Tsuyoshi's log

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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:15 pm

I did Volume 2 Lesson 1 for the second time today. I said that it seemed to be emphasizing the pronunciation less, but I guess I spoke too soon. This lesson is taking great pains to point out the way vowels combine into longer vowels, which is something I already know very well.

In my last update, I wrote all that stuff about doing the Pimsleur more quickly, but after thinking about it more, I should just be expanding my study beyond Pimsleur, with Anki etc. I guess I was trying to think of how I could possibly pass N1 this December, but clearly I have to put that off to 2022 at the earliest. My kids won't be in school until some months from now, and as soon as they are back in school, my priority needs to be finding a new job. Then when I get a new job, my priority needs to be doing the new job well. Spending more than an hour a day on Japanese is not realistic this year.

I don't think I mentioned this, but I actually got a message from a recruiter a few weeks back about a job in New York, for a programmer fluent in both English and Japanese. That is an opportunity I would have liked to pursue. Unlike trying to find a programming job in Japan, I can be reasonably confident a job in the US would pay well. But besides the fact that my Japanese is still not great, my wife hates New York. Probably a bad sign that she hates all the places I like, and vice versa, right?

Anyway, I have to clean off my desk once and for all, now. My wife has an English class at 2. Previously she was doing her classes in our daughter's bedroom, but this overlaps with our daughter's classtime, so my wife needs to use my bedroom (should be our bedroom, but she rarely sleeps in here) for her class.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:06 pm

Did Pimsleur Volume 2, Lesson 3 today. In the past few lessons, they have been sometimes asking me to say e.g. "Have you been to Kamakura?" and I keep wanting to say 「鎌倉へ行ったことがありますか」 kamakura e itta koto ga arimasu ka, but they haven't introduced the 〜ことがあります - koto ga arimasu form yet, and they really want me to say 「鎌倉へ行きましたか」 kamakura e ikimashita ka, which is really closer to just "Did you go to Kamakura?" It's kind of throwing me off. I assume they will introduce the real "have you" form at some point. Not that I expect all of Japanese grammar to show up in Pimsleur, but this is a pretty basic form, and I've got four volumes to go.

The political situation in this country has gotten very bad. I expect it to get worse. It has prompted me to get off my butt and finish collecting the documents I need for Italian citizenship. My wife is nowhere near ready to leave. She lived through a lot worse in Cambodia, and never wanted to leave there, so I don't know if she has a point where she would change her mind at all. Though I think if I got solid job offer somwhere, she would be willing to go to places that have some Cambodians, at least. Which would be basically Canada, Australia, or France. There are very few Cambodians in Japan. Should I be studying French, rather than Japanese? Not that we can go anywhere right now, with the pandemic still on.

Speaking of my wife, her English class started again last week, and... she is not a conscientious student. She's late to most of her classes, and doesn't want to do her homework until the last minute.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:33 pm

Well, I had a long period, starting January 12, where I didn't do any real studying.

My wife came back from her trip, and that really screwed up my daily schedule. She likes to sleep with the kids, but she doesn't start getting ready for bed until really late. I've been trying for years to get her to stop doing this, but this situation has not yet been resolved.

And my mom had been really sick for a while; I was spending a lot of time taking care of her. She finally died a couple weeks ago. I had originally moved back here with the idea that my mom would watch the kids while I was working, but she was so sick that she could do very little of that, and it turned out that I had less time than before. So, while I certainly didn't want her to die, this frees up a lot of time. My dad was spending most of his waking hours taking care of her too, so I expect he can now watch the kids a bit more.

In the meantime, I acquired my Italian great-grandfather's birth certificate. I have most of the documents needed, save for some birth and death certificates that I ordered from Cook County. Instead of sending originals, they sent me plain photocopies, apparently because I need to send proof that I need the originals. I'm not sure what kind of proof I need for that.

After my mother's funeral, I mentioned to her brother (my uncle) that we (all descendants of his grandfather/my great-grandfather) are Italian citizens. He was very surprised at this. He told me that his son (my cousin, who is around 22?, who I have never met) was interested in moving to Germany, so this may be very useful for him. It turns out that my uncle had done a little studying of Chinese, but he gave up as he found it too difficult. We had a little discussion about language learning.

Anyway, I did Pimsleur again this morning. Since I had a long break, I went back a few lessons, to Volume 2, Lesson 1. I had forgotten this use of 「つく」 for "arrive". I feel generally feel out of practice, although I didn't have any trouble understanding the introductory dialogue. The Japanese speech in Pimsleur seems a bit slow and awkward to me, although it is definitely native speech. I remember that it seemed more natural in Volume 1.

Today I will see if I can do some writing practice with Anki. I think I will try to do the Pimsleur lesson again before bed, too.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:56 pm

Not much to report this time. I tried to start up the studying again, but I didn't really pull it off. My kids are back in school now. I have been doing Pimsleur every school day. On the weekends... nothing. Haven't really gotten to doing anything else, languagewise.

I was reading something about Japanese pronunciation somewhere (can't remember where) that some of the things I'm noticing in Pimsleur are things that mostly older people say. For example, the "w" in "wo". When you take a Japanese class, the teacher will probably just tell you that "wo" is pronounced the same as "o" (at least that's what my teacher many years ago told me). But sometimes older people pronounce the "w". I was starting to try to imitate this and say the "w" myself, but apparently nobody under the age of 40 says it this way. Which uh... I am over 40, so maybe it's OK?

I am having a lot of trouble saying そろそろ失礼します ("sorosoro shitsureishimasu", sort of like "I must excuse myself now"). The Pimsleur speakers make it sound so easy to say, and then when I try to say it, I trip over my tongue and say そーろそろーしいつれいーします ("soorosoroo shiitsureiishimasu", basically I'm elongating some of the vowels). I suppose I can console myself that at least I can tell that I'm screwing it up. Just need more practice.

Been doing a lot of cleaning. My desk is kind of clean now. Got my taxes done - was a few years behind on that. We never filed last year, and then it turned out that we had an incompetent accountant that never filed another two years. I am not sure if I will ever pay someone else to do my taxes again. I can't tell the difference between a competent and an incompetent accountant, and the incompetent ones cost me a lot more time than just doing it myself in the first place.

Anyway, I don't know if I mentioned this, but my wife started up this business selling things to people in Cambodia through Facebook, and I need to figure out how much money she's actually making (if she's making anything - I have my doubts). That is taking a while, because her record-keeping is atrocious. If you add in the cost of my time to help her with this business, it's definitely unprofitable.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:05 pm

Just did Pimsleur volume 2, lesson 6. Yes, that's right, studying on a weekend! It seems like, starting with this lesson, the difficulty is getting cranked up a bit. As usual, there wasn't anything entirely new to me, but it's asking me to combine various vocabulary and grammar in different ways, and reducing the repetition as well. I can, slowly, read or write this stuff, but speaking it automatically is a different matter.

I had some free time yesterday and looked at some old textbooks, thinking maybe I should go through them. I determined that I am way beyond Nakama 1 and 2, which are the very first textbooks I ever used, in my first Japanese class back in (I think) 2005. The other two that I have, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese and Basic Connections, seem like they could be of use. Not sure if I will have time on the weekend, but probably on Monday I will try to work on one of them.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:12 pm

Just did Pimsleur 2-8, which I found to be a bit easier than 2-7. I keep missing days. My progress is much faster when I don't miss days.

In recent days, my wife, my father, and my brother have all criticized my study of Japanese, saying it's a waste of time. My wife spends her free time doom-scrolling through Facebook, or watching Thai soap operas dubbed into Cambodian, or watching Cambodians try to sell various cosmetic snake oil on Youtube. My father watches television about 20 hours a day, mostly CNBC and MSNBC. I can't respect that. (Not sure what my brother does with his free time. I think it's a bit more respectable, hiking and shooting guns I guess.)
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:39 pm

I'm getting better about not missing days for Pimsleur. It seems best to try to get to sleep as early as I possibly can (right after I've read bedtime stories to my youngest daughter), and then do it in the morning, before everyone else is awake. You would think it would also be possible to stay up later than everyone else, and do it before bed, but this doesn't seem to work; I'm just too tired at that point.

I'm not sure if it needs to be said, but when everyone else in the house is awake, it's almost impossible to get it done. Nobody else really believes in the importance of uninterrupted study.

There are a couple interesting things I'm noticing about Japanese pronunciation lately.

First, words borrowed from English are often the hardest to pronounce. I keep wanting to pronounce them the way they are pronounced in English, which is not how they are pronounced in Japanese. For example, the one that is tripping me up lately is "concert". In Japanese, it is pronounced sort of like "cone-SAH-toe". I think it is also a little difficult compared to Japanese-origin words because Japanese-origin words tend to require shorter tongue movements. I think in English, words may require longer tongue movements between syllables, but this is obviated by the much lower syllable rate.

Second, Japanese has no schwa sound, and I keep wanting to substitute it for other sounds. It's hard to even notice this sometimes. Like I have a tendency to assume that Japanese speakers are saying this sound, but when I listen closely, they never really are. This is generally part of the deal where Japanese requires your mouth to be more tense, whereas in English your mouth can be more relaxed.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:53 pm

I did Pimlseur 2-10 today, for the second time. It usually only takes me two passes to "get" a lesson, but not this time. The beginning of the lesson was a breeze, but I was stumbling through the rest of it quite a bit, saying things the wrong way, and even saying things slowly.

But what I really wanted to write about was that I have written some scripts to scrape the lessons from the DLIFLC GLOSS site (https://gloss.dliflc.edu/). I have made them available on Github at https://github.com/tsuyoshi2/gloss.

Each lesson has an audio recording and a text transcript, and it occurred to me that it would be perfect for plugging into a spaced-repetition system. At some point I will probably do exactly that for the languages that I'm interested in (Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, French - Italian is not available), and provide some files for Anki.

I actually wrote these scripts two years ago. I was thinking this morning that I really need to be looking for a job now (my father has some legal problems now that I don't want to get into, and he will probably not be able to pay the rent much longer), and sometimes potential employers like to see stuff you've written on Github, so I figured I might as well put it up.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Thu Mar 31, 2022 6:29 pm

Well, with my kids both back in school, I ran out of excuses. It took me a while, but by the middle of January I was at least doing Pimsleur almost every day. I just finished the last unit of Pimsleur Japanese 2. For the last half of this volume, it was taking me not two, not three, but four days to go through each unit to my satisfaction. And this with zero new vocabulary or grammar - I was already familiar with all of it. So it was something of surprise this morning when I did pretty well with unit 30 on only the third try.

Only 3 more volumes - 90 more units - of Pimsleur Japanese to go! At this rate I will be done in a year.

I've also been doing some Anki. I started trying to play Nobunaga no Yabou (Nobunaga's Ambition, a strategy video game based on the unification of Japan) and got almost immediately blocked by lots of words I didn't know. So I wrote them all down, and started looking up the words in the dictionary, entering the example sentences, looking up the words and grammar that I didn't know in the example sentences... it's a couple months later, I'm at about 500 example sentences, and I still haven't looked up everything. I do this in batches, so that the last words I look up (which should be the most basic ones) go into Anki first. This batch is taking a long time.

There have been a few times in this batch of sentences where the example sentences contained vocabulary that wasn't defined in either dictionary. These words are rare enough that Japanese people ask about, so I was able to look them up online on native Japanese forums and understand the explanations pretty easily.

Also I've found half a dozen typos in the dictionaries. I end up discovering them when I type them in. The editions of these dictionaries are all (with the exception of A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, which I ordered new a couple years ago) quite old. The input method won't give you the right kanji when the kana is wrong, so that hopefully catches everything.

It's slow, but it's really feeling like I'm making progress now. I'm setting a benchmark of passing JLPT N1 in December of 2023. I think I can do it.
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tsuyoshi
White Belt
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:58 pm
Languages: English (N), Japanese (?)
x 103

Re: Tsuyoshi's log

Postby tsuyoshi » Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:01 pm

Well, I started to actually do the Anki reps again, instead of just adding more cards, but I ran into a problem: Anki kept crashing. Apparently the Linux distribution that I use, Debian, has an old version of Anki, because the Anki developers have switched to Rust and started introducing all sorts of dependencies that are hard to package. I started trying to fix this myself, but then decided that I don't really care about Anki per se, and decided to switch back to Mnemosyne.

I had to write a script to convert the import data to TSV (tab-separated values) instead of the CSV (comma-separated values) that I was importing into Anki, but that was no big deal. Mnemosyne seems a bit more polished than when I used it last, and it seems to be seeing active development, even though it's far less popular than Anki these days. I never used any of the special features of Anki, so this is fine.

Anyway, I've been trying to memorize 15 new sentences per day, example sentences from Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary and the various Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar. This past week it was difficult to keep up with this, as my children had Spring Break and were home from school. So I only managed to do that 5 out of 7 days, which isn't too bad.

In doing these SRS reps, which is really focusing on expanding my vocabulary and grammar, I'm finding that the biggest hurdle is writing the kanji. I can still recognize nearly all of them, but I seem to have forgotten how to write hundreds of them. It could be worse; it usually only takes one or two tries before I can remember any character that I've forgotten. By contrast, remembering the meaning of the words and the grammar is pretty easy.

I have been also been doing Pimsleur almost every day. There are two words that continue to trip me up: レストラン ("resutoran" = restaurant) and いらっしゃいます ("irasshaimasu" = welcome, go, come, is). For the first one, I keep trying to say the English word "restaurant". This is actually a continual problem for all the English words that Japanese has borrowed, but this one is particularly difficult, because I normally struggle a bit to say the Japanese "R" sound (which is somewhere between the English "R", "L" , and "D" sounds), and it has two of them. The second one also has the "R", plus a stop right after the "R", and it's a word you use to be more polite than usual. I'm not quite used to being so polite.

I've been also doing a little bit of reading, watching TV and movies, and playing video games in Japanese. It seems I am too old for comic books and cartoons now. I used to love Japanese comics and cartoons back when I first started learning Japanese, but I can't sustain interest in them anymore. Also, for Japanese video games, a lot of the ones I used to like, role-playing games especially, seem really childish and boring to me now. Like Final Fantasy... I used to like all the Final Fantasy games, but I find them to be pretty boring now.

On the other hand, I'm literally memorizing the dictionary now, and somehow that doesn't bore me at all.

I've been trying to read this novel that a friend got for me years ago, 官僚たちの夏 ("Summer of the Bureaucrats"). It's a little easier than the last time I tried to read it. Japanese grammar seems to really be clicking with me now. My biggest problem is that I just don't know enough words.

Oh, coincidentally, the very friend that gave me that book is visiting the US from Japan. His father, who lives near me, is dying. Although he is fluent in Japanese, his native language is English, so I don't expect I'll get any Japanese practice with him.
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