Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

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baobab
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Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:45 pm

Hey forum members,

For years I have been lurking here and on the old HTLAL, but now I thought it was time to start my own log. I want to get more structure into my language learning and also hope to get tips and feedback from the community. Additionally I want to document my progress with studying for the JPLT N1 exam in December.

As the title says, my main focus is Japanese, but I might also talk about my side projects (read: my wanderlust). Next to Japanese, I'm casually studying Italian at the moment.

A bit about my Japanese background: I've been studying the language on-and-off (mostly off) since around 2010. I've also been to Japan as an exchange student for a year.

My general level of Japanese is a bit skewed with regards to different skills: my reading is relatively solid and my listening ability is okay, but my speaking and especially my writing are at a comparatively low level. I'm not actively using Japanese in my daily life and most of my studying—except my year in Japan—has focused on passive understanding. Of course I'd like to balance out my skills a bit more, but in general I'm quite happy with being able to read and watch native materials.

To give my studies a bit more focus, I've enrolled for the N1 (the highest level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test) this December. I've been studying for that exam since the summer. During the next six weeks I want to give my daily study time an extra boost to be sufficiently prepared for the test on December 3rd.

As my main study resources I use the books from the 完全マスター (Kanzen Masutā) series. I have the books for 読解 (dokkai, reading comprehension), 聴解 (chōkai, listening comprehension), 文法 (bunpō, grammar), 語彙 (goi, vocabulary) and 漢字 (kanji).
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:29 pm

2017年10月18日(水)

I didn’t do any formal studying today. I watched an episode of 新日本風土記 (Shin Nihon Fūdoki). It’s an NHK documentary series that showcases different (I think mostly rural) areas of Japan and their local culture.

This episode was about the 富良野 (Furano) region on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. It’s one of the last places there to have been settled, and apparently it’s a famous tourist spot for its lavender fields.

I watched the documentary with Japanese subtitles. There was a lot of vocab that I didn’t know, including a lot of words having to do with agriculture. Mostly I could roughly follow what was being said by guessing unknown words. One specific word that I remember is 開拓「かいたく」(cultivation, reclamation). I think it’s quite often used in the context of Hokkaido, since extensive settlement of the island took place only in the 19th century.

To stay on the topic of nature, I then decided to read a few pages of 「雑草のくらし」(Zassō no kurashi, “The life of weeds”) a children’s book I had recently bought. I know, I know, someone who’s supposedly at an advanced level should probably go for more sophisticated reading material than picture books, but actually it made for some very nice bedtime reading. As the title says, the book is actually about, well, weeds. More specifically, the author (Nobue Kai) observed a small field for 5 years and described the different kinds of grasses and weeds that grew there each different year. That doesn’t sound too enticing at a first glance, but it actually is quite a unique idea. Basically it’s a bit like a nature documentary on TV, where wildlife gets its own dramatic story arches.

At a linguistic level it was quite a relaxed read. There was a fair number of words I didn’t know, but the amount of kanji was slightly reduced (since it’s a children’s book), and all kanji had furigana. It is a good refresher for some basic plant vocabulary, such as 茎「くき」(stalk, stem) which I don’t encounter too often in my regular reading and hence tend to forget all to easily.
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:14 pm

Again no actual studying today. I hope to get a bit more of that done during the weekend.

However I did watch some TV again. I first watched an episode of 「72時間」(72 jikan, 72 Hours), my favorite NHK program. It’s a 20-minute format in which a film crew observes a certain unusual place for 72 hours and interviews the people there. This time they went to a small rock festival that’s been going on for more than twenty years, where most of the audience and the performers are in their 40s to 60s. I love how they always manage to find lots of unusual characters to interview.

I also watched a 40-minute documentary about the Japanese bubble economy. Knowledge of economic affairs isn’t my strongest point. Accordingly, following the TV program was rather challenging, both because I was lacking the necessary vocabulary, as well as because my general knowledge about the topic is limited (so I couldn't fill in the linguistic gaps so easily).

Here are some economy-related terms from the program:

金融自由化「きんゆうじゆうか」financial deregulation
財テク「ざいテク」financial engineering
資本主義「しほんしゅぎ」capitalism (this one is rather basic, so I really should know it)

As usual, I watched both shows with Japanese subtitles.

And for a bit of wanderlust: before going to work in the morning I did a quick review of two lessons of the advanced Assimil Italian book. It’s been a month since I’ve done anything with Italian and I have to suppress the urge to spend more time on it, seeing that I should spend my time on preparing for the JLPT.
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:26 pm

2017年10月20日(金)

Again no real studying today, but an hour of Japanese TV. I watched a 60 min. documentary about an ancient Chinese queen (Queen Dowager Zhao, 趙姫「ちょうき」in Japanese). Unsurprisingly, material about ancient Chinese history doesn't make for the easiest material in terms of language comprehension. Some words I picked up:
反乱「はんらん」rebellion
儒教「じゅきょう」confucianism

This log is starting to feel more like a TV watching log than a language learning log. My excuse is that I feel a cold coming on. so that my energy levels are totally depleted at the moment. I'll try to get a lot of sleep this weekend, hope that helps!
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:51 am

2017年10月20日(金)続き

To complete yesterday’s entry, here’s some additional watching/reading I did yesterday when I couldn’t get to sleep.

First I watched two episodes of「日本ぶらり鉄道旅」(Nihon burari tetsudō tabi). It’s a travel program, with each episode featuring a celebrity traveling along a train (or subway) line and visiting all kinds of interesting places/shops/cafes along that line. It’s fairly easy watching that makes me feel all 懐かしい (nostalgic) for Japan. In the two episodes I watched they traveled along the 東京メトロ南北線 (Tokyo Metro Namboku Line) and the 都営地下鉄浅草線 (Toei Asakusa Line, also in Tokyo). The two episodes were 30 minutes each, with Japanese subtitles.

I also read a few pages of 「日本人の心がわかる日本語」 (Nihonjin no kokoro ga wakaru nihongo, Japanese Words to Understand the Japanese Mind). It’s a very good upper intermediate level reader. Each short chapter introduces a keyword related to Japanese culture/society and includes vocabulary notes. Yesterday I read the chapters on 愛想 (aiso, courtesy), 礼儀 (reigi, manners), and 本音と建て前 (honne to tatemae; someone’s true feelings/opinions vs. what they show in public).

I finally fell asleep sometime around 2 a.m. I think.
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baobab
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Posts: 12
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Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:31 pm

2017年10月22日(日)

After a day without too much Japanese yesterday (apart from a few short Youtube videos), I managed to get a bit of N1 studying done today. I worked on 聴解 (chōkai, listening comprehension) and 読解 (dokkai, reading comprehension).

①聴解

I completed excercises 51-65 (out of 76) on CD1. Most of the listening comprehension questions haven’t been too hard so far and I’m going through them quickly. I should be able to do the rest of CD 1 in another study session, and then there’s another 73 lessons on the second CD. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to go through all of them, but I’m not too concerned. When I did the N2 I hadn’t prepared for the listening part at all. Granted, I was studying in Japan at that time and had enough exposure to spoken Japanese. But I think it won’t be much worse this time. I’m continuously trying to keep up my listening comprehension by watching TV, so I just need to have a general idea of what the question format is like.

②読解

I’m currently going through the 長文 (chōbun, long texts) section. Each of these texts is relatively long (1000 characters, which is roughly equivalent to 500 words) and comes with 4 comprehension questions, so I only did 2 or 3 of them. Reading comprehension is probably my strongest point and it’s also the part that I’ve been practicing the most (I’m on page 146 out of 187). Therefore it probably won’t be too much of a problem.

I’ll leave studying for the other parts (grammar, kanji, vocab) for another day. I’ll also write a bit more extensively about those parts of the test (which are my weaker skills) another day.

Before going to bed tonight I’ll read a few pages of Banana Yoshimoto’s novel キッチン (Kitchen). I had started reading the book before the summer and now want to resume after a long hiatus.

じゃあ、お休みなさい、皆さん
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:34 pm

2017年10月24日(火)

I watched another episode of the travel program 「日本ぶらり鉄道旅」(Nihon burari tetsudō tabi). This episode was about the Kyoto and Arashiyama area, more specifically places on the 嵐山本線 (Arashiyama Honsen). Of all the parts of Japan I’ve visited this is probably my favorite, so it was nice to see some familiar spots. In terms of random kanji knowledge, I learned that the onyomi of 嵐 (arashi) is らん, because apparently the short name for the Arashiyama Honsen + another local train line is 嵐電 (Randen). It’s probably a reading that I won’t come across again anytime soon.

Before bedtime I’m going to read a few pages of キッチン.

おやすみ
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baobab
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:10 pm

2017年10月25日(水)

Still feeling a bit sick, so no real studying, but more Japanese TV!

I watched three 30-minute episodes of 「日本ぶらり鉄道旅」, visiting places along the 西武新宿線 (Seibu Shinjuku Line), 東京メトロ銀座線 (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line) and the 東京メトロ丸の内線 (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line), respectively.

Some new vocab and expressions:
  • 骨董市「こっとういち」antiques market
  • 「西武新宿線で出会った方はコダワリ方が半端ありません。」
    I didn’t know the expression 半端ない 「はんぱない」 . Apparently it means impressive, to a great extent (lit. ‘there’s no incompleteness’). So the sentence should mean something like “The specialists we met along the Seibu Shinjuku Line were all impressive.”
  • 「〇〇さんは目が点」, meaning “X-san is surprised”; apparently the expression 「目が点」 is based on how surprise is depicted in manga drawings: the characters’ eyes are just shown as little dots.


And now before bed a few more pages of キッチン.

おやすみ
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:15 pm

2017年10月26日(木)

Still sick, and still mostly getting my language input in the form of TV and some reading

I watched two 15-minute episodes of a fun little program called デザインあ (Design-ah). It’s a program about design aimed at children, but it’s done in a very creative way. There’s actually not a lot of spoken content, but some of it really helps to reinforce some words I already know. For example, they have a little segment illustrating the word ぴったり (pittari, onomatopoeia for ‘exactly’).

Apart from that I watched another episode of 「日本ぶらり鉄道旅」. This one was about the JR東海道本線 (JR Tōkaidō Main Line). Random bits of new vocabulary:

切り札「きりふだ」a trump
酪農「らくのう」dairy farming

Also I read about 15-20 pages of キッチン today, which isn’t too bad at all, given my very slow pace at reading Japanese. It’s the old debate about extensive vs. intensive reading - I know I should probably aim to read more extensively rather than intensively, but I really can’t help myself. Especially when I see kanji and I don’t know the reading, I feel like I have to look them up.

Anyways, almost time for bed, and before that a few more pages of キッチン!

じゃあ、おやすみなさい
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baobab
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Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (proficient), Dutch (proficient), Japanese (N2), French (dormant), Italian (lower intermediate)
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Re: Mostly Japanese, with a healthy dose of wanderlust

Postby baobab » Thu Nov 09, 2017 10:29 pm

2017年11月9日(木)

After a longer absence I've been studying for the N1 again. There's less than 3 weeks left and I'm not sure on what skills to focus.

  • My stronger skills are reading and kanji. I probably don't need to focus on those too much anymore.
  • I think I've made good progress with listening. Still, since you really have to grasp the listening comprehension questions immediately and there's no time to reflect, I want to be prepared as well as possible.
  • Grammar and vocab are my weak points. I've been studying grammar patterns, but I tend to forget them right away. Ideally I should be doing a lot of grammar revision. However, I've also discovered that I don't do too well on the vocab section. I hadn't explicitly studied any vocab because I thought I'd pick up enough by going through the kanji and reading comprehension books. The mock exam taught me differently. So now I'm deliberating whether I should focus more on grammar (and make sure this will get me points) or whether I should start working on vocab more or less from scratch (on top of reviewing all the other sections).

So I'll have to devise a last-minute study strategy. At the same time I shouldn't forget that I'm basically just doing this exam for fun, so the last thing I want is to stress out over it ;)
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