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?!

Trying Japanese dramas with Amazon Prime

I have subscribed to Amazon Prime and taken a monthly subscription to NHK On Demand. I used to have a television, and used to really like watching the documentaries on NHK. NHK Special makes some really good programming. Even if I could only understand 50%, I could still follow the gist of the programme, and the production quality made it enjoyable. Of course, it also helped improve my Japanese.

I don't have a TV anymore, so I decided to subscribe to the NHK on demand through Amazon. It's not too expensive at maybe 2-3000 yen per month.

The other day, I thought I'd branch out and try some Japanese dramas. I have dipped my toes in the Japanese drama world previously, always to be disappointed.

I was browsing the many dramas on prime and this one caught my eye - not sure why - but I thought let's give this a go.
 

The opening scene of the 1st episode of the 1st series, has the lady who I presume is the heroine of the series, marching along a coutry path in-between rice fields wearing high-heels and a short skirt. She seems to be in a hurry. We then cut to a horse race meeting. She has bought a ticket and is seems very excitable as she waits in the stand for the race to start. The other people in the stand also seem very focused on the upcoming race and excitable - I could only conclude that this race was of great importance - despite the small crowd. 

The race starts and the lady screams and shouts like her life depends on the outcome of the race; however, on the final straight her horse throws it's rider to the ground. Cue tearing up of bet ticket and much hysteria. Oh, I forgot to mention, during this the scene cuts to a youngish businessman and older lady sat in one of the corporate boxes. There seems to be something serious going on between them. The lady perhaps is blackmailing him. 

Anyway, cut back to the race and the heroine storms from the stand after her colleague - who happened to be next to her - and arrives at the scene of the rider of the horse being stretchered to an arriving ambulance. Out of the ambulance jumps a young doctor who seems slightly out-of-place riding in the ambulance itself - as if in his country hospital this was the first time the ambulance had ever been called out and he was determined to be there for the moment. He runs to the car park and begins immediately treating the injured jockey. At this point, of course, the heroine recognizes him, he her, and they have an hysterical conversation in the car park - he has now forgotten about the jockey. Until the jockey starts coughing up blood. 

Enough! I had to stop. I don't know what to call this type of drama. It's sort of hysterical-fantasy-realism. Perhaps the idea is to recreate manga with real actors, but it is not really my cup of tea, so I will be sticking with the documentaries for now.

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.