Japanese Language Self-study Experience

Sirawat Pitaksarit

I am not a pro• I failed N3.

• I believe I am in the good position to tell this story, since I am still struggling very hard. Plus my study is an engineer and I came from Thailand, so I don’t have any head start at all.

• Ok about the head start thats not true, because I already can read hiragana/katakana 100% from 10 years ago playing untranslated pirated Final Fantasy 5 and Kunio. The guidebook I bought usually came with table comparing Japanese items/spells to Thai reading so we can play Japanese version comfortably. So eventually I can read every character especially save, load and phoenix down.

• After that time (10 years old?) to 23 years old I never start learning Japanese. I stuck with hiragana and katakana, in addition of some random kanji like fire, earth, wind, thunder, warrior, forest, god (yu-gi-oh) and 人 maybe?

• It might be more useful than a pro’s reciting the process of becoming one because the pain is still fresh.

I did many unconventional choices

• I did not tell anyone if possible, because it will be offending to the person who believe in other ways. (Many of my Thai friend asked me why I disappeared from class but I lied to them that I have no time and a bit lazy)

• I am here to share what’s working and what’s not, for me. I don’t know about you, but my case is not quite what everyone likes to do so I thought it worths sharing. You might realize that something is not working for you too?

• The takeaway is how will you feel when learning another language by yourself. (without school forcing you to, like English, that you can just get on the rail and keep going) For secondary language, Japanese is quite unusual for people that is not coming from china.

Tools of trade• I tried many tools and after 2 years of not so active self

learning, optimized down to these tools to beat everything.

• Midori (Offline best dictionary), Tae Kim app for iOS/Android (Best grammar reference), Weblio web or app (Require online, best example sentence search), Hi-Native + Japanese Stack Overflow (Ask custom question that you could not search for), Twitter (Soak yourself in Japanese world constantly, comfortably, automatically)

• What’s not working and I stopped using it : Flash cards, Anki deck, Lang-8, Google Translate, writing a kanji note to look it up later.

New experience of remembering

• The first time in your life that you can see it, but you can’t read it!

• In English no matter how difficult the word is, you can remember it and maybe search for it later or recall it quite easily once you know all the characters.

• So consequentially you cannot remember it or refer to it. I struggled with method like “The ruler character with arrow pointing up from stone” (I was referring to “throw” 捨)

Writing kanji note is useless• At first in games, manga, etc. when I encountered new words I would

write it down with readings and meaning.

• Later I realized that there is no point for doing that because I never revisit them. I tried re-reading them, but the context is already gone. I can’t remember the scene in the game or chapter in the manga that the word is taking place anymore. (Took me 3 months to realize this.)

• I found better way of learning : Just Midori everything and throw it away immediately after. If you encounter it again and you could not remember it, just Midori it. You will feel the pain, and you will remember quick.

• Usually, you just searched for something 5 min ago and now you cannot get it right again. Use Midori’s history function to tackle this.

Example search is critically essential

• Weblio is the top tool. Midori, Tatoeba, Tangorin cannot do it as good as Weblio becuase those require very strict keyword input.

• It is required when you want to make your own sentence. (Maybe tweeting?) The usual question is how to say something in Japanese. You can then use it with Tae Kim and tweak to your own situation.

• Even if you got all the words required, you want to make sure that the word you chosen is actually what people is using. (e.g. to not using the “chirp” for human’s cry)

• Searching example search has difficulties. You usually found the same English word with different meaning/intention.

Flash card is useless• Because no context

• It is not interesting, and feels like you are just a computer, remembering things. More precisely you are just a neural network which takes “well-formatted” examples repeatedly! You are more flexible than that.

• Boring

• It makes you feels good on purpose. (not a good purpose) Because you “get it right” only in its system.

My experience with Japanese class is bad so I quitted (with reasons)

• I take Japanese class for 1 year and now I stopped going to the class. Not because I am already a pro (I failed N3 still) but I realized it is not efficient for me.

• We used Minna no Nihongo

• Many aspect is questionable. On the reading part the teacher read in tone that is supposed to be read, but for 5+ students to be on sync, we kind of have to “hold back” and read annoyingly slow that it defeats the purpose of reading practice.

• When learning kanji which is like 10 per class, the teacher started throwing random words that contains the kanji. It has weakness of no context, so I did not remember anything at all. (not memorable)

• I don’t believe in learning polite form of verb first then go to dictionary form. Maybe I am an engineer and liked to build things from fundamental up.

• It makes me lazy. The class is on Tuesday and Saturday. And the result is I “waited” for the class. After I quit I have been trying really hard to catch up to those in the class everyday. It fits more with my style. And also it prevent me to be flexible about my time. I can’t enjoy late night game on Friday because of class.

My experience with Japanese class is bad so I quitted (with reasons)

• It breaks my flow. 70% of the time I am doing something and then I “have to” go to the class. Most things I do require 1 hours+ of build up time to keep the thing going and if not possible I would like to go on for 6 hours+

• I can’t ask question because I must ask in Japanese. Only N3+ level student is capable to construct proper question sentence, which ironically we who need it cannot do. What we learned is to ask for place, to show menu, etc. but to ask simple question like “Why the previous question’s answer is not X ?” it seems impossible. It is possible with time (3-5 minutes) but the lesson will already go on and you will miss the opportunity.

• After I quitted the class, when this kind of question arise I can take my time using Weblio to see what kind of sentence that people are using. If some question came up about the example sentence, use Tae Kim to figure out the reason. It is better than in the class, where 80% of the time I think “oh well…” and ditched the question.

• In class you cannot secretly take your time to figure out your question because it is gonna be your turn to answer the next question soon. (the questions is limited, so they will be distributed in round-robin style) This happens so often when you are wondering WHY the answer that the person before you just spoken is correct. (and when it is correct, teacher won’t give you explanation)

• There is always someone who spoil the answer of someone else’s question being asked by teacher. If you are trying to answer it in your mind, then you will also be spoiled. (no learning occurred)

Private Japanese class is also bad so I quitted

• I thought things might be better with private class. Everyone keeps praising it.

• The place is VERY far. Took me 30-45 minutes to go there and again for coming back.

• If I say this, many will tell me that the time “worth it”. Not quite, because there are more hidden time cost I discovered. Since it breaks flow, before you go to class you cannot start doing something in 1 hour barrier before you travel. After coming back you will probably be tired and tempted to eat mcdonalds or rest a bit, then spend like 1 hour again to build up the flow. But coming back is already 8PM so after you got your flow up its already midnight.

• Total time cost not counting the lesson is about 4 hours. Lesson is 1.5 hours. I don’t think this is a good investment.

• At the class whats better is I got all the question to myself. But the big problem remains since you cannot ask in English.

• Additional unexpected problem arises, now you can’t even use Midori/Tae Kim mid-class like in public class! Because you are sitting besides the teacher, it feels very rude to tell her to wait and I start mashing my iPod for answer instead of her.

• When I tried asking her the meaning of X, the answer is not as clear as Midori which also gives me example sentences. I also having hard time asking grammar question, when it will took much less time to Tae Kim it. With Tae Kim, usually one grammar question leads to another, and I can take my time reading it again and again.

I hate exam drills• Like if you are going to take N3 exam then you will practice using previous year’s exam.

• The same happen in every class from high school actually. You practice because you want to pass.

• I considered it cheating. I might pass, but having actual skill lower than the rank I passed because the question in the test is very limited, but the purpose of ranking is so much broader. (For example N1 = can read newspaper and use words that belongs to your specialized field of study, N3 = can do daily conversation fluidly)

• In the class we actually has N3 exam drills. We just printed old exams, and I have all the problem mentioned before. In addition I feel like nothing improved in me even if I get the answer correctly.

• I hate it when someone say this kanji is “over N3” level and you don’t need to remember it yet/ it is ok to get it wrong now because it is not going to happen in daily conversation. Everyone’s context is different. When I am using Twitter to read my music making friend’s life, I get the kanji right and wrong in all levels of N3-N1. I considered this my “daily conversation”.

• I believe in learning without the test in mind, but with test rank’s ability threshold in mind. I will take N3 once I can do daily conversation, for example. But I won’t check which Kanji I am missing.

• This is based on my English study. I can use English in both writing and speaking because of playing web boards and GameFaqs. I can say that almost nothing I am using today came from the class. I forgot what is the tenses and I keep messing things up. I even don’t know what is adjective but I am already using it I guess. So I want to try using this with Japanese too, just soak yourself in the situation, and struggle.

• So I give away my Minna no Nihongo and get some mangas (that I already illegally read it online, so this is the payback) and light novels. The progress is painful, 5 min per page of manga, 15 min per page of light novel, but I know the story, context is helping me remember things easily. I don’t care if it will “appear in exam” or not, but I know when I reached conversational level then I will revenge N3 again without check with older exams.

Learn the “other” reading of Kanji that is not related to the word you are looking for• You Midori something, you found it!

• But in my first year, I did not look at all other readings of that kanji at all before I close the founded entry. (It is too much)

• The result is maybe 2 months later, I encountered the same letter but this time in compound. I could not get the reading right until I searched and realized, that it is actually the same word as that one… (this feeling of “kanji converging”)

• If you take few seconds to scan the other readings (not necessary all, but if you are searching verb 食べる you should look at the other しょく reading for example) it will help increasing the chance of getting the reading of new word right by about 50%

• Getting the reading right has big benefit, because you can Midori it without using kanji handwriting function. Typing with swipe keyboard is 300% faster.

• Another benefit is you can say it. You can almost immediately use it on-site. For example, I saw 食堂 for the first time. I know the しょく so I can guess what it will be read. Inside the cafeteria, I already use that to talk with friend. Without readings, I would have to Midori it. And not to mention that the word (and that event) has been inscribed really well in my brain. (That’s why I can type the story now)

• I used “other” because even now I am confused which one is kun-yomi or on-yomi.

How to Tae Kim• The best grammar reference.

• Looks short, but it isn’t. I read it everyday on the bus back from work. (1 hour traffic jam) Took me 3 months to finish. (skipped 1 chapter because unable to understand)

• First, go through it once. Next, refer to it like million times throughout your Japanese journey.

• The catch is you must remember the chapter’s name.

• To begin searching for something for example “What’s with these verbs that ends with -te? How many ways can it be used?” if you did not remember that the chapter name is “Compound Sentence” (which does not related to your question at all) then it is quite difficult to search for it.

• Or “What’s that の ! Why is it at the end of the sentence? It’s not -of- ?” you must remember that it is in the “Noun-related particles” lesson. You cannot recall this, because currently you have no information at all that this の will be related to noun but actually it is. Searching function is included in the mobile app. Searching の is probably useless, but you can search 「の」with the square quote to get the chapter’s name. The next time you want to look it up you should be able to remember chapter’s name.

Midori is god• Best dictionary app, unfortunately only on iOS.

• Super intelligence conjugation search. Usually you are not encountering its normal form. And Midori can get you the normal form from almost any form. Even Google Translate, OSX Translate (3-finger touchpad tap) cannot do this!! This is also the reason I like to Midori in-class when I was taking Japanese class, what is the normal form so I can make all forms from it!

• Contains unbelievably many unexpected words. It even teach you grammar on the fly, like searching って properly return good explanation of it. Try this on OSX dictionary.. no matches! Save me 100 hours of time instead of googling or Tae Kim something up.

• “Usually in kana” indicator is super useful for reassure you that you should remember as-is when you encountered “unknown hiragana combination”.

• Writing recognition is essential because this language you have no way to search for new things that you can only see it.

• Writing recognition is great, wrong stroke order will not show the kanji but it enables this feature : with correct stroke order even with horrible one hand writing on shaking train you will be able to find the kanji. This is very important, as you will be walking around while Midori-ing. (If you are in Japan) You should feel like Midori is your sword and the signs are monsters.

• History function is essential. The ever occurring question of “… what the hell was that again!?” can be easily answered.

• Name search useful for reading city names or person’s name.

• Infinite drill down of definition.

• Example search can be enabled in options, but not as good as Weblio.

• Use * for wildcard search like RegEx.

• Change color of app’s theme in option. This is unexpectedly very useful because learning language is a long process. Believe me you will have to use it. Have you ever change the wallpaper of phone or computer? Does it matter?

Learn the language of dictionary

• I mean learn literally what was written in the dictionary. Because sometimes it is hard to search for it again if you forgot the shape to search and also forgot the readings too.

• For example 対 might mean “opposite, anti” but you forgot the shape and also meaning. In some moment you just want to recall that, what to do? The dictionary say “vis-a-vis” as the first meaning. Despite not so commonly used word it can be useful.

• 鳴く this means cry, but not literally human’s crying but things like floor making noise when you step on or dog barking. If you searched “cry” you will get the other thing. But if you remembered that the first one is “chirp” it will act as an anchor for you to remember. (The character also contains “bird” character, so “chirp” goes well with it)

• The lesson is every time you Midori things, take some time (5-10 seconds) to scroll your eye through every meaning written.

Twitter changed my life• Sign up for Japanese Twitter and start following what you cared about.

• In Thailand no one makes music at all. In here, there are much rivalries going on between us followers. And it’s so much fun. Off-topic asides, you will be able to learn Japanese from the context that you truly care about. You remember things really fast when it came to the specific things you love like your favorite composers or anime, not smith-san in certain book.

• If you follow normal people instead of celebrity/commercial account, you will experience life. It seems quite different from Thailand. In here, every wake ups, every bath tub entering, every ramen, every part time work, get on the train, arrived at somewhere, going to bed will be tweeted. In Thai Twitter, it looks focused on making high-impact joke, reviews of things (esp. political, the country and food) and self-contained “wise word” tweets. (so if someone retweet it, his follower can understand everything from that one tweet) Not so much personal happenings like in Japan.

• Get the feel of colloquial words.

• Feel the difference of person through choice of words. In real conversation you could not catch it in time, but in Twitter you can clearly see that each person has different style of talking and word choice. You will start building word frequency dictionary in your head and eventually you will like some of the choice and start developing your own style. This will translate to real life as well.

• Better than being social in the real world, because if you stay still in Twitter nothing will happen to you while you still can hear the conversation lively going on. (comfortable and safe) Take your time to Tae Kim the tweet, or take your time to construct your tweet with Weblio. In real life, you would be the weirdo for sitting still all the time and occasionally typing the phone. You will also fear that someone will think you are playing Facebook in the middle of conversation while it is actually Midori.

• If your tweet got liked by at least 1 follower, it means that your sentence is well-formed. It is rewarding like “like” system of Facebook that will make you try creating more contents. This time not useless like in Facebook, because you are doing it to gain language skill not e-attention.

• Twitter is automatic. You just come in, and you will get new things out.

This is the end for now but I might add more if I found something useful..

I don’t even know if all this is “working” in tems of JLPT or not but definitely I am getting better judging from the frequency of Midori-ing and Tae Kim-ing becoming less

often now after I quitted those classes.

That means something in here must be “working” and thus worth sharing.