Language Journal: April 30th 2019
I finished Silver Spoon vol 6 in three days. I think that starts moving Silver Spoon a little down in rankings in difficulty, whereas Pastel Family? Well I'm still less than 15% of the way through after 2 sittings. Though, they were heavily interrupted sittings I suppose.
But, that prompted the Kanji practice, which is going... better than expected. Basically, with no guarantee that 4 manga can tide me over for a month, I wanted something else I could wedge in that wouldn't be too brutal and that is working out.
So, I can break my studies at the moment into 3 component categories:
This is my SSRS (Anki) daily practice. The flashcards are there to make sure I don't lose what I've learned, but they also allow new vocab to trickle in via new cards and cards I didn't focus as much on in the past.
Passive Learning Reinforcement
This is Japanese Music, Anime and Manga. I'm coming to appreciate that I don't need to know every single word. Granted, you need to get to a point where you can understand most words for it to be of value. And getting there requires some time and effort to be sure. The general idea here is to consume these materials a little more naturally.
With music I just let myself enjoy. I may look up the lyrics and loosely translate once or twice so I can follow along a little better. But, I can enjoy a song without understanding it. And it is some low grade listening practice which I can easily consume a ton of.
With anime, I generally leave the subtitles on, but I'm able to follow along with the spoken dialogue a lot more. I know I'm not maximizing the benefits. And I don't care. I will still watch some without subtitles. But, for some reason I find it harder to just accept what I can't follow with anime. Perhaps, the difference is, with books I don't need to pause. I can read and re-read at my own pace while until I feel confortable.
And Manga and other Japanese reading resources are my other one in this category. I read these totally in Japanese. But, I don't generally look up word definitions any more. If I see a word over and over again and feel I don't know it, I'll look it up. But, I can get a lot more native material down a lot quicker if I can accept what I don't know and move on. And this reinforces the things I do know a lot faster.
Basically, I categorize these as passive learning reinforcement because I'm not actively using them to grow my knowledge or even intentionally using them to reinforce what I've learned. But they do reinforce it nonetheless.
Active Reinforcement
The only thing at the moment in this group is my Kanji practice. Basically, when I fail on a card in Anki, I decide if it is one I should have known. Was it a mature card? Was it one I've been failing over and over? Or is it one I'm just more interested in knowing better?
If the answer was yes, I write the word down. Then, after I finish, I pull out my phone, look up the Kanji, write them out. Practice a few times. Test my memory a few times and write out a "quiz" for the next day.
My Anki accuracy is pretty high and I'm not doing this for every word, so I can end up with between 6-10 words. So, it isn't so massive it is killing me. And it is working out great.
Also, since it is very free form in the testing methodology, I can make it easier or harder. The only real criteria I have for myself is that I'm adding intentional extra focus on things that are stumping me. So, any amount of extra practice is a success. And, making writing out the Kanji a part of that and critiquing myself on it is forcing me to get better at my identification. And, as I said in an earlier article, it gives me a motivation not to blast through my studies thoughtlessly.
My mature accuracy is already higher over the past 3 days compared to before. But it is still lower than it should be. Today for instance, I got 迷惑 wrong. I knew the meaning, but I pronounced it めいわけ instead of めいわく. Honestly, I shouldn't have made that mistake. It is a pretty darn common word. And, if I had slowed down and thought a little harder, I probably would have gotten it. Putting this into practice is helping me make less of those types of mistakes.
Another solid candidate is 契約 there are so many words in my decks ending in 約 that it is hard to keep them straight. But, I feel fairly confident It'll be a long while before I think anything else is 契約 or think it is anything else. 協力 is another one. There are so damn many 力 based words out there that they are hard to keep straight when you only do reading practice.
土曜日:
需要 ー じゅよう ー Demand
流暢 ー りゅうちょう ー Fluently
異なる ー ことなる ー Differ
混んでる ー こんでる ー Busy
勇敢 ー ゆうかん ー Courage
摩擦 ー まさつ ー Friction
似る ー にる ー Resemble
老若男女 ー ろうにゃくなんにょ ー All Ages
売春 ー ばいしゅん ー Prostituioん
消防士 ー しょうぼうし ー Firemaん
評判 ー ひょうばん ー Reputatioん
月曜日：
盗む ー ぬすむ ー Steal
睡眠 ー すいみん ー Slumber
実行 ー じっこう ー Executioん
火曜日：
契約 ー けいやく ー Contract
迷惑 ー めいわく ー Burdeん
協力 ー きょうりょく ー Cooperatioん
既成 ー きせい ー Standard
資料 ー しりょう ー Resources
But, that prompted the Kanji practice, which is going... better than expected. Basically, with no guarantee that 4 manga can tide me over for a month, I wanted something else I could wedge in that wouldn't be too brutal and that is working out.
So, I can break my studies at the moment into 3 component categories:
- Retention and Acquisition
- Passive Learning Reinforcement
- Active Reinforcement
This is my SSRS (Anki) daily practice. The flashcards are there to make sure I don't lose what I've learned, but they also allow new vocab to trickle in via new cards and cards I didn't focus as much on in the past.
Passive Learning Reinforcement
This is Japanese Music, Anime and Manga. I'm coming to appreciate that I don't need to know every single word. Granted, you need to get to a point where you can understand most words for it to be of value. And getting there requires some time and effort to be sure. The general idea here is to consume these materials a little more naturally.
With music I just let myself enjoy. I may look up the lyrics and loosely translate once or twice so I can follow along a little better. But, I can enjoy a song without understanding it. And it is some low grade listening practice which I can easily consume a ton of.
With anime, I generally leave the subtitles on, but I'm able to follow along with the spoken dialogue a lot more. I know I'm not maximizing the benefits. And I don't care. I will still watch some without subtitles. But, for some reason I find it harder to just accept what I can't follow with anime. Perhaps, the difference is, with books I don't need to pause. I can read and re-read at my own pace while until I feel confortable.
And Manga and other Japanese reading resources are my other one in this category. I read these totally in Japanese. But, I don't generally look up word definitions any more. If I see a word over and over again and feel I don't know it, I'll look it up. But, I can get a lot more native material down a lot quicker if I can accept what I don't know and move on. And this reinforces the things I do know a lot faster.
Basically, I categorize these as passive learning reinforcement because I'm not actively using them to grow my knowledge or even intentionally using them to reinforce what I've learned. But they do reinforce it nonetheless.
Active Reinforcement
The only thing at the moment in this group is my Kanji practice. Basically, when I fail on a card in Anki, I decide if it is one I should have known. Was it a mature card? Was it one I've been failing over and over? Or is it one I'm just more interested in knowing better?
If the answer was yes, I write the word down. Then, after I finish, I pull out my phone, look up the Kanji, write them out. Practice a few times. Test my memory a few times and write out a "quiz" for the next day.
My Anki accuracy is pretty high and I'm not doing this for every word, so I can end up with between 6-10 words. So, it isn't so massive it is killing me. And it is working out great.
Also, since it is very free form in the testing methodology, I can make it easier or harder. The only real criteria I have for myself is that I'm adding intentional extra focus on things that are stumping me. So, any amount of extra practice is a success. And, making writing out the Kanji a part of that and critiquing myself on it is forcing me to get better at my identification. And, as I said in an earlier article, it gives me a motivation not to blast through my studies thoughtlessly.
My mature accuracy is already higher over the past 3 days compared to before. But it is still lower than it should be. Today for instance, I got 迷惑 wrong. I knew the meaning, but I pronounced it めいわけ instead of めいわく. Honestly, I shouldn't have made that mistake. It is a pretty darn common word. And, if I had slowed down and thought a little harder, I probably would have gotten it. Putting this into practice is helping me make less of those types of mistakes.
Another solid candidate is 契約 there are so many words in my decks ending in 約 that it is hard to keep them straight. But, I feel fairly confident It'll be a long while before I think anything else is 契約 or think it is anything else. 協力 is another one. There are so damn many 力 based words out there that they are hard to keep straight when you only do reading practice.
土曜日:
需要 ー じゅよう ー Demand
流暢 ー りゅうちょう ー Fluently
異なる ー ことなる ー Differ
混んでる ー こんでる ー Busy
勇敢 ー ゆうかん ー Courage
摩擦 ー まさつ ー Friction
似る ー にる ー Resemble
老若男女 ー ろうにゃくなんにょ ー All Ages
売春 ー ばいしゅん ー Prostituioん
消防士 ー しょうぼうし ー Firemaん
評判 ー ひょうばん ー Reputatioん
月曜日：
盗む ー ぬすむ ー Steal
睡眠 ー すいみん ー Slumber
実行 ー じっこう ー Executioん
火曜日：
契約 ー けいやく ー Contract
迷惑 ー めいわく ー Burdeん
協力 ー きょうりょく ー Cooperatioん
既成 ー きせい ー Standard
資料 ー しりょう ー Resources
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