Ticking off all the Japanese grammar points with an N2/N1 grammar book

 I have an N2 & N1 grammar book that I'm working through and very near the end of.

I like the book because there is no English in it, and it is very simple - Grammar structure + 3-5 example sentences, about 10 structures per chapter, followed by 30-odd multiple choice, fill-the-gap sentence questions to test comprehension. My ex had scored herself on these questions, so I need to keep a sheet over the options so as not to know the answer, which makes it a bit harder because I can't see the options and have to try to guess which of the 10 structures goes in the gap and how it is conjugated etc.

Despite having the book for over 10 years, I only really starting going through it about 1 year ago. I decided it was time to finally at least "see" all the grammar structures in Japanese up to N1 level. I felt that if I could at least say to myself that I had seen them all, then it might give me more confidence.

I'm almost at the end - 2 N1 chapters left to go - and I feel like that need has been met. Basically, when I am listening to native level Japanese now, I don't have a nagging fear in the back of my mind that if only I had studied all the grammar, I would be able to understand.

Does this mean I understand the native-level Japanese fully? - Absolutely not!! But I feel like I can just focus on new vocabulary and phrases that I don't understand now - of which there are still many.

The more I study, the more I realise that I need to study more. Haha. Is this a virtuous circle?!

Update and new thoughts on grammar

Well, what with summer holidays and the like it's been a while since my last post, so I'm just writing this as a quick update as to what's going on.

I've got a lot of topics that I want to blog about language learning lined up, it's just that I've come to the conclusion that I'm spending too much time blogging about it and not enough time studying, so I've decided to concentrate on the study a bit for the time being.

I'm using the Oxford Chinese site that I mentioned before, and I'm really beginning to appreciate the benefit of grammar exercises. I think I had been lulled into thinking it was not necessary by some quarters of the language learning world, and this has been detrimental to my progress. Looking back at this blog, I am not sure I would support everything I wrote here or here anymore (although think balance is probably the best way forward, and certainly there is room for both techniques).

It is an atractive proposal not to have to bother with grammar, but I'm finding that studying the grammar really gives you a better understanding of the language and helps to give you a firm foundation from where to build your sentences, and this in turn helps to raise confidence.

Anyway, I'm going to try to make my way through all these exercises over the next month or two, and then perhaps scout around for some new material.

In the meantime, I'll try to find some time for a blog post or two. If you have any thoughts on the benefits of grammar study please let me know in the comments below, or of course if you have any comments on my blog or language learning in general, feel free to drop me a line...

Why children learn languages faster than adults: my two cents

When reading literature on language learning, and talking to language learners, again and again you hear the refrain "children learn languages a lot faster than adults."

I've read a lot of theories as to why this is, and I think the most convincing for me is that children have less fear of making mistakes than adults.

I often get daunted by Japanese. I hear something, a construction or idiom, and it daunts me to think I've been learning for five years, but haven't come across that phrase yet. I begin to wonder, how many of these unknown phrases are there out there? And how incredibly long will it take me to come across them all?

So I got to thinking about how a kid overcomes these problems: what makes them so immune from this? Why doesn't a child get daunted when it hears its parents, or the television, babbling away in unrecognisable jargon?

The conclusion I reached was that children clearly just don't care. They couldn't give a monkey's elbow about what the two adults in the corner of the room are babbling on about, because it's not important for them. It doesn't relate to their world. A child will not bother to try to understand a phrase or idiom they don't understand because it's not aimed at them, and it's not necessary for them to understand.

The people children speak to, their friends, parents, or teachers, don't speak to them using adult language, they don't use the sort of language that they would find going above their head.

I think this is what makes it easier for a child to learn a language, they are at the right age to speak the basics of a language and they don't need anything else. They are able to gradually build their vocabulary and knowledge of the language as their social needs require.

As an adult language learner I should be doing the same.

Of course this raises it's own difficulties in that I have to restrict myself to childish conversations in the beginning stages of my learning. As adults we often find ourselves in social situations that require a certain amount of maturity in conversation, and when you enter into a conversation as a beginner language learner this is pretty hard to do to say the least.

The temptation is, therefore, to try to learn language early on that you would like to use in an 'adult' conversation. This is something I've mentioned before as being one of my biggest failings as a language learner: the temptation to get ahead of myself in my impatience to reach fluency.

This results in me often finding myself in awkward positions where I am trying to say something that I don't have the linguistic skill to do, which results in a silence and the social awkwardness that this entails. Confidence is then affected, and loss of confidence is the worst thing that can happen for a language learner.

So I guess, my point is, speak like a child when starting out in a language, and don't be ashamed of it. The more confidently you use childish language the quicker you will begin to make progress and begin to sound like an adult. If this means you have to restrict the number of occasions you are able to speak the language in the beginning stages then so be it—although I don't think there is anything wrong in making basic sentences in an adult setting, just be sure to do it with the kind of swagger of someone who is comfortable with the fact that they are a beginner and not someone who is trying to feign knowledge of a language they don't have: be like the impudent child who isn't afraid to speak up when the adults are having a discussion.

Yes, I can!

I'm in a "Yes, I can do it!" mood today.

No sweat!

It's all about control. You need to have control over your learning. Get the best tools possible at your disposal: internet, texts, ipod, srs systems, teachers, whatever, and control your use of them.

A word comes up in your book, you've heard it before on your ipod: Put that track back on the ipod for tomorrow.

You're reading jokes online, you get bored: Switch to that long article about Mao Zedong you were trying to get through. Enough of that, back to the SRS.

Time is filled with learning. Control is important because control gives you confidence, and a consequence of confidence is concentration. When you are concentrating, it is much easier to take things in. You can pay attention to the material easily, and notice what is going on, making it all much easier to retain.

My new 4 step approach to language learning:

control = confidence = concentration = retention

How good is that? Do I need to take a patent out on this? What do you think?

Success

YEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!

HaHa! Just completed a phone call in Japanese. My first full, fault free, everyday life phone call, on my own— No Japanese friend hanging over my shoulder prompting me, no hesitation, no embarrassing English help from the person on the other end of the phone. YES! I CANCELLED MY GAS CONTRACT OVER THE PHONE IN JAPANESE!!! And I'm pretty chuffed about it.

Next step. Ordering Pizza!!!!!

Prove It!

Language learning is a series of stages that you need to prove that you can do. Once you have proved that you can do something you are then free to use it, experiment with it, improve it, fine-tune it, do what ever you want with it, but the first and most important stage is proving that you can do it.

Who do you have to prove you can do it to?

Well, first and foremost you have to prove that you can do it to yourself. Once you feel confident with the knowledge that you are able to do it, then you will feel like you have proved it.

How do you prove to yourself that you can do it?

By proving to other people that you can do it.

The biggest hurdle is getting across that barrier that people put up. The barrier that says you cannot do something, and if you try to do something I will listen carefully and comment on your ability to do that thing. When you fail, I will correct you. When you screw up big time I will laugh a bit and offer you encouragement. When you succeed, I will applaud you. When you have succeeded enough times to prove to me that you can do something, then I will just listen to what it is you are saying and take it on face value.

Only then have you proved it to yourself, and you are free to use it.

This is definitely the case with people you know. With complete strangers you have the advantage of them having no idea what your language ability is. But they will soon find out, and the barriers will then be set.

So, to be able to work on gaining full mastery over something you need to prove that you can do it. To yourself, through proving that you can do it to others. You will then be able to experiment with it to your heart’s content, all the while receiving natural responses because the listener knows you can do it.

That’s my experience, anyway.

Putting my foot in it!

So language error of the day today may make it into the top ten for the year.

I wanted to buy some running shoes, so I went to a store in Shinjuku where I was told they sell the sort I'm after. I couldn't see any on the shelves so I plucked up the courage to ask one of the staff if they sold them.

すみません。。。

My enquiry was met, as usual, with a rather long winded reply, which I interpreted to mean, no we don't have any at the moment.

Not too discouraged by this I decided to plough on and ask when they would get some in. The clerk wasn't sure, so I was escorted over to his boss, who began to go on about sizes and seemed to be saying that they'd have some in tomorrow.

Great! I thought. It was then that the conversation took a turn for the worse.

What size are you?

She asked.

Oh, shit!

I've never bothered to remember what my shoe size measurement is in Japanese / American measurements, so, beginning to get a little flustered, I told her that I only knew my size in UK measurements.

In fact, I made a bit of a mess of telling her that, and a thin layer of sweat had by now formed on my head as I began to mentally wrestle with the dual problem of shoe size conversion and foreign language communication.

Oh, that's OK. She said. What 's your shoe size in UK size?

Oh, she knows UK sizes? Great!... Shit!..... What is my shoe size in UK sizes.....? Oh yeah it's 11..... or 12.... or something like that isn't it.

11 o'clock. I said.....

..... or half past eleven.

Yes, that's right I converted my feet into clocks and began to talk about the time.

They didn't seem to mind too much though, and it was only when it dawned on me that I had made the error that I brought real attention to it by trying to correct it. No, no! not 11:30 of course, 11 and a half.

Unfortunately, all my hard work went unrewarded as there is no knowing, apparently, when they will have any 11s or 11 and a halfs in. And, in my rush to extract myself from the embarrassing "feet becoming clocks" conversation I didn't manage to find out what an 11 and a half is in Japanese measurements.

Better google it I guess...

Step by step

I've just had two days off, and to be honest, I haven't really felt like studying much. This is not unusual and I've compensated by watching some TV and doing a bit of reading, but it has reinforced a pattern I've noticed in my emotions and motivation with regard to my language study.

It feels like there are a lot of very small steps that I need to climb to progress in a language. Every so often, it feels like I have climbed one of these steps, maybe I notice that I am able to understand something that I had had trouble with a few months previously, or it might just be a general feeling of progress that is hard to define, I just feel like I have improved in some way.

Climbing one of these steps is a good feeling, and may be followed by a few days of positive feelings about the whole thing, but this is, I have begun to notice, followed shortly after by a period of not such positive feelings—it's as if there is a high after the fact, that is, like any good drug addict will tell you, followed by a low.

I think the reason for this is probably pretty easy to work out. It's like the feeling of climbing one of those steps is accompanied by an expectation that the rest will be pretty straightforward—I've moved up a level and my language experience will improve! I can look forward to trouble free conversation anytime soon!—Unfortunately, this is seldom the case, and climbing one of these small steps is usually followed pretty quickly by more frustration and hardwork.

I think this has been the case this week. I'd had some pretty good conversations in the past week, using language I hadn't used before, and felt that I'd kind of found a comfort zone in the language. Of course this was soon followed by some less successful attempts, and this may have resulted in the lack of motivation over the last few days.

What can I learn from this? I guess not to get my hopes up so much might be one way of looking at it, but it seems a bit negative to me. The more positive way to look at it might be to try and remember what it was that had caused this feeling of progression, and try and do more of it in the future. In last weeks case, it was listening to podcasts on LingQ that I believe had given me the added confidence in my conversations that week, so I'm going to try and listen to a few more of them over the coming weeks.