Tag: Japanese

Tadoku Time!!

Just a few more days until Tadoku!!

Tadoku (多読) is basically extensive reading.  There is a very good summary about it here.

I’m really excited for this competition.  I don’t expect to place very well, especially considering there are well over 70 participants, but that’s not the point of the contest (at least not for me).  I just want to get into the habit of reading Japanese everyday, and I think doing it for a month will be long enough to make it a habit.  Perfect.  I went to Kinokuniya a few days ago to buy some manga, so I’m really excited.  Flipping through the pages, I found that there is furigana for all of the kanji, which is both good and bad, I think.

Well, I’ll see you in February, assuming I’ll be too busy reading to do anything else.  Except eating and sleeping.  Maybe showering.  We’ll see.

Happy New Year/Holidays/Tadoku

【日本語】Going Monolingual

I decided I would make my transition into using monolingual sources for my Japanese acquisition.  It’s only been a few days, but I think this is the way to go.  It just feels really good to look up a definition, see a line of kanji, and say “I can figure this out.”

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Serious Learning – Immersion

Hello all!

I have joined the legion of people who use immersion as part of their language learning routine.  I like to call them the Immersioneers.  And as a direct result of this change, I’m finally taking everything more seriously by, of course, having more fun.  After all, that’s the best way to learn, right?

I also realized why my progress in Japanese had felt so unsatisfactory.  I was only learning in class, and only studying what I “learned” in class.

Studying Latin didn’t really give me a chance to try out immersion as a learning technique, so this is my first attempt at such a technique.  (Actually, I guess Korean was my first attempt at immersion learning, though I’m only realizing it now as I type this…)  Anyways, to the point!

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Inspiration Through Failure

Learning a new language is not something that you can attempt half-assed and expect to make ridiculous improvements.  Lazy efforts bring about lazy results.  On the other side of the spectrum, we have those who entirely devote themselves to learning.  I like to think I am somewhere close to the latter.

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Language Exchange – First Step

Today was my first day of language exchange.  At least, the way I envisioned language exchange.  I am a huge fan of sites such as lang-8 and Livemocha (both sites I will discuss in greater detail later), it’s just I always imagined actually talking to someone in real-time instead of playing message tag.  I wanted instant gratification, ya know?

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