My Jpod101 progress

[watermen]

Beginner Lesson #51 is a real challenge.

[percent20]

LOL i feel incompetent when it comes to learning japanese. Oh well.

[watermen]

I finished the Newbie lessons as well but then I skipped the Beginner Lessons and jumped right into Beginner Lessons S2, without any problems. And it is fun to do a relatively easy lesson in between, every Monday, when a new Newbie lesson comes out.

In Beginner S1, it is quite a challenge after lesson 60...I find it pretty tough. In fact S2 is relatively easier.

[watermen]

LOL i feel incompetent when it comes to learning japanese. Oh well.

I am pretty stuck around Beginner lesson 60-64...I keep forgetting those new words, and some new grammars are not explained too. My speed is slowed down now.

[Fedgrub]

You might wake up one day and it will all just seem to fit. Thats what happened with me. I was just existing and started hearing Japanese words. Those words were the ones I never understood or remembered when I was listening to the podcast!!

[Javizy]

Skipping the beginner lessons is a terrible idea. Beginner S2 just covers miscellaneous grammar points at a level consistent with somebody halfway through Beginner S1, I'd say. Beginner S1 covers all of the basic verb conjugations, and gets you familiar with politeness levels (which are very important, you'll find that respectful and conversational Japanese are almost like two different languages). All sorts of other useful constructions are also covered, as well as lots of vocabulary. More than that, like all the other lessons, they're all very entertaining, so it's a crime to skip them.

Watermen, I hit my first 'wall' at around lesson 60 (the oldest woman in the world lesson) as well. It's a sign that you need to take a break and review the lessons to see how much you remember. Try listening to just the Japanese dialogue; if you find yourself getting lost or relying on memory of the English translation, then you definitely need to slow down.

I used to limit myself to 2-3 lessons per day. You'll find yourself forgetting all sorts of stuff if you try to cram it all in, and the lessons won't be as effective as they could be. If you want to study more, try watching TV shows, listening to the radio, or reading whatever you can. It might be a good idea to get a good grammar reference, and starting a structured approach to learning the kanji (I recommend Heisig's Remembering the Kanji 1).

[watermen]

Beginner S1 is getting difficult, I decided to stop at lesson 64 for a while and go ahead and proceed with S2. There are just more and more vocabulary, I think I need sometime to digest all of them.

It is really fun to be able to catch up with the latest newbie lessons.


My latest progress report, as of 12:49am US Eastern time : Day 5 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #64 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #5 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

[watermen]

Didn't study much today, just one beginner S2 lesson only.

My latest progress report, as of 11:10pm US Eastern time : Day 6 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #64 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #6 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

[markystar]

wow. interesting idea to start a thread like this.

i'll be checking up on it from time to time. 頑張って！

[maxiewawa]

Yeah, good idea!

Marky先生 you need an RSS reader! That way you don't have to 'check up', the reader does it automatically!

www.bloglines.com

It'll change your life!

[markystar]

lol. i figured out how to subscribe to the japanesepod rss feed, but it doesn't show up in the windows vista rss feed reader.
looks like i'll still be checking in the old fashioned way... lol

[watermen]

Revised beginner 61-64 today, those were tough lessons and I finally break through lesson 64 and finished 65. Progressing with S2 is still relatively easier, finished 2 today.

Meanwhile, I discovered trymango.com, it is a real good website to learn language, it has 11 languages and it is free. I use the Japanese language there as a supplement, it is pretty effective.

My latest progress report, as of 11:59pm US Eastern time : Day 7 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #65 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #8 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

TryMango.com (Japanese): #4 lessons done.

[watermen]

Didn't do much today, but at least I smashed the wall in S1 and managed to make it to lesson 70. Sometime I wish that the PDF can explain better.

My latest progress report, as of 11:10pm US Eastern time : Day 8 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #70 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #9 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

TryMango.com (Japanese): #4 lessons done.

[watermen]

Studied 5 lessons today, 3 in S1 and 2 in S2, feel that my speed is coming back. I just wonder how long does it takes most people to finished all 170 lessons in S1.

My latest progress report, as of 11:58pm US Eastern time : Day 9 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #73 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #11 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

TryMango.com (Japanese): #4 lessons done.

[watermen]

Feel tired of studying Jpod101 now, yet at the same time I wish to reach intermediate level as far as I can.

My latest progress report, as of 11:40pm US Eastern time : Day 10 of learning.

Newbie: #45 lessons done.

Beginner: #74 lessons done.

Beginner S2: #20 lessons done.

Cultural: #3 lessons done.

Introduction: #3 lessons done.

Survival: #5 lessons done.

Survival phrases.com (Japanese): #28 lessons done.

TryMango.com (Japanese): #4 lessons done.