Still going...

Never give up. That should be the motto of all language learners.

It's been over 5 years since my last post. A lot has happened in my life during that time, some good, some (a lot) not so good. But I still have my goals and language learning is one of them.

I passed the JLPT level 2 in 2012. I just sneaked past the pass level of something like 60%. Anyway, this year I have decided to try and take it again... 8 years later!

Back then I think I was in a rush to get Japanese under my belt and move on, so I was cutting a lot of corners. I had passed 2, so I could move on to 1. When, in reality, I still had a lot of work to do on the level 2 grammar and vocabulary.

I've realised that now that I am back tackling this level 2 stuff. I've signed up to an online level 2 course through Udemy. Recorded video lessons going through all the grammar points. I like this method, because it's like attending class, but you can do it at your own pace, and can rewind the teacher easily if you aren't paying attention (not so easy in a real life class). Plus it's cheaper! :)

Here is the level 2 course.

Slave to the flashcards

I fear I may have become too much of a slave to my flashcards. It`s now three years since I began regularly updating my vocabulary from the Tangorin website into my Anki flashcards. I`m absolutely positive that this has increased my vocabulary substantially, but I wonder if I have relied too much on this and neglected other areas that also need work in learning a foreign language. It`s as if the flashcards have become a distraction, they can lull you into the sense that you are progressing more than you really are.

In order to keep the number of cards in my decks at a manageable level I have been deleting them when they get to around the three month mark. This has enabled me to keep the number of cards ticking over, may have had a detrimental effect on my long term retention of some of the less common words. I`ve begun to notice this anyhow.

I`m also frustrated with my lack of progress with fluency. I was hoping that by now I would be a confident speaker in my workplace, or with Japanese speakers in my life, but this is far from the case. I feel I need to take a different tack to break new ground.

I`m currently taking three lessons a week, so I don`t think this is the problem. More likely that I need to use, or engineer situations where I can use, the language more frequently in my day to day life.

New iPhone

One thing that has a good effect on my language learning of late has been my new iPhone. It's my first smartphone and I've had it for a couple of months now. I downloaded the Anki app which has really enabled my flashcard usage to go up dramatically. It's great being able to check your flashcards for one minute or so while you are waiting for the train, or waiting at the pedestrian crossing or whatever. I'd say my use of flashcards has gone up by at least 100% if not a lot more.

家政婦の三田 on pps.tv

Another app that is useful is pps.tv. It's an app for a Chinese website where you can access all sorts of TV shows, movies etc. There is a Japanese drama category and I've been trying to watch a drama series from start to finish. There are subtitles in Chinese and Japanese! On the whole, I keep my eyes on the Japanese subs, and manage to follow what's going on quite well. From time to time though, I take a look at the Chinese subs too and get a bit of study in that way too.

The drama I've been watching is, like a lot of Japanese dramas, wacky as hell. It's called 家政婦の三田 (Kaseifu no Mita; Mita the housekeeper) and it's about a housekeeper who is working in the home of a bereaved family who have lost their mother/wife. The wacky thing is the housekeeper behaves like a housekeeping robot behaving and working perfectly, beyond belief, so much so that she actually creeps people out. It's wacky, but interesting to watch, and I'm looking forward to finding out why the woman/robot is as wacky as she is.

I held out from purchasing an iPhone for quite a while, but I've got to say it's a good purchase.

Explaining skills

Went to my Chinese language class this morning. The teacher didn't turn up, (second time this month that has happened) but not to worry I had a good chat with the other students using Japanese.

Rida san introduced the history of Japan on the blackboard, and then I had a go at introducing a breif history of the UK. Parts of my explanation were in Japanese, parts in English.

There are some grammatical structures that I need to get more used to using to make things easier to explain. I'm sure there are structures, such as the multiple uses of ように, that I know, but haven't yet mastered when and how to use properly. If I spend some time on them, my ability to explain in the language would improve a lot.