daksis

My reading has been really great as of late. After learning the ひらがな, learning the カタカナ and getting it to stick was a breeze.

I’ve started doing my RTK on a more regular basis – but I’m still a bit uncertain about the pace. The first several lessons seem to be sticking in about a day of reading and a day of review. I suppose we’ll just have to trust Anki in this regard to let me know what I know and what I don’t.

It seems that the secret to learning　にほんご is in the repetition and the regularity. It’s not the sort of language that you can “casually” learn. But – it does seem to be a momentum based language. If you can get over the inertial barriers (kanji, kana, grammar) then the rest seems if not easy, certainly less daunting.

らんだる

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on this – and I can’t blame anyone for the annoying emails asking me how things are going except my past self ;).

I’m still working my way through the Pimsleur CD’s; And for speaking and listening practice, they’re truly helpful. My ear isn’t perfectly trained yet (元湯くり、お苦いしま) Now that I’m on volume III, I’ve started to think about how I can continue working on my language skills when the CDs give out.

The big push for this year is literacy – So far, Heisig’s books have been indispensable for actually getting the reading aspects of the language to stick. If you’re currently having problems with reading – run, don’t walk – to get copies of his books.

I’ve also started using Rosetta Stone – to help out with reading. It’s a solid performer, although I am uncertain if I would be so happy with it if I hadn’t started off with the Pimsleur audio cd’s first. For some strange reason, it seems possible to read Germanic and Latin languages without speaking them, but Japanese is exactly the opposite – without speaking the language, reading it would make very little sense to me.

One recommendation for anyone attempting to learn the language is skip the romanji – It’s tempting to dive into writing and reading by using the western writing system. Don’t give in! Take the time to learn the kana – you will be much better off in the long run. The simple fact that kana lets you read a Japanese dictionary will pay huge dividends; also, once you know the kana, for the most part if you can speak it – you can write it. Having your verbal skills translate directly into literary prowess is pretty fun – I assure you.

Tips for learning kana

• Get Remembering the Kana by James W. Heisig
• Write, write, write – practice all the words in each set in remembering the kana – when you’re first starting out – rewrite the words from ALL the previous lessons just so the shapes and the sounds become familiar
• Make your own flashcards – write them out long-hand. Don’t buy a set. You need the practice and you can add any additional information that you need to the cards.
• Take your cards everywhere when you have 3 minutes and you’re waiting to check out of the store pull the cards out of your pocket and review a few symbols. When your favorite barista is steaming your late – take a few minutes and review the symbols. Don’t forget to trace them out with your finger or your hand. The order of the strokes is important!
• Have fun and try and read stuff in Japanese – this is the fun part, just go to a website and try to read it – comprehension isn’t the point here, just to get familiar with sounding out and parsing out the words. A favorite link of mine is the Japan Times Junior Page it’s designed for kids so I have a much easier time scanning the page.

じゃ また、
らだる

Sometimes I’m amazed at how slow I am. I’ve been using MIT’s open courseware

Then it dawns on me: since they have courses in really esoteric topics like Mathematical Methods in Nanophotonics then they probably have courses in Japanese.

My rather feble leap of logic was rewarded when i found courses convering basic, intermediate, and “advanced”: japanese at the MIT open courseware languages site.

Each course has plenty of additional resources including useful things like study guids for kana and kanji – many of the resources are interactive as well.