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こんにちは ジェームズと 申します、
日本に住んでいる。 英語の教師です。
三年ぐらい 自分で 日本語を 勉強していますけど まだ 上手じゃないかも。
今、 日本語の 勉強は 立ち往生している。
よろしく お願いします。I’ve heard of “The Dip” and I’m not sure if it is the same as “The Hump” but it’s the reason I’m here. I started learning Japanese about 3 years ago. I’ve been self taught from the beginning. I’ve never stopped learning but I feel I’ve hit (and been on) a hump for about a year now.
I still have my desire to learn, but I’m wondering if I fell into a trap that Koichi talks about in the first season of TF – either I’ve been learning Japanese the easy way too long, or I’ve been learning it the hard way but the dumb way, or a combination of both.
Basically, I know a lot of Japanese, but I can’t get past this hump I’m stuck on where I don’t seem to be learning anything new or improving what I do know. I feel like I’m in limbo. So I’m here to try starting from the beginning again and doing it a different (hopefully better) way to see if it helps me get past the hump I’m stuck on.
Warm regards,
James (ジェームズ)-
This topic was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by
James Cotellesse.
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So you’ve been studying for three years without stopping. That proves that you have the desire to learn more. Koichi will tell you how should get rid of the dip but he’ll not do it for you. Don’t forget that the responsibility is your’s.
If you don’t know what to do to improve I have three suggestions for you.1) Find a grammatical topic in e.g. textFugu (or imabi.net or guidetojapanese.org) which you don’t know and then study it.
2) Just communicate with some native Japanese people. Talking or chatting but I think talking will give you the best practice.
3) Vocabulary. You can always increase your vocabulary. I think a large vocabulary will make the whole learning process easier. With textfugu you have a 50% discount on WaniKani btw.Thanks Cimmik,
Yeah, I’m not here to shift responsibility or plead for things to be done for me. I don’t think “The Dip” and my hump are the same thing. I skipped ahead to read about it and I definitely hit “The Dip” before, and got past it. This is different. At least it feels different.
I’m here because there are some basics that I know I didn’t cover properly and I think that is what is preventing my ability to get past “The Hump” – which to me comes after “The Dip” and is much more like a plateau or an extremely long, slow moving, 1 or 2% grade up-slope.
Sounds like The Hump is the thing I experienced when I learned to program. I don’t think you are irresponsible. I would just make sure you didn’t forget the importance of responsibility. If it was The Dip you were colliding it would be more relevant.
I feel I’m sink deeper and deeper into The Dip for each day I study at the moment, actually.
My three suggestions are still relevant for you I think.I kinda feel I’m in sort of the same position. I just finished a three-year diploma in Japanese language at uni, so I’ve (apparently) learnt all the grammar there is to know, but only about a third of the joyo kanji, if that, so all I’ve got ahead is a long slog of kanji and vocab memorisation. I bought a copy of Ni no Kuni for the DS, and I’ve got a small pile of books and manga in Japanese, but it’s kinda slow going. I’ve also got a kanji-memorisation textbook, which I’ve forgotten the name of and is basically just sitting gathering dust. Mostly I just sit around here helping others instead. =P
On that note, though: 日本
にで住んでいる. =DAlso, you’ve got a weird assemblage of casual, polite and formal language going there. Suggest you pick one and stick with it.
In any case, where in Japan? How long have you been there? Enjoying it? You there with JET or something else? Get time to sightsee? =)
Welcome to TextFugu and Happy New Year!
Check out the following links:
Guide for using Anki 2 with TextFugu:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/guide-to-using-anki-2-with-textfugu/
Track your progress and share your ideas/concerns when you finish a season (gain a level ^_^):
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/textfugu-season-completions-for-great-motivation-of-heart
List of additional Japanese resources you may find helpful:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/japanese-learning-resources/
List of Common Errors in TextFugu:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/common-errors-in-textfugu/
がんばって！
On that note, though: 日本
にで住んでいる. =DActually, using で there is not natural. に is definitely correct.
Also, you’ve got a weird assemblage of casual, polite and formal language going there. Suggest you pick one and stick with it.
In any case, where in Japan? How long have you been there? Enjoying it? You there with JET or something else? Get time to sightsee? =)
Oh boy are you right. I’ve never been able to get a good hold on the different styles. I learned many things in polite style, others in slang, and others in different forms of polite. So when I type or speak I often mix… It’s terrible, but I get away with it as a foreigner. It’s anther reason I’m here, lol.
I live in Mizonokuchi in Kanagawa. I came first after the tsunami and stayed for 1 year and then left, now I’m back. I get to sightsee a bit but I’m often busy. My work forces me to constantly use English too, so it’s harder to find time to practice properly.
What you are referring to is commonly called “The Okay Plateau” and it’s infuriating. Google that shit.
Find books, TV shows, movies and games that interest you and get stuck in. You’ll be learning without actually having to “study”. To be fair though, it all depends on what you mean by “Basically, I know a lot of Japanese” – if you really do “know a lot of Japanese”, regular native media is probably fine, but if you find you’ve overestimated your language ability (as plenty of people do), you can always try to find easier materials in the same vein (e.g. picture books, kids shows, bilingual books with both Japanese and English).
Also, what’s with the spaces? Japanese doesn’t use spaces, and if it’s readability you’re going for, kanji do that already (by which I mean they help show word boundaries).
@Joel: How’s Ni No Kuni? I’ve heard it’s pretty good and considered getting it myself. Not sure if I’d be able to understand much of it, even though it’s got furigana.
@Joel: How’s Ni No Kuni? I’ve heard it’s pretty good and considered getting it myself. Not sure if I’d be able to understand much of it, even though it’s got furigana.
I’m surprised by how easily I can understand it, though admittely I’m occasionally missing the subtleties, and sometimes lines flash past too fast for me to read. It took me a little bit to get the hang of reading the furigana, because it’s kinda tiny, so a couple of the kana look a bit weird. Also, practically every second character speaks in a different dialect…
It wound up being fairly good practice for JLPT, because even though it wasn’t specifically teaching me words, it did give me a fairly good feel for what words and usages are more common and/or natural. It also, at one point, taught me 生える (はえる), a reading for 生 which I’d never encountered before – and you’ll never guess what the very first question of the N3 reading test happened to be. =P
Find books, TV shows, movies and games that interest you and get stuck in. You’ll be learning without actually having to “study”. To be fair though, it all depends on what you mean by “Basically, I know a lot of Japanese” – if you really do “know a lot of Japanese”, regular native media is probably fine, but if you find you’ve overestimated your language ability (as plenty of people do), you can always try to find easier materials in the same vein (e.g. picture books, kids shows, bilingual books with both Japanese and English).
Also, what’s with the spaces? Japanese doesn’t use spaces, and if it’s readability you’re going for, kanji do that already (by which I mean they help show word boundaries).
Thanks for the suggestions, I’m looking for some content that can hold my interest while I’m on the go at the moment. I very well may have overestimated my abilities.
As for the spaces, I know kanji does boundaries of words and spaces are not normally used in Japanese, but for Japanese learning sights I do it for ease of reading on others behalf. I don’t do it when texting with friends or writing normally.
Do you use lang-8? I think that is useful no matter your level.
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This topic was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by
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