Nihongo Notes

This is a long-ass article… I wrote it mostly for myself, so I can look back and see what I was thinking and doing when I was learning. If it helps you in any way or you think I’m talking rubbish I’d love to know!

I have a confession to make…

I’ve hardly practiced any Japanese these last few weeks. I went away for training with work, missed a few days practice and never got back into a routine. I was already behind on my written work for my Japanese tutor. I’m now faced with a massive amount of cards in my SRS and I’m also way behind on my written homework for my tutor.

I’d say to myself “Ok, tomorrow I will do a whole load of practice and get back into a routine”.

Tomorrow comes and goes. I did this for 2 weeks without getting anywhere. Then I read an article at Feed Me Japanese that made me realise I couldn’t face doing it because it wasn’t fun anymore! It had turned into a chore! I had promised myself at the start that I wouldn’t let it turn out like that.

Where had I gone wrong?!

I started out with the aim of learning Japanese through immersion. I wanted to learn like a child would learn, surrounded by Japanese and absorbing everything like a sponge.

I would use this method alongside the traditional study methods of adults. It started out well, but I gradually got into a bad routine. I’d run through my SRS/flashcards without much care, collecting new words and phrases like they were Pokemon, never using them outside of the SRS. I was listening to the same 5 podcasts over and over because I hadn’t mastered every word or sentence. I felt I didn’t have time to sit and watch a Japanese drama or anime episode because I had more important things to do like writing the same sentences out over and over. I ended up doing the one thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do; learning by repetition and drilling the words into my head.

After sitting down and thinking about it I realised that the Japanese I had memorised was reinforced by strong memories. I can remember すきだよ (I like you) because there’s a certain person I like. I can remember 日本 (Japan) because I see it every day on my textbooks or online. Ok, so I don’t know the full definition of 本 yet, but do I need to? I can worry about it meaning “counter for long cylindrical things” when I come across an occasion where I need to count long cylindrical things. When this time comes I will think “What’s the counter for long cyclindrical things?”, look it up online or ask someone and BAM! I associate 本 not just with 日本 (Japan), but also counting how many crayons that toddler just ate. That memory will stay with me and so will the definition.

Making mistakes with Japanese helps you remember it, probably more than getting it right the first time.

On my trip to Japan in May I was pathetic at using the little Japanese I know. I would mumble most things, quiet enough so maybe it wasn’t heard. This was in fear of making a mistake, but in fact mumbling it is far worse than saying it wrong. It sounded like I wasn’t trying.

So I’ve started saying the first answer that comes to my head.

Since doing this I’ve found that a good percentage of the time I’m actually correct or at least on the right tracks. I still make mistakes. Usually someone is willing to help and point out my error. The best mistakes are either funny or embarrasing enough that you could never forget them. Whichever it is, you’ll not make the same mistake twice.

With all of this in mind I decided to take a look at how I started learning, where I am now and where I want to be.

How I started learning Japanese

First off I learnt the kana by playing Hiragana Drag-n-Drop, Katakana Drag-n-Drop and using an SRS (Anki). This worked really well. If you can read and write using kana you can begin to communicate in Japanese. When I heard a Japanese word I would picture it in my mind as kana symbols, rather than romaji (english characters). It’s a great feeling when you can read kana!

I made a few friends online, but I can’t even string a decent sentence together in Japanese yet so I was only repeating the basic greetings and the rest of our conversations were in English. It was better than nothing though. The fact I repeated the greetings often is why I remember them so easily.

I listenined to podcasts, radio and j-rock music. I could recognise only a few words but just hearing Japanese regularly helped me get a grip on how to pronounce new words.

I watched doramas and anime, but not very often.

My current state of learning

I started learning the kanji with Heisigs book “Remembering the Kanji”. This was going well until my burnout. I’ve now pretty much forgotten all of the kanji I learnt except the ones I have a strong memory tied to.

I never got past using basic greetings with my friends and we still only talk in English.

I’m still listening to music but I stopped listening to my podcasts because I was repeating the same ones over and over in an attempt to master them before moving on.

I’m watching even less anime and no doramas at all.

I’m now meeting a private tutor once a week in a cafe for 2 hours. We’re going through “Japanese for Busy People” which I find a bit dull, but at least I’m getting practice with a native speaker.

My new approach to Japanese

I’m going to keep reading Heisigs book but I’m no longer going to use an SRS. I’ll keep using it and referring to it but I won’t try and drill anything into my head with flashcards. I want to remember the kanji via my own memories rather than using stories.

I’ll speak much more Japanese with my friends. Also I was lucky enough to meet my girlfriend in Tokyo in May and she’s willing to put up with my poor Japanese. She speaks excellent English, but she knows how much I want to learn the language so we’re going to speak Japanese as much as we can together.

Lang-8 here I come! I’ve decided to start writing a diary entry once a week in Japanese. It might just be one line if that’s all I can manage, but I have to start somewhere. I’ll post it straight to this blog as well as Lang-8. Hopefully someone will correct me if I get something wrong. I’ll also hand write the entry so I get writing practice and my private tutor can mark my work. Koichi has a good review of Lang-8 on his blog.

Operation “shock the tutor” is now in effect. I’ll try and learn a new phrase, such as a greeting or a question and use it when I meet my tutor. We usually have a little discussion about our week so I will try and do this in Japanese rather than English.

I’ll be twitterin’ and plurkin’ little things in Japanese. Just the other day I said I was tired in Japanese and someone responded in Japanese. That was a great feeling. I had to look up the meaning of what they said, but that’s why twitter is so good. I don’t need to reply instantly, so I have the time to work on a response if one is needed.

I’m not going to worry about mastering everything. I’ll listen to the Japanesepod101.com beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons. I might not understand the more difficult lessons but I think it’s best to push myself. I can’t expect to progress far if I’m always sticking to the beginner comfort zone. I’ll make sure I don’t spend too long on the same lesson but I also have to make sure I’m paying full attention to each one. So I will put aside some quiet podcast time.

A large serving of doramas, anime and films. Hold the english subtitles. I’ll pick out a few words or sentences from memorable scenes, write them down and I might even post about it on the blog. English subtitles are no help at all so I’ll be turning them off.

Having fun and being spontaneous. If I want to respond to someone in Japanese I’ll use the first thought I have rather than doubt myself. I might get it wrong, someone might tell me I’m an idiot or laugh at me. I’ll soon remember the right answer. I usually laugh at myself anyway.

..and that’s how I plan to beat burnout and procrastination

I’m not under a strict regime of learning 10 kanji a day. I don’t have the pressure of an SRS deck to keep up to date. I can learn it however much or little I want. The thing is that because I’m making it fun I will probably practice it even more than before without even realising it. If I want to spend a day watching anime then I can. If I want to have a day off then I can. If I want to walk around the house in my underpants singing “Mafuyu no Hikari” by The Back Horn then, by god, I can.

I’m going to enjoy Japanese. I’ll have fun with it, make mistakes, associate those memories with words and learn it. I don’t know if this will work. I’ll come back and tell you how I got on or you can follow my blog via rss. Maybe I’ll write up my final conclusion in Japanese so you’ll have to learn it to understand that I in fact haven’t learnt Japanese and I just copied and pasted the latest news headlines from Mainichi Daily News. Either way, one of us might learn Japanese.

Photo sources: Danny Choo, sean dreilinger, killermonkeys, random dude, jon hanson