Listening, speaking, reading, writing...

[danieru_s]

I've come to the conclusion, over my course of studies in Japanese, that I will never be able to write Japanese as a foreigner -- and I've given up all attempts to do so. It's not that I don't have the desire to do so, it's more that I'm lazy and don't have the time to learn how. To be honest, I've used a computer for all correspondence in English for so long, that my hand aches when I sit down and try to write a letter by hand.

Mind you, I'm a "at-home" Mac OS X lover... and its Japanese support is amazing. I don't need to know how to write... I just need to know how to recognize that the input hasn't selected the correct kanji, and fix it.

What do others think about this? Myself, I listen to a podcast on my drive to and from work each day... and I practice my grammar through typing out the content of questions/answers in the grammar books that I'm reading. I also signed up for MIXI... and forced myself to post a journal entry every day (though I've been lazy about that for a while).

What are other JapanesePod101 users doing?

[jemstone]

i focus on listening because mainly i have no conversing partner. my girlfriend and i aren't that good at japanese either.

[Shaydwyrm]

I spend most of my effort on reading, because it's error-free. That is, I can be sure if each word is exactly what I think it is. I always know when I've made a mistake. Also it's completely at my own pace, and the available material is essentially limitless, so whatever I'm interested in can become study material.

I do spend a fair amount of time on listening practice, but I don't drill it in any way - I just listen (music, dramas, anime, podcasts etc). I don't bother with writing because one, I don't really need it, and two, I have some tendinitis in my right forearm that makes it rather difficult As for speaking, well, I live in Japan right now, so I get a reasonable amount of practice, but the only intentional practice I do is reading aloud; everything else seems to be falling into place on its own.

[Ulver_684]

I've come to the conclusion, over my course of studies in Japanese, that I will never be able to write Japanese as a foreigner -- and I've given up all attempts to do so. It's not that I don't have the desire to do so, it's more that I'm lazy and don't have the time to learn how. To be honest, I've used a computer for all correspondence in English for so long, that my hand aches when I sit down and try to write a letter by hand.

Mind you, I'm a "at-home" Mac OS X lover... and its Japanese support is amazing. I don't need to know how to write... I just need to know how to recognize that the input hasn't selected the correct kanji, and fix it.

What do others think about this? Myself, I listen to a podcast on my drive to and from work each day... and I practice my grammar through typing out the content of questions/answers in the grammar books that I'm reading. I also signed up for MIXI... and forced myself to post a journal entry every day (though I've been lazy about that for a while).

What are other JapanesePod101 users doing?

Danieru-san!

Honestly I think you are loser and you should do more about learning Japanese and help yourself!

I focus in all four of them and I hope someday I can be like a native Japanese, it would be my wish come true beside living in Japan.

[Javizy]

Wow, two people in one thread who have difficulty writing. I can hardly write at all due to RSI, and most of my friends suffer from it to some degree. If you feel any pain/tingling/numbness when typing, you should really stop and start thinking about recovering. If you continue to ignore the symptoms, they get to a stage where they become permanent and debilitating. So many people seem to have it, yet it goes unnoticed by most others.

Nowadays, it's hard to imagine how you could avoid repetitive stress, since it's not just computers, but mobile phones, MP3 players, games consoles, and even a number of musical instruments. I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to type and operate the mouse, it's hard trying to find an employer who will accept such things though. I'd recommend anybody who has any problems tries it out before it's too late and you have no choice.

As for the topic, I focus mainly on reading because it's a great way to get grammar and vocabulary into your head. Seeing countless example sentences helps you understand subtle nuances of words better since you come to expect them in certain situations. I try to get as much exposure to kanji as possible also; I figure that if I can learn to read with fluency, writing might not be far behind (I've been using Heisig to avoid 'know it when you see it' syndrome).

I try to make sentences in my head/out loud to practise speaking, but not as much as I should. I get a bit worried from time to time because I'm so slow. I'd probably write more, but I'm using an old version of Dragon which doesn't have Japanese support, so I have to spell out words and then press F2 to select the kanji using some crappy text editor, it's a nightmare.

[Ulver_684]

Wow, two people in one thread who have difficulty writing. I can hardly write at all due to RSI, and most of my friends suffer from it to some degree. If you feel any pain/tingling/numbness when typing, you should really stop and start thinking about recovering. If you continue to ignore the symptoms, they get to a stage where they become permanent and debilitating. So many people seem to have it, yet it goes unnoticed by most others.

Nowadays, it's hard to imagine how you could avoid repetitive stress, since it's not just computers, but mobile phones, MP3 players, games consoles, and even a number of musical instruments. I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to type and operate the mouse, it's hard trying to find an employer who will accept such things though. I'd recommend anybody who has any problems tries it out before it's too late and you have no choice.

As for the topic, I focus mainly on reading because it's a great way to get grammar and vocabulary into your head. Seeing countless example sentences helps you understand subtle nuances of words better since you come to expect them in certain situations. I try to get as much exposure to kanji as possible also; I figure that if I can learn to read with fluency, writing might not be far behind (I've been using Heisig to avoid 'know it when you see it' syndrome).

I try to make sentences in my head/out loud to practise speaking, but not as much as I should. I get a bit worried from time to time because I'm so slow. I'd probably write more, but I'm using an old version of Dragon which doesn't have Japanese support, so I have to spell out words and then press F2 to select the kanji using some crappy text editor, it's a nightmare.

Javizy-san!

Great reply, I might follow your method my friend!

[oyayubi]

For now, I'll be focusing on speaking - this site is helping me out with learning how to write and listen, and Rikaichan is a killer app for reading... there are just enough people around me to practice.

[Fedgrub]

I've come to the conclusion, over my course of studies in Japanese, that I will never be able to write Japanese as a foreigner -- and I've given up all attempts to do so. It's not that I don't have the desire to do so, it's more that I'm lazy and don't have the time to learn how. To be honest, I've used a computer for all correspondence in English for so long, that my hand aches when I sit down and try to write a letter by hand.

Mind you, I'm a "at-home" Mac OS X lover... and its Japanese support is amazing. I don't need to know how to write... I just need to know how to recognize that the input hasn't selected the correct kanji, and fix it.

What do others think about this? Myself, I listen to a podcast on my drive to and from work each day... and I practice my grammar through typing out the content of questions/answers in the grammar books that I'm reading. I also signed up for MIXI... and forced myself to post a journal entry every day (though I've been lazy about that for a while).

What are other JapanesePod101 users doing?

Danieru-san!

Honestly I think you are loser and you should do more about learning Japanese and help yourself!

I focus in all four of them and I hope someday I can be like a native Japanese, it would be my wish come true beside living in Japan.

Ouch! haha. I focus on writing the most at the moment.

[jemstone]

every now and then, i'll scribble in my textbook words like だから when i link 2 paragraphs (because of the first paragraph, the second paragraph happens), then i'll draw a line connecting both paragraphs. heeh