Pinky's 2023 language log (French, Spanish & Japanese)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
x 3404

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby golyplot » Wed Jan 25, 2023 1:15 am

Do you have any plans for how to do kanji study? Personally, I'd recommend starting Wanikani if you haven't already, but everyone has their own preferences.
1 x

User avatar
CDR
Orange Belt
Posts: 113
Joined: Fri May 06, 2022 10:47 pm
Languages: English (N), Portuguese (B2?), Japanese (A2?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18051
x 465

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby CDR » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:41 am

pinkyslippers wrote:
golyplot wrote:Do you have any plans for how to do kanji study? Personally, I'd recommend starting Wanikani if you haven't already, but everyone has their own preferences.


Honestly the thought of learning kanji is a little daunting, so I appreciate the recommendation, thank you :) I think the Tobira textbook I have introduces a few kanji per unit (actually I just counted, it is 139 kanji in Beginning Japanese I) so I might see how I get on with that first, but if I feel I need to introduce SRS I will definitely check out Wanikani. I love apps and gamification generally so it looks good to me! Thanks again for your comment :)


The Intermediate Tobira book has it's own website where you can download Anki decks with some of the material, including the kanji.

I notice the Tobira beginner books have their own site as well, but material it is locked behind a password that is contained in the book: https://tobirabeginning.9640.jp/

So, it maybe there are some Anki decks locked away in there.
1 x

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
x 4824

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Feb 03, 2023 6:39 pm

Thanks especially for the reference to Argentina 1985. :)
1 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

Maengin
White Belt
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:17 pm
Languages: English(N), Mandarin (Reading), French (Learning)
x 15

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby Maengin » Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:38 pm

pinkyslippers wrote:
:arrow: Japanese

I have decided to switch from Tobira to Marugoto for now as I am finding Tobira just a bit too much. I think Tobira is designed for classroom use whereas Marugoto is designed for self-study. Hoping to go back to Tobira afterwards as it is a fantastic resource, but perhaps not the best for the complete beginner independent learner. I keep forgetting to update the Twitter for the 6-week challenge. I had forgotten I that I really don't like timing and logging study sessions :(.


Have you checked out Irodori also by Japan Foundation? Irodori is their newest version of Marugoto that focuses on listening and speaking exercise. Follows the same topics of Marugoto but imo, a better learning experience but only for people that don't need to understand everything at once and let's the textbook slowly teach you.
2 x

User avatar
Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3511
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Location: Koude kikkerland
Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
Maintaining: es, swahili.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
x 9389

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby Le Baron » Sun Mar 05, 2023 12:42 am

pinkyslippers wrote:... and my plan is to read an article a day and note all the new vocabulary, read the article aloud, then try to write a very short summary of what I have read using some of the new words. This should be doable if I break these tasks up throughout the day (e.g. read the article and save new vocab before work, read aloud and make notes on lunch break, write summary after work). If this is too much (it might be), then I will work on an article over two days before choosing another one. There is a Reverso to Anki add-on but I am not sure if I want to go back to Ankiville at the moment. I might just keep a spreadsheet or Google Doc or something, I'm not sur

Apart from the Google spreadsheet, this is pretty much how I operate all the time when learning (I outlined it somewhere on here). I do incorporate Anki though, with extracted vocabularies, but they are small decks. They're also only used while I'm dissecting the particular article or book chapter or whatever. Plus the summary writing using a separate sheet with all the extracted and key words. I try this as a spoken exercise and a written exercise, expecting that the written one will be more detailed and structured. The end goal being two-fold; 1) To learn vocabulary through use and being forced to know the words I'm employing. 2) pushing myself to understand the structural elements for forming and linking sentences.

I know Reverso, but I've never really used it as a tool. I'll look at the video (though I'm not learning French). The ideas will surely be applicable elsewhere.
2 x

User avatar
stell
Orange Belt
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:25 pm
Location: Canada
Languages: English (N1), French (N2), Spanish (advanced), Tagalog (perpetual toddler), Russian (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17696
x 996

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby stell » Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:44 pm

pinkyslippers wrote:This is one of those situations when using the dialectic can be helpful, and I need to practice this more. Using and instead of but. I feel too old and too stupid to learn Japanese and I am going to spend 15 minutes on Marugoto anyway. Two opposite things can be true at the same time. This is going to sound a bit therapy-speak, but actually, this is a good opportunity for me to sit with these feelings and then just do the thing anyway.

I love this: "Two opposite things can be true at the same time."

(Also, you are neither too old nor too stupid for anything. But I think you already know that! Signed: someone who feels both too old and too stupid at times, but who knows deep down she is neither old nor stupid.)
5 x

User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7231
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23125
Contact:

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (mostly French & Japanese)

Postby rdearman » Thu Mar 30, 2023 5:41 pm

pinkyslippers wrote:new vocab into Anki (free for the PC version)

It is free for every version except Apple. :ugeek:
1 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
x 3404

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby golyplot » Mon Apr 10, 2023 3:12 pm

pinkyslippers wrote:I've stopped my Crunchy Roll and Netflix subscriptions for a while in the interests of economy and also I have not been able to find much of interest lately (this is probably more indicative of my current mood than the actual content), so I'm not watching any anime at the moment. I'm still enjoying Astrid et Raphaëlle and I have finished watching all of season 1. I might go back and watch again or move on to season 2, I'm not sure.


In case you ever decide to rejoin Netflix and are looking for anime recs, here some of my favorites that I watched recently: Komi Can't Communicate, Aggretsuko, Romantic Killer, Hi Score Girl. I also watched a French show recently that I liked, The Seven Lives of Lea.

pinkyslippers wrote:I finally took others’ advice (thank you fellow LLORGers) and signed up for Wanikani. I’m still using the free levels at the moment but it’s likely that I will subscribe once I complete these as I am really enjoying it so far, and the light-hearted ‘don’t take it quite so seriously’ tone and silly mnemonics are just what I needed after last week’s mini meltdown.


It sounds like you might be worried about the subscription cost, so here's a protip to save money on WK. The cheapest way to do WK is to subscribe for a year, race up to level 60 and then take advantage of the secret deal to upgrade to Lifetime for only $60 at level 60, which is a cheaper than subscribing to Lifetime upfront, even during the holiday sales. Of course, I'm a) American and b) did this back in 2020, so the exact prices will likely differ, but it will probably still work for you.

Of course, speedrunning WK like this is not for everyone, with racing through the highest levels being especially brutal. There's no way you'll actually learn the upper level material like that, but you just have to cram each level's kanji enough to answer the questions long enough to advance to the next level, which is straightforward if you put your mind to it. Then once you've secured your discounted Lifetime, you can reset and go back through it at a more leisurely pace. I ended up doing this pretty much on accident.
4 x

User avatar
brilliantyears
Green Belt
Posts: 480
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Netherlands
Languages: Dutch, English
Active: Japanese (JLPT N2~N1), Russian (B1)
Maintaining: German (?)
Low-key: Ainu, Mandarin (A2?)
Dropped: Arabic, Korean, French, Latin, classical Manchu, Norwegian, SLN
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19020
x 911

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby brilliantyears » Mon Apr 10, 2023 4:55 pm

pinkyslippers wrote:It wasn't until I started learning Japanese that I came across such words as 'brutal', 'slog', 'bootcamp' in the context of language learning and I wonder if in six months I will throw in the towel, feeling like a failure and having spent £500+ on Japanese learning materials. In the first post of my log this year I wrote that I wanted to try learning Japanese "for fun" but lately it hasn't felt like fun at all, and more and more I am having that feeling of "what the heck I am doing this for?" Did you have this feeling of biting off more than you could chew when you first started? Or anyone? It's not so much that I am lacking motivation or even discipline, but a sense of self-efficacy, I suppose. Honestly sometimes I go back and read one of rdearman's famous meltdown posts because they make me feel better.

I definitely feel like this occasionally, and the further a language is removed from my own (aka the less transparent it seems), the worse it is :) Take a step back, take a breath, and focus on the things that are still fun about the language for a bit. It's fine! It won't set you back - actually, I promise you it'll both make you feel better and maybe even be surprisingly educational.

Also, please link me to those meltdown posts because I have a mighty need to read them :D
3 x

golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
x 3404

Re: Pinky's 2023 language log (Spanish, French & Japanese)

Postby golyplot » Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:43 am

pinkyslippers wrote:Did you have this feeling of biting off more than you could chew when you first started? Or anyone? It's not so much that I am lacking motivation or even discipline, but a sense of self-efficacy, I suppose. Honestly sometimes I go back and read one of rdearman's famous meltdown posts because they make me feel better. Bleurgh, sorry for offloading all that on your helpful comment, golyplot :oops:


Absolutely. I'm pretty sure I've written about it a few times in my log, and there have been a lot of times when I've gotten discouraged, but not enough to mention.


Speaking of setbacks, I was reading something just know and didn't recognize the word 雑誌 at all and looked it up, thinking it might be a new word and wondering what the reading was. I was pretty embarrassed when I discovered that it was magazine. That's probably one of the earliest words I was exposed to in Japanese!
2 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests