 years is a good mark for fluency in a language(complete).

I have three goals i guess for the year

1)complete RTK1 +RTK3, start Sentences
2)Do Japanese everyday
3)Document the journey on my blog see <<website if interested

I'm studying abroad and if i get this one scholarship part of that would require me to keep a blog about just Study abroad and stuff. which I plan to do anyways so I'm looking forward to making that this year as well.

As far as progress goes:

frame 828 and updated my blog today so yeah its going good.

"NoSleepTilFluent"

Hm... I don't think you will be much use as a Japanese-spewing zombie. (=__=)[ ]b

gyuujuice Wrote:"NoSleepTilFluent"

Hm... I don't think you will be much use as a Japanese-spewing zombie. (=__=)[ ]b

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid122140

jcdietz03 Wrote:This thread has everyone's 2011 resolutions:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=6877&page=1

I didn't write anything...I'm DOOMED!

gyuujuice Wrote:Summary)
1) Start AJATT for real (in only one language)
2) Do RTK1-4
3) Do 10,000 sentences
Goal) Read Narnia
Goal) Read though Bible
Goal) Able to watch Japanese TV/movies with at least 90% comprehension.

How will you be able to do RTK1 (and your extension 2,3,4) along with 10k sentences in just 10 months? Fastest times we have recorded is around a month but you are literally swarmed with reviews after that. Even if we discard this pile of reviews every day after RTK, you are left with 10k sentences for 9 months. This means 37 sentences every day, no slacking off, while keeping up with their reviews. And sentences are HARD at first without sufficient vocab.

Maybe you already have some of this work done already, that would make it possible but I don't see how could you maintain all this and not get burned out fast.

I'd take a guess you are young and thus very eager to do everything intensively & instantly

Well, I think gyuujuice just took N1 (N2 maybe?), so I don't think s/he's a real beginner, so I don't think it will be quite as hard as it would be for someone just starting off.

As for me...I'm doing okay. Slowly and surely.

Boy.pockets Wrote:Hi all,

I bought some delicious milk a few days ago and noticed that the expiery date is May the 1st. So by the time that delicious milk expires, it will be one sixth of the year already up. That was fast.

I'm sure you meant March 1st? ^__^

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Huh, I knew I meant to make a NYR other than "deadlift 405lbs"

Damn.

how close did you get on that one?

i got to 365x5 in october last year.
but then everyone said my form sucks so then i started floundering. should i increase or be a form nazi and decrease?
then i just stopped doing it.
that's what i hate.
being form nazi.

If i had to be a zombie (which will never happen because I passed the Zombie Survival Aptitude Test) better at least be a Japanese speaking one and preferably in an environment where i can eat AJATT.

nohika Wrote:Well, I think gyuujuice just took N1 (N2 maybe?), so I don't think s/he's a real beginner, so I don't think it will be quite as hard as it would be for someone just starting off.

As for me...I'm doing okay. Slowly and surely.

^ Thanks

I took the N2 this year and missed by a small margin but I'm moving on.
I have done RTK 1 before and I just want to do it again for assurance and I wouldn't measure myself as a complete beginner -- in fact I got invited to write for Janet magazine. (and get some texts for free! yay)


"I bought some delicious milk a few days ago and noticed that the expiery date is May the 1st. So by the time that delicious milk expires, it will be one sixth of the year already up. That was fast."

I'm going to sue you for sexual harassment! >:|






(jk)

gyuujuice Wrote:"I bought some delicious milk a few days ago and noticed that the expiery date is May the 1st. So by the time that delicious milk expires, it will be one sixth of the year already up. That was fast."

I'm going to sue you for sexual harassment! >:|






(jk)

Can anyone explain me this "That was fast." part?
And also I don't get the sexual harassment part.

I like to think that I understand English pretty well, but times like these I just don't get it ...

jettyke Wrote:Can anyone explain me this "That was fast." part?
And also I don't get the sexual harassment part.

"That was fast" just means that he feels like the past 2 months went by really quickly. (ie. didn't feel like such a long time).

The sexual harassment is a joke about his name； The OP said milk was delicious, and ぎゅう is the Japanese for cow, so gyuujuice is milk. (it could conceivably be any other bodily fluid, but lets stick with milk....)

Splatted Wrote:For 2011 my aims are to:

-Finish RTK (obviously)

I decided not to do this anymore. I've got most of the way through RTK1, and I now recognise most of the kanji that I see. I figure that I can just apply the RTK method to unknown kanji that I come accross, just like anyone who has finished it.

Splatted Wrote:-Learn core 6000

I've now decided to just learn the most common ones, and then move towards sentence mining/ unsuspending. This may change soon though as I found the few I already added out of sequence to be alot harder than the ones I've studied in kanji order.

Splatted Wrote:I estimate I can probably do this in the first 6 months, so I'll try and think of something more for the rest of the year.

This was based on my average of between 50 and 100 knew words a day, and would have left me plenty of time to slack off, but I soon decided I couldn't be bothered to keep up that pace, so I guess this is a fail.

Splatted Wrote:-Do something everyday(ish)

I'm actually sticking to this one.

Splatted Wrote:Edit: I also need to finish Tae Kim, and then start on http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/index.html , which is a grammar guide in Japanese.

This was supposed to be after I built up a more functional vocabulary, as that's what I feel is holding me back right now. No progress made, but that's in line with my target.

Asriel Wrote:2011 Goals
Language Related
-Go through my Kanzen Master and Sou Matome and maybe D*JG books and pick up loose ends
----more concretely stated: go through the workbooks. Mainly Grammar and Vocab.
----to solidify grammar: create my own sentences on lang8 and see what people say

Not doing this at all.

Quote:-Read at least 3 articles out of 朝日新聞 per week. Retired professor brings them to our conversation table, and I like reading physical copies better than things online.

I've stopped with 朝日, but I've started on slashdot and fark-type sites so it's not like I completely abandoned this one. Should SRS more words though.

Quote:-Make it to 漢検2級 or 準２級 on KanKen DS. I don't actually know my current level, but I know that the lower levels have a lot of words that I don't know and loose ends.

Haven't done this. Haven't even taken the placement test yet. Which is a shame, because (i think it's) mezbup really recommends this as a great study tool.

Quote:-(finally) finish going through the Core series and pick up words that I don't know...been putting this off for too long. Hopefully going into the 10k from JSensei or whatever.

Really debating whether I'm going to do this or not. I just passed N1, so it seems I should know a lot of the words -- and I get (most) all my words from the wild anyway. I just feel like...idk, I'm missing something if I don't finish it.

Quote:Life/Etc
-Graduate! Assuming everything goes well....
-Find a Job!
-Get back to Japan! (hopefully this one and the last one go together...like that SE job )
...I should probably come up with more for this section. Otherwise I'm just "floating" through life.

Work in progress. Probably graduate, Square-Enix hasn't declined me yet. This part is still just way up in the air -- nobody knows what will happen.

All in all, my resolutions aren't going that well
That's OK, at the moment my Life/Etc goals are more important to me anyway.

" (it could conceivably be any other bodily fluid, but lets stick with milk....)"

I should really change my name...... if that's what other people think. >..>'

all this time i thought it was all the fat that leaks out of beef when you cook it.

as my NYR was take JLPT1

and i can't take it until december

man i'm doing pretty horrible

............ cooking...beef? *runs frantically* (o _____ 0')

Splatted Wrote:

jettyke Wrote:Can anyone explain me this "That was fast." part?
And also I don't get the sexual harassment part.

"That was fast" just means that he feels like the past 2 months went by really quickly. (ie. didn't feel like such a long time).

The sexual harassment is a joke about his name； The OP said milk was delicious, and ぎゅう is the Japanese for cow, so gyuujuice is milk. (it could conceivably be any other bodily fluid, but lets stick with milk....)

But he wrote>

So by the time that delicious milk expires, it WILL be one sixth of the year already up. That was fast.

I thought that using "now that's fast" or smth would make more sense if he wanted to say it.

Thanks.

you're right, "that was fast" isn't grammatically correct, but you could justify it saying he put his viewpoint at the end of the 2 months or whatever it was. bah, I just spent the last 5 hours typing out sentences from Dictionary of Basic Grammar, so I'm all grammatical -.-