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Nandemonai TAC’14 旅立ち *jäŋe/*ledús magpie

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nandemonai
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Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 1 of 33
02 July 2013 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
TAC 2014 start

My Japanese log

Hey everyone

Another Japanese learner here. I've wanted to start a log for a few months already, but being busy with
college postponed it until now. I've been studying Japanese on and off for about 5 years, but I'm still
stuck on a B1 level. I really started to improve about 1,5 years ago when I started to actively study the
language. I can read manga with a dictionary, understand simple anime, but light novels are still way
too hard for me. (I really lack the vocabulary for anything harder than manga) My goal is to be able to
enjoy native material without the need for any translation.

I've got summer vacation for three months that I want to use for intensive study. I attend evening
classes (3 hours a week), but it's really slow. It's more an environment to help me keep my motivation
than anything else. I've just finished the 4th year with ease which leaves you at a low B1 level. Sadly
there won't be a 5th year next year, only a 6th year. I've decided to use this summer to study all the
material I need to skip a year. (honestly, it's not that much)

I've been doing Heisig (frame 700) for the kanji and core 2k/6k (4643 left) in anki for the past few
months, but I kind of had to stop adding new cards during my finals. I plan on finishing these two
somewhere at the end of my summer vacation as I've seen a big improvement in my Japanese while I
was actively adding new cards.
Also decided to try the 1M Challenge - NHK News Easy & NHK News
(http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=11111) and see if it helps me with my reading.

I really lack at speaking, I haven't had many chances to actually converse with native speakers. (maybe 2
times?) I'm considering to look for a language exchange partner on skype somewhere at the end of my
summer vacation.

PS: Feel free to correct my posts if I make any mistakes in my writing, or write stuff that'd be unnatural
for native
speakers.

Thank you for reading!

Edited by nandemonai on 15 January 2014 at 2:17am

2 persons have voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 2 of 33
05 October 2013 at 11:32pm | IP Logged 
Been a while, to be honest, I forgot I started this log...

Summer vacation is over now and managed to improve my Japanese quite a bit. The first 6 weeks I
was
able to study quite a lot, core6k finished up till around 3k. Started reading manga (in japanese) at
least
once every three days. I noticed my passive understanding of the language really improved! After
the first
6 weeks real life kicked in and couldn't study as much anymore.

I also had the opportunity to talk with some Japanese people for about 30 minutes, which went
really well.
It wasn't perfect, but the conversation kept going without too many problems.

Begin September I studied to pass my entrance exam for my evening class, and passed it with a
36,5/50
for the written exam and 30/50 for the speaking exam. I'd have liked to score a bit higher, but my
time
was kinda limited. During this time I was struggling to keep up with my reviews in anki and they kept
piling up. I Eventually cleared up the backlog of cards to start clean in October.

Since the 1st of October I've been making sure that all my reviews get done daily during my
commute to
college, which gives me time to add new cards every evening. Been adding 100 cards/day on core
6k so
that I'll finish it by the end of the month (recognition only).
I've also picked up the pace with reading, the past 3-4 weeks I've been reading manga daily. Reading
a few
different ones so I can read what I feel like that day. Been using the tadoku challenge to track my
reading
(@shenmedemo)
Right now reading has become much easier, even when there is no furigana. It's motivating me to
study
even more.

I've also started tracking the time I spent on Japanese related activities since the 22nd of July. Since
then
I've spent 196 hours 35 minutes, 48 on core 6k, 27 on reading, 46 on watching, 30 on translation
and a bunch of
other stuff.

That's it for now, will update in a few days. Got to go back to reading 宇宙兄弟.

Edited by nandemonai on 24 January 2017 at 6:23am

1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 33
07 October 2013 at 12:54am | IP Logged 
今日、日本語でやってみたい。かなり時間が あったので、よつばとの6巻と7巻を読みま した。約400ページで
す。ちょっと平易な日本語で書いたんですが 、いつも一つ二つ知らない言葉を見つけます 。
CORE6Kは後2364のカードが残ります。

I haven't written in Japanese in quite some time, I should probably try out lang-8 sometime.
I won't have much time tomorrow so the next update will be on tuesday.
1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 4 of 33
15 December 2013 at 2:58pm | IP Logged 
It's been quite a while since I updated, I've got to do better in 2014 haha.

I ended up finishing core 6k in October, though I kind of burned out and ended up not doing reviews
for almost 4-6 weeks (only doing a few of them once a week). Right now I'm on track to get that
backlog dealt with by the time TAC '14 starts. I've been keeping up with my reading, albeit at a slower
pace. Still translating weekly, which has made sure I didn't drop Japanese completely the past month
month and a half.
My plans for the rest of the year is to keep up my anki reviews, reading and translations. After that I will
focus on grammar as that's an area I'm really lacking in at the moment. I'll be going through the Kanzen
Master N3-N1 grammar books.

After my last log I lost track of my time logging, excel wasn't really the right program to do this in.
Right now in the process of creating a small web application to do this for me. Would other people be
interested in such an application?

I did some dabbling in Korean two weeks ago as I really wanted to learn a new script. Hangul was fun to
learn and I think I will eventually learn Korean later on when my schedule allows it.
This year will be my last that I enroll in Japanese evening classes, as my school doesn't offer any more
advanced classes. I had hoped they offer a Korean class, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Since I really
liked the school, and classes are pretty cheap, I decided to enroll in the Mandarin class there next year.
It's been on my wish list for a while, right after Korean.

I've also got a challenge with a friend for fun. At the next 6WC, I will study some Lithuanian while my
friend will study Dutch and help each other out on skype. I might do some very light studying of it
afterwards, I'll first have to see how those six weeks will go.

I'm very excited to participate in TAC '14!
1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 5 of 33
15 December 2013 at 3:47pm | IP Logged 
TAC 2014 goals

Japanese
1) Pass the JLPT N2 or N1 in December 2014. I will take the one I feel most confident to pass, as I want
to use this for my internship in Japan in 2015.
2) Improve my grammar. Will use the JLPT Shin Kanzen Master N3-N1 for this.
3) Improve my kanji recognition in reading. I can read about 800+ kanji right now, would like to
increase that to cover all of the jouyou kanji. I might read through heisig lessons I didn't study yet, just
to increase my feeling for the kanji. About 5 new kanji a day to Anki.
4) Get used to seinen manga, being able to read them for fun.
5) Read my first light novel.
6) ~6,000 words towards ~10,000 words. Will add about 10 to 15 new words a day to Anki.

Mandarin (starting in May-August)
1) 300ish characters, hopefully I can use my kanji knowledge to make this easier.
2) Basic conversation and reading skills.
3) ~2,000 words. 10-20 new words a day to Anki.

Lithuanian
1) Go through a textbook (not sure which one yet)
2) Basic conversation and reading skills. (conversation with a native speaker through skype)
3) ~2,000 words.

Plus some dabbling in Korean whenever I feel like I need a small break.


Materials

Japanese
Shin Kazen Master Bunpou N3, N2, N1
In order to reach my goal of N2-N1 level I need to drastically improve my grammar. The old jlpt 3
version of this book has helped me a lot before in class.

4-koma Manga de Oboeru Nihongo 1, 2
For when I want a break from the shin kanzen master series, these have grammar points explained in
short dialogues with a lot of example sentences.

Breaking Into Japanese Literature
I've already read a few stories in this book. Early 2013 this book was too hard but lately I've discovered
that I can understand quite a lot. I will probably finish with this one around February.

The Routeledge Course in Japanese Translation
I've read the first few chapters in this book, just haven't gotten around to finish reading it. I'm hoping to
learn a few things that would help me with my Japanese-English translations.

Shadowing: Let's Speak Japanese! (Intermediate to Advanced Level)
To help with my pronunciation, as I have a bit of a flemish accent in my Japanese.

Native materials
I plan to keep reading manga, but also add light novels starting this year. I need to get used to real
Japanese without images to help me out with what's happening.

Mandarin
New Practical Chinese Reader 1
This is what my class will be using, haven't really looked into it much more yet. Will look for more
material as I start my Mandarin studies.

Lithuanian
Colloquial Lithuanian and Complete Lithuanian
Textbooks to get me through the beginner stages.

Pimsleur Lithuanian
Got a copy of this through a friend, going to see if this approach works for me. Not completely sure if
I'll like this as I usually prefer having transcripts to follow along.

Edited by nandemonai on 25 December 2013 at 7:40pm

1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 33
26 December 2013 at 5:07am | IP Logged 
Here's a a summary on my experience with core6k:

Finished adding cards at the end of October. I started about 9 months ago, but added most of my cards
in July, August and October.

I reached the 2k milestone in July, 3k in August and after that pretty much stopped adding cards for a
whole month. I just kept reviewing what I had already added. In October I had the crazy idea to finish
core6k in that month, that meant adding 3000 cards in just 31 days. That meant adding about 100
cards everyday. I didn't get to add 100 every day, sometimes I did 200. But near the end of the month I
started to slack off and pretty much had about 800 left to add. I did add them on the last day.

This was crazy, I had to spend a lot of time on keeping up on my reviews to make this even possible. I
wouldn't do it again, as I burned out right after that. I tried to keep up with my reviews but in the end I
couldn't keep up and the reviews kept piling up. A few days ago I started working on clearing that
backlog to make my anki reviews in 2014 a bit more sane. It would mean sacrificing a few days right
now and be okay afterwards. My retention really dropped, but that's only temporary as I relearn the
cards and let them mature.

Stats from the last few days:
22/12
Studied 5557 cards in 483 minutes today.
Again count: 1560 (71.9% correct)
Learn: 0, Review: 3993, Relearn: 1564, Filtered: 0

23/12
Studied 780 cards in 86 minutes today.
Again count: 147 (81.2% correct)
Learn: 0, Review: 635, Relearn: 145, Filtered: 0

24/12
Christmas party with family and couldn't do reviews.

25/12
Studied 1250 cards in 163 minutes today.
Again count: 373 (70.2% correct)
Learn: 0, Review: 889, Relearn: 361, Filtered: 0

Tomorrow I've got 400 reviews and I hope that I'll be at around 150-200 a day by new year. I've got a
few cards suspended as they were leeches, I'll slowly add them back in when the rest has matured.

Here's my deck life stats as of today.

I'm really happy that I've done core6k, a lot of the words have really helped me in my reading. Though
there are still a few words in them that I doubt I'll have much use for.
1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 7 of 33
02 January 2014 at 6:24pm | IP Logged 
Happy new year everyone!

Could a moderator be so kind to add Lithuanian, Mandarin and Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) as tags?

Japanese:
I've been keeping up with my reviews for core6k, at around 300 words to review a day. A little more than I had
hoped, but it's fine for now. I've started on my shin kanzen master grammar deck, figuring out my deck layout at the
moment. I've ordered a bunch of manga from the internet last month which I've started reading yesterday (now
reading Demon Possession).

Lithuanian:
Both Complete Lithuanian and Colloquial Lithuanian have arrived last month. I've started with the first one, as the
audio was included with that one. Been working on my pronunciation and learning the lithuanian specific letters.

Edited by nandemonai on 02 January 2014 at 6:26pm

1 person has voted this message useful



nandemonai
Diglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3932 days ago

101 posts - 116 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 8 of 33
04 January 2014 at 2:45am | IP Logged 
Japanese:
Retention for core6k is at 83.2%, slightly increasing every day, while keeping the review time short.
I've unsuspended the last few cards in my sword art online subs2srs deck, which has now episodes 1-3
I've also got oreimo episode 1, but haven't gotten that far with it yet as it got a lot of slang in it. Though
to be honest I haven't tried to add any for the past few months.
Pretty satisfied with preparations for my grammar deck so far, I'll be doing a final check tomorrow and
start using it. I've played a little bit too much with anki instead of reading today, as I forgot to take
demon possession with me on the train today.

Lithuanian:
I tried to transcribe the dialogue from the first lesson of Pimsleur Lithuanian. It didn't go too well, and I
had a native speaker help me correct it. After writing this I'll cut the dialogue from the mp3 and listen to
this on repeat while I go to sleep. I'll probably shadow it a few times in the next few days.

I'm also gonna track the time I spend studying somewhere next week, when I get the basics of my time
tracking app done.


1 person has voted this message useful



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