Virtua_Leaf
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-09-07
Posts: 340
Here's and example of what I'm currently doing:
---
Q: 旅の支度が できたなら 又 私に 会いに来るがよい 待っておるぞ Ｘよ
A: たびのしたくが できたなら また わしに あいにくるがよい まっておるぞ Ｘよ！
したく[支度](1)準備すること。用意すること。「食事の―をする」
しょくじ【食事】
じゅんび[準備]
ようい[用意](1)ある行為・行動をする前に、あらかじめ必要なものをとりそろえること...
あらかじめ (adv) beforehand; in advance; previously;
そろえる (v1) to put things in order; to arrange; to make uniform; to get something ready;
Trip('s) preperations (identifier) able to do (if), again me (target) meet come (identifier) good, waiting.
If you are prepared for your journey, you should come to meet me again, and I shall be waiting, X!
---
Does that look ok?
For every word I don't know I sort of looking up an explanation in Japanese and then inputting it into the answer. The only problem here being for every explanation I get new words I don't know. And then explanations for those words.
This would be good except, as a beginner, I don't know that many words anyway and what was supposed to an answer to a simple sentence could wind up spanning the entire Japanese dictionary.
I don't know really. Is this what I'm meant to be doing? Any glaring mistakes?
Virtua_Leaf
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-09-07
Posts: 340
Codexus wrote:
I don't think there is a Way that must be followed absolutely by the followers of the Method. You should do what makes sense to you. You don't have to use a Japanese only dictionary if you're not ready for it, that would be counter-productive.
What's important is that you have enough information in the answer part so that you will understand the sentence even if you had completely forgotten it so that you don't have to look up everything in the dictionary again. If you can't follow the Japanese explanation that defeats the whole purpose and you might as well write nothing in the answer.
Aha. Thank you. I'll just take a sentence and then fill the answer out until it gets to a stage where I can completely understand what the question's trying to say. And when it gets to that stage, I know the answer is sufficient.
uberstuber wrote:
Looks great. I might get rid of the spaces in between words in your Q, just so you get used to it. Also, 私 should be read as わたし unless its an elderly person speaking.
Oops! The funny thing is, I think that's meant to be written in "olde" Japanese (note 'yoi' instead of 'ii') as I actually got it from a Dragon Quest translation (a game with a medieval theme). I'll try and keep my use of it to a minimum unless I start sounding like the Japanese equivalent of Henry VIII.
Also, same with the spaces in between words, I just copy and pasted without thinking. I'll fix it right away though as you're right. Thanks!
dabidos
New member
From: USA
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 6
Because you said you were a beginner, try to focus your first 1000 or so sentences to be grammar examples. Only introduce 1 or at most 2 new words so you don't get bogged down.
An example would be:
Expression: 私はグラスにワインを入れました。
Meaning: I poured wine in the glass.
Reading: {わたし}はグラスにワインをいれました。
Vocabulary:入れる【いれる 】(v1,vt) to put in; to take in; to bring in; to let in; to admit; to introduce; to commit (to prison); to usher in; to insert; to set (jewels); to employ; to listen to; to tolerate; to comprehend; to include; to pay (interest); to cast (votes); (P)
I have a field for each section with Anki, but you can combine the bottom three for the answer side. To reinforce this grammar example, replace the bold vocab with other nouns/verbs. This also provides vocabulary in context as well. An excellent book I'm using for this is Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar which is just all sentences (recommended from the AJATT site) ISBN: 475740168X.
After your grammar roots, go crazy with game scripts or whatever else you would want. By then you should be able to make heads and tales of complex structures.
Last edited by dabidos (2008 February 18, 3:55 pm)
Nukemarine
Member
From: 神奈川
Registered: 2007-07-15
Posts: 2347
dabidos wrote:
Because you said you were a beginner, try to focus your first 1000 or so sentences to be grammar examples. Only introduce 1 or at most 2 new words so you don't get bogged down.
An example would be:
Expression: 私はグラスにワインを入れました。
Meaning: I poured wine in the glass.
Reading: {わたし}はグラスにワインをいれました。
Vocabulary:入れる【いれる 】(v1,vt) to put in; to take in; to bring in; to let in; to admit; to introduce; to commit (to prison); to usher in; to insert; to set (jewels); to employ; to listen to; to tolerate; to comprehend; to include; to pay (interest); to cast (votes); (P)
I have a field for each section with Anki, but you can combine the bottom three for the answer side. To reinforce this grammar example, replace the bold vocab with other nouns/verbs. This also provides vocabulary in context as well. An excellent book I'm using for this is Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar which is just all sentences (recommended from the AJATT site) ISBN: 475740168X.
After your grammar roots, go crazy with game scripts or whatever else you would want. By then you should be able to make heads and tales of complex structures.
I too am using UBJG, and find it beneficial for your first 1000 to 2000 sentences. After that, you may want to reinforce the rest of the Kanji not covered by using "Kanji in Context" as a sentence source. After that, you should have Kanji, Vocabulary and Grammar covered so that you can then utilize enjoyable sources for learning (TV scripts or Game scripts for example).
If it helps, I posted sentences from Chapter 1 of UBJG on Anki's forum. Take it with a grain of salt, as I converted many words to kanji that were not written as such in the book. There will also be some grammar mistakes and some sentences that are too long.
vosmiura
Member
From: SF Bay Area
Registered: 2006-08-24
Posts: 1085
johnzep wrote:
mr_hans_moleman wrote:
There's something I don't understand though. I'm assuming you are using an SRS that is not online because if you were, you could just use RIKAICHAN to save you lots of time. All you would have to do is scroll over the kanji to find the readings. So my question is why you don't use an online SRS so that you can reap the benefits of RIKAICHAN? Is there a reason?
because he's using anki it seems.
Also, entering stuff is a pain, but also useful for learning
I use Anki's online interface.
I agree that entry is good for learning. In fact I think it's primarily for learning, because most of the time I don't read the answer part. Certainly not all of it.
When I saw some examples where people have gone monolingual and they've got a chain of 10+ Japanese sentences on the answer side, I have to wonder if that's the right approach. The point is to put stuff you need to learn on the question side, so that you can be questioned on it and get it mastered. Stuff on the answer side will only get a small amount of reading by comparison, so it seems to be a real imballance to me to put 10 times more effort in the answer side than the question side.
Putting loads of detail and examples on the Answer side is ok if you want a place to keep your notes, but if you want to learn, then those examples belong on their own cards, on the Question side IMO.
Last edited by vosmiura (2008 March 05, 7:08 pm)
Yeah, right now I tend to get my sentences from dictionaries, and if I have a word in a sentence I don't know, instead of explaining it too much, I get another sentence for that word. Sometimes two or three if it has multiple meanings. Feels like I get a better scope of things.
Vosmiura, I see what you mean, but I think that in order to maximize your understanding (and learning) of all of the question's details, having definitions on the answer side is necessary. If one doesn't do that, there's the risk of forgetting what the meaning of the sentence was, after a long time. Then you'd have to look it up again anyway, and waste even more time.
Moreover, finding and analyzing the definitions is a good reading+decyphering exercise, and I don't think it's wasted time. It all sums up on the long run.
phauna
Member
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2007-12-25
Posts: 500
Website
I agree that too much on the answer side is counter productive. You need to understand the sentence, if you don't get one word, then you can look that word up. I just put the sentence written in kana on the answer side. For example:
Q
そこ左奥ね。
A
そこひだりおくね。
So how do I know what it means? Well hopefully I am only inputting sentences a little above my current knowledge. I take it to mean 'on the left, inside'. I think it's a description of where the toilet is. I took this sentence from 'Neko Ramen' a manga about a cat that owns a ramen shop, and also has a pet cat. It's a simple example and it was just to show the use of 'oku', which I hadn't seen before. Obviously I already understand most of the elements or I wouldn't have added the sentence. So I don't need to look anything up, even the meaning is somewhat implied by the kanji and heisig story. I have a dictionary on my desktop and it takes about three seconds to get all the info I need on a word.
Switching to full Japanese means slower/more difficult earlier, but later you'll make much faster progress.
