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Mister, I was sure you were beyond 2k by now? Congrats on RTK anniversary :P
Elenkis, will finishing Core3k really be enough to start reading on my own?
Well you can certainly start, just be aware that 3000 words really isn’t much and that you will need to continue studying new vocab each day. You’re not going to be able to read without looking a lot of stuff up, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try IMO.
Even at 4700 there often times where every sentence I read has a word or two that I don’t know, but it’s getting better.
“Not really. The sentences in the core 6k are all pretty basic gramatically, though some are slightly more tricky than others.”
All the more reason to go for native materials once you are beyond the basics then ^^
@Hattori: I started Core2k last summer I think, but I was going kinda slow after starting uni and being busy all the time. Plus I wait for reviews to die down before I do new cards. I’m picking up the pace a little this semester though, doing new cards slightly more often. I’m at 1100 now, 900 to go. Though once I’ve finished those 900 left, I’ll just go straight on to the Core 6k ones, so it’s more like “1100 down, 4900 to go!” :D Probably won’t finish Core 6k for another couple of years at least.
@Elenkis: How long have you been doing the Core series, do you think?
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This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by
MisterM2402 [Michael].
I’m not really sure. It’s been about 15 or 16 months since I started, but I’ve taken a number of breaks from it during that time, so I can’t say how many days of studying it’s been. If I had been more conisistent then I could have finished it by now.
Right now I’m aiming to finish by May.
Jeez, I don’t remember English being as troublesome as this is :( I was intermediate level (according to my high school textbook) when I started using English on a daily basis. Sure, I would run across a word I didn’t know (“scapegoat”, “blaze”, “abyss” and such – I was into death metal back then :p), but one or two in every sentence? That never happened… Maybe Japanese really is hard! *gasp*
I think you might just underestimate how many English words you really knew. An average 6 year old child knows 10,000 – 14,000 words according to wikipedia.
In other words, we know a massive number of words in our native language. I know when I first started learning Japanese that 3000 words sounded like a huge number to me, but now I realise how many words there really are it’s quite shocking. 4700 words in and I still only just learned words like “peep”, “classmate”, “mouthful” and “clumsy” in the past week.
Yeah, I see what you mean. I must have known around 10,000 words back then to be able to understand 90% of everything. My only consolation at the moment is the thought that the ability to learn new vocab grows over time. As I said, when I just started with Core I was learning 5 new sentences/day. Now I go through around 30, no problem. That’s why I plan to finish C3k by June/July, even though it took me three months to finish C1k alone.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by
Hatt0ri.
That’s one of the reasons I can’t get back into studying the language, is vocab. When I was learning English (my second language) as a youngster, it took me nearly 20 years to amass the vocab I have today, and that’s considering I used to read dictionaries for fun. I’ve managed to attain native fluency in English (I can honestly say I might even speak it better than some of my mates who are native speakers) and nonetheless still encounter unfamiliar words on occasion.
When I think of having to go through that gruelling journey once again for Japanese, potentially taking 20 years to gather as large a vocabulary as I have in English (maybe longer) and attain native fluency, I honestly don’t think I have the stamina for it.
I could get super excited over learning the core 1000 (or 2000 or 6000) and then realise that I still have the vocabulary of a grade schooler, and I don’t think I have the patience for that any more, at my age.
I feel the same as Hattori, I can’t ever recall English being a pain to learn. I had it from 3rd grade 8yo. and had classes for maybe 4 hours every week. But somehow without anki, and without any kind of review I managed to learn all the vocab, and could easily use it 5 years later to play MMOs and surf the internet. The learning method used must have sucked compared to how I learn now, but I am still amazed at how I even managed to master English, because I don’t remember much of the learning process.
Today more than 10 years after I started learning English for the first time I feel comfortable typing, speaking and listening to English, and most things I actually prefer to have in English rather than my native language now. Sometimes it is just wrong to see the Danish words for tech and IT, and I am just left laughing at it :PNow that took 10 years to get to this stage, and it has come at the cost of me forgetting Danish vocab, only remembering the English words often. I easily think the learning process can be refined, and I think the time can be at least halved as long as you stay focused. I think you would agree as well, that during the 20 years you weren’t focused on learning vocab at all, right? Most of my time spend with learning Enlgish has been in classes, and then playing games in my spare time, chatting with people from all over Europe over VOIP. That is not focused at all, and I believe that I can learn Japanese at least at double the rate at which I learned English.
TLDR; The time it takes to learning a language depends on the dedication.
@Hattori: It’s taken you 3 months to do C1k? It’s taken me *6* months and I ended up knowing around half of them XD Going pretty slowly, I guess. However, last night I did 50 new cards – I wouldn’t normally do so many, but around 30 of them were ones I already knew :D
It’s actually quite nice seeing how many words I remember just from having seen them in various places (usually my textbook), as opposed to specifically “studying” them :)
@Gigatron: Wait, so are you giving up with Japanese then? :/
@Mister: Yes and no. I still haven’t decided what to do.
I’m in a sort of “limbo” with it and have been for some time. I’ve maintained a few of the “immersion” habits I used, and occasionally still practise it (mostly out of habit), but I am no longer actively studying. I keep saying I’m gonna go back to it, but I never do. Part of me still wants to do it, but another part no longer sees any real benefit to it.
For months now, Anki has sat unused and I’ve not even visited Lang-8. I still habitually gather up new vocab words/kanji, but have not studied/drilled any of them. The only speaking practise I still do is the occasional trip to the local restaurant where I might rattle off what little I already know.
Regardless, my phone/game consoles/software are still set to Japanese, I still listen to Japanese music/podcasts, still play Japanese games, still watch Japanese TV/DVDs/Youtube, and sometimes (attempt to) read a bit. Again, mostly out of habit, but I guess also because of the part of me that doesn’t want to give it up.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Too many reviews! I went to Osaka with some of the other teachers this weekend and didn’t keep up. 518. It’s not the most I’ve ever had but still a lot. I’d better stretch first.
Why is vocab such a big deal? It’s easy to learn new vocab, force yourself to ‘learn’ 10, 20 or 30 words a day by going over them in Anki for a short while then repeat this the next day, it feels like nothing is going in but a couple of days later you’ll be remembering tehm. Lots of vocab is child’s play.
and by learn I just mean force the words, you don’t have to remember them perfectly until many reviews later.
Ｉ’ｍ ｃｈｉｌｄ’ｓ ｐｌａｙ．
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This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by
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