语학子's gotta get back into it

[Yuhakko]

Well Well, I should really change my log title it seems...

It's already been 2 months since my last update and nothing much has happened since then. Well many things did happen actually but language wise...
Actually, a few days after my last update my best friend came from France to do an internship here. He was supposed to stay the first few weeks but it ended up being the whole 3 months (so one more month to go). My flat being not well organized, he lives in my living room and sleeps on my sofa. Not very practical for him but neither for me. His rhythm is totally different from mine but his is much lighter so usually when I am at home, so is he.
That's no excuse of course because I could read during lunch breaks or late at night but I appreciate so much those times alone that I end up watching tv shows or what not.
To make it simple, I haven't reached any goal I put myself for a while. I even forgot to apply to take the JLPT N1.. Probably better considering my study level right now but this time I've already put an alarm to register for the next one.

Anyway, here are a few things worth noting :
- I went back to Korea for 2 days for work and could practice a lot. I also bought stuff for TOPIK and a book (살인자의 기업법) which I just started slowly a week ago. Easy to read and only short paragraphs which helps a lot not overburning.
- That trip however was so short and packed that I ended up going back.. or to say it properly coming back since I currently am in Korea right now I'm here for 5 days and I just arrived this morning. This time it is proper holidays so I'll enjoy, meet friends, watch Roland Garros in front of the Seoul Plaza and even go Monday evening to the best language exchange place I've seen so far (apart from the Polyglot Conference but that's only once a year).
- My friend watches a lot of Anime so I ended up catching up with him a lot of anime I had stopped.
- The only thing I did thoroughly is Memrise : I finished 4 decks between 90 and 210 cards and I am still going on with 3 others which are at streak of 54 (Norwegian), 61 (JLPT N1 Voc) and 82 (Newspaper Japanese Voc). I even started 12 days ago a deck based on the book "Advanced Korean Grammar" since I finished the Intermediate deck.

And finally, one other thing.. but I'll write another post about it

Good to see a new post by you I find it really difficult to focus on more than one language at a time. I get so absorbed with what I'm currently studying that I often don't feel like switching to another language unless I get stuck. I'm a bit envious that you can decide to spend a weekend in Korea just like that

Good luck with the HSK preparations! Sounds like you're very well prepared for HSK 3. Or will you attempt HSK 4 instead?

Sorry, I disappeared again ><
Haha Actually the weekend was for work (more precisely for a previous client who paid my expenses to go there ) so I really didn't have time to enjoy my stay. I mean, I did enjoy it, but it was... particular let's say. If you want more info about the reason I was here, check this article : http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/04/24/0200000000AKR20160424045100007.HTML
This time though, I am here for holidays for 5 days and I'm planning to make the most of it !
Regarding the HSK, I've scaled back so much I'll have to see whether I take it in September or later and focus on TOPIK and/or JLPT.

[Yuhakko]

So, regarding the other thing : in 3 days, It'll have been a year since I moved to Japan and started working. During that year, many things have evolved and my life and lifestyle itself both have changed drastically.
HTLAL went down and we moved here, I started seeing Japan in a different way compared to what I had experienced during my exchange, I got myself a nice girlfriend and my life's organization has changed a lot (for the better and worse).

Let's start with languages though. Since I arrived in Japan, I've just been complaining over and over again about my lack of study of languages. But truth be told, I don't really feel bad about it. I'd like to study more, I do ; but I do like the absence of self-pressure I put myself all the time. Furthermore I clearly have improved in Japanese. Reading is no more a difficult task, speaking is totally natural and the construction of my sentences has improved greatly. One shortcoming though is the fact that my Japanese is super girly (apart for the use of "ore"). I guess it comes from the fact that the person I talk to in Japanese the most is my girlfriend.
My other languages though have stagnated level-wise, but what I knew has become somewhat swallowed in my body and personality. Now should be a good time to try to push myself harder but I won't. At least until mid-July. Why then? Because it's the time I'll go back to France for 3 weeks of holidays and whilst I'll be busy during evenings and weekends, the weekdays should be pretty peaceful, thus giving me the time to organize myself.

Let's move on to Work-wise now. I arrived in this position knowing nothing of the industries I work on (lifestyle, cosmetics, fashion, interior design, biotech & pharmaceuticals , medical devices and sports) but I got opportunities to learn a lot about each one. I did discover there are some I really don't want to work on (fashion, pharma, cosmetics for instance) but I also found an unexpected interest in the sports industry and more specifically Tennis. One another note, I also discovered the work environment in Japan and all the barriers which can be difficult to overcome as a foreigner. I already knew about them, but experiencing them first-hand is a different story. "Thanks" to that, I know that even though after this contract (just got renewed for another year but I can't do longer than 2 years) I'd like to stay in Japan, I will try my best to avoid a typical Japanese firm/boss. The "I don't want to try anything new" is such a pain when you see opportunities right in front of your eyes but cannot grasp it. I thought I'd never say it in my life but I hope I'll find something in a French company with a French (or other western) boss in Japan.
I do want to move to Korea at one point though. Whilst I love Japan, living there and discovering things I love and hate, my mind hasn't changed and I'd like to move to Korea (not especially Seoul though).

As for my lifestyle and view of life now, although it had always been very "future-focused", I do think I now grasp better the evolution of time. Of course, nobody can have a perfect understanding of "how life work" [to hear in a poshy accent]. But I now understand better the opportunities around me and what they entail. There are always going to be downsides to things and I think knowing that and identifying them is crucial.

Well anyway, I guess I'll stop to bore you to death now
I just wanted to celebrate this first year and write a bit about my feelings regarding what's past and what will come.

Now I guess it's time to go enjoy Seoul !
And in a few weeks, my life alone in my apartment can start again. I'll definitely finish my book in Japanese before going back to France though. This is not a goal or anything like that, it's an order to myself!

I guess I'll probably end up being pretty absent again for about a month but when I'll get my flat for me again, you can be sure to hear from me!

[Yuhakko]

Hey there,
It's now been six months. I guess this is the longest I've been away from the forum until now. I read through a few logs and, gosh, it feels good to see everybody still here ! Many things seem to have changed though

As usual, I'll try to make a small update and certainly fail but here goes :

General : I moved to a different place, now living as flatmates with a friend from when I was in exchange (Belgium guy). Living further from work and actually having to take the train now, I get more time for myself to read.
My contract will finish in 6 months so I'm starting to look for my next challenge. I have to admit, I'm scared I won't find anything but at the same time, this is thrilling in some part.

Japanese : I just took last week the JLPT N1. Finally, 4 years after taking the N2, I found the courage to study and take it. In order to prepare for it, I studied a total of 7 books cover to cover (1 for Mock test, 2 for grammar, 1 for reading comprehension, 1 for kanji, 1 for vocab and 1 for practicing parts of the exam (言語意識)) and parts of 4 other books. I did most of that between the end of September and the exam. As you can guess, this was pretty intense but I learnt a whole lot.
I started studying the N1 thinking I would never get it but now I believe there's a probability I could actually pass. My weakness is clearly the reading comprehension. If I fail, that'll surely be because of that.
Talking about reading, I've read a lot since my last update. I finished 4 books (which is a lot for me) and read many articles about different topics. I'm really loving 東野圭吾's writing style. I just started my 4th book from him but the best so far is definitely 昔僕が死んだ家. I would highly suggest it to anybody who likes detective-ish books.

Korean : haven't done much but I am slowly getting back into it as the JLPT is over now. I'll have to buy again the book I mentionned last time since I lost it soon after... I am now considering taking the TOPIK in april but we'll see about it. I'm evaluating my level currently. The only real thing I did was write about 5 articles on Lang-8 about 생활 방식 in the last 2 months.

Mandarin : Same thing here. I haven't done much but I'm considering taking the HSK4 during 2018. I am starting to read some stuff here and there in order to freshen up my reading and see what's left of it.

Vietnamese : I did about a month of Vietnamese in September, with Assimil, and then stopped to focus on the JLPT. I'll start over some time soon.

Finally, I didn't have a phone for a while (2 months) until this friday, so I am starting again on Memrise, now and reading articles in Korean here and there.

To come :
- Japanese : I'll start on the Kanji in Context book shortly in order to finish studying Kanjis once and for all. I'll try to finish it before the end of my contract
- Korean : Figure out whether I'll take the TOPIK in April; Read more and more.
- Mandarin : Figure out how I'll start again now.

PS : yep, I failed making a short update

[Yuhakko]

2016 is over. And as every year, I cannot help myself but reflect on where I am right now and if I made the good choices. One thing that keeps coming back to me everytime is the importance of languages in my life.
I love languages and although I have long passed the honeymoon period of thinking that it's all pleasure and no challenges, I have learnt to enjoy every aspect of it. Being able to get access to new information and discover new things, understand more easily others, express myself more precisely and, of course, feeling myself change along the way are all great pleasures and I would never regret starting studying languages.
This being said, being surrounded with people with no actual "love" for languages, or at least any other than Japanese (considering that many of my foreigner friends speak Japanese as well), has made me get the same reputation I had in France : "the language nerd". When friends present me to other people, I am always described as "the guy who speaks way too many languages".
Once more : I do love languages. I won't deny it. But isn't there anything more to all of us here ? I sometimes wonder if some of you guys also get that "but why would you ? Isn't one enough?" kind of questions. I guess you do as well.
Anyway, to get back on point, we all makes sacrifices to learn our languages but I just wonder sometimes if those are worth it.
To end this rambling and for future reference to myself, languages are incredible. They allow so many doors to open to us and no matter what we're told, whether we like it or not, it is a part of us and we should be proud. Making sacrifices is part of life after all.

Sorry about all this, I just felt like writing down my heart's content right now. More related to actual language study and more excitement in my next post

[Yuhakko]

So as a new year starts, I'll try to put some goals for the year. Having been working for a year and a half I now do understand that I should not expect too much work getting done.
This being said, those goals may get adapted a bit if I didn't pass the JLPT N1 this december. We'll see that at the end of the month I guess.

As of now, I have decided to make Korean and Mandarin the focus of this year. Their goals are highly different though.

Korean: I want to be able to read without too much trouble by the end of the year. For that, I'll have to go through a lot of reading obviously.
- Finish the TTMIK book "News in Korean" (I'm at news 10 out of 50)
- Finish the Korean Grammar in Use Intermediate which I've had for way too long. (I'm at a third as of right now)
- Read one book at least
- Read at least 20 news articles (SBS has the script of news segments with the video itself. Pretty neat)

Mandarin: I want to be able to converse without much trouble. Thanks to Japanese, my reading comprehension is quite okay but listening is a whole different thing.
- Read/Listen to at least 30 "news" from the app "Du Chinese" on android
- Talk more in Mandarin and not Japanese with my Chinese friends who are here in Japan
- Watch at least 5 movies (subtitles ok)
- Watch at least 1 drama without subtitles (just mandarin)

Japanese: Living here allows me to use Japanese on a daily basis and if I did pass the JLPT N1, then I will stop focusing on getting my Japanese to a "test-level" but will rather try "cleaning" it. By this I mean making my use of expressions and understanding get smoother. For this I will :
- Read at least 5 books (read 4-5 this year), more if I get good recommendations from friends
- Read the following book about common mistakes of usage and others : https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-01-9784822278946 (buying it soon)
- Watch TV (news) here and there since I have a TV at home now.
(Bonus : Do the Kanji in Context book. As of now, I believe it would take too much time away from Korean and Mandarin so we'll see. It would be good to finish it by June as mentioned previously but I doubt I will in the end).

Tests:
- HSK 4 : During the past week I have done some exercices from a mock test of HSK4 and for all of them, I have got at least 2/3 right if not 3/4. I do realize there's a lot of "hoping" included but it means this level is not too far so I may take at the end of March as there will be a session then.
- TOPIK : As mentioned many times, I really want to take it. And for some reason, I think that I'll be able to have the guts to do it in 2017. Let's cross fingers.

Extras: I may have fun with some other languages here and there as usual. I would guess those would be :
- Vietnamese: Finish the Assimil book
- Norwegian: Finish the Assimil book started years ago
- Ainu: Try lasting a bit longer following the podcasts which start in April.
Those are extras though so we'll see whether I'll get to them.


Anyway, to anybody reading this : Happy New Year! Or as we say here : あけましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いいたします or as some people also say あけおめ！ことよろ

[Yuhakko]

Hi to anybody reading this, it's been long again but I'm still here!

First of all, let's start with the big news of the year : I passed the JLPT N1 that I took last December! It was a close call for reading but I still passed so that's something I guess. This being said, taking the exam made me realize that this is only the beginning and I still have a whole lot to learn. Living in Japan definitely helps but just relying on living here won't be enough.

On another aspect, my contract here is coming to an end in a month and a half. I'm currently doing my best to find something else here so we'll see how that goes.

I haven't been studying a whole lot but here's where I am right now :

Korean:
- I have read about 30 news article from my TTMIK book so I've done more than half. I could finish it before June if I read a bit more regularly.
- I have been listening to more Korean music and seen one full drama so my listening is still at a bearable level. I do need to practice more though so I'll try find a language partner as soon as my next contract is decided.

Mandarin:
- I've read about 20 small articles on the app mentioned previously. Some words popping often are starting to stick
- unfortunately that's pretty much it. I definitely need to listen to it more. Is there anyone who knows a good podcast to listen to? Something with laid back talks or music between topics to rest would be best.

Japanese :
- a whole lot of reading small articles or skimming through longer ones. I need to actually start properly studying some or translating even. That would definitely help words stick I think.
- listening wise, I've just been using it for daily life and sometimes at work with colleagues. For interviews too of course, but it's still a mess in that aspect..

Ainu: the new lessons started almost 3 weeks ago so I've been doing them properly and even adding the words in Anki (hadn't used it for at least 2-3 years so it felt weird at first )

That's it for now but hopefully with work getting less intense ill have more time for languages!

Also, I've seen there's an East Asian languages group on the forum. I'd definitely love to get in, but first, I'll read a bit on what the others have been up to so I don't come out of the blue

[Yuhakko]

As usual, it's been a while since last time. However, I've been doing quite some study in some aspects.

First of all, my contract finished a bit more than a month ago and, as I had found a new job here in Japan before finishing, I will be staying in Japan for some time ! Unfortunately, it is a busy period for changing visa so I still haven't been able to start the new job. I will be working in a translation company as a project manager so I hope it'll contribute to keeping me motivated to study languages by being surrounded with them.

Now here's a short summary of the study I've put in in the past few months :

Japanese : Current focus
- I have done a lot of reading for the past month as I've finished 2 books from Higashino Keigo (one, I had about 150 pages left and the other one was of about 360 pages). I also bought last Thursday another book from him : 白夜行. It's 860 pages long but I've already read 250 pages in less than a week so if I keep a good rythm I'll finish it before August. It might be complicated after I start my new job though.
- I have also decided to tackle on the 漢字検定 which is an exam for Japanese people to test their knowledge of Kanjis. Level 1 includes 6000 kanjis and a whole lot of expressions with 4 characters. The hardest thing in this exam is that you actually have to write them down and not choose the right one in a list. I'm going for level 8 (level 10 being the lowest) in October as I want to be sure I won't be missing anything. I'm currently studying level 9 (having already finished level 10) and learning to write with my right hand at the same time as it'll be useful to write beautiful characters at one point.
- I've done 2 rather long translations from Japanese to English and French. It had been a while so it felt good. I should do it more regularly.

Korean : Haven't been doing much
- I've watched 1 movie (고양이 죽음을 보는 두 개의 눈) with subtitles and I got most of it so I've taken a few more to watch. I will finish after this post a second one called 옥자 which is in half english half korean.
- I've listened to a few TTMIK lessons to refresh some things and will do so randomly I think. I haven't read any article from the TTMIK book though.
- I've found a language exchange partner on interpals and we've been exchanging irregularly in Korean and English. It feels good to practice a bit.

Mandarin : Irregular study
- I have done some study of different aspects (like grammar, vocabulary) from a book in Japanese explaining how to write a diary in Mandarin. I've almost finish that part so I'll start writing in the coming month hopefully.
- As I am planning to take the HSK4 in October-November, I'll need to start being more regular on that.

Ainu : Finally regular!
- After 5 years trying to stick to the podcast and giving up in the first months, I've finally been consistent. I have been following for more than 3 months now and even went to the Ainu Cultural Center in Tokyo to get my hands on the actual booklets. I am putting every word and sentences in Anki in order to retain those better.

That's it for today!
This being said though, studying the Kanji Kentei is a weird experience as it entails going back to basics whilst thinking way ahead. I'll probably write about this later.

[Yuhakko]

Well, to get that out of the way, the visa procedure is taking longer and I may end up having to go back to France for a few months in order to wait for it and work for the headquarters in the meantime.

Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I would like to write down my experience so far with the Kanji Kentei. As I explained before, this exam is made for natives and focuses on kanji. It is said that there are only 10% taking level 1 who succed and there are less than 2000 people taking it per session (or year maybe?). This exam is considered the hardest in Japanese and so far, it appears that only one foreigner actually passed it. He's actually made some videos about how he went about it on his youtube channel.

Having passed the JLPT N1 last winter, I realized that even though my understanding of Japanese had gotten quite a notch better, there is still a long way to go before I could confortably say to a Japanese that I am fluent. One way to improve drastically my vocabulary could be to read books but, being lazy, I don't look up every single unknown word as long as I get more than 90-95% of the text.

For this reason the Kanji Kentei seems like the best solution. Level 2 has 2136 Kanjis, which means it includes basically every 常用漢字. Even though I can currently read about all of them, combinations of 2 (or more) that I know will get me lost. Furthermore, I can't actually write by hand most of them (even basic ones).

This is why I've gone back to the basics. Level 10 has 80 Kanjis, level 9 has 240 (total), level 8 has 440 total.
The most common books to study it are the 漢字学習ステップ which go through each kanji with a few examples. This being said, in the long run, this collection wouldn't be enough as words I don't know wouldn't really pop up. For this reason, I am also using a Nintendo DS game I bought years ago called 正しい漢字かきとりくん. This game gives a lot more examples allowing me to complete my study and thanks to this combination, I have been through more than 400 words I didn't know just by going through level 10 and 9 (I have about 25 kanji left for level 9). Of course some of those new words use kanji that I haven't "learnt" ("learnt again" to be precise).

As levels go up, the variety of questions gets more numerous, and expressions with 4 characters (四字熟語), sayings (ことわざ), name of the radical, homonyms, antonyms, etc. start taking a more central aspect.

The study of such a test is interesting as it allows to go back to the basics and contributes to having a "cleaner", more accurate hang on the language. At the same, it doesn't feel like a waste of time as you are still learning new words.

Of course, going all the way to level 1 is a different story and I will see in the long run if I go for it one day, but for the time being the study of this exam whilst reading books on the side should be the best solution to improve my Japanese skills.

As an added bonus for me, this study allows me to get to know more "classic", "poetic" expressions and words. As I have loved Haiku 俳句 for quite some time, this will allow me to write more beautiful haikus !

[druckfehler]

Sounds great that you're able to stay in Japan longer! Have you started your new job? How do you like it?

[Yuhakko]

Sounds great that you're able to stay in Japan longer! Have you started your new job? How do you like it?

Sorry for replying so late!
I have indeed It took a long time to be able to start but you'll get more details below In a nutshell though, work is interesting but incredibly busy. Still though, being able to stay in Japan longer is great. I'm trying to use more and more of my weekends to go around and discover Japan in a different way than "standard" tourism too


Well it's been a proper while this time. Many many things happened since my last post and I'll try (and probably fail again) to sum it up.
It ended up taking 4 months to get my new visa and be able to start my new job. I stayed in Japan for 3 months without a pay but that was too much and I negotiated to with my company to start from France as a freelance (working Japanese hours: from 2:30am French Time). I had to do that for the entire month of September before I was able to come back and (finally) get a 3-year visa.
I've now been working for 5 month in the normal timezone and work is interesting. The advantage is that I get to see languages every single day, checking languages I don't even understand to see if the directives I've given have been followed (for instance checking X or Y word have been kept in the source language, etc.). However, I also use a few minutes to try to understand things in some languages I have basics (or more) in.
Unfortunately, we're lacking people and nowadays, I end up working a minimum of 11-12 hours. Last Friday I even ended up working from 6am until 11pm without a single break. Hopefully we'll get someone soon to support me because this rythm is starting to take its toll on me.

Now with the more interesting stuff: I have more or less set up a language "routine" even though I don't think that's enough.

Korean:
- I've been reading daily 1 or more small article on an app (좋은생각, 좋은글)and adding some words I didn't know in a small notebook I've gotten. I basically add the word and its translation and then one example taken from Naver.
- I've gone one at the end of December to a Korean exchange meet-up of sorts and it was great. I unfortunately haven't gone back yet as it is quite difficult to get to from my place.
- Once or twice a week I write down a news article or some music lyrics on a small note, to improve my writing and learn some new words along the way.
- I sometimes work from home. When I do so, I try to have Korean radio in the background for some passive listening.

Chinese:
- I sometimes write to my Chinese colleagues in Mandarin although I haven't had the time to do so in the past month.
- I do a Daily Lesson of Mondly

Japanese:
- I work mostly in Japanese and learn new words and expressions almost daily. (One that really stuck recently was: 五月雨に which meant sporadically, little by little, as in "send the files as they are ready, little by little: ファイルを五月雨に送る).
- I've also been listening to the news, or reading some articles here and there. Nothing too regular though.

Ainu:
- I've succeeded in not letting go and am still listening to the weekly lesson. The year will be over at the end of this month though so a new "year" will start again. As I currently have some passive knowledge but not much active, I am planning on writing down the lessons and working on them a bit more from the "new year".

Esperanto: I've started Esperanto around end of December on Duolingo and am still going at it with 2 lessons a day. I'm planning on finishing the entire "course" and then move on to reading things here and there.

Norwegian & Vietnamese:: I've decided to start those slowly again. I've just been doing the daily lessons on Mondly for these, since January.

Indonesian: Just doing one lesson per day on Mondly (not the daily lessons but the theme ones), since January.

Burmese: Current "focus"?
- I learnt last year that my brother's girlfriend is from Myanmar and as a joke I told him I'd learn it faster than him (he's good at English but that's it. Despite having lived in Thailand for 3 years and 1 in Myanmar, he doesn't speak either at all). I started with a Memrise deck for "Burmese by ear" and have been going at it slowly for the past 3-4 months
- Around the end of January my parents received a postcard from my brother's girlfriend, all written in Burmese. That sparked my interest in the writting system so I've now been learning it a 1 or 2 letters a day for the past month (skipping some days here and there).
- I've really become extremely interested in the language and try to find time to read words here and there.

All combined:
- I've bought an agenda for work, with 5 lines on the right page. I write everyday 5 lines in whatever language I feel like (in order of regularity: Korean, Chinese, Esperanto, Japanese). It's not much but it's still practice. Obviously, with languages I handle best, I try to use more complex expressions and words.
- I finally started doing some language echanges around mid-January and then work got crazy so I ended up stopping. I need to start again.

That was a proper long update in the end but it deserved it.
My goal now is to write much smaller updates but much more regularly. I'll also try to catch up little by little on what has been happening in the community