Learning Japanese

Aiming to pass JLPT N1 before I die.

[beenburnedout]

JLPT N3?

I was thinking of trying the JLPT this year. I went through some of the N3 sample questions on their website and I was surprised at how many I got right...almost too easy. I don’t think I could pass N2 though...seems too risky. I don’t want to waste $60. LOL. I guess I could aim for a perfect N3 score. 🤔

[beenburnedout]

I read through all six volumes of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card manga! It was a fun and easy read. Not sure if anyone still uses 電子辞書, but I really like mine.

[beenburnedout]

June started off terribly for me. I put my sweet 16-year-old Border Collie to sleep on 6/3 plus I was sick with a fever during all this as well. I took that week off from studying, just needed a break to recover from everything.

I finally got my new computer all set up! I had to buy an external WiFi adapter, but it actually works pretty well. I got Anki up and running and added the MorphMan plugin so all my new cards will have just one unknown word. It also skips over cards where I already know everything so I never have to see them. Perfect for subs2srs. Right now I’m working through けいおん！ and となりのトトロ. When I’m done, I’ll rewatch these and see if my comprehension has improved. In any case, this is a fun way to study!

[nihongogogo]

hello, I´ll take n3 this year and i was wondering if you could give me some tips on material to study (apps, books, videos..) thank you :D

Sure:Kanzen Master books are the best IMO for test practise, they’re the hardest, but also the most reflective of the difficulty of the real exam and use test-format questions (Sou Matome is cute, but has some question types that never come up on the real test, a lot of unnecessary vocabulary and is pitched too easy; some people love it and if it works for you great, I prefer Kanzen Master though).

The Power Drill series is also good for practising timing.

Nihongonomori N3 vocabulary and Grammar videos- I made flashcards for a lot of the vocabulary that came up in these and a good ammount came up on the real test when I did it last July. I like that they’re 100% Japanese videos. I wish they weren’t so slow and said things more naturally to help pick up pitch accent etc, but the delivery is good, the vocab seemed relevant and their videos are well-organised and comprehensive.

If you haven’t signed up for one get an Audible free trial. You get one free audiobook and you can use your credit for this to get one of the intermediate JapanesePod101 audio books. I got one that way and it has over 26 HOURS of podcasts on it, no adverts, no fucking about on itunes (JapanesePod101′s itunes podcast feed is limited to a few episodes and is a hideously disorganised mix of beginner lessons, survival Japanese, random vocab and a lot of other stuff I don’t want jamming up my computer, with just a few rare podcasts at my level I actually want- I may just be doing it wrong though.) I don(’t like how much English they use, but I do like the convenience of having this right on my phone. I’ve done over 18 hours of listening practise I otherwise wouldn’t have done in the last fortnight because of this free download and it covers a lot of N3 grammar. I know you can sign up for a free account on JapanesePod101 but the spam you like you wouldn’t believe, so I’ve disabled my account there.I also listened to a lot of the LingQ podcasts before and found those good too. On itunes there is News in Slow Japanese,　中３ラジコ　 (a radio show designed for JHS students to understand current affairs)　Apps: obviously Anki or Memrise are both very useful for vocabulary and kanji. Beyond them I reccomend HelloTalk- you can do language exchange, use your Japanese with native speakers and get support when you need it, in return for supporting someone with your native language. It’s a great app and I know having friends cheering you on can really help you.HiNative will let you ask native speakers questions about their language and is also a really useful tool to have.

For reading practise Yotsubato!, The Magic Treehouse series and the １０分で読めるseries for low-mid level elementary school kids are great. You need to read a lot and fast in the exam- it’s exhausting, so you need to build your stamina by regularly reading, it’s not a skill you can suddenly cram the way you may be able to with kanji or vocab to a certain extent. NHK Newswebeasy is also great.Last year I made the tumblr @jlptstudygroup where you can join other learners, share resources and support each other in the run up to N3. It’s a group blog so anyone who joins as admin can contribute, PM me your email address and I’ll send you a tumblr admin link if you want to join the blog. (This is not something tumblr allows you to do without submitting your email address).

[ya-yametesenpai-deactivated2024]

Story of my life.

[nihongogogo]

nihongonomori Japan

Free Japanese lesson videos (Free Japanese school) 無料日本語レッスン 無料日本語学校 先生募集中です。気軽にお問い合わせください。 [email protected]

Nihongonomori are amazing, their JLPT N3 lessons really helped me so much. I’m not sure if I was missing this before, but they seem to have channels for each JLPT lesson, which should make it easier than ever to find exactly the level of stuff you’re looking for.

[wordsnstuff]

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

— Arthur Ashe

[beenburnedout]

Last week I bought another laptop solely for Anki. That’s right, I bought a laptop JUST FOR FLASHCARDS. I had been using my MacBook for years, but recent updates to both the computer and Anki have left some of my plugins not working like they used to or not working at all. I also really want to use Subs2srs, but unfortunately no Mac version... This laptop was refurbished by a local shop and seems to work well, except for a little problem. WiFi is missing! The right pic shows where the WiFi card should be. I was really surprised, but the shop is sending me the part for free, so I’m not too bummed. For now I was thinking of buying one of those USB WiFi adapters and see how that goes. Sigh, I just wanted to make flashcards. 😥

[buqalamun]

How I got over my 2000-card Anki backlog

It happens to anyone who’s used Anki SRS… You lose interest, or you take a break from studying, and the next time you open Anki you are seeing a huge number of cards due. It’s overwhelming, and you just want to shut the app and do something else.

I’ve dealt with this numerous times over my nearly 10 years of using Anki on-and-off. But over the past 2 weeks, I have been determined to defeat my backlog.

I decided on a divide-and-conquer strategy, first clearing out my easiest decks, then working up to my biggest and most difficult ones. The worst part of the backlog is the seemingly impossible number of reviews staring you in the face. So, I focused on each deck one-by-one, with smaller goals leading up to bigger ones.

This might not be the 100% most efficient method, but it worked for me because it increased my motivation.

With about 8 days of serious study, I destroyed the backlog

-         Start with low hanging fruit

My Anki collection includes a few different types of decks. Some are normal vocabulary cards. Others are sentences and Subs2SRS style cards. The sentence cards are easier, have longer intervals, and rely less on my memory – because it’s not about memorisation, but just being able to understand the card.

So, I worked on those decks first before tackling my vocabulary cards. And, since I was hitting ‘good’ or ‘easy’ on most of my sentence cards, I’m not going to see those cards again for months or  years – so I just review them once, and they’re off my plate.

-         Defeat decks one-by-one, and keep them defeated

Once I emptied out my easier decks, my collection looked something like this each day:

Vocab deck 1: 200 cards due

Vocab deck 2: 600 cards due

Sentence deck: 15 cards due

Subs2SRS deck: 10 cards due

So, my new plan is this: For as long as the backlog remains, I keep religiously reviewing the ‘finished’ decks. For the small price of 25 cards per day, I not  only prevent my backlog from building back up, but I also get a strong motivational boost from finishing these decks each day.

After finishing those, next I work on my deck with 200 reviews. The goal is to have as many decks in a manageable state as possible… and leave the other backlogged decks for later.

If I started with the 600-card deck, it would be more difficult for me each day, because it’s full of vocabulary cards that I’ve forgotten. Reviewing these cards will involve failing a whole bunch of cards, resetting their progress back to a short  interval, ultimately making a lot more reviews. So, I don’t start that task until my other decks are under control.

-         Turn off new cards

This might go without saying, but while you’re trying to clear a backlog, do not learn new cards. It will only add to your load and make things harder for you. Clear your plate first, then move on to the fun new stuff.

(Truth be told, I cheated on this a little bit. I still learned new cards in my Sentence decks – but no new vocabulary cards until the backlog was finished)

-         Get rid of leeches

I set my leech threshold very low. This means that if I have trouble remembering a card, it gets suspended. This prevents me from wasting time on the cards that I keep forgetting over and over. I review a card, and I either get it right, or I get it wrong and I don’t review it again.

Once I’m through my backlog, I’ll return to those leeches and see what to do with them – I might unsuspend some of them that I think are important. I might search out example sentences so that I more fully understand the words. Or, I might just leave them suspended. If a word is important, it will pop up elsewhere in my studies.

-         Set goals

It wasn’t feasible for me to complete all 1000+ reviews each day. But, with some time and effort, I could do 500.

So, I gave myself a goal: each day, I should review at least half of my total cards due. This is an attainable goal, and enough that I am making a dent in my backlog each day.

Once I’d done a few hundred cards, I found that sometimes I was in such a flow state that I wanted to continue and review more than that. Anything over my daily 50% was a bonus, and meant that I could spend less time on my reviews the next day.

Now that my backlog is defeated, I have about 15 minutes of reviews each day

-         Try not to build up a backlog again :)

Consistency is key. 10 minutes of reviews each day is better than an hour a week – not just because you won’t have a backlog, but because you will actually remember your cards better. Wish me luck in maintaining my cards going forward!

[nocturnalinseoul]

[beenburnedout]

Today I am reading Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc Vol. 1. I’m not a huge CCS fan, but I do like the artwork. It doesn’t look challenging language-wise, and hopefully I will like it cuz I already I bought five volumes. lol oh no

[beenburnedout]

Just using this tumblr as a little language diary to keep track of my progress and maybe motivate myself to keep trying. I’m going to experiment with some different tools and books and see how it goes. My goal right now is to pass JLPT N1. Gonna make it happen.