sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 1 of 197 13 June 2007 at 9:02pm | IP Logged

Good luck! How are you using the bilingual websites? I'm especially curious about how you're handling the Kanji.





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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 3 of 197 14 June 2007 at 2:06pm | IP Logged

Thanks! For browsing websites I use PeraPera-kun for Firefox. When using it all I have to do is place the cursor over the unknown Japanese words and the meanings and pronunciations are displayed.

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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 4 of 197 16 June 2007 at 1:51am | IP Logged

Today is the official start of the challenge, but I'm still awaiting my copy of Assimil Japanese with Ease. Until then, my daily studies consist of



1. Listening to one lesson of Pimsleur

2. Watching one episode of Let's Learn Japanese, plus going over the exercises in the accompanying textbook.

3. Listening to one podcast from Japanesepod101.com

4. 30 minutes of using the Power Japanese software

5. Any other Japanese language related activities, including watching anime, reading manga, and studying grammar and vocabulary from other sources.



Currently I'm still trying to get a handle on all the different verb inflections and the subtle differences in meanings for each one. I think it may be a good idea for me to obtain a good book devoted entirely to grammar so that all that material can be compiled neatly together in one place.



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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 5 of 197 19 June 2007 at 11:14am | IP Logged

I found a great grammar book called "Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar," by Seiichi Makano and Michio Tsutsui. It contains lots of example sentences to illustrate each grammatical point, and every one of them is written first in native Japanese, then romaji, and finally, the English translation. What's especially good about it is that it covers some of the less formal expressions normally left out of most textbooks, which makes it a valuable tool for reading manga.



I'm still waiting for Japanese with Ease to arrive from Amazon, but still marching through the other materials in my possession. Pimsleur is starting to drag a bit, though, so I'm glad I'm nearly finished with level one. Once I'm done with that I'll set it aside to work on other things.







Edited by sheetz on 19 June 2007 at 11:16am

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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 6 of 197 21 June 2007 at 11:48am | IP Logged

I finally received my Assimil Japanese with Ease from Amazon and I think I like what I see. It seems this course is perfectly suited to the Sentence Method as described at alljapaneseallthetime.com and, in fact, I think I will try incorporating that method into my study routine during the passive phase. What I plan on doing is completing the passive phase as instructed, but then as I complete each lesson I would enter all the dialog sentences into Mnemosyne and review those every day. I haven't yet studied Heisig as was recommended by that website, but I'd still like to see how well this method works even with skipping that step.



Edited by sheetz on 21 June 2007 at 11:50am

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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 7 of 197 24 June 2007 at 2:02pm | IP Logged

I've finally made it all the way through Pimsleur I and feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It was definitely starting to bore me, and I'm glad that I can set it aside for now.



I've also just started Assimil Japanese with Ease and it feels great to actually be looking at "real" Japanese text for a change instead of dealing with only kana and/or romaji along with the aural work. After each lesson I'm entering the dialog sentences into an SRS and currently I'm testing out both Mnemosyne and Lingopronto.com to see which one I like best. Anki looked promising and has lots of nice features for learners of Japanese, but I think I prefer the simplicity of the other two.



I'm nearly finished with the Power Japanese software so I'll be wanting to add something else to take its place once I'm done. I thought about doing Heisig, but I like the idea of using the KanjiCan software from kanjisoft.com instead. Unfortunately, the author of that program has suspended sales for now until he has reworked the stories. Until then I might just listen to more lessons from Japanesepod101.com, which I find really entertaining and look forward to each day. Or else I might look into learning Kanji in other ways like through Reading Japanese by Jordan or the Basic Kanji Book , both of which come highly recommended.



Edited by sheetz on 24 June 2007 at 2:05pm

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sheetz

Senior Member

United States

Joined 4862 days ago

270 posts - 354 votes

Speaks: English*

Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin



Message 8 of 197 29 June 2007 at 1:58pm | IP Logged