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. ^^
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Friday, 25 February 2011
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!!
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!!
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