Comments on: How Fluent Am I After 18 Months?

By: jinsei

jinsei — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:13:28 +0000

Interesting. I’ve had about 3 years of on-again, off-again college study of Japanese and I’d say I’m at about the same level as you. I just started the on AJATT method a few weeks ago, and I’m impressed with the improvement it’s made. I’m wondering if you’ve adopted an SRS into your study habits, and what sort of improvement (if any) that had? It seems to me that’s the core of AJATT; all the other stuff is secondary…

By: GoddessCarlie

GoddessCarlie — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:14:59 +0000

I find things like pimsleur work better for me when I am just using them to review. Anyway, I’m glad you stopped by fluxam, I love hearing about what other people do to learn Japanese. Keep it up, and I hope to hear more from you and your methods!

By: fluxam

fluxam — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:25:16 +0000

You evidently made greater progress than I have in 20 months. How I envy you!
FYI, I started with Pimsleur and endlessly repeated it in hopes it would sink in. Didn’t work.
The two texts you mention are my mainstays (but J 4 Evry is very tedious and his grammar points are far too tersely explained; workbook is good, though). You know J4E cassette is on PirateBay? It no longer is produced or sold. There’s a three-volume (expensive) Human: 90 Days of Japanese Language published by Unicom that I’ll work on next; it has 75-min CDs for each book. I’m trying not to get bogged down by any single text but just move on in hopes another will drive the grammar home. BTW, JPod101 seems a waste of time…
I’m doing crash work with Kanji in Mangaland by Bernabe, and that seems okay — vocab is tops. Heisig? Better than many others’ mnemonics, but any memory aid system is so dependent on fancies of the originator. Mind you, Bernabe has a squashed cow radical…
Aah, right now I’m pushing through Walsh’s “Read Japanese Today” in hopes of getting to the end; it sinks in better than others, but doesn’t cement on and kun readings.
The “Yotsuba” managas are translated fairly literally in English and seem helpful for side-by-side study.