Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.
Go back to part 6.
Go forward to part 8.
*~*~*
Finally reached lesson 32 of Heisig's book! Little milestones like that feel good :)
http://twitpic.com/129w54 - Pokemon ride! So cute! Just outside of Ueno Zoo.
Just watched an episode of Kurosagi. I really need to finish that series...
Blog post: Drama Review of Nodame Cantabile! http://bit.ly/cF1RnE
Lots of celebrations coming up... Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, Carnival... :D
Blog Post: Tweet Log 3 http://bit.ly/cXj37C :D
http://twitpic.com/138al9 - The Starbucks next to Shibuya crossing (which is effing epic by the way)!
Blog love anyone? :) http://culturequirk.blogspot.com/
http://twitpic.com/13nx32 - A shot of Shinjuku (if I'm not mistaken >.>)
http://twitpic.com/13tpi0 - Tokyo at night. Oh, how I miss that city~
Blog post: Exercising while Studying Japanese! http://bit.ly/9LhhfL
Learn Japanese while you're exercising! http://bit.ly/9LhhfL
http://twitpic.com/14mj3u - A sign in Shinjuku that looks happy to me XD
I'm having a hard time with school this week- hate it when it gets in the way of Japanese, but it only strengthens my desire to get back in.
Case in point: my kanji backlog went from about 200 to 400 over the weekend. Here's hoping I can keep it under control between exams! XP
I realize more and more... I'd really like to do vlogs. But do I have the time and the courage? Time will tell :)
Rare occurrence! It's snowing! I live in Texas, so it's always bizarre and exciting when this happens.
Finding a moment to kanji it up! And treasuring it ^-^
Blog Post: Tweet Log 4 (December/January) http://bit.ly/d4b9H4
If anyone has received an inappropriate message from me, I deeply apologize as I've somehow been hacked and have no idea how to stop it.
Ok, so getting hacked is kinda scary, but I hope it's sorted out now... Thanks for the support, everyone!
As a general warning for everyone, I think I figured out how I got hacked. I got a DM from someone with a message that said...
"haha, is this you?" with a link. When I clicked on the link, it was a Twitter page (or at least looked like one) and I had to log in....
I was never able to get to the page, so I just gave up, confused, but that must be how the spammer got my password (I later saw that...
the original person who sent it to me had been spammed herself). So protect your password! Hopefully everything's back to normal now :)
I'd like to get back into writing Japanese entries on Lang-8. Such a great tool! http://lang-8.com/
Finally reached the 100s in my kanji backlog! Waaah... もうちょっと...
Just watched Saigo no Yakusoku and was extremely surprised by how legitimately great it was! Yaaaay Arashi~
March Tweets
Bringing back lang-8 into my life! Gotta do my best with this thing! :D
おひさしぶり〜 | Lang-8 http://lang-8.com/21498/journals/391208 #lang8
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
My take on learning Kanji
If you’ve kept up with this blog (or if you follow me on Twitter), you probably know that I use Heisig’s method of learning kanji depicted in his book, Remembering the Kanji.
If you don’t know about this book, I strongly recommend for you to check it out, as I think it’s an ingenious method. In a nutshell, you break the kanji down into basic primitives that each have their own individual meanings and are oftentimes fairly pictographic, and then you combine these parts into more and more complicated kanji, creating vivid stories that brings all the elements together. Here’s an example of combining the kanji for sun (日) and moon (月):
This system really works for so many people, myself included. It’s definitely a book worth checking out.
An additional growingly popular tool that you can use to facilitate learning these thousands of kanji is a spaced repetition system (SRS). Again, if you aren’t familiar with this, I strongly recommend for you to check it out. An SRS is essentially a flashcard system that measures how well you know each individual card, and it shows you that card right when you need to see it. Instead of going over a card twenty times in a day, and then you completely forget it a week later, you would see the card a day later, then three days later, then a week later, then up to months and years later. There’s scientific research behind this that analyzes how your brain remembers things and how the SRS system takes advantage of your natural learning abilities. Thus you can make your kanji studies – or almost any studies, really – much more efficient. The system that I personally use is Anki.
So. Those are all awesome tools that have really been working for me. But there’s a huge point I’d like to make here. If you follow something like AJATT’s method, you probably have the idea of learning all the kanji first, and then moving on to sentences in your SRS. I think that’s totally fine, and once I get through all my kanji flashcards, that’s what I plan to do as well. However… I don’t think you should necessarily limit yourself to just learning kanji for that bit of time. I have heard about many situations where people were almost afraid to learn anything else about Japanese other than kanji because they think they won’t get the same benefit until they learn the kanji. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best tactic.
Now, if you can bang out all the kanji very quickly and are able to focus on nothing but that without any problems, more power to you. But most of us need a little break sometimes. I really enjoy doing my kanji reps, but after a while I do get sick of it and need to stop – while I try to do them often, my kanji sessions don’t last for hours, and in fact they sometimes just last a few minutes. But while I’m not always studying kanji, I don’t necessarily need to stop the Japanese learning – I just switch to something else.
Simple immersion (watching Japanese videos, listening to Japanese music, etc) is a common, easy learning method that most people have no qualms with. You don’t even need to be paying strict attention, just have it playing in the background and get used to the sound of it. But at the same time – it’s okay to pay attention. It’s okay to learn new vocabulary, new grammar points, etc. Sure, you might still be in the “kanji stage”, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn other things too. Try to pick up as much as you can! Also, when you read manga or webpages, don’t only look at the kanji you’ve learned and completely ignore the rest. It’s okay to look at unfamiliar kanji, especially if they pop up often. If you’ve already seen it before, when you actually get to that kanji in your SRS, it will be that much easier learning it – you’ve already been exposed to it.
One last specific example. There are some points where I couldn’t do my kanji reps if I wanted to. I carry my computer around with me a lot, but it’s not with me 24/7, and I also much prefer sitting down with paper and writing utensils to properly practice physically writing out the kanji. Kanji reps can just be really inconvenient at times. However, unlike my computer, I almost always have my phone on me. This allows me to access other study methods – namely, the Smart.fm app for the iPhone. I follow several lists of vocab on Smart.fm, and can easily access and practice them at almost any time (some moments I’ve used it: waiting in line for a movie, waiting for class to start – or sometimes even during class… eheh…). Most of these are simple vocab that I already know pretty well, but I make sure that the kanji setting is on. I’ve been using this app for a couple of months now, and I love using it because I get to see a lot of the kanji I’ve already learned in action. It’s like “oohhhh, that’s how you use that kanji!” Sure, I didn’t plan on learning this yet – I haven’t started studying sentences. But this way I feel like I’m getting a head start on the next step, and whenever that kanji pops up in my SRS deck again, I have an even easier time remembering it.
The point is, while my main focus is studying kanji, I’m studying a lot of stuff on the side, which reinforces my kanji studies and helps it go faster. And I’m getting a head start on learning how to read, write, listen, and speak as well.
So don’t be scared of learning anything and everything that excites you! Don’t keep your studies too structured! That way you’ll have a lot more fun and learn a lot faster. That’s my 2 cents at least (^-^)
(By the way, just a quick disclaimer, I’m trying out the new “Amazon Associates” feature for blogger, which is how I added that Remembering the Kanji book link. I do earn a small commission if any of you decide to buy the book through Amazon. Not trying to pressure anyone, of course, I’m just letting you guys know! ^-^)
If you don’t know about this book, I strongly recommend for you to check it out, as I think it’s an ingenious method. In a nutshell, you break the kanji down into basic primitives that each have their own individual meanings and are oftentimes fairly pictographic, and then you combine these parts into more and more complicated kanji, creating vivid stories that brings all the elements together. Here’s an example of combining the kanji for sun (日) and moon (月):
This system really works for so many people, myself included. It’s definitely a book worth checking out.
An additional growingly popular tool that you can use to facilitate learning these thousands of kanji is a spaced repetition system (SRS). Again, if you aren’t familiar with this, I strongly recommend for you to check it out. An SRS is essentially a flashcard system that measures how well you know each individual card, and it shows you that card right when you need to see it. Instead of going over a card twenty times in a day, and then you completely forget it a week later, you would see the card a day later, then three days later, then a week later, then up to months and years later. There’s scientific research behind this that analyzes how your brain remembers things and how the SRS system takes advantage of your natural learning abilities. Thus you can make your kanji studies – or almost any studies, really – much more efficient. The system that I personally use is Anki.
So. Those are all awesome tools that have really been working for me. But there’s a huge point I’d like to make here. If you follow something like AJATT’s method, you probably have the idea of learning all the kanji first, and then moving on to sentences in your SRS. I think that’s totally fine, and once I get through all my kanji flashcards, that’s what I plan to do as well. However… I don’t think you should necessarily limit yourself to just learning kanji for that bit of time. I have heard about many situations where people were almost afraid to learn anything else about Japanese other than kanji because they think they won’t get the same benefit until they learn the kanji. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best tactic.
Now, if you can bang out all the kanji very quickly and are able to focus on nothing but that without any problems, more power to you. But most of us need a little break sometimes. I really enjoy doing my kanji reps, but after a while I do get sick of it and need to stop – while I try to do them often, my kanji sessions don’t last for hours, and in fact they sometimes just last a few minutes. But while I’m not always studying kanji, I don’t necessarily need to stop the Japanese learning – I just switch to something else.
Simple immersion (watching Japanese videos, listening to Japanese music, etc) is a common, easy learning method that most people have no qualms with. You don’t even need to be paying strict attention, just have it playing in the background and get used to the sound of it. But at the same time – it’s okay to pay attention. It’s okay to learn new vocabulary, new grammar points, etc. Sure, you might still be in the “kanji stage”, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn other things too. Try to pick up as much as you can! Also, when you read manga or webpages, don’t only look at the kanji you’ve learned and completely ignore the rest. It’s okay to look at unfamiliar kanji, especially if they pop up often. If you’ve already seen it before, when you actually get to that kanji in your SRS, it will be that much easier learning it – you’ve already been exposed to it.
One last specific example. There are some points where I couldn’t do my kanji reps if I wanted to. I carry my computer around with me a lot, but it’s not with me 24/7, and I also much prefer sitting down with paper and writing utensils to properly practice physically writing out the kanji. Kanji reps can just be really inconvenient at times. However, unlike my computer, I almost always have my phone on me. This allows me to access other study methods – namely, the Smart.fm app for the iPhone. I follow several lists of vocab on Smart.fm, and can easily access and practice them at almost any time (some moments I’ve used it: waiting in line for a movie, waiting for class to start – or sometimes even during class… eheh…). Most of these are simple vocab that I already know pretty well, but I make sure that the kanji setting is on. I’ve been using this app for a couple of months now, and I love using it because I get to see a lot of the kanji I’ve already learned in action. It’s like “oohhhh, that’s how you use that kanji!” Sure, I didn’t plan on learning this yet – I haven’t started studying sentences. But this way I feel like I’m getting a head start on the next step, and whenever that kanji pops up in my SRS deck again, I have an even easier time remembering it.
The point is, while my main focus is studying kanji, I’m studying a lot of stuff on the side, which reinforces my kanji studies and helps it go faster. And I’m getting a head start on learning how to read, write, listen, and speak as well.
So don’t be scared of learning anything and everything that excites you! Don’t keep your studies too structured! That way you’ll have a lot more fun and learn a lot faster. That’s my 2 cents at least (^-^)
(By the way, just a quick disclaimer, I’m trying out the new “Amazon Associates” feature for blogger, which is how I added that Remembering the Kanji book link. I do earn a small commission if any of you decide to buy the book through Amazon. Not trying to pressure anyone, of course, I’m just letting you guys know! ^-^)
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tweet Log 6 (January/February)
Continuing my story through tweets... start at the beginning here.
Go back to part 5.
Go forward to part 7.
*~*~*
Manga Nostalgia: Angel Sanctuary. Beautiful art, but one of the most bizarre/disturbing series I've ever read. Still... it was interesting..
http://twitpic.com/1025e0 - A beautiful structure we saw in Ueno Zoo.
Blog Post: Some of my tips on managing life! May it help you with school and your Japanese studies :) http://bit.ly/cOcWbW http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8300624338
Manga Nostalgia: Hikaru no Go. An interesting story revolving around the traditional Japanese boardgame Go, with some great art to boot.
Added another tip thanks to @Carisell to my Life Management Post http://bit.ly/cOcWbW :)
Looking for an inexpensive way to get hardcopies of manga! どうしよう〜 Any suggestions? http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8344406710
http://twitpic.com/105uwx - This monkey at Ueno Zoo was chilling in this position forever, it was hilarious! http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8350964806
Finally watched the first episode of Bloody Monday. It's intense! I'm totally hooked.
Manga Nostalgia: Wish. A short and cute story from Clamp. Not my favorite manga series by them, but still a nice read. http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8428448438
http://twitpic.com/10k0wi - Llamaaa! At Ueno zoo~
February Tweets
Manga Nostalgia: Fairy Cube. Again, Kaori Yuki and her bizarre plots. This one was shorter and less disturbing, though, and was very pretty~ http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8513905496
Blog Post: Tweet Log #2 :D http://bit.ly/aOl7Y1
http://twitpic.com/10t4vd - The beautiful pond area at Ueno zoo (or is it technically part of Ueno park?)
Watching Kurosawa's "No Regrets for Our Youth" in class. Interesting.
Manga Nostalgia: Skip Beat. I got sucked into this series immediately! It was so original and funny - everything about it entertained me.
Researching study abroad options in Japan. Exciting stuff~ :D
http://twitpic.com/1179qi - More at Ueno zoo. So adorable! I think it's a loris?..
Manga Nostalgia: Chrono Crusade. Hadn’t read much of it, and while the plot did have promise, lost track of it.. maybe I'll pick it up again
http://twitpic.com/11c8cy - Yay recycling! Bottles... cans... pets?!
Just got to kanji 1179 in Heisig's Remember the Kanji. @_@; Still have quite a backlog so the going's slow, but it's going! :D
Blog post: Variety shows! Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb
Just reached 100 followers on Twitter! I'm so happy, thank you everyone!! :D
http://twitpic.com/11i8km - Kuma-san chillin' out at Ueno zoo~
Writing to do lists in Japanese... anyone know how to say "To Do"? XD Write now the label's "すること"...
Manga Nostalgia: La Corda D’Oro. I’ve really fallen in love with this series – love the classical music theme, the art, and the characters.
http://twitpic.com/11raey - Polar bear!! Still at Ueno Zoo ^-^
http://twitpic.com/11xp95 - Poop falls over you?
Kanji backlog down to the 200s @_@ but I'm almost done with the 31st lesson of the book :D
Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun variety shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb
Commented on Empty Compliments and the Language Learner / Foreign Language Mastery http://tinyurl.com/ykwt75b
Go back to part 5.
Go forward to part 7.
*~*~*
Manga Nostalgia: Angel Sanctuary. Beautiful art, but one of the most bizarre/disturbing series I've ever read. Still... it was interesting..
http://twitpic.com/1025e0 - A beautiful structure we saw in Ueno Zoo.
Blog Post: Some of my tips on managing life! May it help you with school and your Japanese studies :) http://bit.ly/cOcWbW http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8300624338
Manga Nostalgia: Hikaru no Go. An interesting story revolving around the traditional Japanese boardgame Go, with some great art to boot.
Added another tip thanks to @Carisell to my Life Management Post http://bit.ly/cOcWbW :)
Looking for an inexpensive way to get hardcopies of manga! どうしよう〜 Any suggestions? http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8344406710
http://twitpic.com/105uwx - This monkey at Ueno Zoo was chilling in this position forever, it was hilarious! http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8350964806
Finally watched the first episode of Bloody Monday. It's intense! I'm totally hooked.
Manga Nostalgia: Wish. A short and cute story from Clamp. Not my favorite manga series by them, but still a nice read. http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8428448438
http://twitpic.com/10k0wi - Llamaaa! At Ueno zoo~
February Tweets
Manga Nostalgia: Fairy Cube. Again, Kaori Yuki and her bizarre plots. This one was shorter and less disturbing, though, and was very pretty~ http://twitter.com/CultureQuirk/status/8513905496
Blog Post: Tweet Log #2 :D http://bit.ly/aOl7Y1
http://twitpic.com/10t4vd - The beautiful pond area at Ueno zoo (or is it technically part of Ueno park?)
Watching Kurosawa's "No Regrets for Our Youth" in class. Interesting.
Manga Nostalgia: Skip Beat. I got sucked into this series immediately! It was so original and funny - everything about it entertained me.
Researching study abroad options in Japan. Exciting stuff~ :D
http://twitpic.com/1179qi - More at Ueno zoo. So adorable! I think it's a loris?..
Manga Nostalgia: Chrono Crusade. Hadn’t read much of it, and while the plot did have promise, lost track of it.. maybe I'll pick it up again
http://twitpic.com/11c8cy - Yay recycling! Bottles... cans... pets?!
Just got to kanji 1179 in Heisig's Remember the Kanji. @_@; Still have quite a backlog so the going's slow, but it's going! :D
Blog post: Variety shows! Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb
Just reached 100 followers on Twitter! I'm so happy, thank you everyone!! :D
http://twitpic.com/11i8km - Kuma-san chillin' out at Ueno zoo~
Writing to do lists in Japanese... anyone know how to say "To Do"? XD Write now the label's "すること"...
Manga Nostalgia: La Corda D’Oro. I’ve really fallen in love with this series – love the classical music theme, the art, and the characters.
http://twitpic.com/11raey - Polar bear!! Still at Ueno Zoo ^-^
http://twitpic.com/11xp95 - Poop falls over you?
Kanji backlog down to the 200s @_@ but I'm almost done with the 31st lesson of the book :D
Learn Japanese by watching these hilarious, fun variety shows~ http://bit.ly/9A5vLb
Commented on Empty Compliments and the Language Learner / Foreign Language Mastery http://tinyurl.com/ykwt75b
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