Language Journal: November 27th
It's around the corner. A week and a half or so, and I'll have been on this journey for a year!
My first thought on that is... learning a language is HARD. Holy crap. Granted, I have zero immersion, and I'm an introvert with no Japanese friends so I have virtually no quality way to ramp up my skills.
I've tried things, I've adopted some, discarded others and even let things I invested time and effort in fall by the way side. I haven't stopped though. Some days I just do my flash cards. Some days I do more. Some days I try and force myself in one way or another to improve my skills.
Anyway, I've largely given up on writing for the time being and I'm focusing on reading and listening and by extension (though to a much lesser degree) speaking.
I guess it makes sense to talk about why I gave up on writing and why I feel like speaking is a secondary effort at this point.
Writing was great. If I was in school for this, or didn't have a kid or was relatively focused I could probably have kept up on this. And make no mistake, it was tremendous. It was also a ton of effort. I chose to stop investing that time. Simple as that. To this day though, the meanings and readings of the Kanji I practiced when I was practicing writing are some of the ones which stick the best in my memory. But, ultimately, writing is the least important aspect of my reasons for learning. My goal is to be able to visit Japan and not be stuck in the traditional tourist areas. In general, if I can read, and understand at an intermediate to high level and can speak even at a low level, I should meet that goal easily.
If I hit a point where I feel like I'm fluent enough in those others that I can start dedicating time elsewhere, I'd love to get back into learning the writing.
Speaking on the other hand is secondary both because I'm not focusing on it and because it isn't AS HIGH on my list of goals as other things. Yes. As I learn to read and understand I'll ultimately also be learning to better build sentences. That goes without saying. My vocabulary will improve, as will my ability to use grammar. But, just as reading and writing are two completely separate skills, so too are understanding and speaking.
To be fair, I really want to be able to speak passably as well. I just accept that it isn't as important and that I'm personally ill equipped for that task.
How I feel lately is that I'm progressing again. Every few days to weeks I'll listen to something in Japanese and feel more and more like I'm understanding a greater portion of the content. I still royally screw things up. Generally contextual things. I miss or don't understand a pivotal element of the conversation that puts the rest in context. So, I might get the gist of what the sentences are talking about but I'll have lost the subject. And in Japanese, that can mean losing the tone, which means a totally a different outcome.
I subscribed to Japanese Pod 101 this month. Right now I'm slogging through the beginner lessons. I could skip them, but I won't. I want to get to a more advanced level and see if it delivers the sort of learning I want. In the meantime, I provides another outlet. For the moment, I'm generally reading the transcripts and only diving into the full material if I get seriously stumped so I can blow through 10-20 lessons an hour if I'm so inclined.
Tonight I started listening to the lessons even when they were easy. At least, up until they get through the English translation so I can verify that I understood the salient points. If nothing else, it should help with my listening skills.
Anyway, I'll probably update again in December another time or two. For now, that was all I wanted to write down.
My first thought on that is... learning a language is HARD. Holy crap. Granted, I have zero immersion, and I'm an introvert with no Japanese friends so I have virtually no quality way to ramp up my skills.
I've tried things, I've adopted some, discarded others and even let things I invested time and effort in fall by the way side. I haven't stopped though. Some days I just do my flash cards. Some days I do more. Some days I try and force myself in one way or another to improve my skills.
Anyway, I've largely given up on writing for the time being and I'm focusing on reading and listening and by extension (though to a much lesser degree) speaking.
I guess it makes sense to talk about why I gave up on writing and why I feel like speaking is a secondary effort at this point.
Writing was great. If I was in school for this, or didn't have a kid or was relatively focused I could probably have kept up on this. And make no mistake, it was tremendous. It was also a ton of effort. I chose to stop investing that time. Simple as that. To this day though, the meanings and readings of the Kanji I practiced when I was practicing writing are some of the ones which stick the best in my memory. But, ultimately, writing is the least important aspect of my reasons for learning. My goal is to be able to visit Japan and not be stuck in the traditional tourist areas. In general, if I can read, and understand at an intermediate to high level and can speak even at a low level, I should meet that goal easily.
If I hit a point where I feel like I'm fluent enough in those others that I can start dedicating time elsewhere, I'd love to get back into learning the writing.
Speaking on the other hand is secondary both because I'm not focusing on it and because it isn't AS HIGH on my list of goals as other things. Yes. As I learn to read and understand I'll ultimately also be learning to better build sentences. That goes without saying. My vocabulary will improve, as will my ability to use grammar. But, just as reading and writing are two completely separate skills, so too are understanding and speaking.
To be fair, I really want to be able to speak passably as well. I just accept that it isn't as important and that I'm personally ill equipped for that task.
How I feel lately is that I'm progressing again. Every few days to weeks I'll listen to something in Japanese and feel more and more like I'm understanding a greater portion of the content. I still royally screw things up. Generally contextual things. I miss or don't understand a pivotal element of the conversation that puts the rest in context. So, I might get the gist of what the sentences are talking about but I'll have lost the subject. And in Japanese, that can mean losing the tone, which means a totally a different outcome.
I subscribed to Japanese Pod 101 this month. Right now I'm slogging through the beginner lessons. I could skip them, but I won't. I want to get to a more advanced level and see if it delivers the sort of learning I want. In the meantime, I provides another outlet. For the moment, I'm generally reading the transcripts and only diving into the full material if I get seriously stumped so I can blow through 10-20 lessons an hour if I'm so inclined.
Tonight I started listening to the lessons even when they were easy. At least, up until they get through the English translation so I can verify that I understood the salient points. If nothing else, it should help with my listening skills.
Anyway, I'll probably update again in December another time or two. For now, that was all I wanted to write down.
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