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I’m halfway through season 4, and I’m studying through Anki/Wani Kani every day. When I’m studying/quizzing myself, I have barely any mistakes on recollection, so it’s in my brain and retained.
I’m a thinker, and I think when I’m by myself a lot. Usually what I try to do is take whatever I’m thinking, and try to transfer it to the closest Japanese sentence I can think of. But what I noticed is that I have such a hard time recalling vocabulary and proper grammar in the heat of the moment. With the one Japanese-native friend I have around here, when we’re conversing, 90% of my side of the conversation is 「えとぉ～」と「あのぉ～」と「わかりません」etc. Why do I have such a hard time in the heat of the moment?! It’s driving me crazy. I browsed the forum a little bit but couldn’t find anything similar to my problem.
The information is in there, I know it is… I need some reinforcement tips. :< Please!
I know what you mean – I can happily compose whole sentences or paragraphs on my own, but if someone asks me a question, I suddenly forget how to say anything. All I can suggest is practice, practice, practice. Hopefully someone else has a more useful idea. =)
Same here, I’ve just been hoping it will fall into line with experience… I certainly know a few thousand words, and can recall individual words, but when I ask myself; ‘what would be a good way of saying this?’ the sentence doesn’t come. Thinking about it now…
…at speed, I would speculate that the mind has to dredge up multiple words and grammar rules unconsciously, before one consciously composes a sentence from the bits that go together to create the desired meaning and nuance… It’s just an idea to test, but you could try thinking of ways to enhance that process (if it exists).
Yeah, really the trick is being able to think in Japanese, and noone’s ever been able to explain to me how you can do that. =)
My friend from Kobe who lives where I do told me that the only way to get really solid is to live there. I didn’t really accept that because, holy cow, that would suck if it was the only solution! I mean, when I took Spanish in high school I didn’t have this problem at all, but with Japanese I’m actively engaged every day willingly; I’m not taking any courses, it’s all on my own. I just don’t get it. I guess, maybe, I could do some active listening more, but that doesn’t help on my end for conversational stuff. I’m also having a Japanese student stay with me in two weeks, so I don’t want to come off as an idiot. Oh well.
This time I came up with a practicable idea that may help. If part of the problem is having to think about vocab to recall it, which takes time and isn’t so easy with someone staring at you expecting a reply. Then how about playing word games that require recall with little mental prompting.
I heard one where you have to come up with words that start with the same syllable as the last one ended in (or second to last in the case of i-adjectives and dictionary verbs. No conjugations unless they’re set phrases).
So… 人…とても…物語…林檎…ご飯… (new rule: words ending in ん can lead to words starting with; な、に、ぬ、ね or の)
Or perhaps just a good old game of word association.
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This reply was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by
Astralfox. Reason: んんんんんん
Shiritori is nouns only. And ending in ん means you lose. =P
I prefer my version XD
There was a thread based around that game a while ago, wasn’t there? And I kept guessing words ending in ん :P
Yeah, really the trick is being able to think in Japanese, and noone’s ever been able to explain to me how you can do that. =)
Well, let me try.
First, I moustache-you a question. XD When you try to think in Japanese, do you usually end up trying to translate it back to English automatically? This is a habit for lots of people, but habits can be untrained. c: Promise.
What helps me the most, I find, is something that may seem really irrelevant at first: being skilled at clearing the mind. Very much like when you’re meditating and your entire brain shuts up for ten minutes. Before I study Japanese vocab or sentence-making I try to achieve a cleared mind first. This kind of “resets” everything, especially the language center of the brain. With a more “reset” mind it’s easier to feel out the word than to try to remember it intellectually (that’s how you learned your native language anyway). Also, when you’re comfortable with being able to shut down/push away pestering thoughts in general, it helps to hold back the urge to translate things to English again if you’re talking in Japanese within your mind.TL;DR
I find that learning a language (vocab, grammar) through feeling is better than trying to learn it by memorizing. When you feel something deeply it becomes natural to say out loud. Practicing quieting native speech thoughts might help.Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur. -
This reply was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by
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