How do you study Japanese?

[kevenhuynh]

Wow I really want to thank everyone for sharing your stories. From what I have read it seems like we are all in the same boat and never really have time to study. Even so each of us developed our own technique to learn japanese and it was really interesting to read everyone's technique.

Andy,
I actually tried out your method of listening to Jpod101 and multitask, but unfortunately it did not work for me. I found myself replaying the same audio track too often because I missed a portion. However, your method for listening to Jpod101 when you can't fall asleep worked for me. Actually I plan on using this as a stress reliever technique that way I can relieve stress and learn all at once.

Chonny,
Like I wrote above to Andy, my strategy for relieving stress is listening to Jpod101. I am currently going through beginner season 1 and the lessons are quite entertaining which really helps relieve stress. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you. Also don't get so down about people on youtube bringing you down. As long as you try just the slightest bit that is enough for Japanese people to respect you. They will never put you down because like you they are learn English and understand the hardship you are going through.

奈津子さん、
Thank you for sharing your story as well. I really enjoy reading it. I definitely agree that grammar is very important and that should be priority number 1 as without grammar you cannot construct any sentence. It is very impressive that instead of doing your math homework, you wrote them in english to study instead. Unfortunately I am opposite from you. I excelled in math and science and was terrible with english, history, etc. If you didn't understand something I would just give up and ask someone for help
You are now learning a new language? I am guessing spanish, french or italian, correct? Good luck!!
PS: Don't worry you did not scare us with your eccentric study approaches. I was very motivating

[community.japanese]

Kevin-san,
thank you very much for a long post replyint to every single poster!!

Well, I can't speak "on behalf of" others but, I'm learning a "completely different" language, so
it' none of what you imagined, actually As I might mention, it includes "new writings" -- Arabic or
anything around that area
In any way, it's always a great pleasure to share opinions and experiences, itsn't it?
I know my way is not the only way, and that's why I always say there must be "best way for you",
and I really believe that. If you don't know what'd be the "best for you", you might need some
advice, right?
I'm sure you've got your own best way, so unless you have doubts or wonderings, I think you chose
the best way for yourself

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

Andy,
I actually tried out your method of listening to Jpod101 and multitask, but unfortunately it did not work for me. I found myself replaying the same audio track too often because I missed a portion.

Yeah, I never meant it as a substitute for ideal study. I miss a lot too. I seek out as much proper learning time as possible but when I have to do something else, I find that J-Pod101 makes for good background noise. If I pick up anything from that then I'll consider it a success.

I feel like everybody is better at language learning than me so I'll use any trick I can think of to get better. I envy students who can hear a word once and then remember it, or focus on their studying better than I can. I need endless repetition, constant testing and guilt tripping myself to improve. It makes me frustrated and impatient but it's all worth it in the long term.

[kevenhuynh]

Andy,
I think you are beating yourself up too harshly about you learning abilities. From what you wrote it seems like you have a pretty good (and unique) study habit that works for you.

Everyone learns differently, but you can break your learning style down to 3 main categories:
1. Kinesthetic: people who learn by doing something or touching something
2. Visual: people who learn by seeing something
3. Auditory: people who learn by hearing

You will be more dominant in one category than the other so take a step back and determine what you dominant category is. Then adjust your study habit around that.

For example, from most dominant to less, I am a kinesthetic, visual, then auditory learner. After discovering this, I realized why I cannot learn from teachers and that is because I am not good at listen. Instead, I stop taking classes and started learning Japanese by speaking it (since my dominant point in kinesthetic). By doing this I was able to learn at the pace that I wanted.

So check it out and let me know what you discover about yourself.

奈津子さん、
Arabic is a very interesting language. 頑張れ！！(arabicpod101を使ってるでしょう )
上の内容ってどうと思いますか？(What do you think about the above topic?)

[community.japanese]

Andy-san,
I think Kevin-san is right; you might be a bit too harsh on yourself. You're doing just fine!
I also envy people who can learn word just by hearing it once, as I'm rubbish at memorising or remembering things
Yet, I wonder if there are many people who can easily increase their vocab.
As far as I'm concerned, there's no perfect method working for everyone.
For example, JapanesePod101.com teaches Japanese with explanations in English, right? But there're people who are
against that. Some people think it's the best learning a language with only that language (i.e. learning Japanese
without using any other language like English). I'm against that, although I've got experience in teaching the absolute
beginners only in Japanese. If I were a student in such class, I can't learn at all and will never master the language.
However, it's true that there're people who actually master languages in such a way!

So, some people need to know a bit of something and then can start applying and using it, whereas others, like me,
need to learn "stone grammar" before applying it
Important thing is to know what is the best method for yourself, and apparently, you've already found it!

Kevin-san,
ありがとうございます！
はい、ArabicPod101.com もつかいましたよ。最近、ちょっと忙しくて、自分で勉強していません だめですね・・・
Kevinさんを見習わないと！

I think you're quite right and I thought your post was kinda interesting! "not good at listening"?
Like I wrote above (to Andy-san), all of us have different best approaches, and you've found yours too!
Keeping yourself enjoy is the key for success, I think. I love fun, but very lazy, so interesting way of learning
is always welcome

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[chonnyfonny696924]

Kevin-san.
You wrote about the 3 types of learning. I'm usually doing 2 and 3 but never with 1 because im too lazy and I find it very time consuming. But I'll try no.1 because I learn learn best when I get my hands on it rather than watching of listening. Then I can combine all 3 in practical
Chonny

[kevenhuynh]

チョニーさん(Chonny-san)、
I think that is a great idea. Just wanna say that "kinesthetic" can be interpreted many ways. For me it is speaking Japanese. Maybe for you it can be touching an object, performing the verb action, etc. Hopefully my advice can help you find your ideal studying method. Good Luck!!!

奈津子さん、
忙しくて確かに勉強できへんねんなぁ～
あかんわ！ｗｗ
っていうか、僕を見習ってるやん
僕も忙しくて勉強してないわ
皆が奈津子さんを見習えるようにちゃんと勉強してね
僕らにとって奈津子さんがすごいと思うやでぇ！！
せいやから、僕は奈津子さんをみならってんねん！
（今日関西弁を使いたいです。それは大丈夫ですね？）

[community.japanese]

Chonny-san,
Brillian!
If it helps, please use comment board and forum like this to practice your Japanese too!
We're happy to help you, and also enjoy some conversations
Good luck!

ケビンさん、
関西弁ですか
私も関西弁を話しますけど、ちょっと丁寧な言葉で書くと、関西弁かどうかわかりにくいかもしれませんね～。
実は、関西の人もあまりコテコテな関西弁で書かないんですよ。まぁ、インフォーマルの場合はけっこう
独特の表現も使いますけどね。（ちなみに今、私はこの文章を関西弁のつもりで書いてます、頭の中では
イントネーションが関西です 　そこまでは反映されへんのが残念！）
じゃあちょっとだけインフォーマルに書きますか・・・
「勉強せなあかんねんけど仕事優先であんまできてへんから授業に出てもさっぱわからへんくて
めっさ必死やった。 　ほんまよね、みんなが見習ってくれるよう、がんばらなね。」

関西弁は、ちょっと気を付けないと「バカにしてんの？」って思われてしまうので、気を付けてくださいね

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[kevenhuynh]

奈津子さんがめっちゃかっこいいな
奈津子さんの関西弁はすごいですね～
ところで、関西弁で書いてくれてありがとうございます！インフォーマルなのに
確かに関西人はコテコテな関西弁で書かないけど、話してる時コテコテな関西弁を使いますでしょう～

っていうかさ、新しい勉強方法を作ったフォームは成功でしょう！
よかった～

[community.japanese]

ケビンさん、
新しいフォーラムは大成功ですよ！！
本当にありがとうございます
いつもあのフォーラムを見るのが楽しみです。だってみんなすごく面白い文章を作ってくれるんだもん
J-Podリスナーは、みんな想像力が豊かですね！

そうそう、関西弁は、話す時はイントネーションがとても特徴的なので「コテコテな関西弁」という感じが確かにしますね。
あとは、丁寧な言葉で話しているときにも「～しはる」（標準敬語だと「～なさる」とか「される」）をよく使うので、そこが
一番特徴的だと思います。私もこの「～（し）はる」はよく使いますし、関西弁の中でも好きな表現です。標準の言葉だと、
敬語はちょっと「よそよそしい」感じがしたり、活用を考えたり、「この人にはどのレベルの敬語を使うべきかな」と考えたり
しなければならないのですが、関西弁の「～（し）はる」は、いろんな意味で使いやすいんです。

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[xoured5391]

For me I find that unless you utilize the vocab/grammar and so forth, it is difficult to retain the information. One way I go about it is I maybe take 25-30 vocab words a day with one or two grammar lessons and attempt to make as many sentences containing those words and that grammar pattern throughout the day. Kanji, sorry, I just use flash cards and write them millions of times, thats about it for that (be sure to learn your radicals). Can't lose track of study time, personally I work full time and go to school full time so I study whenever I can. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't end up studying even a little and thats with 60-70 hours of work/school so its possible. Just need a lot of determination.

[community.japanese]

xoured5391-san,
full-time work and full-time school And yet you find the time to study Japanese by yourself? That's quite a determination!! Wow

I think I need to work harder and try at least half of what you're achieving
Constant study with good volume of information! You'll definitely be fluent in no time

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[watertommyz9255]

I'm still trying to find a good study routine, and what works best for me. The best thing that works for me is simply to repeat a word or phrase on the podcast, and I'll have it in my head if I roleplay in my car or while cleaning my room. For more of the technical parts like memorizing hiragana, katakana, or kanji, mnemonics are excellent, but I also use a method of simply forcing myself to remember them.

Instead of repeating the same character over and over for as long as possible, I find it sticks much better if I try to "jump drive" my memory to be able recall the information. What I mean by that is I will use a dry erase board, and do 5 hiragana/katakana at a time in big, bold colorful strokes and then I'll do them again on a small piece of paper or index card, and instead of repeating them a million times over, I will force myself to remember the characters best I can. I think this is similar to if not exactly how flashcards work.

It creates a stronger connection to what you learned, rather than just writing something over and over again.

[kevenhuynh]

xoured5391,
I definitely understand your situation as I often work 70 hours a week, which was also the reason I stopped studying japanese for about a year. A strong determination is definitely a must, but I think you have a really good strategy. However, that strategy is definitely not for me. 20 words a day is quite impress, but I can probably do only one or two a day. Any more than that I will forget lol

watertommy9255,
I think you already have a general idea of how to study and I really like your roleplaying idea. I have a suggestion that might help you move to the next level (I probably have already mentioned it above or in another thread here). I recommend thinking in Japanese. I trained myself to think in japanese as well as think like a japanese person. The big benefits you get from practicing this is that you will converse quicker and more natural since there will be no time lag from translating from english to japanese in your head. Give it a try!

奈津子さん、
めっちゃ久しぶりですね〜
お元気？
日本語はほんまに懐かしいわ
去年ものすごく忙しかったか勉強を止めました。
今年もう一回勉強したいと思います。
またよろしくお願いします！

[watertommyz9255]

I was actually just thinking about trying this, but if we were to measure language learning as infant, toddler, adolescent, and so on, I would probably be at the transitional stage from infant to toddler. I can recognize sounds and say a few of the most basic words and phrases, but have no understanding of the grammar (at least not yet) and have little to no method of conversing any truly complicated thoughts, which is the point I want to eventually get to.

However, my idea is just to start with learning how to count (I actually counted my posters in my room only using Japanese numbers). Then move on to colors, eventually items, and finally moods.

I still have yet to talk to a native or fellow learner face-to-face. That's why I'm saving up for a webcam, though but I'm getting more and more excited in finally getting practice in.