I thought, for those who are interested, here is the Japanese resources I have on hand with me at the moment, lost in my packing madness. I know I have some more at my dad’s but they are a bit more low priority. For instance I rememeber I have some JLPT 1 books that I got for like a $1 second hand a million years ago.

Anyway, books were super cheap in Japan and not knowing (at the time) when I’d be back I wanted to get enough reading and learning material to last me years. I have several text books in various difficulties for grammar, kanji, listening, reading and even speaking. I researched what books (fiction intended for native Japanese people) other language learners recommend and also got a few that seemed interesting to me and I would like to try. If you have any questions about my books feel free to ask. I’m sure I’ll get around to talking about them all eventually. I am a believer that you can never have to many books! Plus if I get bored or stuck in one book, I can give it a breather and go onto something else, instead of being stuck in a rut.

My manga collection is atleast double the size of this… Long live Book Off.

Let’s see, what else have I been up to?

Was in Brisbane City and saw a Dalek. Got excited. Then noticed that the Doctor was around too.

I went to a Metallica concert. It was pretty awesome.

Photos taken with the awesome camera of the iphone 3g.

My neck was a bit sore after from looking up. I would say statistically people who love metal are male, white, and frickin tall. I fall under one of those categories.

Here’s the setlist from the show – totally different from what I thought they would be playing. It was great. Setlist nabbed from setlist.fm.

That Was Just Your Life
The Four Horsemen
Ride The Lightning
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Unforgiven
Harvester Of Sorrow
I Disappear
Sad But True
No Leaf Clover
Orion
One
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Encore:
Blitzkrieg (Blitzkrieg cover)
My Apocalypse
Seek & Destroy

Well, I should get some lunch and continue the packing/clean up. See you on the other side Or should that be \m/

Some of you may know nanowrimo – an event which takes part in November where you attempt to write 50,000 words in a month. My goal of November was something similar, I wanted to see if I could attempt to study for 100 hours during November. The outcome is I’ll probably just be a little short of 70 hours, but I’m pretty happy with that! Next month I’m aiming for 80 hours – it might be a bit harder because it’s the holiday season but we’ll see how I go!

What follows is a long breakdown of what I’ve been up to during November!

Listening

My listening category includes watching tv/movies as well as other education specific audio. My main source was watching tv, I only include it when I am actively listening and not when I’m multi tasking or have background noise. I think when I have a larger vocabulary I will do more level specific listening to try and improve my listening skills. One TV show I do recommend to beginners is “My Girl” staring Aiba Masaki – the dialogue for the most part is spoken very slowly and simply as the main character is a young girl. Yeah, it’s a bit… but it’s easy study material!

There is one more day left in November, but it’s not like I’m going to drastically increase my study hours… With that in mind, in November I watched/listened to about 15 hours of Japanese.
December’s goal: 20 hours.

Reading

Breakdown:

• Grade 3 (primary school) short story book
• Grade 1 and 2 (primary school) short story book
• Manga
• Novel for 10-11 year old girls

Reading is a skill that I really want to improve. One of my goals of learning Japanese is to be able to understand Japanese books in their native language easily. This month I did more purchasing of books that actual reading. It’s actually a bit strange, but out of all the different types of study activities I do, I find reading the most tireing. It may be the times of day that I read – usually on the bus on the way home from work or in bed before I go to sleep, but I always find after a page I need to close my eyes and go to sleep. This is frustrating!! But I am hoping with time it wont be so taxing on my brain or I will find time to read at different times and I will see a difference.

I started out with a reader for grade 3 (primary school) Japanese children. It is actually a pretty good book for learners because it is full of short stories, all kanji have furigana and at the end of the short stories is a short little quiz on the content of the story to see if everything was understood. There are also little dictionary type meanings under some words that must be knew/unknown to most 3rd graders which was helpful! My method of going through this was to first look up any unknown words and write them down in pencil next to the word. The words in the book are big and have large spaces between the lines, so it was perfect for this. The problem is that my vocab knowledge is so low that it was hard to infer anything and had to look up a lot of words. And I found the first story a bit unsatisfying. My problem is, I think, that I don’t like short stories in English, I like getting to know the Characters and going on a journey with them… So perhaps I shouldn’t expect to like them in Japanese either…

Still, I felt my first foray into reading Japanese literature a bit of a failure, I went and bought some books that are full of short stories for grades one and two (at the time I was thinking my main problem was vocab and perhaps something very simple would fill me with a sense of accomplishment). So far I’ve read a couple of short stories from the grade one book, and I have to say it does make me feel good when I can read through something and understand maybe 70% of it. I can infer meaning from the pictures and sometimes there may be a sentence I don’t undertand but it doesn’t bother me. I haven’t felt the need to use a dictionary yet even if I don’t fully understand something. There is also a cute poem in the grade one book that I liked. But yes, over all the stories are… a little strange and a bit confusing because I guess they are meant for young children – it’s satisfying in that I can read but what I’m reading isn’t satisfying, I hope that makes sense!

Manga. I have been reading a book for young teen girls, a high school relationships manga. Your everyday sort of stuff, nothing remarkable about the story line. I bought this book at the wonderful Book Off when I first got to Japan and started it then but didn’t get far. This time it was nice to open the book and understand more than what I did then. I am improving!! Yay I haven’t finished it yet (reading is slow!) and again, I think I’m getting too old for the school girl stuff, I want to move onto something more my age – damn I feel old sometimes! The problem with moving on is vocab/kanji with a lack of furigana etc. So again with the yay for reading but the story isn’t grabing me type stuff. Yeah, if I was at the stage I am now half a year ago I would have been over joyed but it’s a case of the grass is always greener – but I guess in a way it is motivating me to keep going.

Next: Today I bought some books that as far as I can tell are for girls about 10-12 years old. I’m expecting them to be tough. However, I feel like I’ll be more satisfied with them. Sure, they are still for young girls, but they are fantasy stories about (I hope!) strong female characters – these are my favourite type stories to read in English so I’m hoping that they will be more staisfying. So far I read the prologue of one, it was really easy! It was the main character introducing herself (introductions are about the only thing I’m good at in Japanese!) and about her history. I did it infront of the computer to quickly look up a couple of words in the dictionary (no writing down) but for the most part it was exciting that I was reading a “real” book. We’ll see how I go as I get into the story line more. I’m sure I’ll be complaining about it at the end of next month. It’ll either be too hard to read or the story line is too simplistic or something!!!

November Hours Reading: 5 hours
December Goal: To finish a book!

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Grammar

I’ve been using:

• Kanzen Master JPLT 3 Grammar book
• JET program language course – intermediate level
• review book for beginners/JLPT 3 level

I’ve been spending my time learning/reviewing JLPT level 3 grammar, using Kanzen Master JLPT 3 grammar guide. This is a good book, mostly all in Japanese with a little bit of english to explain the grammar point. I would have to say with JLPT level grammar, about 90% I already “knew” – knew in that I had encountered it before. A lot of it, however, still isn’t firmly in my head, like giving and recieving (I don’t know why I have trouble with this!), passive and causatives. Also transitive and intransitives. Much work to be done! There were a small amount of points I hadn’t learnt before but I think these ones will be quite simple to master.

Over all I do recommend Kanzen Master JLPT 3. I have no intention of studying the JLPT at this stage, but I like the way everything has been grouped into like forms, there are example sentences that are going to be at my level and there are quizes to check if you understood. Now, some of the quizes are easy in that “Oh, I just learnt that this grammar point you need the verb to be in the “te” form, so I’ll just choose the only option that is in the “te” form, even if I have no idea what the sentence means.” – I haven’t tried the exercises yet futher in the book so I’m not sure if they get harder than this.

My method of study sofar has been just to copy out the “formula” and then to copy a couple of the example sentences. It hasn’t done much to stick I don’t think, so now and into december I plan on paying a bit more attention into and really nailing down those passive etc forms. I’m hoping to have really got a solid foundation by the end of December – enough to move onto JLPT 2 level, even if I haven’t completely mastered them.

I do have a concern that with the JLPT 2 level, because I am (I imagine) not familiar with the grammar that it will be harder for me to actually understand what the grammar points are trying to address only through example sentences. I am planning on buying Kanzen Master level 2 so I guess I’ll see if it’ll be enough or if I need to supliment it somehow.

I have also been “studying” haha with the JET course. Now, a lot of bad things have been said about the course, and I believe last year they redid it alll. I think it’s not so bad really… but it isn’t really what I want to do with studying, if that makes sense, I would rather prioritise and do other things. Also the first book has been easy in that I am familiar with most of the grammar covered. So what I did is I wrote out all the grammar points and an example sentence, like what I did with Kanzen Master. Then I did the review exercises near the end of the book, compared it to the answers. I did fairly well, so I just went ahead and open book test style did the test. I still have to send it in, but I am satified that the JET course gets me studying and doesn’t seem so bad. I’m scared about the Dec book though – the dreaded transitive and intransitive verbs!

Last but not least, I’ve been doing this quiz book that tests kanji, vocab and grammar for JLPT 3. I did it back in Sept/Oct and scored fairly well. I picked it up again a week ago to see if I’ve improved. Happily I have improved. This time around I’m going to focus afterwards on the things I fail to see if I can really nail my short commings.

November: 15 hours of study
December goals: Finish Kanzen Master JLPT 3.

Kanji/Vocab

Yeah… Smart.fm has turned a bit to shit in my opinion, but I actually finally started using it. They have been upgrading a lot which has been frustraiting (it usually goes down for maintenence when I want to study) and I don’t use the new study program at all, but I have been spending every night studying vocab at smart.fm.

Vocab is a huge weakness for me, so I want to make a mass effort to really get my vocab up there. My goal of November was to study 1000 words, and right now I’m just short of 1500 – I’m hoping to reach that magical number tomorrow. Already I can notice the difference through reading my manga. There are shortcomings to smart.fm but I am enjoying (for the most part!) using the “iknow” interface. Once I master some lists I plan on upping my listening skills and doing the dication – I did a couple already but I think I’ll get the most benifit from that and the brain speed aspects of smart.fm once I have “mastered” the lists.

November: 31 hours, (hopefully!) 1500 words
December goal: to get up to 3500 words studied (+2000 words)

Writing

I get a lot of “writing” practise mainly through copying out my grammar books, but in this case writing corrosponds to when I physically create my own writing. I was planing on writing at 8lang regularly, but then I decided not to. I am going to save focusing on output (writing and speaking) when I am a bit futher into my studies. That being said, the small entries that I’ve done at 8Lang have been most helpful and I think it really is a fantastic resource. In the future I hope to keep a daily type log there.

November: half an hour
Decebmer goal: I don’t really plan to focus on this in December.

What’s Missing?

One noticible aspect missing from my log is speaking. For one, I think it would be hard to measure speaking unless I was to get up and say a monologue of some kind… At any case, right now I don’t feel confident in my speaking. Sure I can give one word responses and I can ask questions at stores if I think about it first, but I am not up to the level where I can have a conversation with people. I may add this to my spreadsheet at a later date, but for now I am not so worried about speaking and have no intention of measuring it in an “hours” format. At any rate, as my vocab and listening skills increase, I have found I have been more confident to speak, in particular to my students, and that has been satisfying/enough of a measurement for me. I can feel I’m inproving and that’s the main thing!

If you can think of something else I’m missing from my studies, feel free to leave a comment! Also if you have any questions or comments on my methods I’d love to hear them from you. I feel like, right now, I’ve never been so determined to get good at Japanese, and I feel like I’ve never gone this gung-ho at studying. Let’s hope I can keep up the momentum! (but still find the time to post… eep!)

• An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

I have gone through chapter three of this but still need to do more review.

• Reading Manga

I have read through two and a half volumes of manga. I finished the first four chapters of Hana Kimi and decided that was a “book” when it wasn’t the extended version From there I read a story called (from memory, it is packed now, more on that later…) “Love, Love..” I think I’m about 5 pages from finishing it but had to put it down. I was a bit over the main girl character crying all the time. Now I’m a chapter and a bit into “pichi pichi pitch” subtitled “Mermaid Melody”. Very cute, for a young audience so it is fairly easy to read.

For the most part study has been disrupted by the fact that I’m moving in a week. So posts may be a bit sporatic until everything is settled down again. Many reasons for moving but the main one is our lease is up so I have to! I’m looking forward to be over packing/unpacking/cleaning etc and settling down into study again! Yes, looking forward to study! That often happens when something is there stopping you from doing so.

I went about learning Japanese by myself all wrong. I was excited about it, but didn’t really persue it as fully as I could of. I did not research how to learn languages, and when I got stuck on page 58, titled “Verb Conjugation” and didn’t understand, I didn’t go searching for an explanation elsewhere that would help me understand. And so I stopped learning Japanese. I didn’t exactly “give up”, it’s just that learning Japanese sort of fizzled out into the back ground and I didn’t pick up Genki again until the end of 2006 when I had decided I wanted to study Japanese at university.

Genki is a good text book, it is popular for a reason.
It weeds out romaji very quickly and never uses only romaji. By lesson 3 you better know your hiragana and katakana!
It has long, clear explanations of grammar points.
The text book is set out clearly. The font is large, which is great for beginners trying to look at all the strokes in kanji characters.
Lots of focus on exercises.
Great focus on reading and writing, as well as grammar points.

However, there are some points that I didn’t like about Genki, in particular for those self studying.
I felt like it did not give me enough examples.
There is no answer key, you have to buy it separately! I think this is a huge minus. Sure, a language doesn’t exactly follow “rules” but learning from one’s mistakes is a huge part of learning something, and that opportunity is missed.
I feel like you don’t get much bang for your buck with Genki. Even though I said the layout was great and offered lots of space, the compromise is that there isn’t as much substance in there as other text books.
Most of the exercises are best for class room/group participation or you need to purchase the audio. It is a well rounded text with the audio, but that plus the answer key – well, it ain’t cheap!

So those are the pros and cons of Genki from my perspective. Over all I think Genki is, while not perfect for me, a great text book.

Buy Genki

• Purchase from TheJapanShop.com
• Purchase from Amazon.com

If I was still in university it would still be another month away before it starts up again and before I would be actively studying. But that is no excuse now, as I’m out of university (actually… going to edufire reminds me of university, which is prob why I like it so much – all the stuff of university without assignments!!). What I need is to ship shape myself into action! I really have been slack.

So today I flicked through the text book and I’ve been working through what has built up in anki… If I clear out my deck tonight I want to add in a few more sentences from 2001 Kanji Odyssey – I’ve decided that I can’t do RtK on it’s own, I lose steam. So instead I’ve been alternating, depending on how I feel. Sometimes I’ll add KO to my deck, sometimes I’ll add RtK.

I’ve also decided that things like textbooks, manga that I read, etc etc. I’m not adding those sentences to Anki. Instead, I’ll just read them where they are. I’ve done the “sentence” thing and I got bored of it. OK, Yes, that’s what I’m doing with KO, I feel that would be the best way for me to study that book. But for manga, I don’t want to rip it to pieces. I want to enjoy it. So, if I really want to learn something from it, I will seek out the word/whatever in a different form.

So, fingers crossed that I can push myself to and over the intermediate level of Japanese.

It also means that I’m only three weeks away from finishing Japanese for Everyone. I’ll write a full review when I’m done. I’ll say for now, though, I am very happy with JfE and would recommend it over Genki. I’ll also write a review up on the pros and cons of studying Japanese at university.

So right now I’m very busy, very stressed… But the end is so close in sight….

Well, now you can learn more about the iPhone and practise your Japanese at the same time. The iPhone’s guided tour is now in Japanese. It’s basically the same as the English one, but localised for Japan. However, the section on the keypad is awesome, you get to see how to type fast in Japanese.

One of the reasons I’m excited about the iPhone is because of the way Japanese is integrated into it easily. I don’t have to go and change my global settings to make everything either English or Japanese. I can use both easily. I’m also hoping that there will be some good flash card software and other things like this so I can study Japanese on the go.

As you may have guessed, I’m planning on getting it – It’s convenient that my current plan runs out very soon and my ipod is also very old and needs updating. It feels like the timing is perfect! Plus, in Australia at least, the plans are very affordable (even if we still have crap data plans compared to some countries – compared to others though we are lucky). I just hope they don’t sell out before I get a chance to get one!

Anyone else excited about the iPhone? Or is that a silly question?

A little while ago I made a post called All You Need To Learn Japanese Is Time, a response to a post on a Language Learning forum. The argument at the forum was that all methods are equal, the only factor in language learning is time. I argued that both time and method are necessary. I liked how Alex summed it up in a comment:

Method is as important as time. Neither should be sacrificed for the serious student.

Since then I have found some other people’s responses to the forum. What follows are some highlights and some of my thoughts on them. If you are interested in this topic, here is some further reading for you and I’d love to hear your own thoughts.

Edwin at the Tower of Confusion has written a post called No Best Method Hypothesis. He writes:

Perhaps learning a language is like building up a personal relationship. People might have different tactics to ‘befriend’ your target person. But eventually if you want to build up a true relationship, you have to spend time, a lot of time. And you have to keep yourself motivated in the process.

There are many interesting comments to the post as well. In one comment, Keith writes:

Rather than merely saying that there is no best method, I would go so far as to say that ALL methods of language learning are inefficient. People are not learning from their methods. Instead, they are learning from their REVIEWS. Or perhaps they are learning from their USAGE of the language. But they are certainly not learning from their methods. If they were learning from their methods then they would not need to review. They would be done and could just move on to the next thing to learn. However, their methods are not that efficient.

I’m not sure that I agree with that comment. I think, perhaps, that no matter what, you will always have to review what you have learnt – whether that review is from an SRS program or from hearing it in a conversation, it is still review. I don’t think they are learning from their reviews – in fact, I believe it is better to learn before you review – but rather are just reinforcing what they have already learnt. That is, if your definition of “learnt” is to understand something, and the process of reviewing is to ground the information more firmly in your head.

Another response is by Gbarto who posts What’s The Best Language Learning Method For You?

In this light, the debates about which method is best are silly. But if they keep people talking about new things that others might not have tried yet, they’re still useful. Ignore the bombast about who’s best, then, and keep reading the forums and blogs. You might just find what you are looking for now in spite of everyone’s best efforts to settle what’s best left unresolved.

In this post Gbarto talks about the way s/he uses many methods and changes them up every once in a while. I do exactly the same thing.

I am beginning to think that perhaps, in a sense, the best method is to use many methods – both methods that are suited to your learning style (primary focus) and ones that are not (secondary focus, or for reinforcement of what you already know). For instance, I am a terrible listener. I like to be reading something at the same time (a transcript) and I often feel like I need no background noise – even if I can understand what is being said, the background sound distracts and annoys me. But listening skills is an important part of learning any language. I often do not “learn” anything while just listening, but I definitely strengthen skills and knowledge I already have. And lucky for me it is a task that I don’t like, but is made fun when attached to something like watching TV, (and where there are visual clues to help me).

Finally, Tae Kim had something to say:

In the end, it doesn’t matter what study method you use as long as it helps you spend more time with the language. Still, I have to argue that you have to do my very simple method at some point for fluency, which as many of you already know, is to practice in a real-world context with real people and primary source materials not just artificial textbooks and dialogs. Ok, I guess it’s more common-sense than “a method” per se.

I think we would all agree that primary sources are needed in learning a language. In fact, this is perhaps the goal of many (most? all?) people starting out learning a language. But getting up to the stage where you can use those primary sources effectively is the hard part. Hence why many people want to get up to this stage as quickly as possible, and the debate over which method is “best”.

I’d say you can’t learn a method in 30 minutes. But there are no short cuts where you can skip over bits and get their quicker. But I would argue that while it takes time to learn a language, there are more effective methods out there. But what is more effective for me may not be more effective for you. So you have to find the best method for you. And then you have to use the best method for you, combined with other methods, combined with real world sources….

I think there is definitely some sense in saying “Enough arguing about method and just do it!” So just do it, just try every method you can. You’ll no doubt find a few that stick, and when the methods unstick themselves, do new ones. And spend the time doing it. And eventually you’ll learn that language. It’s all about the journey anyway, so just do it.

The same is true in most of what I do, including language learning. I do it to the extremes sometimes, which can be a good thing and a not so good thing. One side effect of this is that I often burn out.

I define burning out as not being able to find the motivation to do something, feel as though I’ve done it too much. But if I give up then my Japanese learning journey is over.

Learning a language is not fun and easy all the time. If it was we all know multiple languages by now. Unfortunately we sometimes need to push ourselves to just get that bit further. Here are some ideas on how to overcome burn out.

First things first, the most important thing to remember, no matter what you choose to do, is to not give up. If you give up you’ll never know Japanese. You can try blaming the language “But Japanese is too hard” – but ultimately it was you! Millions of other people can learn Japanese, so you can too.

1. Push Through What You are Doing.

Sometimes you have to keep doing what you are doing. For instance, if you are doing a course you may have to do something for homework and the like. Or perhaps this is part of your job. Or maybe you have a bet with your friends and don’t want to have to run down the street naked. Whatever. The point is you have to do it, you have no choice. It has to get done.

Here’s what you do: You do it. You just plough through it. If there is a lot you need to do, then break it up to smaller chunks and work through each chunk. Set yourself time limits and see how much you can get done. You have to do it, so you might as well get it over and done with.

At the moment I’m suffering from textbook overuse. Yes, I am almost three quarters of the way through Japanese for Everyone, and I am sick to death of looking at it! Unfortunately, I have to learn the presented grammar, vocabulary and kanji for University. What I do is just set aside thirty minutes every day to work through it. As soon as my thirty minutes is up I stop and don’t worry about it again.

Soon you will find that actually finishing what you had to do gives you a great sense of achievement. Or at least relief that it is over. When you are finished what you need to do, give yourself a (Japanese language related) reward. You deserve it.

2. Change Tactics

If you don’t have to keep on doing what you were doing, you have the freedom to change tactics. In other words, try a different approach. You will still be learning Japanese, how ever it will feel fresh, new, different.

You see, at the moment I’m suffering from SRS overuse (I told you I go hard at everything I do! And I’m feeling very burnt out at the moment!) I primarily use my SRS to learn new vocabulary and to practise grammar at the same time – through reviewing sentences. Anki has been sitting open on my computer for over a week and I haven’t touched it. If I’m not doing it, then I have to find something to replace this activity.

So I’ve started using the Assimil method. And I’m having fun with it! Even though I am still just reinforcing grammar and learning new words, it feels like I’m doing something different. It feels fun.

And you never know – by trying something new you may discover a method that works ten times better for you than your previous one. If not, no loss, just try something else new.

3. Take An Active Break

If you feel like you can’t go on, then perhaps you need to take a break. A break is completely healthy and may actually help your progress in the long run. But do not take a complete break.

When an jogger is running through the streets and gets to a red traffic light, often they will not stop and stand there, waiting for the green man. Instead, they do what is known as an active break. They will jog slowly on the spot, and when the light goes green they start running again. When they are puffed, instead of stopping and collapsing on the ground, they walk until they have their breath back, and are straight back into running.

So instead of stopping completely and doing nothing, try taking an active break. Sit down and watch some Japanese tv or a movie. Listen to your favourite Japanese music. Go to a Japanese restaurant and see how much of the menu you can understand. Do something!

An active break like this is also a great way to reward yourself for your hard work if you choose to do one of the other methods instead. It keeps us fresh and reminds us why we are learning Japanese in the first place!

But don’t forget to get back into studying again. Set yourself a limit and get back into it as soon as possible. Remember don’t give up. One week’s rest is a good amount of time to recuperate. If you still can’t get back into it you’re not trying hard enough. Don’t make excuses for yourself, just do it!

Get Back Into Learning Japanese And Enjoy It

Burn out = bad. But don’t let that stop you. Burning out is all in your head, so you can go on, you just need to give yourself a bit of a push.

As I said before, if things were all smooth sailing in language learning we’d all be polyglots. And if you don’t do it and give up, well, you are only hurting yourself, letting yourself down. Just keep at it and you’ll progress in no time at all.

In the comments, why not share your experiences of burn out and what you do to overcome it?

Same with learning vocab in isolation. You don’t learn how to use the words, only to recognise them. For instance, 仕事　－　しごと and 働く　－　はたらく　both mean work. By learning only the word I wont learn in what situations these two words are used. However, when I encounter them in other situations it will:

Firstly, it will cement my knowledge. It will reinforce my memory of the word. When you encounter things you are learning in different situations, it will be more likely that you will remember them.

I will have more of a chance of understanding the sentence. Even though I haven’t seen the word used in context, I will “know” the word and a basic meaning, even if the meaning doesn’t exactly correspond. It means that as I use the word, and encounter it in many situations, I will gain a deeper understanding of it and will eventually be able to do away with the English “keyword”.

Building on the last bullet point, as I encounter the word in other situations, it is then that I will understand the word itself. Does that mean that memorising vocab by itself is a waste of time, and I’m creating more work for myself? I would say no. Now, when I read a text, I can’t understand anything because I don’t know enough words. By memorising vocab in isolation, I can learn a lot of words in a smaller amount of time than it would take me to go through many sentences. And so when I do encounter these words in the “real world” I will be able to build on knowledge that I already have. Opposed to now when I have no knowledge!

Occasionally I’d like to post some of the vocab I am attempting to learn. To give you ideas for your own studies as well as to record where I’m at. The following vocab words are taken from the first paragraph in The Assassin’s Apprentice – one of my favourite books.

Vocab – The Assassin’s Apprentice – 1st Paragraph

And here is a bonus word: にじみでる　- to ooze out. I like that word!

I have to admit, in the first paragraph I had 35 words I didn’t know. However, knowing the meanings of the words, I could understand, for the most part, the grammar. I would have to say though, at this stage, without the original text, I probably would not understand it completely. It is easier to reverse engineer than invent. It also took me two hours to read and somewhat understand the whole paragraph. Strangely, it was fun, and the time flew by. But here’s hoping it gets easier – and quicker – as I go along!

Tip: Is the Kanji too small on my page for you to really see it properly? Hit “ctrl+” on your keypad a couple of times to enlarge the text, then “ctrl-” when you want it to get back down again – these keys are for firefox, which is what you should be using!