MY JAPANESE STUDY PLAN !

[VeryFastKid]

Hi guys.. I found this site very interesting and great for learning.
I am planning on taking a student exchange to Japan ( next year, 2nd year high school)

I am trying to learn as much as possible and as fast as possible, but my studying is very unorganized and this is definitely slowing me down.

I have both Genki 1 & 2 + workbooks
I have a book called "Japanese for busy people"
and " Kanji de Manga" PDF
and a lot of stuffff......

I would be very happy if anyone ANYONE could make a learning plan for me that it would show me the stuff I should learn different days. PLEASE ANYONE if You have a studying plan please post it.

right now am I learning Japanese from:
night classes ( using Genki 1 )
japanesepod101.com ( survival phrases and newbie lessons )
watching some anime ( I already understand many of the words and sentences :) HURRAY )

[thomathos]

Ganbatte!

Good luck with the exchange. Its great that youre so keen about Japanese. You only get out what you put in so if you work hard and stick to your plan Im sure youll do well!

[Psy]

It sounds like you're doing fine on materials. I think, more than a specific study plan, that it is more important to have consistency. Don't let a single day go by without listening to some Japanese, picking up a point or two from your textbooks, and picking up a few new words. Occasional (but not obsessive) review is also of paramount importance, but don't get into the habit of working so hard that you're miserable. The more fun you have, the better you'll remember. Since you're into anime, turn off the subtitles (they should only be used as a guide you when you get stuck-- at first, this will be all the time), and when you find a sentence that doesn't seem too difficult, stop the playback, rewind, and review it a few times to try picking out each of the words. If any of the words are unfamiliar, jot them down on flashcards or a piece of paper. If you get stuck, don't worry about it and simply move on. Look them over and review in 8 hours or so. By doing this you'll start remembering vocabulary much more rapidly than you would by simply trying to cram a vocabulary list. This process can be done with any kind of audio material.

Just remember that while you're supposed to have fun with your studies, you must still put effort into them-- a lot of people say they study Japanese with anime, but in reality all they do is watch for entertainment, reading subtitles and not really learning anything.

Good luck!

[percent20]

Just remember that while you're supposed to have fun with your studies, you must still put effort into them-- a lot of people say they study Japanese with anime, but in reality all they do is watch for entertainment, reading subtitles and not really learning anything.

Good luck!

Yeah that is tricky as i try to pick up phrases and words while i watch for entertainment too. especially when they say one liners. unfortunately I end up usally watching the show and studying during my study times. Would be cool if it was easier to pick up the language through anime.

as for the OP, genki 1 and 2 is one of your best resources. i am currently using them in my classes along with japanesepod101 so you are off to a great start. Classes will get you further in one semester than, at least for me, 6 months of japanesepod101.

[a5s1h9itaka]

I'd say what helped me learn Japanese easier is I focused on learning Hiragana & Katakana where you're comfortable reading & writing them.

I dropped my Japanese class the first time I took it, b/c I had a hard time w/ Hiragana & Katakana. So, I self taught myself for two months before taking my Japanese class last semester, and it helped me concentrate on vocab & the lessons rather than struggle trying to follow along during class.

Everything flows for me know... I highly suggest this.

ganbatte!

[percent20]

I'd say what helped me learn Japanese easier is I focused on learning Hiragana & Katakana where you're comfortable reading & writing them.

I dropped my Japanese class the first time I took it, b/c I had a hard time w/ Hiragana & Katakana. So, I self taught myself for two months before taking my Japanese class last semester, and it helped me concentrate on vocab & the lessons rather than struggle trying to follow along during class.

Everything flows for me know... I highly suggest this.

ganbatte!

In my class we had to learn hirigana and katakana in a matter of 3 weeks, all of it, once i was able to read and write them to a point things started getting a lot better. Definitely make sure you learn kana well. Honestly i spent like 80 bucks in various things to learn kana what worked for me in the end is 3x5 notecards and writing down ever kana character on one side romaji on the other and breaking them up in 5 at a time. Learned kana in 3 weeks like that enough to recongnize them on site then came just practicing so i could write.

[a5s1h9itaka]

[/quote]
In my class we had to learn hirigana and katakana in a matter of 3 weeks, all of it, once i was able to read and write them to a point things started getting a lot better. Definitely make sure you learn kana well. Honestly i spent like 80 bucks in various things to learn kana what worked for me in the end is 3x5 notecards and writing down ever kana character on one side romaji on the other and breaking them up in 5 at a time. Learned kana in 3 weeks like that enough to recongnize them on site then came just practicing so i could write.[/quote]

That's exactly how I did it too... but b/c i was worried about forgetting anything, I kept practicing by doing little quizes on http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sheaa/proje ... timer.html. There's a couple of other website i used, but this one i favored.

[Nephand]

I think Genki is a good start too. In terms of strong self-study methods I stumbled on this site: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ somehow a while ago and found it very informational (and motivational). Using Anki (a flashcard program) to learn sentences; also very useful for kanji and vocab. The idea of learning whole sentences rather than just a piece of vocab or a kanji makes sense to me. That way you can reproduce it and just swap out the vocab you don't want.

That at least seems one of the fastest ways to fluency. Contact with native language, extracting sentences you like and learning them for yourself.

Just remember anime isn't going to give your japanese in-take a balanced diet. I think it's immensely useful in tuning your ear to Japanese but your vocab might suffer from being slanted a bit!

[piderman]

Something that really helped me remember hiragana and katakana are the James Heisig books on those subjects. He takes the sound of a character and makes a story about it that describes the shape and stroke order of the characters. They are usually quite nonsensical but it puts the image of the character in your mind. This is definitely not a method for everyone as you have to be open to some visual learning, but for me at least it was better than just coupling shapes to sounds.

After that just read as much hiragana and katakana as you can. Genki should be a great help in there because it throws all romaji overboard from lesson 3.

As for a study plan, I think one Genki lesson per week should be a good pace. Read the grammar, listen to the vocab and make the exercises for one or two hours per day. If you have time left, rehearse the vocabulary and the grammar points and try to do some lessons from other study methods.

For a faster track, the immersion method (all japanese all the time) should work as well. I am Dutch and learned English for the most part during high school through this method. We have English computer games, English software, English on TV (with subtitles, not dubbed (!)), I read English books (technical and novels alike) and later on I played WoW and talked with English people on TeamSpeak/Ventrilo. High school lessons in English were mostly grammar and some vocab, and much less about speaking. All this together has gotten me a nice fluency (just not enough to be called 'native' )

So see if you can get hold of a Japanese version of Windows (or Linux or OS X, whatever floats your boat ), get some japanese magazines, games etc. Though it may be hard to get in the Western world, websites like jbox.com should be able to provide you with at least some material

[elau1986]

Psy said pretty much what I wanted to say.

Apart from self-studying, it is important to use what you have learned. Try to make some Japanese friends as soon as possible and when try to use as much Japanese in your conversation as possible. Not only will you enforce the materials you have learned, your conversation and listening skills will gradually improve.

I think the hardest thing about learning Japanese or language in general is the first year or so. Thats when you really have to memorize. But if you can get past that stage, everything just falls to place. Thats how I found it anyway.

good luck

[hajime]

A lot of important points have been made, especially consistency. Actually write the hiragana and katakana out, it helps a bunch. And then people are a lot less likely to tell you that you write kana like their 6 year old niece (this really happened to me).

Sounds like you have around 6-9 months to study, so...

- JapanesePod101, I would do "Survival Phrases" in its entirety (you can skip celebrity survival phrases for now) and Newbie lessons. When you finish those, come back to the forum and let us know how you are donig and we can help you with recommendations on the beginner lessons. Beginner Season 1 might be a lot for you to chew on if you don't have a lot of time to study / week.

- see if your parents will buy you an electronic jisho (dictionary). I recommend the Canon Wordtank G55 because of its English interface, a real boon to beginners. If you have an iPod touch there are dictionary apps for it also, but I think the dedicated dictionary is better. Search the forum, there is a recent topic on this where I gave more info. Learn how to use whatever you get well before you go.

- start watching (on the web) anime, news, fun YouTube videos from Japan, etc., just to get your ear used to hearing "real" Japanese.

がんばってください。

[Kobukuro]

You pointed out some very useful advices! Thank you all !
I didn't know that the Genki-Books are that good! Now I wonder if I should use them too, even if I'm German.

- JapanesePod101, I would do "Survival Phrases" in its entirety (you can skip celebrity survival phrases for now) and Newbie lessons. When you finish those, come back to the forum and let us know how you are donig and we can help you with recommendations on the beginner lessons. Beginner Season 1 might be a lot for you to chew on if you don't have a lot of time to study / week.

Hmm... I thought that the Newbie and Beginner Lessons are quiet the same ? So there is a difference in the quality? I'm not a real Beginner in Japanese, but to refresh I started with the second Newbie-Season to get into the Language again. I am wondering know, if the Beginner-Lessons would be a better choice for me ?

[DaemonForce]

The key is consistently moving forward.

I learned kana in as little as two weeks by hammering the characters into my mind. I guess the caveman way seems to be the one that gathers an acceptable result. =/

I used the outline sheets found here. Probably used about $1.50 in materials(I use both sides of the paper when I print).

After that the first illusion arises. You're trying to move forward. It took me 2 weeks to discover each character but it takes longer before you start reading at an acceptable pace. Now my reading speed is a bit fast but will often choke on a few kanji. Anyway the problem is simply the convenient romanized words in volumes like Japanese for Busy People. It's a great starting book but after knowing kana you will probably hate it in no time fast. It's completely demeaning to the learning process to hammer something into your mind that you won't use in the book you're reading.

Kanji de Manga has some very basic kanji you must absolutely master. Don't worry about forgetting pronunciations or the characters themselves. The first 80 characters are so common that you won't have that problem. After 170 or so, it tends to get a bit difficult. Kanji are different from kana but that doesn't mean you're unable to apply the same learning methods you used. You might be writing these for a while. After maybe three weeks you should pick something to test against your progress.

The Minna no Nihongo practice book worked really well for me. When I needed a pronunciation I had the convenience of Wakan or a Nintendo DS, but you probably won't have that. Still, it's worth trying just to test your abilities. I didn't like Genki at the point where I first started and even now I still don't, so you're definitely able to do something I'm not. I'm motivated to learn kanji but it takes some serious motivation for me to open the Genki practice book and start writing. I guess it's just boring to me or something.

If you like Japanese dramas and you also use MPlayer, you have some control over certain videos. Try keeping the subtitles off if you can. A lot of people embed subtitles into their episodes when they dump the recording but lately I don't see that problem. If it's in kana/kanji, it works for you. Otherwise turn it off. I can't remember the last time I saw any Japanese video with Japanese subtitles unless it was a gameshow or instructional. All I remember is how distracting the poorly translated English is.

Wow my English is getting weird. Okay I'm stopping here.

o_O

[gerald_ford]

Amen to that. Consistency and long-term practice are the only thing that will make a difference. I studied Japanese last year, 2008, over the course of the year. I didn't study everyday, and some months I didn't study much at all, but I kept up a fairly consistent long-term practice that paid off big time. I am doing more of the same for this year as well.

The other key is learning how to study. It's not enough to cram things in your mind, you have to learn how to learn. Sound weird, but you'll see what I mean. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, then keep doing what works for a long, long time and you'll see a difference.

Good luck!