blackbrich
Member
From: America
Registered: 2010-06-06
Posts: 300
During your learning of Japanese or any other language. What do you think your biggest mistakes were in terms of efficiency or detrimental to your language skill or other.
For me i wasted a lot of time at the beginning
1. Tried to force myself through RTK altogether over 2-3 months(kept coming back)
2. Tried the "TV Method" for 2 months exclusively
erlog
Member
From: Japan
Registered: 2007-01-25
Posts: 633
HonyakuJoshua wrote:
trusting the academic/university system to educate me and not seeing through it as a big money making scam.
Outside of this: Not studying grammar, over focusing on kanji, not adapting to technology and under estimating my abilities.
I also let myself compare myself to a gang of spoiled kids who had spent years in Japan but put no effort in.
I would have studied in a group more, but the time just wasn't right....
I would have used anki had somebody told me about it. I would have gone online more and not let the disenterest of my uni classmates put me off studying something I loved.
Are you me? I made most of these mistakes, and I have a lot of these same regrets. The technology thing isn't one of them, I'd been using e-flashcards since the very beginning, but the rest are spot on.
The university thing is the biggest. Nobody ever explained to me what it took to learn a foreign language. They don't do it because the amount of work involved would probably discourage beginners. I've always been a really hard worker, though. So it ended up wasting my time. I would have been fine doing the work if I had known it was required. I worked really hard, but only as compared to everyone else in my classes. The kind of work I needed to be doing was kind of on another level.
It wasn't until study abroad and then more after I graduated that I realized that steady consistent progress EVERY SINGLE DAY is the true key. It's been smooth-ish sailing ever since then, and my progress just improves by leaps and bounds it feels like every 3 months. Consistent studying + immersion for practice and reinforcement has been the biggest deal. Studying just continues to go faster and get easier as I go. The increases in efficiency over time are really astounding.
So that was my biggest mistake, and that's how I overcame it. I now feel like I'm at a level where I tell people I've been studying Japanese for like 5 years, and they go..なるほど. Truthfully most of my progress was made in the span of about 18 months of really consistent work.
Raschaverak
Member
From: Hungary
Registered: 2008-12-30
Posts: 362
Stopping japanese completely, because it seemed too much of a task, switching to french instead, got depressed during that time, lost job, went home, wasted 6 months with doing nothing, got new job, strating french next week again 
But
I still feel empty....maybe still depressed
blackbrich
Member
From: America
Registered: 2010-06-06
Posts: 300
partner55083777 wrote:
Not starting with Anki from the very beginning. Aside from the extensive/intensive reading method, I fail to see how people get good at a language (in a short amount of time) without using some sort of SRS system.
Also, what's the "TV method"?
Its a method proposed by this guy http://natural-language-acquisition.blogspot.com/.
Basically he watched TV for 2000 hours(Chinese) before doing any speaking, reading, writing.
To be fair I think it probably could work, but it would be way slower than id want it to be. He did have some type of progress.
edit: I think nadiatims is different from mine, just so happen to have the same name I guess.
Last edited by blackbrich (2012 May 07, 5:57 am)
vileru
Member
From: Cambridge, MA
Registered: 2009-07-08
Posts: 750
I have the same problem as Tzadeck, i.e. not focusing when I study. Also, just for the sake of convenience and ease, I often do things in English even though I'm able to do them in Japanese.
On a separate note: as an academic, I feel obliged to chime in and say that I agree that the university system is broken through-and-through. However, I should add that the professors and (competent) students that you can meet and work with are irreplaceable. Most professors are eager to interact with students who give a damn, so I highly suggest that you take advantage of such opportunities as much as possible if you're attending a university or if you have plans to do so. Likewise, it's easy to find friends who are just as passionate as you in your area of expertise. Forget about the slackers.
Unfortunately, you don't even need to enroll in a university to have access to professors and like-minded students. You can audit courses for free and reap the same benefits. Yet, doing this will deprive you of that coveted piece of paper. You have to pay for that.
It's important to keep in mind that the current situation isn't entirely the fault of universities. Society and employers have watered down education by emphasizing diplomas over actual abilities. For those of you who resent the university system, I suggest taking as many courses as possible and graduating in 2-3 years. It's quite possible and will save you a stockpile of cash. Not to mention, it will save you a lot of time.
Last edited by vileru (2012 May 07, 7:38 am)
