How long has it been? O_O

Happy new year! 明けましたおめでとう！

It's been so long since I posted something on here. I don't even know if anyone reads this. XD But I wanted to make an update anyway.

Since my last post I've worked my way through most of Tae Kim's Grammar Guide and Japanese in Mangaland 1. For the latter I bought the Workbook, which turned out to be incredibly useful, so I've already ordered book 2 and the corresponding workbook.

I'm up to 800 words in vocabulary now, added loads of body parts yesterday, and fruits and vegetables last week.

I had also found some graded readers online, which really helped my reading skills, so for Christmas, my boyfriend Makoto got me a book with Japanese children's stories. The level is slightly too high, but that's perfect; helps me practice more.

I've also ordered this Unicom JLPT N5 Reading practice book. I thought it was going to be for reading stories, but it's actually for vocabulary and kanji. Not that I mind; I could use more practice on that as well, and I've got the book Makoto got me for reading. :)

Now that I don't have a job I spend a large part of my day studying Japanese. Might as well put the time to good use, right?

Progress as of May 13th

Well, lately I've really been getting into it again. My energy is slowly coming back (though I'm nowhere near well yet, which bothers me but which can't be helped, I guess) and it also makes it easier for me to focus on learning more Japanese.

What's also fun is that I'm starting to recognise more and more things that I've learnt (both vocabulary and grammar) in the dramas and movies that I'm watching.

Japanese drama (dorama) isn't like a soap opera or anything. It's a series with usually 11 or 12 episodes and all different kinds of topics and genres can be used. There's often a comic note in them as well, and some are just straight-up comedies, but others are very sad and dramatic and yet others are very exaggerated and action-filled. I enjoy watching them, because they are fun and they help me get a feel for the language. Also, it's just really nice to recognise more and more stuff you hear. ^^

As for my progress: I've almost finished the Essential Grammar part of Tae Kim's grammar guide, so I'm almost 2/3 through the grammar guide. Vocabulary-wise, I now have 419 words in Anki (as opposed to 239 last time I posted in late February). All in all, very proud of myself. ^^

Progress as of February 25th

Oh dear! 4 months since I last posted something. >< Well, that's because I got a burn-out and I've been home with absolutely no energy since early November. So I also didn't have the energy to learn more Japanese.

I decided to stop doing RTK2, as it was taking up a shitload of time doing reviews and I couldn't add any more. Also, while I'm learning vocabulary, I'm also learning the pronunciation of the characters, so it would be doing double the work. I can always go back in a few years and redo it, checking what I don't know yet.

Last week I added some more words in my vocabulary deck, bringing me up to 239 words there. The Anki spaced review settings are a bit too spaced apart for me, but I don't know how to change that, except for the initial hard/good/easy settings. It's not the initial settings that are giving me trouble, it's the big space between the 2nd and 3rd and 4th review, etc. I fail a lot of cards due to that. But it's better than nothing, I guess. :)

I've also restarted Pimsleur (the listening/repeating Japanese course). I redid a lot of units I'd done before, and up to Unit 15 or so this was super easy, then I started making mistakes again (which is fine). The words that I often mix up or forget, I've added to Anki so I learn them a bit more, and things are going fine that way. I'm up to Unit 17 now. I put them on my iPod so I usually do them while doing the dishes or driving somewhere far (they're 30 minutes each). XD

It also helps that I've also studied some more Tae Kim grammar chapters. I now know more grammar, which can help me see the sentence structures used in Pimsleur and remember them more logically; so not just repeating them, but also knowing which grammar has to be used and falling back on that when I can't remember the actual sound.

I'm still going slow, but it's all I can do for now.

I did always keep up with my reviews, so I don't have a hopeless pile of reviews stacked somewhere that would make me want to just say 'f*ck it' and stop learning altogether. I still do want to learn this language, so I'll try to keep up. ^^ Ganbatte!!

Progress as of October 24th

So this past week I had a holiday and I got a lot of Japanese done. I've also got more of a clue now on how to progress, so I'm progressing faster and further.

So here's another update on how I'm doing.

I've started RTK2 again, so far I'm on 577 cards.
Vocabulary for N5 has me on 191 words (I think I'll add some more today, so I'll be past 200 then).
I've just finished Tae Kim's Basic Grammar, which contains 11 topics. Now moving on to Essential Grammar, which contains 18 topics.

Japanese-wise, it's been a productive holiday! ^^ Health-wise it's been a bit worse, but hey, you can't have everything.

Watch these little fish as they follow your mouse, waiting for you to click and leave them some food. (Warning: very addictive)

Progress

Wooooh I've finally caught up with where I left off in RTK2.

Like I said in my previous post, I had suspended all my RTK2 cards before my Japan trip, so I wouldn't have a whole load of reviews when I got back. And just now I unsuspended the last cards and I'm up-to-date with my reviews again! ^^ I am quite pleased with myself.

I have been studying more N5 as well. I am up to exactly 100 words now. ^^

Also I have caught up on my Tae Kim studies, reviewing what I'd learnt so far, so tomorrow I can start with a new chapter.

So all in all it's been quite a productive day and I'm pretty proud of myself! ^^

Progress

Well, it's been a while since I've updated. But I've started my studies again. I've been studying vocabulary off the N5 (former JLPT4; Japanese Language and Proficiency Test, the easiest level). That's going quite fast, because I know a lot of the words already and, which I am very pleased about, I no longer have to learn the kanji, because I know them all. So it's just learning the pronunciation, and no longer the writing. ^^

In Japan I bought Flash cards on a ring. They're basically plain flash cards but they are attached by the ring; making them very easy for learning words/sentences. So I've been using those and Anki to learn and review my vocabulary.

I got rather behind on my RTK2 work, so I suspended all my cards in Anki and I'm slowly adding them again, a few at a time (now I only have about 190 of the 560+ cards suspended, so hopefully soon I will have added them all back again and I can start learning more new ones. ^^