The Problem with Learning New Skills

There has been quite a drop in the number of posts in this blog and that is indicative of a drop in pace of my learning Japanese. At first, the lag developed when I took a short break to deal with my friends death. After a few days I continued to use it as an excuse. Eventually it got harder and harder to motivate myself to study. I had cut the Pimsleur lessons back to three a week, stopped reading further in TextFugu, and even spent a week of doing only maintenance on my WaniKani and not learning new unlocked items.

I finally decided to get back in the saddle today and to my surprise, one of the sections I covered in TextFugu was about "The Dip." This is when after initially learning a new skill the amount of results coming out of effort put in begins to drop, at least for awhile. This means that the intermediate stage of learning a skill is riddled with putting more effort into it and getting less out of it. I was running into this before I took my "break" and was a factor in my lack of motivation.

I'm familiar with this concept, I have seen it before with Spanish, IT knowledge, and singing. It's really important to push through it because after you pass "The Dip" the amount of effort required for results is lower.

So, this is me picking it back up.

To be fair, I didn't completely stop learning. Pimsleur offered some really good new grammar points and I have gained a ton of new vocab from WaniKani and Anime. I did try to focus on learning more vocabulary than anything else. Being able to read and write more words will really make learning the grammar points more fun. You can only go so far with basic nouns and verbs before you start to get worn out using them over and over.

I have been working in my head on a full Japanese post about myself. There are a few more things I'd like to pick up before I write it, so it will be "in the pipe" for awhile. The upside is that I am able to write full paragraphs now. Granted, my skill level shows, but I can do it none-the-less.

A Slow Week

I decided to use this week as a review week. I haven't started any new material. I have basically only been reviewing my Anki decks and doing my WaniKani reviews and lessons.

Speaking of WaniKani, I hit level 2 last night after completing my review before heading off to bed. This unlocked a TON of radicals, Kanji and vocab. I woke up early this morning (well I have been doing that this whole week to get used to DST) and completed all the lessons. I just finished the first post-lesson review and I'm surprised at how well I'm doing. Kanji isn't as hard as i thought it was going to be. Once you really start to get used to it it's not as terrifying. Sure there is a lot to remember but that challenge is pretty fun.

I also have nearly mastered Katakana. I'm still iffy on some characters. シ、ツ、ン、ノ、ソ throw me off quite a bit. I'm finding it is easier to practice reading loaner words than actual Katakana characters. Really, Katakana comes down to word recognition since you kind of fudge the pronunciations sometimes anyway. The TextFugu Katakana and Katakana Words Anki decks have been  extremely helpful. I have them combined so I get a mix of words and individual kana every day.

I did Pimsleur Monday - Wednesday. The level II is much more fast paced and intense. Also, the one I have is not the same edition as the level I have so I'm having to learn some different vocab on the fly. This is challenging considering I do this on my ride home from work. So, I'm taking this level a bit slower. All though, I did learn the following phrase that I will end with.

あいにく、失礼しなければならないんです。
(Unfortunately, I must excuse myself)

Still Chugging Along

I took a day of yesterday from Pimsleur which I resumed today. I'm at a break in TextFugu because I need to get my katakana skill sup a bit before going on. I just don't get the chance to see katakana as often besides loaner words, which I already know a bunch anyway. Once i feel I'm ok with my katakana I will continue on with TextFugu.

Speaking of textFugu, I started using their WaniKani site to learn and practice Kanji in addition to the Anki decks from the TextFugu site. I also picked up the Ultimate Vocab deck from the site which is free when you are a member and have been learning new things from that as well. Right now I'm having trouble with 事. It just eludes me every time I see it. But, between what I had already gleaned with my previous Kanji studies and with what all i have learned in the past few weeks, I seeing that i can read a lot of signs and such in Anime.

Anyway, WaniKani is addictive... like crack cocaine levels of addictive. And it is working. I remember the 音読み for just about everything and I make it a habit of learning it for new Kanji i look up. Maybe this weekend I will explain 音読み and 訓読み this weekend, since I now understand what the hell they are and kind of when to use them. the 訓読み for numbers has helped a lot with those strange counters. I found out they use a form of the numbers 訓読み so it's just a matter of remembering that and then adapting. The 音読み has helped me read and understand more multi-kanji words.

Here is a side effect: I can understand some written Chinese now even though I cannot pronounce it in Chinese. I realized this when I was watching a YouTube video of a strange Chinese commercial. I knew a good percentage of the Hanzi so even though I didn't know exactly what they were saying I did have an idea without looking at the subtitles.

 The last few days have been kind of tough outside of the Japanese learning. I did learn one more form of condolence:

ご冥福を祈ります。(ごめいふくをいのります)

It can be translated as "rest in peace".  It translates literally as I pray for your happiness in the next world. The kanji for 冥福 are made up of "dark" and "fortune." I think it has a kind of macabre beauty to it.  In any case: ご冥福を祈ります、エミリー様。

No post yesterday? Your *#$%^% right there wasn't... and Japanese I COMPLETE!!!

There was no post yesterday because, put simply, I didn't study. I started Pimsleur, but stopped. I started Remembering the Kanji, but stopped. I totally skipped Rosetta Stone Why?

After my realization Tuesday night that I was about to finish Japanese I of both Rosetta Stone & Pimsleur and freaking out about not having much in the way of advanced self-learning I did some research yesterday. To my surprise, no one had anything good to say about either. In fact, everyone was pretty much calling them crap and a waste of time. This made me second guess what I was doing.

I studied Japanesepod101.com for a bit instead. Many people said it was a better alternative to Pimsleur. I checked it out and It has its merits, but it just spits info at you in my opinion. Pimsleur, if you do it right, makes you repeat things over and over and recalls previous lessons right when you are about to forget them. I decided that they both have their ups and downs and since I'm already almost done, I would stick with Pimsleur. The gripes against it don't out weight the value I see in it.

Most are of the opinion that Rosetta Stone is a huge waste of time. Complaints range from no explanations and lack of cultural sensitivity (what??). Rosetta Stone teaches languages like you are a child growing up with out people who speak English around to explain things to you. The idea is that is how we are meant to learn languages. I'm no language learning expert. but my fluency in reading, writing, and listening have increased greatly as a result of using it. I get my knowledge of the why from my independent research. You can see in my previous post where I have looked up things I had questions on and linked to the answers. I kinda like it that way.

The complaint about cultural sensitivity... ok... Many of the pronunciation sections are filled with English loaner words. And why not? A TON of modern Japanese nouns are loaner words (not all of them from English). The complaints about the lack of Japanese people in the pictures? Well, this is a PLATFORM (singular) for learning LANGUAGES (plural). I think the images are fairly diverse as far as races go. I don't think there are too many white people, but I might be seeing through the filter of being a white male. I dunno. I don't think that makes the platform any less valuable for learning the language. There are 6 voice actors (3 male and 3 female) who are all native Japanese Speakers. It's a good system for learning how it should sound.

In the end, I decided NOT to modify my curriculum at this time. And, as a result:

Today I finished both Rosetta Stone Japanese I and Pimsleur Japanese I!

I'm excited about this milestone. I plan on taking a few days off from both. I will continue on with Remembering the Kanji tomorrow (2 days off is going to hurt on those Anki cards.. eek). I believe gaps in learning are essential and healthy. I value practice and that's why I will continue with my Kanji learning in the meantime plus, I have a ton of Anime to catch up on so it's not like I will be devoid of Japanese. I will resume my normal schedule on Monday or Tuesday (I think I'm catching a cold and that may make speaking difficult so an extra day may be needed).

For now...

私におめでとう！

Maybe I'm studying a little too much?

Here is a break down of today's lessons:

30 minutes with Pimsleur
15 minutes reading Remembering the Kanji
30 minutes reviewing new and already learned Kanji with Anki
20 minutes researching various questions about Japanese on the internet
1 hour and 30 minutes with Rosetta Stone
Another 20 minutes internet research.

3 hours and 25 minutes. And that's just the Monday-Wednesday schedule. I spent 9 hours self studying on this past Saturday.  This also doesn't account for the other various things I look up or learn during the day when a  question pops in my head.

I looked it up today and Rosetta Stone recommends 30 minutes a day and that at that pace it will take about 3 months to complete a level. If I do everything I plan to tomorrow I will have completed level I. I'm also close to finishing Pimsleur's level I. I started all this just a few weeks ago.

Maybe I'm going too fast? Or maybe since I have been exposed to the language for so long this is an OK pace? I don't know. I do know that I can have full conversation in my head and my dreams are swimming with Japanese and Kanji.

I don't know what's good and normal. I'm not feeling overwhelmed. I'm highly motivated to learn and I haven't shied away from anything yet. But I'm afraid I'm going to run out self learning material In 2 months (with the exception of Remembering the Kanji which should last me about 6 months at 20 Kanji a day). I'm not sure where to even begin for advanced learning on my own.

I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there.

Micro-Practice: Counting at the Gas Pump, Cash Register, Car Milage

Yesterday I shared that I had successfully counted to 99,999,999. One of the micro-practices I have been doing is to read numbers in Japanese whenever I can. As an example, yesterday I was filling up my gas tank and I was alternating between counting the total sales amount and the number of gallons.

The Pimsleur lessons provide lessons on filling up your tank at a gas station.

満タンにしてください。

Is basically "fill 'er up, please." Japan, like most other countries in the world, uses the metric system. So instead of gallons, practice saying リットル instead.

Filling up on gas is a perfect time to practice counting and a bit of conversation. If you are lucky enough to be alone at the pump, you can count the numbers out loud, ask the pump to fill your tank, and thank the pump. If there are others around and you don't want to appear like crazy person talking to yourself and a gas pump (what fun is it if people don't think you are crazy??), you can simply practice in your head.

I make a mini-game out of seeing how fast I can keep up with the scrolling numbers. It's a decent challenge.

You can also practice reading the numbers on the cash register or translating what the cashier says is your total. I really recommend doing math completely in Japanese for your totals and change. I'm pretty strong in math, but doing it in another language was difficult at first. Having done it for a few weeks now, I feel it has definitely contributed to my confidence in Japanese number. It is definitely easier than translating the numbers in your head, doing the math, and then translating the answer back.

To practice counting large numbers, you can count your mileage. My car happens to have over 150,000 miles so that is a conveniently high number to work with right now.

From this, hopefully you can see where practicing numbers can be done in other similar situations.

Finally Learned 100!! 80/2042 Kanji

No Rosetta stone today, but Pimsleur finally came through on counting. Today I finally learned 100 (百) that means I can now count all the way up to 99,999,999! An odd thing about 百 is that it changes pronunciation from ひゃく to びゃく for 三百 (さんびゃく), 六百(ろっぴゃく), and 八百(はっぴゃく). It does make them a little easier to say.

One difference about the Japanese numbering system is the use of a 10,000 grouping. In English we get to 1,000 and it is the same all the way until 1,000,000. 999,999 is nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. Thousand is the highest grouping in that lot. But in Japanese, 万(10,000/まん) is used. so you get to　九千九百九十九(9,999) and then go to 万. So one million is 百万(ひゃくまん）. The next grouping is 100,000,000 which I have not learned yet. So, that means Japanese numbers are grouped in 4's making commas (grouped in 3's) in the English counting system annoying and translating between the 2 difficult. I could more easily hear a number, write it down and then say the English for that number than I could trying to direct translate.
 (For more I recommend reading this).

so I can count from 一 to 九千九百九十九万九千九百九十九 (1-99,999,999).

Watchers of One Piece will likely remember 百万ベリfor those pirates who had bounties over 1,000,000 beri. It gets repeated quite a bit.

Pimsleur only covered up to 千 (1,000). But my Remember the Kanji has taught me 万 (10,000) today. So I can go ahead and use it. Just to check if I was right, this site has a convenient chart of all the numbers (I didn't cover it here, but notice the changes in the pronunciation of 千). Now, counting to 99,999,999 is all well and good, except the words you use when counting different items changes. I don't know all of these yet but some examples are:

一人「ひとり」 1 person
二人「ふたり」 2 people
二日「ふつか」 2 days
三日「みっか」 3 days

Also, for anime watchers, if you have ever heard someone itemize points (1st, 2nd, 3rd) you will hear a different one (I haven't those yet, I only know them when I hear them). We do this in English all the time too and take it for granted (couple, single, triple, first, second, etc). One way you can tell a native from a non native English speaker is how they handle counters. One step at a time.

The fruit of Today's Combined Lessons & I Finally Can Say What I'm Doing

So between Pimsleur covering the directions （右・左・真直 more on those another day when I know more） and Rosetta Stone hitting hard with numbers, I think I'm really getting some of the basics down. I feel comfortable with my number up to 99. Why the fuck did they skip 100 and go to 1000? I know how to count from 1-99, 1000-1099,2000-2099, 3000-3099.. notice the huge lack of fucking 100's? I guess I could go study it on my own, but I just find it odd I have these weird gaps in my ability to count simply because I haven't learned 100 yet.

So, if you are new or confused in the number system, this is how it works. You have your normal numbers 1-10. To go over 10 it is spoken and written like 10-1 (十一), 10-2 (十二), 10-3 (十三), etc. The you get to 20 and it becomes 2-10 (二十). Then it goes on as 2-10-1 (二十一), 2-10-2 (二十二), 2-10-3 (二十三), etc. So all to way up to 99 (九十九) I got. Then you would use the character for 100, except I don't know that yet.

It's a damn easy system and it makes learning counting numbers easy. But then you have to throw in Japanese counters when describing objects and people. That is a discussion for another day. I still only know a few anyway.

But, the fruit of everything today is:

私は日本語を勉強しています。
「わたしはにほんごをべんきょうしてます。」

"I am studying Japanese." How very apt.

And on that note, こんばんは。

Micro-practice: Driving to the Bar

Pimsleur's Japanese I includes conversations necessary to order drinks at a bar. I find myself practicing this in the car on my way to the bar often. The conversation is fairly simple and at this point in my studies I am confident I could order what I want. Of course, when I get there, there is no one behind the bar who would understand what I'm saying. That's no the point though. You should practice another language as often as you can. Simply following the instructions in any study guide will likely not be enough to master a language. Much of what I have read and experienced first hand when i was learning Spanish in high school, is that it is imperative that you practice as much as possible.

I call this micro-practice, I do it often. I will be including things I do in these mini study sessions during times of convenience in this blog. For now, it's time to go to bed.

おやすみなさい。

今日は！ 私のお名前はマークです。

Hi! My name is Mark and I am learning 日本語. I have been a fan of Japanese culture and language since I was a child. It all began with karate lessons and in my recent adult years I have become a huge fan of anime and manga. I have dabbled with trying to learn Japanese in the past, but after having completed 300 full series of anime, I decided it was finally time I ditched the subtitles and went native.

I'm currently taking a multifaceted approach to learning the language. For listening and speaking skills, i'm making use of the Pimsleur's Japanese I, II, and III audio lessons. Which I do Monday through Friday on my daily commute home from work. I and also making use of Rosetta Stone Japanese I, II, and III Saturday through Tursday for reading, listening, speaking, and typing. Finally, I will begin using a combination of Remember the Kanji I, II, III and Anki to learn kanji this week.

This blog is not really meant to be read by anyone, but I have learned that making language learning blogs while studying a language is super helpful. I also have stumbled across a few others' Japanese learning blogs which I have personally found helpful answering novice questions. Since I don't have a teacher or native speaker to rely on for these kinds of questions answers, blogs like this one have helped fill that gap.

To give you an idea of where I am at in the learning process, I'm an nearly completely proficient at reading hirigana. I have not studied katakana for some time so i still struggle with it. As for kanji, my last estimate was that I'm at about 30 or so. Part of this blog's purpose is to serve as a count tracker for my kanji studies.

My listening ability is warped well ahead of my reading, writing, and speaking abilities as I have been watching anime daily for the past 4-5 years with subtitles. I have picked up on a lot of phrases, nouns, verbs, and even grammar. I realize most of it is impolite and informal, but it has made the ear tuning portion of my learning that much easier. I already have a decent sense of when to use certain particles, even though I have no formal teaching of when they are used.

My speaking ability lag behind all else. This is because I have no one to speak to. I have a friend who plans to start studying soon, but even when they do they wont be at a conversation level for awhile. So, for now I talk to my cats and use Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. None of which really offer the feedback required to gauge my progress. That is an avenue I will pursue after i have gained a better understanding of the language as a whole.

As for handwriting, I will tackle that after I have finished my goal of 2000 Kanji. I may dabble here and there with hirigana,  but I don't have any immediate plans to focus on this area as I have almost no immediate use for handwriting in general. I am learning and slowly become proficient a using the Microsoft IME. That is really serving as my writing outlet at this time. Stroke order and other such handwriting related knowledge is just too much to fit into the already intense coursework I have created for myself.

I hope anything I write here helps another learner, or at least provides some entertainment.

じゃまた！