Sumisu's Japanese Log

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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Sat Feb 06, 2021 10:52 pm

Today I finally got around to adding words from last week's italki lesson that I didn't know or used incorrectly into Anki, and then studied my Anki decks.

Earlier today I was reading through a thread on the General Discussion board about whether one should learn only a single language at a time. This is something I've thought a lot about and have always concluded that, for me at least, I have to stick to just the one language until I get to a high level. However, reading that thread and thinking about my current level has made me rethink this. As I've mentioned before, I have several years (at least!) of Japanese in front of me. In thinking about learning other languages I realize I've grown a little bit bored of Japanese. Maybe starting another language will cure this boredom.

The key, I think, is to keep it low key and not have any real goals for the language, should I decide to do this. I think my Japanese is good enough that if I play around with another language for 10 or 15 minutes a day it's not going to confuse me, so long as I continue my Japanese study. The goal would just be to keep me interested in language learning in general. So...which languages am I interested in? If I had an unlimited lifespan and unlimited free time I would like to learn, at a minimum, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, French, Swedish, Chinese, Slovak, and Russian, not necessarily in that order.

Maybe I do this, maybe I don't. However, just thinking about it somehow has given me some motivation to keep going.
4 x

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Sumisu
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Posts: 109
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:17 am

To follow up on the previous post, after giving it some thought, I have decided not to pursue any new language projects at this time, even casually. I think what I need is not a new language, but just some more variety with my Japanese. There is an enormous amount of content in Japanese but I find myself consuming a very narrow range of it. For example, I have not watched any anime, even though there seems to be a limitless supply and a lot of people seem to like it. It hasn't been something I'm interested in, but I'm sure there's something out there I'd like if I started looking into it.

Anyway, there is simply no time for other languages. What I need to do is spend much more time with Japanese.
6 x

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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Wed Feb 10, 2021 3:45 am

This probably will not interest anyone else, but it's a site I enjoy and I want to log it here so I don't forget to visit it from time to time. Tonight I spent (am still spending) some time on the Yahoo Finance Japan message boards (finance.yahoo.co.jp). You can search for a stock (e.g. Toyota) and each stock has its own message board where people are talking about it in real time. I'm interested in finance, and am kind of focusing on business Japanese, so this is interesting for me. It's a good way to get real, colloquial Japanese in little bite-sized doses. I'd love to find more good message boards or comment sections in Japanese. Of course, this is difficult for me to do even in English - most comment sections are awful places! But the best ones can be really special (e.g. this website). As an early intermediate speaker, it is very difficult, maybe impossible, for me to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to Japanese Internet/social media.
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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:57 am

The last week or so has been a good one for me. I've started playing Shenmue III again on the PS4, with Japanese audio and English subtitles. I think that has helped take a lot of the tedium out of my language learning lately. And I've found that the usual stuff I read (newspapers, news tweets, financial news) is somehow easier also. rdearman wrote a couple of weeks ago about working on reading/listening without worrying about the stuff you don't understand. This is a lesson I forget over and over but I'm in a good place with that at the moment in that I'm able to read and just focus on the words that I know. This is really helping those words to stick. At this point I need to remember to pace myself because what usually ends up happening is I start making tons of progress and then fall into the trap of thinking: "Mastery is just around the corner!!! I just need to make a strong push toward the finish line!!!" Because that always ends in tears when I realize how far I still have to go.

頑張ります!!! (translation: keep on truckin')
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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:25 am

Listened to a bunch of カネコアヤノ songs

Anki streak intact

5-10 minutes reading 日本語 tweets

10-15 minutes listening to NHK Radio
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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:47 am

Below is a great site for practicing Japanese numbers. I don't have the brainpower to study this right now but I'm logging it so I will remember to do it tomorrow. I have a terrible time processing large Japanese numbers when spoken by native speakers in realtime, e.g. on a newscast. And there are tons of numbers in the stuff I listen to. This site really helps, but I really need to be in "study mode" to make use of it, and I'm often just too lazy...

In the spirit of not being lazy, I'm going to treat this entry as a daily language goal - for tomorrow when I'm fresh. The goal is to spend 5 minutes using this site to practice numbers.

https://langpractice.com/japanese/
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Sumisu
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:58 am

Well I just completed about 20 minutes of number listening practice, beating my goal for 5 minutes that I set yesterday. This is one of those areas in Japanese that you can't learn through passive listening or even lots of random exposure. At least for me. For me, this needs to be "serious" study involving drills and lots of repetition. The langpractice site is a godsend for this.

Japanese numbers are fascinating. For example, take the number 15,000,000. In English we read this as "fifteen million." In Japanese this is read as "thousand five hundred ten-thousands." Same number: 15,000,000. :?

My goal is to be able to hear that and process it instantly as 15,000,000. But I haven't been practicing enough lately and so my skills aren't great. I'm going to prioritize this moving forward.
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Sumisu
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Posts: 109
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Sun Feb 28, 2021 4:08 am

More numbers practice. I've only been doing this for a few days, so I haven't made a ton of progress. All the more reason to keep pushing, but it's not easy. For "fun," I also listened to an earnings presentation for investors by Fujitsu's CFO, which contained wall-to-wall numbers. I found it quite difficult to follow. The numbers he was reading often didn't match the numbers of the slides, and my ability to read the slides and listen at the same time was poor. On the other hand, I was able to understand and process a fair amount of information from this presentation. I wouldn't want to put a percentage on it, but if I had watched this presentation three years ago, it would have been 0%, so I'm proud to have understood anything at all.
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Sumisu
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Posts: 109
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 1:57 am
Location: USA
Languages: English (N) Japanese (B1?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 0c0a4beb42
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:20 pm

I just came across a passage in a book I'm reading that perfectly describes how I sometimes feel about language learning, as well as learning anything new:

I am tormented, or tantalized, by the sense that I'm almost in view of something that is at the limit of my comprehension. I dream of being in the sea, treading water, trying to see a beacon on the shore. But the view is blocked by the crests of the waves. Sometimes, when conditions are perfect, I can pop up high enough to glimpse it. But then, before I can form any firm impression of what it is I'm seeing, I sink back down of my own weight, and get slapped in the face by another wave.


Anathem, Neal Stephenson
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User avatar
Sumisu
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Posts: 109
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 1:57 am
Location: USA
Languages: English (N) Japanese (B1?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 0c0a4beb42
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Re: Sumisu's Japanese Log

Postby Sumisu » Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:40 am

I had an italki session yesterday, and realized my number comprehension is even worse than I thought. While the langpractice website is helpful, it is not perfect. The problem is twofold: 1) you have to select a range of numbers (e.g. 10k-100m); 2) they only give you round numbers (e.g 15,000,000). As a result, your brain becomes primed to listen for certain patterns of numbers.

I only realized this after I asked my tutor to quiz me on numbers. I didn't give him any restrictions so he would throw out e.g. 15,300,050 followed by 1,253. I performed poorly. The good news is we're going to practice this again next time. He also told me he still has trouble with English numbers, even though he's been studying English for 20 years :shock:

Must keep pressing on...
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