Nihongo Notes - Notes on the Japanese language & culture

Thinking back to 2008

2011-04-11T20:00:00+09:00

I had to cut short my earlier article on Pimsleur Japanese audio lessons because I was rambling on about my experiences with Japanese. So I thought I'd make it a separate progress report.

UK

Listening to Pimsleur Japanese lessons takes me all the way back to the UK in early 2008 when I started walking around the local park on my lunch break and listening to Pimsleur lessons. Back then it was just a side hobby, I was a total noob, and I can remember having difficulty remembering even the basics. It was just a hobby to pass the time and prepare for my 2 week trip in May of 2008. I'd always been drawn to Japan and its culture, so I decided to take a holiday there. I had no idea what life had in store for me.

Japan

3 years later and I'm now living in Japan, married, with a son who is almost 3 months old. These past 3 years have gone by incredibly quickly. I've done so much, but I do wish that I was further ahead in my Japanese study after these 3 years, but in all honesty I think I'm doing pretty good considering all the changes and challenges in my life over this time.

I'm now into a full study flow and there's no going back. My listening and reading is coming along in leaps & bounds, my writing following a close second, with my speaking ability still a poor third. I'm no longer stressing over my difficulty with speaking, since I can see my reading & listening improving and know it's purely a matter of time until I have the vocabulary, knowledge and confidence to speak more. My family and close friends understand the difficulties I'm facing and I appreciate their patience.

Remembering the Kanji (RTK)

Aside from Pimsleur audio lessons I'm continuing on with RTK. I'm now at 396 kanji and aiming for 26 new ones a day. I've worked out 26 is the daily limit for my memory, and the maximum I can get done given the time I have. I don't always hit that target, but if I get even 10 new kanji studied in a day it's a good day.

Vocabulary

I'm in a sort of inbetween state right now with my vocabulary. I know an basic amount of vocabulary, and I'm studying a little inbetween everything else. I'm already using what I know with RTK to learn readings of the kanji. This is where a lot of the feedback of RTK is coming from. I get a great feeling when I can see a kanji, know the English keyword and know the Japanese reading. It's happening more and more, and once I'm 'done' with RTK I plan to go over it again and replace the English keywords with Japanese vocabulary.

JLPT

I've bought myself an N5 exam book to get in some practice. I'm easing myself into the JLPT with the N5 exam. I hope to take it in December if all goes to plan.

Pimsleur Japanese

2011-04-11T12:00:00+09:00

In an effort to get in shape, but continue using as much time as possible studying Japanese, I've been walking 7k each morning before work whilst listening to Pimsleur Japanese audio lessons. I walk for just over 1 hour, which is enough time to listen to two audio lessons.

The Pimsleur lessons work by building upon the previous lessons. The key is to listen to the episodes more than once and move to the next one when you can understand 80-90% of what's being said. It does get repetitive, but the English and Japanese audio is balanced nicely enough not to get annoying. I'm working through them quite quickly since the first set is a little easy for my level, but I'm learning something new each lesson.

I recommend them, but they're really expensive, try the sample lesson first or borrow it from a friend.

Benefits of Remembering the Kanji

2011-04-09T18:25:00+09:00

I've done a lot of study the last few months, and it's really paying off.

I'm still working my way through Remembering the Kanji (RTK) and so far it has been a huge benefit. At first I thought learning English keywords for kanji would be a waste of time, an extra pointless step, and initially I rejected the whole idea. I was under pressure from all sides to learn Japanese as fast as possible, and having to learn English readings first seemed like a huge delay. I did give it two attempts, but I wasn't getting positive feedback from it quickly enough1 and I stopped. I spent the next few months banging my head against a brick wall by trying to work through mind-numbingly boring textbooks.

Since trying RTK again I can now see it's the perfect stepping stone into reading, writing and even speaking Japanese. There is no quick route to learning Japanese. Most people I know have studied it for years, some going to University for 3 or more years, and even studying for 1 or 2 years before that. So I'm now giving myself a sensible timeframe in which to learn Japanese and I'm giving RTK the time it deserves.

Background

I'm focusing on input first, output second. That means I want to be able to read and listen better than I can write or speak. I'm finding a lot more success in this path right now. The writing is being taken care of with RTK, and although it is the least important skill, the writing helps a lot with remembering the kanji.

I can read some of the kanji on the TV, pick out and match what is being said, and with that I can repeat it. I then often hear the same things being said to me later on and picture the kanji in my mind. So the speaking takes care of itself until I decide to focus on speaking practice. Being able to at least string a few words together and be understood is a great feeling, even if it's broken Japanese. I've found little success with textbooks, so they are on hold. I plan to work through several textbooks later to work out any issues with my grammar.

I'm also listening to the Pimsleur Japanese Lessons as much as possible, which makes up for the lack of daily Japanese conversation (since I work primarily in English). It's very repetitive, but it gets right to the point. It's the only audio lesson I've found that isn't full of pointless English discussion or, in the case of podcasts, incredibly annoying intro jingles...

べつべつ

I've known べつべつ for a long time, but only as spoken word, I've never seen it written. It means "separately". So in the case of having lunch you would say at the counter べつべつでおねがいします which would be understood as something like "We would like to pay separately please".

別別

However, one business lunchtime after working and lunching at home for a long time, my memory had faded and I doubted if it was べつべつ or not. Luckily I remembered that I had learned the kanji for "separate" in RTK. So I looked it up on my iPhone and up came 別, which has the On reading of べつ. Aha! I looked a little further and there it was 別別 (べつべつ), I was right.

Connections

Now I will never forget that 別 means "separate", has the On reading of べつ, and べつべつ is 別別. Without the kanji and English keyword in my mind I would have struggled to remember it the next time. I'm making all sorts of connections like this now. Before I started RTK I would never remember readings or meanings after drilling kanji and vocabulary into my head. I wasted a lot of time on methods that didn't work, but I guess it's all part of the self-study experience.

Benefits of RTK

So it seems although RTK is a lot of work, giving you no direct ability to speak Japanese, the benefit is in getting the kanji (and a rough English meaning) into your head. Then you can start making connections in your mind, and replacing the English keywords with Japanese, which is a lot easier than trying to drill it into your brain as Japanese from the start (at least it is for me).

I went through a lot of burnout and failures to get to this point, and I honestly think every self-student has to go through a certain amount to find their own study method. However, if you're reading this, maybe it will prompt you to give RTK another try and save you a little time.

Blogging

2011-04-09T09:00:00+09:00

After several months away from the blogosphere, I've decided to return and share my experiences with learning Japanese and living in Japan.

I find it helps to write out my thoughts, but I also hope any advice I give here might help someone else to avoid burning out with their Japanese studies.

I've no blogging schedule, since that seems more like a job than a fun writing experience. So I'll be updating whever I have something of worth to say.

You will notice there are no comments (or adverts). If you want to discuss anything with me feel free to tweet with me @chrisgaunt.

I put this site together in a couple of days, learning about Jekyll. The layout is iPhone/iPad (and Print!) friendly. It's currently a work in progress.