I go to class (Japanese). I mostly don’t do the homework or study, but our new textbook, Marugoto, is structured so that just by doing activities in class, I pick more things up.
One of our two textbooks has the reading of the kanji written on top, the other doesn’t. So I figure things out from context, unless I happen to be working with a classmate who knows a ton of kanji.
For a year now, I’ve been keeping a diary in Japanese. I write one to three things about the day. This time around, I’ve been looking up all the kanji & how to write them. It’s made looking up kanji overall less stressful. Plus, now my hand know a lot more radicals by heart. I no longer dread kanji.
For a headless chicken, that's a pretty good routine!
I'm mostly focusing on extending my Japanese vocabulary, ie. I read a lot of books & add example sentences to my Anki deck (1 new word per card). Since I live in Japan, I also note down vocabulary I encounter in daily life. I watch films & anime too but end up not really extracting a lot of vocab because I don't want to pause. And when I find the time, I also study my JLPT (proficiency test) textbooks but I'm very slow with that... it's mostly at night & on weekends that I get around to it but I'm okay with that.
I like your approach! Sounds like my routine, though I may need to be more intentional when watching Chinese dramas hehe. Do you add audio to your Anki decks too?
Really admire your discipline! I am even more of a headless chook so I have been darting from thing to thing, whatever will hold my interest. At various times I use podcasts, Youtube, music, and even language exchange.
I'm using the Pleco inbuilt HSK decks to try and build a base vocabulary, but without regular input it is just rote memorisation which is the least efficient kind.
Yea I find it a tad hard to just memorise off a list too. I'm currently just adding new characters from my graded readers. As for new vocab, I guess I'm just taking my time. I suspect my vocab is about HSK4 level though there are patches here and there that I don't recognize, so i'm trying to fill in the gaps. I did try to be free and easy about this but it's kinda motivating to tell myself that "I know up to HSK 6 vocab" rather than guesstimate how much I know ;P
I totally relate to this as I try to learn a new language as well...thanks for the language learning tips, hope these will motivate me to learn and practice more efficiently!
I go to class (Japanese). I mostly don’t do the homework or study, but our new textbook, Marugoto, is structured so that just by doing activities in class, I pick more things up.
One of our two textbooks has the reading of the kanji written on top, the other doesn’t. So I figure things out from context, unless I happen to be working with a classmate who knows a ton of kanji.
For a year now, I’ve been keeping a diary in Japanese. I write one to three things about the day. This time around, I’ve been looking up all the kanji & how to write them. It’s made looking up kanji overall less stressful. Plus, now my hand know a lot more radicals by heart. I no longer dread kanji.
I find that classes can be really good for true blue begginers. It gives structure and something to aim for. Awesome!
For a headless chicken, that's a pretty good routine!
I'm mostly focusing on extending my Japanese vocabulary, ie. I read a lot of books & add example sentences to my Anki deck (1 new word per card). Since I live in Japan, I also note down vocabulary I encounter in daily life. I watch films & anime too but end up not really extracting a lot of vocab because I don't want to pause. And when I find the time, I also study my JLPT (proficiency test) textbooks but I'm very slow with that... it's mostly at night & on weekends that I get around to it but I'm okay with that.
I like your approach! Sounds like my routine, though I may need to be more intentional when watching Chinese dramas hehe. Do you add audio to your Anki decks too?
Yeah, I just watch what I like haha.
My Anki is very simple (plus I often do reps on my commute) so no audio but I can see how that would be super helpful for Chinese in particular!
Really admire your discipline! I am even more of a headless chook so I have been darting from thing to thing, whatever will hold my interest. At various times I use podcasts, Youtube, music, and even language exchange.
I'm using the Pleco inbuilt HSK decks to try and build a base vocabulary, but without regular input it is just rote memorisation which is the least efficient kind.
Yea I find it a tad hard to just memorise off a list too. I'm currently just adding new characters from my graded readers. As for new vocab, I guess I'm just taking my time. I suspect my vocab is about HSK4 level though there are patches here and there that I don't recognize, so i'm trying to fill in the gaps. I did try to be free and easy about this but it's kinda motivating to tell myself that "I know up to HSK 6 vocab" rather than guesstimate how much I know ;P
I totally relate to this as I try to learn a new language as well...thanks for the language learning tips, hope these will motivate me to learn and practice more efficiently!
That is so awesome that you're reading them! so it's translated into Englis?