Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, German, Tadoku)

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Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin)

Postby Nandemonai » Mon Jan 08, 2018 3:54 pm

I kinda forgot to update this log over the past half year ^^'
Let's do this.

I didn’t really get anywhere with my goals in 2017, I was too busy. The only one I managed to reach was my manga goal in Japanese: 56 out of 50 volumes. I managed to read 26 out of 50 books; which is more than usual. This one still makes me pretty happy considering I didn’t finish a single book after June. Despite this my production skills in Japanese have improved a ridiculous amount. I no longer have any trouble spending whole days in just Japanese.

I took the JLPT N1 in December which I might or might not have passed. When I compared the answers I remembered with the ones posted online it seemed like I’d pass, but I’ll only know for sure when the results are posted in a couple of weeks. I really hope this is a pass so I don’t have to bother with it anymore.

I was focussing more on real life since July and language learning kind of fell in between the cracks. Sitting the JLPT made me realize that it’s such a waste to not do any language learning at all. I had a feeling I could better, that I can still make progress when I do a little every day. So that’s what I ended up doing. I caught up with all the ‘easy’ cards in Anki and suspended all the rest. I’ve been unsuspending cards daily whenever my schedule allows me to. I’ve been mostly caught up and can review Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin in about 20 minutes. This is something I should be able to keep up daily even when I’m busy.

I was thinking about my long-term goals too, but seeing how I didn’t make any of them except one in 2017 I figured I should focus on short-term goals instead. Every week I’ll just have one goal in every language, and not anything more. It should be something I can do without having to change my schedule drastically; like reading 10-20 pages of a book, watching an episode of a show, learning 20 new words, etc. I’ve added Mandarin back to the list of languages I’m studying as well, I just can’t seem to give this one a break. ^^’

I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention some things, but I’ll keep it at this for now. It’s gotten way too long already haha.

I’ve also gone back to my old way of tracking activities for a lack of a better alternative.

Week 1 update:

Goals (~4.8h):
  • JP: Read 10 book pages (30min)
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min)
  • ZH: Read 3 chapters of The Secret garden (1.5h)
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)

End of week 1 Anki stats:
JP MATURE: 10992 (+103)
JP YOUNG: 264 (+34)
KR MATURE: 1954 (+361)
KR YOUNG: 59 (+10)
ZH MATURE: 2169 (+311)
ZH YOUNG: 194 (+39)
TOTAL MATURE: 15115 (+775)
TOTAL YOUNG: 517 (+83)

Stats for 2018#01:
Image

Goals for week 2 (5.3h):
  • JP: Read 20 book pages (1h)
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min)
  • ZH: Read 3 chapters of The Secret garden (1.5h)
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)
4 x

User avatar
Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Japanese, Korean)

Postby Nandemonai » Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:23 pm

Haven't had a lot of time to post this yet, so It'll be a quick one.
Never ended up finding a good time to fit in the Chinese reading into my schedule, lowered my goals for that one until I do.

Work's been really busy, but I'm very happy I've been able to keep going every day, no matter how little it is. If only I can manage to hit the gym twice instead of once a week I will be very happy =) I might start including progress I'm making on programming languages here as well, as I've been meaning to learn more about mobile app development.

Week 2 update:

Goals (~4.8h):
  • JP: Read 10 book pages (30min) 58 pages
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min) Chapter 9
  • ZH: Read 3 chapters of The Secret garden (1.5h) Read nothing
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)

End of week 2 Anki stats:
JP MATURE: 11042 (+50)
JP YOUNG: 296 (+32)
KR MATURE: 2039 (+85)
KR YOUNG: 70 (+11)
ZH MATURE: 2288 (+119)
ZH YOUNG: 205 (+11)
TOTAL MATURE: 15369 (+254)
TOTAL YOUNG: 571 (+54)

Stats for 2018#02:
Image

Goals for week 3 (4.3h):
  • JP: Read 20 book pages (1h)
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min)
  • ZH: Read 1 chapter of The Secret garden (30min)
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)
Last edited by Nandemonai on Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
5 x

User avatar
Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin)

Postby Nandemonai » Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:58 pm

Didn't make my goals but it's been going well regardless. I've found a routine for Anki which I can keep up. I don't force myself to add new cards every day. I just review, and if I feel like it or have time left, I'll add some (about 20 total, spread over three languages). Usually this means I don't add on the weekends since I'm busy, but I'm fine with that.

I just got my results for the JLPT N1 *and I passed!!* Not with a good score, but I'm already very happy that I passed. It was my goal to pass the N1 (1kyuu back then) about 9 years ago. I managed to pass the N1 within the first 10 years of learning Japanese, and for me that's a big one. In the beginning I could never believe I would be able to achieve that level.

Image

Seems like my reading and grammar are still lacking... at least for the kind of texts they make us read on the test.

Week 3 update:

Goals (~4.3h):
  • JP: Read 20 book pages (30min) 17 pages
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min) Didn't review
  • ZH: Read 1 chapter of The Secret garden (30min) Read nothing
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)

End of week 3 Anki stats:
JP MATURE: 11087 (+45)
JP YOUNG: 278 (-18)
KR MATURE: 2100 (+61)
KR YOUNG: 89 (+19)
ZH MATURE: 2442 (+154)
ZH YOUNG: 218 (+13)
TOTAL MATURE: 15629 (+260)
TOTAL YOUNG: 585 (+14)

Stats for 2018#03:
Image

Goals for week 4 (4.3h):
  • JP: Read 20 book pages (1h)
  • KR: Review 1 chapter of できる韓国語1 (20min)
  • ZH: Read 1 chapter of The Secret garden (30min)
  • JP/KR/ZH: Keep up Anki streak (~2.5h)
Last edited by Nandemonai on Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
10 x

AndyMeg
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:44 pm
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2-C1), Japanese (A2-B1), Korean (Lower Intermediate?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 02#p201902
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin)

Postby AndyMeg » Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:26 pm

Nandemonai wrote:
I just got my results for the JLPT N1 *and I passed!!*

Congratulations!!! :D
1 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

User avatar
Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Contact:

Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Nandemonai » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:26 am

Wow, it's been a year and a half since I lost posted an update. Time flies by so quickly. Language learning-wise it's been a rather uneventful period. For the first half of 2018 I kept up doing reviews in Anki regularly, but that's mostly it. I haven't done much for about a year. I changed my focus towards improving my career-related skills.

My girlfriend has started studying English a couple months ago and that made me want to pick up the slack with my language studies. I figured that three languages at once isn't gonna work out with the time I want to set aside for this project (20~50 mins a day). So I've had a choice to make: improve my Japanese, or aim for intermediate in either Korean/Chinese. I quickly discarded the idea of working on my Japanese as it wouldn't yield a great return on investment. I ended up going with Chinese because there's a couple of Mandarin speakers in the office here, and that's the language I have the most exposure to apart from English and Japanese. I'm now in the process of coming up with a study plan. It'll most likely be a combination of Anki (spoonfed deck) and the NPCR books.

One other project that has been taking up a lot of my time is the relaunch of Tadoku. I'd like to be able to participate in it with Chinese once my schedule clears up.
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Nandemonai
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Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Nandemonai » Wed Jul 03, 2019 2:06 am

I’ve made up my mind about how I’ll tackle Mandarin for the next quarter. I’ll be doing 20 sentences a day from the spoonfed anki deck. On top of that I’ll do 12 lessons from NPCR 2 with a pace of one lesson a week.

The past couple days I’ve been reviewing NPCR 1, which has been going smoothly. I’ve got one more lesson to review. I’ll be adding only the hard and important words to Anki as I don’t want my studies to rely too heavily on it this time.

This should result in a total of 1800 new sentences learned and 24 dialogs studied. Feels kinda low compared to my more intensive study periods from the past, but it should be achievable with my time constraints.
0 x

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Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Contact:

Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Nandemonai » Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:09 am

Last week went well. Did my daily 20 new Mandarin sentences in Anki while keeping my review time to a minimum (average 15-20min a day). Wrapped up reviewing NPCR 1, will start NPCR 2 tonight.
0 x

User avatar
Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
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Contact:

Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Nandemonai » Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:32 am

Progress has been going really well. I've been learning 20 new sentences a day for almost 7 weeks, the review load is very manageable.
I've just got to finish the reading exercise of NPCR lesson 19 and I'll have finished 5 lessons of NPCR 2. I personally feel like I'm learning at an ideal pace right now. I spend about 20-30 minutes every day and I can tell my Mandarin has been improving a lot. We're now halfway through this quarter. I'll try my best to keep this up and finish it strong.
1 x

Heiopei
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Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:00 pm
Languages: :
N: German
~C: English
~B: Japanese
Beginner: French
Wish List: Chinese, Greek, Greenlandic, Spanish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10899
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Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Heiopei » Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:53 am

Hey there, just stumbled across your log. I'm intrigued seeing someone actually try to tackle all three of the big east asian languages. I myself have studied Japanese for about three years but I hit a nasty plateau. Now I turned to learning French. But I do want to get back to Japanese eventually. Interestingly, now that I should be putting in work for French I find myself getting drawn to Japanese more than before. Gah, motivation is a tricky thing. :lol:

Besides that, I want to learn Chinese too somewhere along the line but I'm in no rush to do that..

Curious to read along with your journey from here on out.
1 x
--- French ---
: 24 / 500 Core 5k Vocabulary
: 3 / 17 PONS Basic Voculary

User avatar
Nandemonai
Orange Belt
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:32 pm
Location: Tokyo
Languages: Dutch/Flemish (N), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent)
Actively studying: Mandarin (intermediate), German (beginner)
On break: Korean (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1684
x 150
Contact:

Re: Nandemonai's log (Mandarin, Tadoku)

Postby Nandemonai » Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:01 am

Time passes so quickly... It's been almost 4 months since my last update!

Japanese

I took another shot at the J-CAT because it'll soon cease to exist in its current form.

2019 December
Listening 80 (+2)
Vocabulary 66 (+9)
Grammar 43 (-17)
Reading 77 (+17)
Total 266

Quite satisfied with everything apart from grammar. I'm not sure why but it seems that my ability to deal with less common grammar patterns has dropped significantly. I suppose these are mostly patterns that show up in novels and more formal conversations. Lately I haven't read much in Japanese and most of my work is in English nowadays. That'd explain part of it, but still not sure why it'd drop this much.

I'll be taking the JLPT N1 again in December 2020. Preparation for the test will be rather straight forward:

  • Up my reading in the language: both fiction and non-fiction
  • Review N2-N1 grammar patterns
  • Learn 1000 or so new words that show up in more formal/business settings
  • Do an active run through RTK. I probably won't complete this in time for the test as I'll only do a couple characters a day.

I don't intend to spend too much time on Japanese as it's not my priority for 2020. Eventually I'd like to work on my speaking a bit more. I can communicate smoothly with friends and my girlfriend, but this doesn't directly translate to work related communication. One thing I've realized that I can improve on are how I connect sentences together.

Mandarin

I'm about 3100 sentences in with Spoonfed, 4000 to go. My understanding of the language has improved somewhat, but I also realize I've still got a long way to go. I played through Pokemon Sword in Mandarin (traditional) and enjoyed it. I got a better feel for sentence final particles now.

I'm doing lessons from ChinesePod101 when I commute to work on my bike to improve my listening. On the way back home I shadow the dialog in order to really internalize the content.

I tried watching a couple movies in Mandarin but it requires a lot of mental energy to do so. Haven't really done enough of this yet. I'm reading Yotsuba in Mandarin right now and that's more approachable.

Tadoku

Another round is running. This one was a bit more ad hoc. I'd love to find the time to polish the app but motivation has been hard to find lately. We'll see how it goes.
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