Language Journal: December 3rd 2019
Well, I skipped a journal in November it seems. Man I'm erratic at this. Well, I did one at the end of October and one at the beginning of December. So didn't miss it by much I guess.
Anyway... 3 years? That is about where I'm at now. Re-reading my early December post from last year, not much in the way of the tangible has changed. I was already reading manga at the time. Though, I strongly believe I'm much better now than I was then.
I still feel like this is a worthwhile investment. And I still plan to learn more languages. My list of languages I'd like to know keeps growing; French, Italian, Korean, Chinese and German top the list.
But, after trying to start French again while in the midst of Japanese, I've learned to be a bit more patient. I'm learning casually, and that doesn't afford me to the time or patience to tackle 2 languages at once. I probably won't dive into another language until after my Japan trip. So, I'll be going on 5 years of Japanese by the time I add something else.
That something else will probably be French. Given how much Japanese I acquired in 3 years already, and with a 4 year gap between our family vacation planning, I think it is reasonable that even if our next vacation isn't to a French speaking nation, then can learn enough in the year or two running up to that trip to not feel like an idiot when I get there. Right now, the only languages I care to attain anything nearing fluency in are Japanese and French.
As for where I am in Japanese? Reading the Shield Hero light novel has really boosted my Kanji identification skills and reinforced a lot of my basic vocab and grammar. I'm about 2/3 through it now. Maybe a bit more. In the new year I may switch to a Kindle associated with a Japanese account instead of ordering from Japan. This should save on both shipping and up front costs. Amazon.jp is a pretty decent resource it seems as long as I can get it setup to allow me to order those books. A bit of preliminary work seems to indicate it should work.
And cost wise, it works out well enough as well. The difference between digital and paper is only about 10%, but I paid almost $20 for SAL shipping last time. And I tend to order 4-6 books at a time. So, cut it in half and say 5 at a time. Which means $4 per book in shipping + 10%. With my migration towards light novels, my average cost could probably be rounded to around $10. Meaning, I average about $5 in saving per book bought digitally.
I'd need to buy 24 books before the cost of a Kindle Paperwhite pays for itself. OK, just not the savings I was hoping for. It probably makes sense in the long run. I have a lot more than just 24 manga already. Though, I was thinking that the cost difference between paper and digital would be larger. Granted, it may be larger than that. The Kindle editions include tax as well. But, that probably only brings it down to about 20 books to break even. Though I read manga margins are even bigger than the ones on the LNs I was looking at, so maybe even better.
Anyway, OK back to the topic at hand. Progress. Getting through 2/3 of Shield Hero and all of the Manga I got through since last December really feels like it has levelled up my skills. The manga does a good job of reinforcing grammar rules (mainly casual language unfortunately) and putting word usage in better context. Manga lacking Furigana (of which I have like 1) and the Shield Hero LN have elevated my reading speed and proficiency.
It is still frustrating a bit on the reading side of things. I simply don't have the amount of exposure yet. And I still get stuck regularly.
Luckily Google beefed up the Lens functionality on their Camera app (at least for Pixel devices) and it now handles the vertical Japanese text a LOT better than it did before. I no longer need to guess at readings or Kanji or fumble with my Kanji recognizer not understanding my crappy finger drawn Kanji. I can get through the books a lot quicker.
And that is where a lot of that talk about Kindle books comes in. I need more exposure. A lot more. And the quicker I can access it, and the more varied it can be, the better.
I've also noticed that in simpler anime I spend a lot less time relying on the translations. And my comprehension of the translations is a lot better. Listening skills are still my weakest link. The problem is, like the Manga VS. LNs, accessibility of proper materials. For video, I really need Japanese audio with Japanese sub-titles. Netflix is really the only service I have which offers that and the selection isn't the best.
Probably around June though, I'm going to need to start REALLY pushing my listening practice. That should give me a year, more or less, to tackle getting better at listening before my trip to Japan. I don't need to be perfect. In fact, I'd probably do fine as I am now. But, I definitely feel like I could be doing better.
Anyway... 3 years? That is about where I'm at now. Re-reading my early December post from last year, not much in the way of the tangible has changed. I was already reading manga at the time. Though, I strongly believe I'm much better now than I was then.
I still feel like this is a worthwhile investment. And I still plan to learn more languages. My list of languages I'd like to know keeps growing; French, Italian, Korean, Chinese and German top the list.
But, after trying to start French again while in the midst of Japanese, I've learned to be a bit more patient. I'm learning casually, and that doesn't afford me to the time or patience to tackle 2 languages at once. I probably won't dive into another language until after my Japan trip. So, I'll be going on 5 years of Japanese by the time I add something else.
That something else will probably be French. Given how much Japanese I acquired in 3 years already, and with a 4 year gap between our family vacation planning, I think it is reasonable that even if our next vacation isn't to a French speaking nation, then can learn enough in the year or two running up to that trip to not feel like an idiot when I get there. Right now, the only languages I care to attain anything nearing fluency in are Japanese and French.
As for where I am in Japanese? Reading the Shield Hero light novel has really boosted my Kanji identification skills and reinforced a lot of my basic vocab and grammar. I'm about 2/3 through it now. Maybe a bit more. In the new year I may switch to a Kindle associated with a Japanese account instead of ordering from Japan. This should save on both shipping and up front costs. Amazon.jp is a pretty decent resource it seems as long as I can get it setup to allow me to order those books. A bit of preliminary work seems to indicate it should work.
And cost wise, it works out well enough as well. The difference between digital and paper is only about 10%, but I paid almost $20 for SAL shipping last time. And I tend to order 4-6 books at a time. So, cut it in half and say 5 at a time. Which means $4 per book in shipping + 10%. With my migration towards light novels, my average cost could probably be rounded to around $10. Meaning, I average about $5 in saving per book bought digitally.
I'd need to buy 24 books before the cost of a Kindle Paperwhite pays for itself. OK, just not the savings I was hoping for. It probably makes sense in the long run. I have a lot more than just 24 manga already. Though, I was thinking that the cost difference between paper and digital would be larger. Granted, it may be larger than that. The Kindle editions include tax as well. But, that probably only brings it down to about 20 books to break even. Though I read manga margins are even bigger than the ones on the LNs I was looking at, so maybe even better.
Anyway, OK back to the topic at hand. Progress. Getting through 2/3 of Shield Hero and all of the Manga I got through since last December really feels like it has levelled up my skills. The manga does a good job of reinforcing grammar rules (mainly casual language unfortunately) and putting word usage in better context. Manga lacking Furigana (of which I have like 1) and the Shield Hero LN have elevated my reading speed and proficiency.
It is still frustrating a bit on the reading side of things. I simply don't have the amount of exposure yet. And I still get stuck regularly.
Luckily Google beefed up the Lens functionality on their Camera app (at least for Pixel devices) and it now handles the vertical Japanese text a LOT better than it did before. I no longer need to guess at readings or Kanji or fumble with my Kanji recognizer not understanding my crappy finger drawn Kanji. I can get through the books a lot quicker.
And that is where a lot of that talk about Kindle books comes in. I need more exposure. A lot more. And the quicker I can access it, and the more varied it can be, the better.
I've also noticed that in simpler anime I spend a lot less time relying on the translations. And my comprehension of the translations is a lot better. Listening skills are still my weakest link. The problem is, like the Manga VS. LNs, accessibility of proper materials. For video, I really need Japanese audio with Japanese sub-titles. Netflix is really the only service I have which offers that and the selection isn't the best.
Probably around June though, I'm going to need to start REALLY pushing my listening practice. That should give me a year, more or less, to tackle getting better at listening before my trip to Japan. I don't need to be perfect. In fact, I'd probably do fine as I am now. But, I definitely feel like I could be doing better.
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