Are you studying spoken material, like Japanesepod101.com

SomeCallMeChris wrote:

Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese
Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

+1

[I'm not used to SomeCallMeChrisさん being so succinct. ]

JGram - extremely underrated grammar lookup that is most useful on the go. When I need a quick grammar lookup on the go, I don't have time to search through Tae Kim and the DoJG series is impractical for a quick search, especially in public.

I have tried going the non-textbook path and the textbook path, and I found that I learned faster with a textbook and a teacher of some kind (can be a tutor, doesn't have to be formal), vs. just a book full of sentence patterns and going it alone.

The textbook we used at Yamasa for Intermediate/Upper Intermediate is terribad if you're doing it by yourself. But the teachers made that book look like a masterpiece through the use of excellent handouts. (And we got *lots* of handouts.)

Teachers are great because they can correct you right then and there, and push your knowledge and understanding of the material. They also have some kind of training or experience in teaching people the L2 you want to learn, unlike random person on the intertubes. Also, a *good* textbook (like Minna no Nihongo) paired with a good teacher will get you more depth than just the book itself.

In my case, before I went to Yamasa last fall, time and again, I would pass all sorts of cards in Anki about giving and receiving-- cloze cards, regular sentences, multiple choice-- you name it-- heck, it's basic stuff, right? So when I got to Yamasa, I decided to take a few private lessons before my 11-week class started. And my first private lesson was all about fixing my "Problem with understanding giving and receiving."

It's one thing to do it Anki, but it's entirely different to try to do it in order to communicate with another human being who happens to be a native speaker of L2.

Even if you only meet up once a week, or once every two weeks, I think it could make a big difference for you.

Also, there's this:
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?p … 82#p172982
The online group classes look pretty inexpensive at JOI.

If you don't have the money, there's always language exchange: (none of those people are teachers... but talking to native speakers is better than mumbling to your Anki deck.)
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=8656

Last edited by rich_f (2012 April 05, 7:59 pm)

Yeah, I did just 3 months at Yamasa, and it made a big difference in my abilities... and it pointed out some glaring weaknesses I had glossed over because I didn't know I was weak in those areas until the teachers ganged up on me, one after another.

It also helped that the only surefire way I had to communicate with my fellow students was in Japanese. I talked to people from all over the world, and about 95% of the time, we spoke in Japanese, because that's the language we all knew everyone spoke. (It was great practice.) And naturally, the faculty and staff weren't going to cut us any slack, either. It was tough at first, but I got used to it soon enough.