Learning Japanese - 6 months update

An update on my progress to learn Japanese is well overdue. 6 months have passed since my 'reboot' on learning Japanese and this post, so how am I doing?

The key part of that post was identifying the 4 fundamental things you require to successfully learn a language, so let's recap what those were and if they still hold true:

1. Motivation
2. Goals
3. Time
4. Resources

A local train line

1. Motivation

I'm not going to lie, the motivation and enthusiasm has dropped right off. Not unexpectedly of course, as with anything new and exciting the enthusiasm is always highest at the start, then tails off and gets the occasional bumps again. Despite this I have doggedly kept to my regime of doing some study every single day and I expect to hold my resolve on that and keep it going indefinitely. I once tried skipping a weekend to see how I fared, and getting back into study on the Monday I felt a disconnect, like I had not studied in a long time. The message here is, even on a given day if it is the absolutely last thing you feel like doing, get some study done even if it feels like a chore.

2. Goals

My goals haven't changed. Being able to communicate at a basic level is still the end goal. I now fully understand the issue many people have when studying Japanese in isolation - I can read reasonably well and I know a useful amount of vocabulary, but when put on the spot, not a chance. A few weeks ago Tomomi video called me from Japan and passed the phone to her Dad, and of course my brain completely blanked as I simply could not dredge up the words and then think how to string them together anywhere near fast enough. Although native speakers with varying voices and speaking speeds are hard to understand still - I had no idea what my Father In Law actually said word for word, I was able to glean a few words, apply the context of the situation and understand the gist of what he was saying. Progress perhaps?

I recently had our company office landlord send a builder in to do some repairs to a wall. I'm not sure where the guy was from, possibly China, and his English was the worst I have ever encountered in an English speaking country. In this situation it is easy to just think they are simple or stupid and I realised this is how I could be appearing in front of Japanese people. The poor guy spoke in single words, probably knows a lot more, but like just could not process it in his head quick enough to express himself fully. The traditional British way is to just speak slower and progressively louder. I don't do unless they are French because that is just what we do.

Anyhow, I have tempered my expectations around being able to speak Japanese somewhat well before moving. It's just not going to happen as I do not have enough opportunities to practice. Instead, the aim is to have a solid foundation of vocabulary and grammar so that when we move and I am able to immerse somewhat, I have a springboard to accelerate my learning.

3. Time

This one is the struggle. It has been hard going for sure. I am working full time and we have a young baby at home. I have enough free time in evenings to do more study than I am (currently around 30 minutes) but I acknowledge that a lot of that time, such as winding down at the end of the day, is not optimum from a cognitive perspective. I just can't focus as I'm in the process of switching off to go to sleep, and If I did study I doubt I would retain much of it, Or I wouldn't sleep well. Sleep is precious at the moment for me as I'm not getting enough as it is.

Recently I have been trying to study as soon as I wake up. The brain is functioning and not yet filled with other thoughts. Aside from that I would do small chunks throughout my working day, but going into my busy work period that may not be possible over the next few months. It very much is a case of fit it in whenever I can, with the key being to make sure it gets done!

4. Resources

As previously mentioned I did sign up for a weekly Japanese online class, and then I quit after 1 class. It did previously occur to me that an online class for 1 hour over 10 weeks, with no requirements to purchase XYZ textbooks, surely could not actually cover much, as such an endeavor would require a substantial amount of homework. Instead it seemed to be more of a class to pick up a few useful phrases, and encouraged to use them with random Japanese people. Almost what I envision an Eikawa to be like but in Japanese. I'm just picturing in my mind an enthusiastic student asking a bemused Chinese person on the bus how they are in Japanese, whilst said student is beaming with pride at their linguistic prowess. Anyhow, It's time I feel could be spent more productively given my circumstances.

I had some textbooks of my own too, Genki I and some others. I made the goal to get stuck into these last month whilst mother and baby in Japan. When I sat down to actually start, I just could not do it. Self study with a textbook that is supposed to be used in a classroom setting - I just do not have the focus or interest in trying to tackle it solo. It took me back to high school pretty quickly, and I recall textbooks weren't a particularly effective way of learning for me back then either. So I sold them.

Renshuu has become my sole study resource. It is an SRS (spaced repetition system) and I love it. Many people in many walks of life have likely heard of Anki flashcards which are also SRS. The whole idea is to present, review and check information at spaced internals, initially starting quite frequently, and later the frequency reduces. This builds short term memory into long term memory and is well proven. I'm using this for Grammar, Vocabulary and Kanji. It is fully customizable, and can be used as an app or as a website.
I had actually starting writing this post 3 months ago, and kept putting if off because of Renshuu.

I want to cover Renshuu in some more detail because I like it so much and it really deserves a post dedicated to it. Hopefully that won't take me another 3 months to get round to writing!

Digging up Potatoes with the in-laws

Where I am at

This is a difficult one to quantify when you are not exercising what you learn. Instead it is just piling things into memory and hoping they stay there in the hope you can recall them later.

According to Renshuu, at the time of writing I know:

1151 words

71 grammar terms

267 Kanji

The vocabulary is steadily increasing and is the most straightforward. Grammar is much more difficult as when you try to think of it in English terms I don't understand it, as the structure and order differs so. Instead, its repetition until you learn the patterns.

Kanji on the other hand I'm covering differently and I want to talk about this. I am not learning how to write them or their individual readings. At all. What I am doing is learning the meaning of the Kanji, and then by feeding it into the vocabulary (Renshuu starts doing this whenever you learn a Kanji), you learn to read it as part of words. It has helped with my vocabulary too - when I am faced with a question to translate the meaning of the word, having the Kanji instead of Furigana helps immensely both in learning and memorizing, and helping prevent confusion with other similar words.

To give an example:

• Romaji - Gaikoku
• Furigana - がいこく
• Kanji - 外国

Now lets say I wasn't 100% on the meaning of this word, maybe I could get it mixed up when listening or reading if it were in Hiragana with something similar sounding like Daigaku (university). However, when written in Kanji, and knowing what the Kanji mean it actually helps me remember that Gaikoku means foreign country, because the Kanji 外 has a meaning of 'outside' and the Kanji 国 has a meaning of 'country' - Outside country >foreign country. 

Grilled Ayu

Where to from here?

Vocabulary - I will continue to expand this, usually around 5 new words a day. I scale it back when my daily reviews get out of hand, and then back up again when the reviews drop too much to balance the workload. I'm prioritising vocabulary over everything else, because sometimes even a single work is enough to convey something, and a larger vocabulary with basic grammar will be more useful than complicated grammar with a limited vocabulary.

Grammar - I'm going to stick with basic/N5 level grammar until I have absolutely 100% confidence in using what I have learned. Lots of repetition of the patterns to drill it in over and over again.

Kanji - I think I got ahead of myself with the number of Kanji I learned, you can learn them pretty quickly when just learning the meanings. However, the more you learn, the more complex they get and the more that start to look all the same... So Ill stick to what I currently know and keep cementing those into memory and keep feeding them into my vocabulary too.

 

My next update will be next year after our next visit to Japan in March, as it will be a good bump for the ol' enthusiasm and I'll have more chance to exercise what I've learned!