How to supplement a Japanese course?

[Emiko-chan]

I have just recently started a Japanese course that is 1.5 hours a week. Yes, I know that's not a lot, but it's the best you can do in my city, except for private lessons (which I can't afford at this time). It's a beginners course, so we are just doing basics now - basic grammar and vocabulary like introductions, everyday situations, beginner words, hiragana, katakana...

As I would like to be rather fluent in Japanese eventually, it's a bit of a slow pace so I'd like ideas how to supplement the course and learn by myself on the side. When I have some knowledge, I know I can practice a lot by reading, listening, etc. the language (have done so with previous languages, as I speak several languages so far) but at my current level these are not possible yet - the best I can do is watching Japanese movies/anime/series with English subtitles and learn pronunciation, tone, etc. and a word every now and then, but again, this is not very productive if you want to learn a lot in a short time.

So, what would be a good way to go about it? I don't mind buying an extra workbook or something (we learn from handouts at the course) but I don't want to just repeat the same stuff we do at the lesson. Any ideas, perhaps even specific book suggestions or some other method of learning? I already have some iPhone apps to learn kana and vocabulary and have so far mastered hiragana, know some katakana and have learned a couple of new phrases every day - though they are mostly 'travel phrases' (I would like to learn more everyday phrases rather than travel ones). Thanks to everyone in advance!

[KingDog]

Hello Emiko

I do a lot of supplementing with my Japanese. So on top of Jpod101 I also use the iKnow service to build vocabulary, written flashcards and digital ones with Anki, I read Hiragana Times every night and I use the Memrise app on my tablet. On top of that I have a 1 hour weekly lesson with a Japanese teacher where we go through the Genki textbook together.

I'll also try to supplement this with watching a Japanese movie when I can. But to honest, I don't think they do a ton for my learning when I have the subtitles turned on I would like to find some Japanese talk radio to listen to in the background while I work, but I haven't really found anything yet.

If you're interested, I've written more about the Japanese tools I use on my blog. An article on Japanese learning tools - http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2012/05/best-japanese-learning-tools-part-3-helpful-tools/, using an index card - http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2012/09/learning-japanese-tips-the-humble-index-card/, and helpful Japanese learning websites - http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2012/04/best-japanese-learning-tools-part-2-websites/ and books - http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2012/03/best-japanese-learning-tools-part-1-books/.

Hopefully some on that will help And if you have any more questions, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Emiko-chan]

Thank you very much for your answer. I especially enjoy Memrise so far as it has many available courses and works on different devices, but I am also trying out others to see what works best for me

[community.japanese]

Emiko-chan san,
If you have any questions again, please feel free to ask us.

KingDog san,
Thank you for sharing the information.


Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com