Re: The Language Journal of Jinx
Posted: Wed May 19, 2021 9:11 pm
18 May 2021
Italian:
- read chapter 7 of “Sette Robinson” on OPLingo (2134 words known).
Japanese:
- reviewed Assimil lesson 12, did lesson 13.
- finished lesson 3 of the katakana course from japanese-lesson.com.
ASSIMIL:
In this lesson, at one point I thought “Okay, now this language is really starting to go over my head” – but then just a few seconds later I was thinking “Wow, I got that right? I don’t even know how I knew that!” Not to boast – I don’t think it was my accomplishment. I think it’s due to the incredibly carefully crafted structure of Assimil. These courses really are brilliantly designed.
When it comes to my Japanese listening skills, I’m annoyed that I’m having trouble distinguishing certain consonants. For instance, I often mix up “T” and “K” sounds. Perhaps because they’re less aspirated than in English?
JL.COM KATAKANA COURSE:
At the end of each reading lesson there’s a video quiz that mixes hiragana and katakana, showing them in various fonts, and you have to read them and type them in rōmaji before the timer runs out. When I was first learning hiragana a couple of weeks ago and doing these quizzes at the end of each lesson, they moved way too fast for me. I had to hit pause every time to give myself enough time to work out the characters.
Today I noticed how much easier it’s gotten for me. Even without hitting pause at all, I can type each answer and then grab a few bites of food while waiting for the timer to run out and show the answer. And I’m also making next to no mistakes now, whereas before I made several mistakes during each quiz. It’s so motivating to see concrete progress!
The lessons from japanese-lesson.com are rather long and exhausting – each lesson introduces a set of five new characters and is divided into three sections (reading, writing, and typing) with between one and three quizzes per section – but it’s clearly well-designed and really helps the characters sink into your memory.
19 May 2021
Japanese:
- did Assimil lesson 14 (revision lesson), reviewed lessons 8–13.
- learned all katakana on https://kana.icann.se/
French:
- read about four pages (Le Japonais revision lesson).
Despite the fact that I really like how thorough the japanese-lesson.com courses are, I suddenly got impatient and learned all the rest of the kana in one go tonight, using the much simpler flashcard-type web app linked above. I’ll probably keep working through the JL.com course at a slower pace, because the quizzes are good (especially the writing ones, and the reading ones because they show you the characters in various fonts). But when it comes to the kana, I just… had to get the learning part done, so that everything from here on can just be reviewing. There’s too much else to learn with Japanese to waste time plodding slowly through the kana.
Last night I also spontaneously did the German "productive vocabulary" test (basically, active vocab as opposed to passive, I guess) from ITT Leipzig. It's supposed to take about half an hour, and I was punch-drunk with exhaustion and flew through it in 15 minutes, so I was expecting a pretty low score. I actually didn't do too badly though. And amusingly enough, the only level I got flawless marks on was the hardest one (out of the five) – or rather, the one that used the rarest vocabulary. Probably due to my predilection for reading as my primary foreign-language activity, I guess? Still, I haven't done much reading in German for a while... I'd like to return to it. This test was rather easy; I think it may have been overly generous to me.
Italian:
- read chapter 7 of “Sette Robinson” on OPLingo (2134 words known).
Japanese:
- reviewed Assimil lesson 12, did lesson 13.
- finished lesson 3 of the katakana course from japanese-lesson.com.
ASSIMIL:
In this lesson, at one point I thought “Okay, now this language is really starting to go over my head” – but then just a few seconds later I was thinking “Wow, I got that right? I don’t even know how I knew that!” Not to boast – I don’t think it was my accomplishment. I think it’s due to the incredibly carefully crafted structure of Assimil. These courses really are brilliantly designed.
When it comes to my Japanese listening skills, I’m annoyed that I’m having trouble distinguishing certain consonants. For instance, I often mix up “T” and “K” sounds. Perhaps because they’re less aspirated than in English?
JL.COM KATAKANA COURSE:
At the end of each reading lesson there’s a video quiz that mixes hiragana and katakana, showing them in various fonts, and you have to read them and type them in rōmaji before the timer runs out. When I was first learning hiragana a couple of weeks ago and doing these quizzes at the end of each lesson, they moved way too fast for me. I had to hit pause every time to give myself enough time to work out the characters.
Today I noticed how much easier it’s gotten for me. Even without hitting pause at all, I can type each answer and then grab a few bites of food while waiting for the timer to run out and show the answer. And I’m also making next to no mistakes now, whereas before I made several mistakes during each quiz. It’s so motivating to see concrete progress!
The lessons from japanese-lesson.com are rather long and exhausting – each lesson introduces a set of five new characters and is divided into three sections (reading, writing, and typing) with between one and three quizzes per section – but it’s clearly well-designed and really helps the characters sink into your memory.
19 May 2021
Japanese:
- did Assimil lesson 14 (revision lesson), reviewed lessons 8–13.
- learned all katakana on https://kana.icann.se/
French:
- read about four pages (Le Japonais revision lesson).
Despite the fact that I really like how thorough the japanese-lesson.com courses are, I suddenly got impatient and learned all the rest of the kana in one go tonight, using the much simpler flashcard-type web app linked above. I’ll probably keep working through the JL.com course at a slower pace, because the quizzes are good (especially the writing ones, and the reading ones because they show you the characters in various fonts). But when it comes to the kana, I just… had to get the learning part done, so that everything from here on can just be reviewing. There’s too much else to learn with Japanese to waste time plodding slowly through the kana.
Last night I also spontaneously did the German "productive vocabulary" test (basically, active vocab as opposed to passive, I guess) from ITT Leipzig. It's supposed to take about half an hour, and I was punch-drunk with exhaustion and flew through it in 15 minutes, so I was expecting a pretty low score. I actually didn't do too badly though. And amusingly enough, the only level I got flawless marks on was the hardest one (out of the five) – or rather, the one that used the rarest vocabulary. Probably due to my predilection for reading as my primary foreign-language activity, I guess? Still, I haven't done much reading in German for a while... I'd like to return to it. This test was rather easy; I think it may have been overly generous to me.