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How to get the most out of a Japanese college course?
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ltsax wrote:
In order to satisfy a foreign language requirement at my college, I need to take 3 semesters in Japanese. I really do not like classes because they are the reason why I stopped learning Spanish in high school (all we did was conjugate verbs lol). Since I am forced to take this 101 course, what should I do to try and get the most out of it (btw, I self studied for a few months prior to this, so I know the kana, basic grammar/vocab and some RTK). Thanks!
I'm about to take my 3rd semester of Japanese in 2 weeks. My college only requires 1 semester but I decided to take the 2nd because it counts as a humanities course. 1st and 2nd semester is considered in my college "Beginning Japanese".
Japanese 101 was cake because we learned kana, 10-15 kanji and ます 、です、か The majority of our grade was our ability to memorize textbook dialog and act it out in class. No HW (except if you count memorizing lines HW). We had 2 written test: midterm and final. Mid term just saw if we knew our kana by giving us names of objects in English (ex. Apple = _______). Honestly, I think you already meet the requirement for the 101 class and see if it's possible to skip to Japanese 102 (knew a few who attended 101 get transferred to 102 the same day).
Regarding RTK, it seems that those commonly used kanji don't show up in the book until much later (near halfway or so) but IMO they should be easy enough to remember. Another option could be doing RTK Lite so that way you're learning the common kanji sooner 
ltsax wrote:
The main thing holding me back from going into 102 is not knowing all of the vocab in the Genki book. Also, I am pre-med, which means I need to protect my GPA. I can probably get an A in 101 but would probably struggle in 102. My initial question is more about how I can go beyond what I am learning in class to make it more challenging. If that makes sense.
I understand about keeping a good gpa. I'm a nursing major so I have some idea of what academic demands you will have (pre reqs of course). Nutrition should be easy if you've already taken Physiology (in regards to digestive system and vitamin absorption). The big class to focus on is Ochem.
In regards to going beyond what you're are learning in Japanese class to make it more challenging, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. Are you asking what other things you can do besides the assigned Japanese class study material?
Diving into native Japanese media is the obvious decision. Watch raw anime and dramas, read mangas/novels/articles. Listen (IMO the most important language skill) to as much Japanese as possible via podcasts, music, etc. Paired with Anki, you'll eventually learn a good amount of Japanese by doing this
The downside to going beyond the class material is that you eventually will find the pace of the class to be painfully slow and find yourself learning things you already know. Thus be super bored!
This is exactly what I meant .
"Diving into native Japanese media is the obvious decision. Watch raw anime and dramas, read mangas/novels/articles. Listen (IMO the most important language skill) to as much Japanese as possible via podcasts, music, etc. Paired with Anki, you'll eventually learn a good amount of Japanese by doing this "
Do you know a good way to start reading manga/novels because it is hard to get started when you have a relatively limited vocabulary? How do you study Japanese daily while still having enough time for your studies?
lol it seems like we're roughly around the same level. Not beginner, but not intermediate either.
I learned kana, about 60 kanji and basic grammar from jp 101 and 102 ("Beginning Japanese"). My problem is limited vocab as well I'm sorry to say xD
I tried reading manga with no success. IMO still too diffuclt for me. Novels, worse -_- I'm mainly focusing on listening at the moment but get some reading done via internet articles and playing video games.
I like to go to recipe websites and read (with the help of rikaisama) how to make certain dishes. With rikaisama + Anki, I can make a vocab deck on the food/cooking terminology to study. Dishes I really like, I "print" into MS OneNote 2007 to save and archive.
The video games I'm currently playing are Cooking Mama and Phoenix Wright. Cooking Mama is all kana is it's pretty easy to read (sorta lol) while Phoenix Wright is a bit more challenging. This is where game walkthroughs shine. You can read more about what I said in the "Post Your Recent Milestone Achievement Here"
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?p … 22#p184522
As to having time to study Japanese daily, unfortunately I haven't been studying all that much. While I was taking an intense summer course and getting into a new hospital internship, I've been busy and only had enough time for Japanese listening (commuting from point A to point B). My RTK reviews have pilled up >.< Despite my lack of Anki reviews, my listening has gotten a bit better so I'm not completely failing hehe 
I'm sure other members here have better time management skill tips. I could sure use some too lol ./procrastinator
Last edited by RawrPk (2012 August 25, 3:14 pm)
TheVinster wrote:
At my school you can take a placement test. Is this not available at yours? Even though you sound like you're pretty basic you could potentially skip 1 of them at the very least; however, classes start very soon (for me anyway) so it may be too late for you if such an option does exist. My opinion? If you do have to take the earlier classes just keep studying on the side to supplement what you learn in class.
At my school skipping Japanese 101 was pretty easy. Just telling the teacher you know kana and basic grammar is enough to get the ok from the teacher to skip to the higher level teacher. Only you were liable for that choice to skip and was a common choice for some.
Trying to skip the entire "Beginning Japanese" courses require a placement test and good timing on your part because Japanese 103 (1st "Intermediate Japanese" class) is taught only at fall and 104 at spring.
Like TheVinster said, if you have the option to skip you should do it
bertoni wrote:
A lot depends on how your particular course is taught, but doing your own listening practice can help a lot. It'll enable you to start trying to have small conversations in Japanese, which can be a good motivator.
I agree that finishing RTK1 will be helpful, to the extent that your schedule allows it. That was my experience, anyway.
The native language reading is a fine idea at some point. I don't know how practical that'll be until you get better with the kanji, though. If you try some podcast site, they might provide kana versions of the podcasts, which would at least help with getting more fluent with the hiragana and katakana.
I agree with doing your own listening practice. Helps you adjust to the speed of speech and be able to recognize patterns in sentences. When I first started listening to podcasts, most of what the people were saying seemed so fast and slurry (they weren't slurry, I was just overwhelmed @_@) that I couldn't tell when sentences began or ended. At this point, I can 90% of the time hear every syllable and can determine when a sentence began or ended. Understanding? Not so much. Need more vocab for that to happen.
See if your Japanese professors have office hours. At my school, office hours served as a way to ask any unresolved questions. Questions took priority, but whenever there was no one there to ask questions, the professors would just talk to us in Japanese and correct whatever errors we made while practicing conversing. It was best when no one else was there, so I usually wouldn't go whenever a quiz or something was about to come up. That's when it was always packed with slackers asking silly questions.
Also, be aware that you'll probably be surrounded by people with the mentality of children. I had to switch class periods once, because everyone in the initial section I signed up for were complete morons. Try to figure this out right away and switch asap. My first clue was that people were constantly interrupting to make silly jokes and comments. My second clue was when we broke off into pairs for a conversation exercise and the guy that I got stuck with looked at me, told me he was going to eat my refrigerator in Japanese and then started giggling like a 12-year-old school girl. 
prink wrote:
Also, be aware that you'll probably be surrounded by people with the mentality of children. I had to switch class periods once, because everyone in the initial section I signed up for were complete morons. Try to figure this out right away and switch asap. My first clue was that people were constantly interrupting to make silly jokes and comments. My second clue was when we broke off into pairs for a conversation exercise and the guy that I got stuck with looked at me, told me he was going to eat my refrigerator in Japanese and then started giggling like a 12-year-old school girl.
I had a crazy bunch of guys like that in my 102 class. When the teacher asked for the meaning of 「馬」 and someone answered "horse", those immature guys neighed and started to stomp like a bunch of race horses. 1 of my friends dropped the class the same day. There is only 1 time slot so no option to switch.
Geez I just hope none of them are in the 103 class coming up next week eek >_<
prink wrote:
Also, be aware that you'll probably be surrounded by people with the mentality of children. I had to switch class periods once, because everyone in the initial section I signed up for were complete morons. Try to figure this out right away and switch asap. My first clue was that people were constantly interrupting to make silly jokes and comments. My second clue was when we broke off into pairs for a conversation exercise and the guy that I got stuck with looked at me, told me he was going to eat my refrigerator in Japanese and then started giggling like a 12-year-old school girl.
This. In the only Japanese course I've ever bothered to sign up for, there was a sleep deprived weeaboo who could keep her mouth shut for five minutes. Needless to say, I learnt more after a few days with Anki and Genki I than in that one-year course...
