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Achieving Your Japanese Goals – October 2017 — 33 Comments

  1. 1. Add at least 350 new kanji;
    2. Add at least 500 new beginner sentences;

    I’m using Jalup NEXT, during the day I’ll review the expired cards to make sure I remember them and I’ll add the new ones on the evening.

  2. Goal: Finish RTK in roughly a month.

    I’m going with a steady maximum of 65 new cards per day, but without being too harsh if I only manage 40 in some days. Going at it daily is way easier with a bit of tolerance.
    I’m going old school, using Anki, incorperated with my beloved Load Balancer Add-on and a Gamepad for easier reviewing (Works really nice for NEXT, too :D)

  3. × Finish JALUP Expert- I expect to have 1300 cards left by the end of September so we’ll see if I get there, won’t cry about it if I dont.
    × Go through all of JLPT N2 grammar
    Watch or read something daily
    × Finish all Anki reviews daily, especially when I go in vacation at the end of the month

    I finallt see the finish line for the JALUP decks which has been a huge motivator! Ready to just conquor it.

  4. Two hours of Anki and two hours of immersion each day. This will be the month I hit both goals.

    I’ll also finish JALUP Advanced Stage 1 and 2, and JALUP Beginner Situations.

    Shadowing: I’ve started doing it. I don’t have a particular goal in mind, besides keeping it up.

  5. Due to my busy schedule, I haven’t been able to go at a fast pace in RTK. Even so, I want to finish within the next two months, so I devised a plan to make it within that time.

    This month, I need to:

    -Learn at least 654 kanji
    -Start learning kanji readings and identify the ones I need most
    -Find new immersion material

    I’ll be using Anki, Quizlet, and Kanji Koohii for this. These will be my major goals for October, but picking up new vocabulary will be great too. Onward!

    • I was 25 kanji shy of my goal, but it’s nothing a couple hours of study can’t fix. I’ve been working on my kanji readings and found new immersion material, as well as a Japanese video game news website that I can use to both catch up on gaming news and learn new vocab. (as well as kanji readings!)

  6. I just want to pick up where I left off in September.

    1. Immersion while I do my school stuff. (Radio or audio only of various shows and movies.)

    2. Continue with extensive reading. (I have a bunch of novels and scripts in Japanese as well as a few miscellaneous books.)

    3. Get through at least 500 kanji (KLC).

    4. Complete Genki 1, integrating it into the rest of my studies.

    5. Catch up on Japanese media over the weekends.

    • 1. Did make it, but had to turn on leech suspension to keep the daily review number manageable
      2. Done
      3. Didn’t get that far. I kinda lost interest when it became more drama and less fun. Plus, the book was more appealing.

  7. 1)Study at least 60 new kanji in my Renshuu N1 kanji study schedule; spend at least a little time studying every day

    Resources: http://www.renshuu.org and my own kanji flashcards

    2)Except when necessary (E-J or cases where I am trying to figure out what the English equivalent is to a particular term for a J-E translation), look up unknown Japanese vocabulary for translation purposes in Japanese. Start looking up kanji origins in Japanese (at least in cases where the kanji is not included in Henshall’s A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters).

    Resources: https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp (国語辞典) and https://okjiten.jp/ (漢字の成り立ち)

    3) Finish reading 「経済・経営」and 「日本の象徴」in『日本文化の英語で紹介する辞典』(Japanese side)

    Resources: 『日本文化の英語で紹介する辞典』(本)

    • 1) 達成・未達
      I succeeded in adding 60 new kanji in my N1 study schedule on Renshuu (it ended up being closer to 100), but some things came up and I missed a couple of days of kanji flashcards (if I don’t forget any more days, 29/31 days is not too bad).

      2) 目標達成。
      I looked up vocabulary in Japanese (for work) some of the time, and it was a decent small change in my study habits (I already do J-J most of the time when making my own vocab flashcards, so reading Japanese definitions of things is nothing new to me really). However, when I am translating things for work I still find there are a lot of cases where it’s much faster and more expedient for me to use a J-E dictionary because sometimes, for example, it might not occur to me to use the word “commercialization” even if I read the Japanese definition of 商品化 because I am not that familiar with the English term. Or I understand the concept of the Japanese word but am struggling to think of a good English equivalent, or sometimes I am just in a hurry.

      Looking up kanji 成り立ち (origins) in Japanese, on the other hand, was awesome! https://okjiten.jp/ was a great resource most of the time (explains the origin including what the character used to look like, meanings, readings, and is aimed for learners so is not too hard to understand), although it failed me on 綏 and I had to use my electric dictionary for that one. Generally, reading about kanji origins in Japanese in a lot of cases really makes things make a lot more sense when a character has a lot of meanings that in English seem unrelated to each other.

      3) 目標達成。 This was not an ambitious goal in numbers of pages–and it’s a bilingual book, so every one physical page is only a half of a page of Japanese–but it has a large amount of extremely specific vocabulary, so I struggled a bit to meet this goal but did end up making it.

  8. Time to switch focus on a few things. While maintaining my usual Anki load, I’d like to add more things for speaking/listening.

    1. Do 1 lesson a week in iTalki, hopefully more
    2. Find some more audio to listen to while commuting

  9. This past month was a crash course in the dangers of over-booking myself. I’ll dial it back a bit this month.

    1. Jalup Intermediate – currently at 256/1000, get to 450/1000 (stretch goal: 500/1000); I really want to finish it by the end of the year, but that may be difficult, especially as the semester gets more hectic.

    2. RTK – currently at 1500/2200, get to 1600/2200 (stretch goal 1650/2200) – which also puts me at 1000 kanji learned in only 10 months! My goal is to have it all done by the end of next semester.

    3. Finish 日常 (Nichijou); 16 episodes left

    I may add more Kanji Kingdom cards; I’m at 62/2300, and I’ve been adding a handful of new ones at random.

    • How difficult is it to understand 日常 at your current level? About what percentage of it do you understand?

      I’m curious because I’m currently going through Jalup Beginner aiming to get to Intermediate by the end of the year (a pretty reasonable goal even if I slowed down the pace) and the two things I wanted to immerse in when I get to start Intermediate were よつばと! (which I’ve already got my hands on the first volume) and 日常.

      • My listening skills are woefully behind, so I can pick up only a couple of words here or a sentence there. However, for the most part, the jokes in 日常 rely just as much on the visual as they do on the words, so I’ve managed to get by while only picking up on maybe 5% of the dialogue.

        I have been picking up on more things as the series has worn on, though, so that’s a good sign!

        I would highly recommend watching 日常. It’s a fun show that presents slice of life scenarios with the intensity and melodrama of ドラゴンボール or 遊戯王 (Yu-Gi-Oh!). It’s full of wacky and random humor. School principals wrestling deer, a girl “powering up” to catch a hot dog that’s gone flying. Crazy, zany fun!

      • My listening skills are weak, so I only understand about 5% of the dialogue. A word here or there, maybe a simple sentence. Fortunately, most of the jokes are visual, so I can still follow almost every scene. There are a few dialogue heavy scenes, with little going on visually, but those are few and far between.

        I highly recommend Nichijou. It’s a fun show and easy to follow, even if you don’t know any Japanese.

    • 1. Success! I even managed to reach my stretch goal of Intermediate 500/1000!

      2. Also a success! Only 600 left in Volume I!

      3. Barely watched any of it. Still have 13 episodes left.

      Despite the little progress I made in 日常, I am pleased with this month!

  10. I’m currently in a very comfortable spot where I’m past 9500 sentences and have a solid daily routine for Anki, so I no longer need any ambitious goals in this direction. I need to focus more on my listening ability as I am still quite weak in that direction.

    * Jalup Beginner Situations, do as many new cards as I’m comfortable with each day. This is helping to structure my listening learning.
    * Immerse lots (listening) – this is obviously what I need to focus the most on to improve in this area.

    • I have not immersed quite as much as I had hoped, but studying the Situations cards have had more impact than expected, so I’m still happy with my results this month. I have also added quite a lot of kanji to my J-J kanji deck and corresponding sentences this month, which was not in my plans. I have focused the new kanji cards on the ones showing up in my J-J sentences that I’m not already familiar with, which means they reinforce those cards quite effectively.

  11. 1. Add the 88 new cards from the Orange section of immersion stage 3
    2. Read 2 manga
    3. Watch 6 dramas.

    • Goal Complete!!! I used Hunter X Hunter instead of my hero Academia. I did complete one episode of it tho. Next either another episode of Hunter X Hunter or move on to Tokyo ghoul or Attack on Titan. Hunter X Hunter is great just too many episodes. I watching the first episode of TG with subs and I feel like I understand a lot of the words also it has been apart of my immersion playlist of a long time. Also, I feel like completing a shorter series is better for my motivation. I feel like I a learning a lot of works which is great. After I complete a series I think I should start added grammar to anki as well.

  12. Hey! First time doing this so I’m super stoked! :)
    1. Get skype partner(s);become proficient at basic conversation by the end of the month.
    Resources: Skype, mixi, internet friends
    2.Make phone into a proper immersion device.
    Resources: phone, software to download stuff, media
    3.Kanji. Reinforce the Kanji I learned from Kanjidamage(with more in-depth info, more review), create and study a deck for remaining joyo, write down kanji that come up in daily life that I can’t remember instantly
    Resources: kanjialive, anki, notepad and paper
    4.Reading and Writing. Buy some books off of Amazon, read some blogs, etc. Start writing journals and get them corrected by a native.
    Resources: books, blogs, maybe zines, journal correcting sites
    5.Grammar. I love imabi lately, so my goal is to do 2 or so lessons of that daily. Also, I’m planning on buying the 日本語文型辞典. Maybe some Tae Kim to round out the imabi.
    Resources: imabi, the japanese grammar dictionary, tae kim
    Woo-hoo! Here’s to a month of awesome Japanese learning, 皆様!<3

    • I didn’t accomplish many of my objectives, but this was a good test run. I think I now have a better idea of how to proceed.

      1. Skype
      I Talked with someone on mixi, but could never Skype them. I downloaded Skype though, and that’s a good start.
      2.Immersion
      Downloaded Audacity and watched some shows, but the simple technical part of preparing materials eluded me. Listened to NHK ラジオニュース as well.
      3.Kanji
      Found the missing Kanji and made a few cards. Not the whole deck; I need to learn how to import lots of data at one time.
      4. Reading/Writing
      Didn’t get around to buying anything or reading many blogs.
      5.Grammar
      Now this one I’m actually proud of. Got to about lesson 70 in iambi, so I actually exceeded my goal. I understood most of the grammar points intuitively before that lesson.

  13. 1. Do my reviews every day.
    2. Add some cards every day.
    3. Immerse as much as possible, aim for 24-hour contact with Japanese every day throughout the entire month.

  14. This month I want to read manga and watch anime everyday, get my reviews down to zero, and complete half of Jalup Expert.

    I will be using NEXT and Anki. I will be re-reading Yotsubato. Compared to last year, reading Yotsubato is a breeze and at least as funny as the first time I read it. I will be watching Naruto and Dragon Ball Super on Cruncyroll. And I will be watching Deathnote and movies like Howl’s Moving Castle.

    I will try to wake up at 6 or earlier to do my reviews and adding and read Yotsubato on the bus and watch anime at night or when I am bored/have free time.

    • I was pretty successful at getting up early and watching anime everyday and getting my reviews down to zero. I accomplished getting through half of Jalup Expert which I feel pretty good about.

      I didn’t do so well reading everyday on the bus and such. It seems like I am more motivated to watch anime than read manga. Instead of making manga an everyday goal, just read it when I feel inspired seems like a good enough goal. It is not really a challenge though.

  15. Three days ago, my girlfriend broke her arm and will have two operations next week, one on her arm and one for another illness, we have a 18 month old child, which got a middle ear infection yesterday, and today I cut my index finger really bad while cooking for the sick ones. We’re wrecked and the month will be hell.

    Nevertheless, I will add 10 new sentence cards, 15 Kanji Kingdom cards, and 10 Tae Kim cards a day to my deck, and work all my reviews down to zero daily.

  16. This month I’m taking it slow(ish).

    Week of 10/9: I’m power leveling Anki and passive listening! I’m going to listen to podcasts while I’m asleep, learn 50 new kanji per day and finish my entire backlog of JALUP Intermediate. I am also completing 3 reviews per day of the theme pack so I can add additional notes. 1 episode of a Netflix JP dub each night. I may be able to find a US show I’ve already watched.

    10/16 onward: 20 new kanji per day, 5 new Intermediate cards and 1 new theme card each day while inundating my ears with podcasts, awake or not. Sticking with 1 episode per day.

    Keeping it as simple as possible while I catch up with other life tasks.

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