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i wasn’t quite sure if this really fit in like… tips or anything else so i am putting it here.
i mean like, physical things… like certain kinds of paper or notebooks or pens or whatever…. maybe i just wanted to tell everyone about this incredibly amazing notebook i found that is perfect (for me) (and hopefully for you (if it is not helpful to anyone else my cause is lost), if you take physical notes!) for taking japanese-related notes.
http://www.blueskyimg.com/14/Detail/ProNotesCharcoal85x11
i am obsessed with notebooks and taking physical notes and for several years i’ve dreamed of finding one that has graph paper and ruled paper side by side…. and suddenly i receive one of these as a gift???? incredible.
for me, a notebook like that is really helpful because the graph paper is nice for practicing the kana/kanji & writing like…. vocabulary & other lists or whatever, etc while you can take “actual” notes on the side
actually… i’m kind of just obsessed with office supplies in general and get really excited about them. (shopping for school is probably what i get most excited for.)
i also use many different colors/boldnesses(???) of pens! generally i like using superfine (0.5) for writing kana/kanji and wider widths (usually 0.7) for other notes.
i’ve liked these pens a LOT lately, and i guess they’re kind of expensive but they write really well and last a long time and don’t bleed and dry fast, so they’re really good for physical notes imo, especially since there’s so many different colors which makes it easy to organize things!
i also make flash cards just from cutting blank (occasionally ruled) index cards, but that’s nothing special..
please excuse me for getting so excited about office supplies…..
what have YOU found useful for learning japanese? what do YOU use often? do YOU enjoy physical notes? office supplies?
I’m not sure I understand the need for the book with squared and lined paper on opposite pages. If you use the squared side to practise writing, does that mean you’ll be taking notes ON each practice session using the lined side? If not, then why do they need to be together? Is it not enough to have one book of squared and one book of lined? If the notes you’re taking are on grammar or something unrelated to the writing practice, you’ll have to flick through double the number of pages to find a previous note.
I used to practise kanji on squared paper, but it didn’t really matter what writing utensil I used: pencil, ball-point, fine liner, I just took whatever was closest haha. Now when I’m adding words to Anki, I write them down on a blank notepad that’s just on the desk beside me – not too long ago, I recorded every new word in a small lined notebook, writing the kanji/reading/meaning one by one, but that was so much more time-consuming, so after WAY too long of doing it that way, I decided to stop. As for flash cards, like I mentioned previously, I use Anki, so physical paper/card flash cards are unnecessary.
Sorry if my methods bore you :P
I used to do a lot of writing too. (With RTK, it was a necessity.) I used to rewrite example sentences from books so I could reference them easily later, but it became kind of a chore. I found it was just as easy to look it up from the source (often times easier, since my sources tended to be online) than to flip through my hard-copy notes. Even in paper textbooks (at least the good ones) the index it more helpful than my notes.
It’s been hard for me to give it up. (I’m a bit of a school-supply geek as well.) It never really felt like studying unless I was writing something down.
I think my writing has actually suffered a bit from the lack of practice, an maybe my reading too (I now occasionally confuse similar kanji I never would have in the RTK heyday) but my reviews are a lot faster and easier to do on the go. And, as Koichi says (or at least he did a hundred versions ago), handwriting isn’t really all that useful.
Today at work I couldn’t find the small sized paper clips. I became unhappy.
The annoying thing with paper clips is that it’s only when you need one that you can’t find any; the rest of the time, they seem to be everywhere. Or if they are there, they’re the wrong size. Same thing with rubber bands.
I needed emergency paperclips once, and they only had the coloured ones in nearby shops. Wound up using the white, black, blue and purple ones (in that order)… but what to do with the garish pink and other fluorescents! It turns the paper into a joke at first sight. Also, I will never buy cheap rubber bands again, they didn’t even stretch, they just crumbled into pieces the moment I tried to use them (most useless stationary I ever bought).
I do like nice pens, but buy the cheapest ones too because they tend to end up sticking out of the dart board. And not just pens; if it can be thrown into a dart board, it will be.
I’ve started only using pencils at work because every night the cleaners steal the pens on the desks.
My boss used to chew on my pens whenever he came over to my desk. Oh, it was completely unconscious, but that doesn’t make it any less disgusting. I got into the habit of hiding all the good ones and leaving just the pre-chewed one on the desk…
Wait until you have a cold, get some new pens, and give them a chew. Replace the pens he’s chewed with ones you’ve chewed and that’ll teach him ;) Or cover them in something that tastes disgusting.
Well, he’s not my direct boss any more, so he’s no longer in a position to chew on my pens – he was only an interim boss because we were lacking an office manager at the time. Also, I don’t chew my pens. That’s disgusting.
Agreed, chewing or sucking pens is disgusting. Just holding the pen in your mouth is fine though.
I think the filthy part is the saliva, rather than the suction, so just having it in someone elses mouth is just as bad. Whether or not it’s discusting to hold one’s own pens in one’s own mouth, would be a matter of personal opinion I guess.
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