Learning Japanese : How to Keep Feeling Like You Are Making Progress

kitsuune

So I have recently starting teaching myself Japanese, and it's certainly very different to any other language that I have learnt so far - which is why I feel like a bit of thought about methods of learning and approach is necessary, and why I thought that some more experienced learners could have some valuable advice!

I always felt that I couldn't get anywhere really without learning the Kana, so I have spent a while learning that (I adore Heisig's book) and drilling myself a bit (workbook exercises, and even a bit of Sonic in ChinaLand lol!) and now I am tempted to move onto trying to learn some basic Kanji, though it seems incredibly intimidating/vaguely impossible!

I know some phrases and the most basic of grammar, but I don't know whether I should continue trying to learn phrases and grammar with kana or whether I should do some Kanji at the same time. People put off Kanji because it is so complicated... but the idea of learning phrases in Kana that would normally in Japanese be written in Kanji frustrates me...

It's probably obvious from what I said above that I'm not focusing on the speaking and conversational side, though I do do an hour a week of extra-curricular classes in college which is taught by a Japanese girl.

I titled this post as keeping the feeling that you are making progress, because I don't want to lose motivation. I watch a lot of anime, so the Japanese in Mangaland series appealed to me, and I love its explanations etc but as regards actual Japanese it starts off at the deep end a little. I DO like how it writes basic sentences using the Kanji rather than just the Hiragana... Though obviously I can't learn it all straight off. I am currently picking and choosing from a lot of ebooks.

SO, there goes my first rant on the difficulties of learning Japanese, self-directed at least!
What I'm really interested in here, is people pointing out things that worked or didn't work for them. Books or exercises they wished they had discovered sooner. Do you wish you had learned things in a different order?

I would really love to hear about people's experiences in learning the language as a whole, as opposed to just the Kana or Kanji as has already been discussed!

Aard

Don't worry about the kanji too much. I understand that you want to learn a word with its kanji, but realistically when you learn that kanji, the next time you see it it will probably have a different reading to the one you learnt. Focus on vocabulary, and reading materials that have furigana. Learn the different verbal constructions.

If you really want to learn kanji, it's best to do it in isolation I've found. Heisig's book allows this: you'll learn a kanji and all of its readings, and afterword you can start matching the kanji to the different words.

(His kanji book is called "Remembering the Kanji". It's very popular as far as I can tell!)

just-joe

kitsuune wrote: »

People put off Kanji because it is so complicated... but the idea of learning phrases in Kana that would normally in Japanese be written in Kanji frustrates me...

Why get frustrated? The more you learn, the better! As Aard says, the multiple readings thing makes it difficult so I would try to concentrate on moving forward with grammar and vocab.

The point being, you have to ask yourself, why are you learning the language, and probably more important, why are you learning the kanji? (one I'm asking myself at the moment). If you want to become completely fluent as a writer and reader, and use Japanese in daily life or as part of a job, then obviously, press on with the kanji as much as you can. If you want to go to Japan for a holiday and be able to communicate (get around, order food and as much chat as possible on the side), then learning kanji isn't as benificial, you're better off learning grammar.

So the in between would be coming here for longer than a holiday, months or a couple of years or whatever. Even then putting tons of work into kanji may not be worthwhile, as you're probably not going to be reading books or writing kanji every day. The amount of work it would take to just casually read a newspaper or comic would be massive! So maybe you're better off practicing speaking and listening. Being able to communicate with Japanese people through speaking is way cooler than being able to read a comic!

Also, remembering readings is a whole lot easier than remembering how to write them, (well it is for me anyways and a lot of people I have spoken to). So you could choose not to practice writing at all, but just to recall them (by using kanji flip or something, more on that in a bit).

kitsuune wrote: »

What I'm really interested in here, is people pointing out things that worked or didn't work for them. Books or exercises they wished they had discovered sooner. Do you wish you had learned things in a different order?

Books - this also relates to the kanji bit above. I have been using two books which are both pretty good, Genki and Japanese for Busy People. They're both doing the same thing so you don't need both, and Genki is probably better. I think it is great because it introduces kanji gradually through the book, with a writing guide in the back. The rest is in kana. This is a good compromise between no kanji at all, and learning every single kanji you see. The amount of kanji isn't un-doable, and you're also getting the most basic/useful ones.

Audio phrase books - I don't know of any yet, but I would like to get some so I'd like to hear if people have suggestions!
I have tried a few podcasts but none were great. They all move quite slowly and if you know basic introductions then probably a bit pointless.

Things that I would do differently - quit romanji as soon as possible. Its the only way to give up a reliance on it. This is why genki is good, it introduces kana in chapter one, you learn it, and then romanji is gone from chapter two.

Drill the katakana a lot more before going to Japan - a lot of restaurant menus have some katakana on them, so if youre going then knowing them is probably more important than knowing the hiragana. So if I could do it again I'd learn katakana first. Also, the fonts can be quite different, and strange to read if you're used to nice book print. So I would probably google katakana and read some different styles too.

Oh yeah I almost forgot - I have the Kanji Flip app on iPhone, and also "Japanese" (its a dictionary with a kanji flip test thing). This is quite good for practicing reading kanji as it gives you a ton of repition, which is basically what ya need. Its also good for kana, and vocab. Its clever in that it asks ones that you dont know, records the ones you do know, and brings them back periodically for a check. Definitely good if ya want to learn kanji.


I'm miles away from being decent, those are just some thoughts. I hope they help!