みなさん こんにちは！ So I recently got this comment : "hey! what is your studying method? you are in also on grammar? or stopped on hiragana e katakana? i need to know because i have to much things to study and i dont know what is better to do! STEVEN" and I thought a nice new thing to do was to start this new... section. Basically it's called Post Bag and if you have any questions, just post them as a comment and I will answer them, even if I don't know the answer, I will research them, then I will learn something also! So of course, let those questions roll on!.
As to the question above, this is my answer:
My studying method? I have lots, but for each part of learning Japanese, my study methods vary, allow me to go into more detail.
First I'll go a little into the order of which I have done/am doing things, if you have been following my blog, as you may already know I started off learning hiragana and katakana, this gives you a good foundation for learning Japanese, as some of the best kanji resources give pronunciations in kana and some of the best grammar recources use kana in examples, in fact for learning grammar I'd say that knowing kana is vital, why? Well because all particles and grammatical points should be in kana, why change that? As well as this, the particle は in romaji is written as wa, but it is written with the hiragana for ha, which will only cause confusion when you convert! Now what I am doing is, at the same time, learning Kanji and Grammar, now my kanji studying method has changed a lot since my last post, as in the end Heisig's method wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean its bad. Once I have the grammar and kanji down, I will just work on my vocabulary and phrase knowledge, maybe learn some colloquial terms and of course practise what I have already learnt! I will watch Japanese television shows, this will help my listening and pronunciation as well as my vocabulary, I will read Japanese books and manga, to make sure my Kanji and kana skills don't dull, and another thing that I will do is translate books from English into Japanese and vice versa! I actually got this idea from PathogenProductions from Youtube, he mentions it in this video. Basically I will do lots to immerse myself, improve myself and to make sure my skills don't dull! Now onto my actual methods.
For Kana I have made a few posts on that already, feel free to check them out: Kana E-Course, Learning Katakana, Hiragana Resources.
For kanji, again I have already made a post, but as I said above my method has changed since then, It's too much to go into in this post, as it's already long enough but expect this method tomorrow or the day after! You can check out my old method here, it's really good, it just didn't fit my learning style!
For Grammar I am mainly using Tae Kim's Guide To Learning Japanese this is an amazing recourse and I really can't fault it in any way. However let me warn you now, all the examples are in kana and kanji, although if you hover over the kanji it shows you it in kana. If you don't know kana you won't be able to use this effectively, of course you could translate it all into romaji using a chart, but that's time better spent actually learning kana. It also has exercises after each section to secure your knowledge on what you have previously learnt.
Also for Grammar I have a pocket grammar guide called BARRON's Japanese Grammar, this is a nice little book for reference and it's very affordable, my only complaint is that it is all in romaji, but its not meant to learn from only as a reference and such so I like it anyway.
As well as all of this I regularly watch, people on Youtube who blog in Japanese, I watch Japanese television shows, I listen to some Japanese music and try to read what Japanese I can. Also one of the most important things to me is that I practice everyday, stay in a habit of practicing, the one day you miss might turn into two days, three days, a week, a month and before you know it you've given up, don't let that be you! Study hard and don't give up, forget about the haters and embrace this chance to learn a wonderful language, at some point in your life you just won't have the drive or time to do it, so do it now!
As to the question above, this is my answer:
My studying method? I have lots, but for each part of learning Japanese, my study methods vary, allow me to go into more detail.
First I'll go a little into the order of which I have done/am doing things, if you have been following my blog, as you may already know I started off learning hiragana and katakana, this gives you a good foundation for learning Japanese, as some of the best kanji resources give pronunciations in kana and some of the best grammar recources use kana in examples, in fact for learning grammar I'd say that knowing kana is vital, why? Well because all particles and grammatical points should be in kana, why change that? As well as this, the particle は in romaji is written as wa, but it is written with the hiragana for ha, which will only cause confusion when you convert! Now what I am doing is, at the same time, learning Kanji and Grammar, now my kanji studying method has changed a lot since my last post, as in the end Heisig's method wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean its bad. Once I have the grammar and kanji down, I will just work on my vocabulary and phrase knowledge, maybe learn some colloquial terms and of course practise what I have already learnt! I will watch Japanese television shows, this will help my listening and pronunciation as well as my vocabulary, I will read Japanese books and manga, to make sure my Kanji and kana skills don't dull, and another thing that I will do is translate books from English into Japanese and vice versa! I actually got this idea from PathogenProductions from Youtube, he mentions it in this video. Basically I will do lots to immerse myself, improve myself and to make sure my skills don't dull! Now onto my actual methods.
For Kana I have made a few posts on that already, feel free to check them out: Kana E-Course, Learning Katakana, Hiragana Resources.
For kanji, again I have already made a post, but as I said above my method has changed since then, It's too much to go into in this post, as it's already long enough but expect this method tomorrow or the day after! You can check out my old method here, it's really good, it just didn't fit my learning style!
For Grammar I am mainly using Tae Kim's Guide To Learning Japanese this is an amazing recourse and I really can't fault it in any way. However let me warn you now, all the examples are in kana and kanji, although if you hover over the kanji it shows you it in kana. If you don't know kana you won't be able to use this effectively, of course you could translate it all into romaji using a chart, but that's time better spent actually learning kana. It also has exercises after each section to secure your knowledge on what you have previously learnt.
Also for Grammar I have a pocket grammar guide called BARRON's Japanese Grammar, this is a nice little book for reference and it's very affordable, my only complaint is that it is all in romaji, but its not meant to learn from only as a reference and such so I like it anyway.
As well as all of this I regularly watch, people on Youtube who blog in Japanese, I watch Japanese television shows, I listen to some Japanese music and try to read what Japanese I can. Also one of the most important things to me is that I practice everyday, stay in a habit of practicing, the one day you miss might turn into two days, three days, a week, a month and before you know it you've given up, don't let that be you! Study hard and don't give up, forget about the haters and embrace this chance to learn a wonderful language, at some point in your life you just won't have the drive or time to do it, so do it now!
11:41 |
Category: |
2
comments
Comments (2)
Thanks! ^_^
Steven
No problem, if you need anything else all you have to do is ask ^^.