study japanese

Well, my goals were entirely too ambitious, especially at this end-of-the-year season. But, I just passed 500 kanji with the Heisig method! I’m going to do all 2000 in 2010. And I’m going to pass the level 1 JLPT test.

I took the test!!! Yay! If I had made that my goal, I’d be done, but my goal is to feel my Japanese is better, and the test sucked. The only way I could have passed is by pure, dumb luck.

But, that has motivated me to study, and Sunday, on the train ride home, I made up some goals for December.

1. Every week, do three sections from The Preparatory Course for The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (matomete oboeru!, kanji tango drill, jitsuryoku appu! by Matsumoto Setsuko and Seino Emiko??). I put the vocab from those three sections (more than 90 words this week) in my ancient Canon Word Tank, and review some of them (about 50 if possible) every day.
2. (completely too much, but planned to review the first section on Tuesday, second section on Wednesday, and third section on Thursday—reviewing each day is probably fine, with a brush up on the main points on Friday). I would like to input these into a computer program that holds more than the 500 words that my wordtank will keep.
3. Every week read one article—monthly should have one from Anthropology, Science, Politics and Economics.
4. Every weekend, do one section from the Kanzen Master grammar book for level one.
5. Review the Heisig that I’ve learned so far. I’m using Kanji Koohii’s website for drilling the kanji. The ones I forget, I put into the DS-lite Bimoji Program—that way I learn HOW to write the darn things, as well as having some handy way to review. Right now, I’m trying to review about 20 a day, but I’m falling behind.

Today, I spent my study time typing a reading into my Google Docs Japanese Study file, so while I didn’t stick with the plan, I still have the evening to work on reviewing stuff.

I’m going to pass that test next year!!!! Taking it (and the fun Christmas shopping trip in the big city the Saturday before) will be my reward for studying hard this winter, spring and summer.

I’m not making a lot of progress on the kanji, but I am enjoying the “grammar point a day” e-mail service from jgram. Here’s the site, if anyone is interested: http://www.jgram.org/index.php

They have different levels from 4 (the easiest) to 1 (the hardest). It is a community derived study tool, so take it with a grain of salt. But it’s still a good place to start.

Will get test app today, and figure out how to get a pic for it.

OK, huge motivation. I asked a friend to order an application for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, so now, I have to take it and study for it. Going for Level 1; I think I could do really well on Level 2, but Level 1 . . . I suck. Right now, I suck, in three months I’ll rock (-:.

So, I need to make a study plan.

Yesterday, I read a page out of a children’s guide to America. Today, I took a look at a practice test, and went through the first 20 questions, finding the furigana for the kanji (sigh . . . kanji). Kanji is a weak point. So, I went back to the kanji koohii site, and reviewed a little. On the plus side, I remembered about half of the kanji I reviewed. On the minus side, I forgot about half the kanji I reviewed.

Right now, the plan is to translate a little of the practice test each day, and review some kanji each day. If I learn/review 10 kanji a day, I’ll have 1000 kanji at the end of 100 days . . . which might add up to a little more, considering I’ve got some already.

(-: Also read my child’s permission form for a ECG. I pretty much rocked on that! But the chances of having an excerpt from an ECG permission slip on the test . . . not so great.

Ups and downs. Just gotta keep going.

Today, I have studied up to 400 kanji since I began a few weeks ago (again, most of them are review; and it’s only to a keyword, not the whole thing). I haven’t tested them all yet, but am doing fairly well with the ones I have tested.

They are getting harder. I’m no longer reviewing the reviews - this is somewhat new territory. But, in a way, making the images in my head is getting easier. (: I’m giving myself a pat on the back. I hope I can be up to 500 kanji by the end of June. If I set a goal of five kanji a day, then that gives me plenty of goof-off days to still make this goal.

And I reviewed 250 kanji on kanji.koohii!! I had no idea that I could do this!!!! I might be able to break 300 by the end of the month!!!!

Caveat: I already knew about 1000 kanji before I started on the Heisig last year. And I had done the Heisig to about 270, so this is basically a review. However, I think I’m doing a much better job of visualizing the stories to remember the kanji.

Things will probably slow down after I make it past 280 or so.

So if I do my kanji again today, then I will break the 3-day “mikka-bouzu” curse! I’m reviewing the Heisig kanji again on a website called http://www.kanji.koohii.com/ and right now it is super-convenient, because there’s the first 200 or so kanji in Heisig right on a Nanzan University website. Here: http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK4-00.pdf

I’m already up to 135 kanji, so I’m going to have to pull out my book by the end of May, if I keep working hard (-:. Of course, right now, it’s all review; I did these kanji last year (or many, many years ago, some of them, using more traditional methods). So it shouldn’t be too hard to break 200.

OK, so I’ve been busy for about six months or so . . . and worse yet, been doing too much computer stuff (-:. So, time to get back in the saddle.

My goals this month: finish a translation for a friend; translate a speech and other various oddments for a seminar on April 3rd, and pay attention to the new words I come across.

If my work schedule isn’t too heavy, I will also re-work my Heisig kanji website thing-y, so it’s working appropriately. koohii, I think it was.

dekimasu, yo! kitto. zettai. yakusoku.

My motivation seems to have gone right down the drain—or maybe it’s just that I’ve been busier with work and trying to get my pantry stocked (and the house cleaned up).

I’m going to try and learn 10 new kanji this week, and take a look at the second chapter of my Kanzen Master book (the one with the yellow cover, if anyone is interested).

I accidentally put 500 Heisig kanji in the internet site I’m using to review, when I’ve only got about 270. So, I was failing almost 3/4s of the kanji I was reviewing! I knew many of them, but hadn’t connected them to Heisig’s keywords yet. So, I need to get to the 500 level of Heisig before I can effectively revise on the computer.

Either that, or register under a new name. But I really like the user name I selected . . . ):.

OK, enough whining! This is a reasonable goal, and I can do it.

But there’s no reason to slack off. I want to get through the Heisig Remembering the Kanji book by the end of winter vacation (approx. Jan. 20), and I’ve started reviewing the kanji with the Reviewing the Kanji website (at koohii forums, IIRC), so that’s a start. I’ve also been very good about looking at my various text books. I’m going to try to do at least three drills or read three articles (or a combo) every week.

Yusho!