Please Help me get the most out of JapanesePod101.Com

[Jdzspace9765]

Ok, so Here is my story. I signed on with JapanesePod101.com a few years ago, I started with absolute beginner, did 1 lesson a day, listened to it, read the PDF, answered the questions, filled out the checklist, added the cards to flashcards, and rinse repeated for a long time. I think I got about 160 lessons into it (I think it was 4-5 seasons worth, give or take), until i realized I wasn't really learning or retaining anything other than new words which were forgotten quickly after.

So I took some time off and used other resources and books with the intention of coming back to finish my training (however long it may take).

Since there is no real drawn out plan, or plan of attack on the site. I worked something out for myself. But i'm not sure it's the most effective, so i'll submit it for approval. and if someone has a better or more efficient way of doing it, I would love to hear it.

truth be told, I really enjoyed my first time through JPod101.com, which is why i kept my membership active and always intended to come back. But I was also very upset with myself for not getting the most out of it. So my current tactics might be a tad......extreme, i guess.

So here is what I have been doing for the last 3 weeks.

I will start the day by listening to a lesson, while reading along with the transcript and making notes of what is said in the "banter" and looking those words and phrases up and writing them down, and taking general notes as well, for the sake of making it understandable, we will call this lesson A.

then I will sit down, and go through the PDF, taking vocabulary notes and reading through the PDF as well.

then i will fill out the kanji practice sheet, my goal here is to do 20 of each kanji on the sheet (this is done by writing 4 kanji in each 4 grid box,as opposed to 1, and a few extra before the definition). then i'll fill in the rest of the boxes with kanji that I am struggling with or just want to practice until the whole sheet is full

This is Day 1.

on Day 2, In the morning I repeat the entire sequence with what we will call lesson B.

this is where it gets a little different .

after work on day 2, I go back and review (re-read the transcript and PDF) of lesson A. then my remaining days go as followed

Day 3: Lesson C in morning, Lesson B review in evening
Day 4: Lesson D in morning, Lesson C review in evening
Day 5: Lesson E in morning, Lesson D review in evening
Day 6: Lesson F in morning, Lesson E review in evening

then comes the fun part, on Day 7, I review every single day of the previous week.

so it works out like this

Day 7: review week 1
Day 14: review week 1 &2
Day 21: review weeks 1-3
Day 28: review weeks 1-4
Day 29: store all previous notes, and start the cycle again.

This way, I am getting 3 "reps" with each lesson each day I work on them(audio,transcript,PDF). and 7 reps per week. So i am going through every lesson 13 times each month.

I don't know if this is the best way to do it, I know it's a lot of work, But it is trying to learn a language after all. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

But if there is a better way, or something worked better for you, let me know. the way I see it doing it this way I'll get through most of the content on the site in about 3 years. I would love to learn it quicker than that, but i'm just at a loss as to how. I can't afford the super premium membership to get the actual tutor, so I hope someone has some advice for me.

ジャスティン

よろしくお願いいたします

[community.japanese]

ジャスティン san,
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for sharing your study tips.
It’s said that if you have a review within 48 hours, your short time memory becomes long time memory.
Therefore, reviewing often is important.
Then you should know your learning type.
Visual or audio or kinesthetic?
If you are a visual learner, you should use visual aids.
If you are an audio learner, you should listen to Japanese.
If you are a kinesthetic learner, you should use your body for example, writing by your hand.
Also it’s said that hour skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing are related each other.
If you focus on one skill, it’s hard to improve your Japanese skills.

ganbatte kudasai.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[martinakiyama9971]

Wow, that's a very "brute force" approach. My theory is that in order to learn a language you need to do structured language learning, like a textbook or JPod101, and also engage with the language in the real world. I think that it's the real-world engagement with the language that really fixes stuff in your memory, so if you can find something enjoyable to "pull" your Japanese comprehension along, you can stop worrying about trying to remember everything you learn on JPod101.

So, my advice would be:

1) Go and live in Japan

2) Go on holiday to Japan. Okay, it's expensive . . .

3) Get a Japanese girlfriend/boyfriend. Preferably one who doesn't speak good English

More practically:

4) Find something that interests you about Japanese culture and try using that as a way of practicing your Japanese comprehension.

5) Buy some manga and try reading it. I've seen ドラえもん, クレヨンしんちゃん and よつばと! recommended as being good for beginners. Postage from Amazon Japan is expensive but there are other online shops e.g. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/

[Jdzspace9765]

1) Go and live in Japan

2) Go on holiday to Japan. Okay, it's expensive . . .

3) Get a Japanese girlfriend/boyfriend. Preferably one who doesn't speak good English

More practically:

4) Find something that interests you about Japanese culture and try using that as a way of practicing your Japanese comprehension.

5) Buy some manga and try reading it. I've seen ドラえもん, クレヨンしんちゃん and よつばと! recommended as being good for beginners. Postage from Amazon Japan is expensive but there are other online shops e.g. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/

どうもありがとございます Martina さん

My goal is to eventually move to Japan, not sure if it's just for a while or to stay, but my goal is to learn the language before I go there. I hear stories about how uncomfortable Japanese people get when they see someone they think speaks english, I want to be able to put them at ease instantly. Plus I think it shows a lot of respect for a country to learn a language before trying to communicate in that country.....or at least, that is what i want to convey to the Japanese when I get there.

Believe me, I would LOVE a Japanese girlfriend, but the pickings are almost non-existent out here. :-\ if i moved from Northern California to Southern California it might be different....but ugh.....socal. :p

I have replaced my TV watching almost exclusively with Japanese dramas and comedies, one is for entertainment but the other is to train my ear and to get used to hearing it spoken at native pace understand mannerisms and pick up bits of the modern day culture. but it is with subtitles. I also use the Pimsluer approach as well after my JPod class for the day so i can practice speaking and comprehending. and Fluent U is pretty fun too.

oh, and I read Human Japanese begginer and Intermediate. and I really enjoyed them, but there isn't much else that i can access on my mobile devices that is comprable, or at least that i can find. Do you know of any? Other than Tae Kim's Learning Japanese......I try to get through that, but i can't keep at it consistently. probably because I don't have enough knowledge. I don't know. what do you suggest as a good book or app?

My concern is that i'm doing too much, I mean I work full time but i find myself spending between 2-4 hours a day (1.5 in the morning, 1.5 in the evening, and sporadically during the day at work). I'm trying to immerse myself as much as I can, and i'm enjoying it and have been the last 4 weeks. but i'm concerned i'll burn out at this pace. You have had some great suggestions though.

quick question...about reading Manga, do you think that is a good way to learn the language? i've steered kind of clear from it because I read somewhere that the language used in Manga isn't really how the language is spoken by natives. and if i used too much i would sound foolish to them. But I don't have any experience myself with it, what is yours?

thank you for your suggestion, and any help or advice is very much appreciated.

[Jdzspace9765]

ジャスティン san,
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for sharing your study tips.
It’s said that if you have a review within 48 hours, your short time memory becomes long time memory.
Therefore, reviewing often is important.
Then you should know your learning type.
Visual or audio or kinesthetic?
If you are a visual learner, you should use visual aids.
If you are an audio learner, you should listen to Japanese.
If you are a kinesthetic learner, you should use your body for example, writing by your hand.
Also it’s said that hour skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing are related each other.
If you focus on one skill, it’s hard to improve your Japanese skills.

ganbatte kudasai.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

ありがとございます 由紀先輩

I think i'm more of a technical learner. If i hear something, i kind of get it, but I need to see it. write it down, break down the sentence play with the verb conjugation myself a bit, and then I'm able to have a better understanding of it.

but then I feel like I have to take a very "brute force" approach ( i like that term) to get it to stick. I have tried writing a journal, translating songs that I listen to regularly. But nothing seems to stick better than just......repetition, repetition, and more repetition. and that isn't the most fun.

do you have any suggestions for me as I finish up Newbie season 3 and move on to season 4?

[martinakiyama9971]

どういたしましてJustinさん　

I'm not really worrying about "getting it to stick". I did right at the start when I made a determined effort to learn hiragana and katakana, but after that, I just figure I'm bound to forget 95% of what I learn the first time I learn it, but if something's important it'll turn up again - and again and again - and eventually it'll sink in. I just can't be bothered with rote learning, and I don't think it works for me anyway. The fundamentals do get repeated quite a bit throughout the various seasons here on JPod101. I do use flashcards a lot. I have two decks, the Core 200 deck and one with lesson vocabulary which I keep adding to. And I do sometimes use mnemonics for words or kanji I keep forgetting. What seems to work for me, as far as remembering things goes, is either just coming across something a lot, or creating a memorable mnemonic, or coming across something in a memorable context, like the title of an anime or something.

I really admire your discipline and the amount of time you're putting in As for me, I set a very modest goal at the beginning of each month - when I say very modest I mean like, 10 lessons of a particular season - and then take a fairly scattershot approach, just doing what I want when I feel like it! I always exceed my goal, but I don't like feeling too constrained, so I don't want to set a goal I might not manage!

This month, I've been doing about 1/3 lessons, 1/3 flashcards and 1/3 watching anime. I watch anime on Crunchyroll, which allows you to toggle between subtitles on and off, and I often pause and look up words I don't know on Denshi Jisho. So, for me, anime is 1/2 entertainment and 1/2 an opportunity to learn Japanese. If I'm watching without subtitles, I understand very little (people speak so fast!), but I can feel my progress - I do understand more over time I also do the word of the day (another thing that convinces me I'm making progress, as I recognise more and more words) and I did some of the JLPT practice tests earlier this month too (they're under Japanese Resources here). BTW, when I do lessons, I don't just listen to the audio, I go through the pdf copy VERY thoroughly, writing down the entire dialogue and any new words and kanji, and trying to read the sample sentences without seeing the English, and then I do the quizzes . . . unless somehow I already know most of what's in the lesson, in which case I'll just listen to the audio and leave it at that. Last month, as well as lessons and flashcards, I read a book on kanji (not trying hard to memorise anything) and tried reading some manga (flipping back and forth, not starting from the beginning and ploughing forwards).

If I did 2-4 hours of Japanese learning a day, every day, I think I'd die!! Even doing 1/2 an hour every day would be a huge effort! This month, I did very little at for the first few weeks of this month - just the occasional quiz and flashcards - but now I'm "in the zone" and doing lots!

Anyway, everyone is different. Probably, you've found what works for you, and I've found what works for me

I'm glad I found JPod101 because it's a lot more enjoyable for me that just learning from a textbook. There's a nice mix of the earlier, more random and leisurely-paced lessons featuring Peter, and the more recent, more structured lessons. And it's such a huge site with so much different stuff!

As far as learning Japanese from anime and manga goes, I think that yes, depending on what you watch/read, there may be a danger that you end up speaking Japanese like a pirate, ninja or 14-year old girl But after all, there are a lot of anime and manga out there, including ones featuring (relatively) normal people! And if you want to be able to read Japanese, you do have to actually read something, I think . . . and a manga like よつばと! is probably a good place to start because it covers a lot of normal stuff.

I've been to Japan twice and I would REALLY recommend taking a holiday there if you can afford it. You can stay in capsule hotels and youth hostels and eat ramen! I wouldn't worry about how good or bad your Japanese is - just go! One week in Japan is probably worth 3 months of Japanese practice

Martin

[community.japanese]

Justinさん,

I think i'm more of a technical learner. If i hear something, i kind of get it, but I need to see it. write it down, break down the sentence play with the verb conjugation myself a bit, and then I'm able to have a better understanding of it.

but then I feel like I have to take a very "brute force" approach ( i like that term) to get it to stick. I have tried writing a journal, translating songs that I listen to regularly. But nothing seems to stick better than just......repetition, repetition, and more repetition. and that isn't the most fun.

do you have any suggestions for me as I finish up Newbie season 3 and move on to season 4?

I think writing journal is a good idea.
I used to do that when I started learning English.
I also used to do a dictation.
Dictation is that you write exactly same as you listen.
I listen to an article and just write sentences.
If you don’t have good grammar skill, it’s hard to write sentences correctly.
You also need a good listening skill and vocabularies’ knowledge.
Then you need to ensure spellings and spellings influence your pronunciation, too.
You have to use your many skills for a dictation.
I know repetition is boring.
If you memorise vocabularies and grammar points quickly, you don’t need to have a review.
However, it’s necessary for me.

martinakiyama9971 san,
Thank you for helping Justin san and sharing your study tips.
I really understand what you said.

Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com