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Just gotta pace yourself a bit :D Enthusiasm and motivation for studying are great, but too much will leave you burned out (RTK, I’m looking at you) haha
I found with the Core list, throughout the first 2000, each time I added new cards I already knew around 50% or more of them; once I got to the “6000″ part, that drastically reduced XD It’s not all bad though: there are a lot of words that are either “katakanised” English, stems of previously-known verbs, or compound verbs that are easy to guess :)
As for my own studying, I’m now onto the second level of my short story book. The first four were really interesting, even if a little difficult :D Would recommend it.
I haven’t added any words from Core6k in quite a while, but I’ve downloaded this plugin called “Anki Emperor” which should make reviews a bit more fun – haven’t used it yet, but as far as I’m aware, it’s some kind of game where doing reviews “constructs” buildings and after so many you conquer cities… possibly, not 100% sure. They’re all real cities in Japan, and the buildings are real-life ones too. If anyone wants to know more: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=9551
Also, it’s kind of a sequel to “Anki Warrior”, if that means anything to anyone.I plan on watching a famous drama called 電車男 (with Japanese subtitles) if I get the chance, and I’ve started listening to more Japanese music on last.fm (as I mentioned in another thread). Also plan on listening to some JPod101 podcasts. Still kinda chugging through 完全マスター ３級 (grammar textbook) on random occasions when the mood strikes me.
All in all, it’s not going as badly as it has been, but I’ve always had the goal “1 hour a day doing something constructive Japanese-related” and I don’t think I’ve ever achieved it for any great length of time, maybe a week at the most :P A lot of my time recently has been spent studying for exams and procrastinating studying for exams, but maybe once the Summer break starts and I can’t find a job…
I’ve been aiming for 1000hrs a year, but only made ~750 in my first year. It’s still early, but I’m on track to beat that so far. Most of what I’m doing now is intensive reading…… even though I would be better off with dedicated vocabulary building (my Anki is a neglected disaster area). Actual reading is just so much more fulfilling.
750-1000 hours in a year!? I think that blows most people out of the water :P Is that a really consistent 2-3 hours a day, or do you sometimes have off-days and sometimes 5 hours of studying on others? What do you count in these hours: actively reading/studying, or also passive listening while you’re doing other things?
Definetly not a consistant 3 hours a day, I study when I feel like it.
I count things like; Actively reading, flashcards, grammar workbooks, JPod 101, and (just recently) actively trying to decipher spoken Japanese on TV.
I do not count; Anime, randomly speaking to myself in Japanese while doing other things, or reading blogs on Japanese culture.
Most of what I’ve been doing since christmas is intensive reading, and even though it has helped solidify sentence structures and grammar beyond my expectations, the amount of vocabulary I’ve been picking up is a fraction of what I could have done on Anki. I just can’t seem to muster the motivation to keep up the flashcards now…
Btw, I do experience burnout syndrome, but have been pushing the limit up for years while studying various things. On a good day it takes over 8hrs for my brain to fry now.
Just curious, what are you intensively reading? Do you do any “extensive” reading, where the focus is more on the volume of material you’re reading rather than understanding it all? I’ve got my short story book, but I’m not sure what else I could be reading right now.
As for the burnout thing, the problem’s not so much “how much studying can you do in a day before having to stop”, but more “how long can you keep up intense studying every day before you get frazzled”.
Light novels (I’ve bough some other novels but don’t want to start them until I can read more naturally). The shipping costs are murder, but if you buy a load at once with combined shipping they work out about the same price as novels bought from a bookshop in England. I really want a back issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine from January 2012, there is a short story based on「月光」in there, but the only sources are Amazon marketplace sellers, and you can’t order off those without setting up a mail forwarding thing.
I extensively read a page or more, and then intensively translate it into proper English. Recognising kanji is what comes first with this method, but most of the time I end up looking up the readings over and over… I don’t think it’s very efficient, but it’s fun and keeps my atttention.
@Mister – regarding burnout
All you need to do is to find something that interests you in Japanese so you will using all your spare time immersed in Japanese while having a lot of fun. Before you can do that you do need to be at a pretty high comprehension level though.
What you are saying about intensive study is very true though. If you study very hard every day at some point you will end up not wanting to continue at some point. Though almost happened to me after studying very intensively for JLPT last summer. I had over 500 reviews every day and spend at least 45min doing reviews every day. It was painful and there wasn’t much fun in it. After the JLPT I decreased the amount I study but increased the amount of time reading/watching Japanese media in my spare time. This made it a pleasure to study Japanese again ^^. When doing JLPT this winter I will probably be studying like crazy again knowing myself though.
I am extremely impressed by Astralfox’s hours… wow!!! My best year was 400 hours (RTK, I love and hate you). If I continue at my current pace, I’ll end up around 300-350 hours this year.
Michael – I’ve watched the first couple episodes of 電車男. I didn’t download the Japanese subtitles, though, just watched it without any subs. I understood a lot more of what was written than what was spoken. lol.
マーク – I agree with you about finding something that interests you and immerse yourself in it. That still requires a learning curve, though. Most of what I read in English is too difficult for me still in Japanese – the Bible, religious nonfiction, American/British classics, biographies, and a smattering of modern novels. There is no way I could pick up a biography in Japanese and understand enough to actually find it enjoyable.
I’m a housewife and enjoy cooking so I’ve been reading some cooking books in Japanese and found a couple of blogs to follow. I haven’t done much with the blogs, though. I push myself to study every day and have been, just not enjoying it as much lately as I have in the past. It’s more of a chore to complete than something fun to do.
Yeah, that’s why I’m going to watch it subtitled – I’d probably only understand about 2% without :P
After watching I go back and read the subtitles. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s decent reading practice, and a bit easier (than just reading a book) since you are reading it with the context of what you saw before.
Where are you guys getting the Japanese subs?
Mainly Kitsunekko or D-addicts.
http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/subtitles.php (scroll down)
http://kitsunekko.net/dirlist.php?dir=subtitles/japanese/&sort=name&order=asc
Haven’t got around to watching Densha Otoko yet (are the episodes an hour each or just half?). However I did start listening to the Lower Intermediate series of JPod101 and they’ve been pretty good so far – listened to about 7 or 8 lessons already today :D I walk to and from Uni at least a couple of times a day: each journey’s about 10-15 minutes, so that’s ample time to listen to a lesson (though some lessons are a bit longer). While I already pretty much knew the grammar covered, I learned some new vocab and enjoyed listening to the dialogues and how they are broken down; they have a TON of lessons, so that’s a TON of listening practice :D Actually had to bite my tongue to save laughing or plain grinning like an idiot at some parts; unfortunately it didn’t really work, no idea what people were thinking seeing me :P Would recommend.
Decided to write a lang8 journal based on something I thought. Also since I haven’t done one in around 8 months.
Been slacking off a lot lately but I was about to knock off the 74 reviews that I had on Anki that’s been accumulating for the past week or so.
EDIT: oh, got massively owned on my lang8 journal
Ooh, that’s a lot of corrections. But then it’s a lot of writing, and the second guy said he was specifically correcting heavily. How long did it take to write? And how come you’ve been slacking off? AKB48 aren’t going to learn English for YOU, you know ;)
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