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Reviving Remembering The Kanji

I’m excited because it is not long now until I will have a weekly dose of Ikuta Toma when he co-stars with Ohno Satoshi in Maou. Which has nothing to do with the rest of the post which is about Reviewing the Kanji. After a bit of a break from studying Japanese, I am back into it with my quest to Remember the Kanji.

I’m on uni holidays now, so I would like to get as many as I can done in the next four weeks. I’m not expecting to finish, but I would like to come as close as I possibly can. I’ve done the maths, I know how much I need to do in order to get close to finishing. However, I’m not going to try and reach a certain number and put pressure on myself. I’m going to do as much as I can each day, trying not to burnout. Here’s some things I’m planning to do:

• Use the Reviewing the Kanji Website to help me come up with new stories. There are lots of example stories there that give me something to start with that I can adapt for my own use. Saves lots of time!!
• Use Anki to actually review the kanji. I just love Anki so much, it is the best flash card program that I have used so far, and I have used a few. I have written a post on how I structure my RtK deck in anki for those who are interested.
• Because I am now working more hours at work, thanks to reduced time at uni, the good news is I will have a dedicated lunch time (instead of eating on the go between work and uni - not fun). So I plan to use my lunch break for actual study. Just to go through stories that I have had trouble with and need adapting, practise writing difficult kanji etc. This will be things I can do on paper, as when I write things down on paper often I remember them better. I also recommend this Practise Page Generator for RtK keywords.

So, remembering the kanji, here I come (again)!!

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Why I’m Interesting In Translation Over Interpretation

I’m very much someone who communicates better in writing rather than talking. I actually feel somewhat stressed when I am going to meet someone new or I have to call someone I don’t know on the telephone. It’s not that I wont go an do it, I am lucky that I don’t have a social phobia. However, I do feel it on the edge of my mind and so I really don’t like to use the telephone much. Keeping this in mind, I don’t think that Interpretation is the job for me. I wouldn’t mind interpreting for friends and family, or just for a bit of fun, but as a job, even if the “fear” decreases with lots of practise (which I’m sure it would), I don’t see it as something that I would actually enjoy.

Translation on the other hand has challenges in it that I find exciting rather than daunting. Trying to adapt a joke so that it works in the target language sounds like a challenge hat I’m will to do. Trying to find an appropriate register for different dialects/accents within Japan sounds exciting. Transforming a fantastical journey I’ve enjoyed so that others who don’t speak Japanese can also enjoy would give me much pleasure.

In fact, in the next six months I’m hoping that I can push my Japanese larning to a place where I can start translating. Not professionally, but for a bit of fun. I would love to start off with manga, and then increase my skills to articles and then screen translation. That is one of the directions my Japanese language learning has always been heading towards, and it is exciting (for me!) that I feel like I am on the edge of being able to do this.

I am glad that everyone really enjoyed my other post on Translating and Interpreting. I had my exam for this course yesterday and I think I did very well. Over the following weeks I’d like to share with you some of the things I have learned from this course.

Introduction to Translating and Interpreting

This semester at university I’ve been studying Translation and Interpreting. It is just a theory based course, while the actual translating and interpreting course is for post graduates. However, we had to do a lot of translating for assignments and a presentation on difficulties in interpreting, so we did have to do these activities, we just didn’t get marked on our actual translation, just what we had to say about it.

Right now I’m going over all the material we learnt during the semester, as I have a test next week. If there is one thing I’ve learnt about translating and interpreting it is that it is HARD! You have to have a high understanding of not just your target language but how your own language works. Things you often take for granted, such as little sayings like “It’s raining cats and dogs” can be difficult to translate.

There are so many things you need to be aware of when translating. Not just what is being said (content) but how it is said (form).

You need to know a lot about the culture of both languages, to know what would be understood and what would not, for instance, when talking about children’s games, would someone from another culture know “Pin The Tail On The Donkey”?

Japanese is only really spoken in one country, but English can also be difficult as it is spoken in many. So there are many different cultural differences between the countries. This is evident in how many words were changed in Harry Potter between England and the US (for those who are curious - Australia got the UK version). I had to translate text from a New Zealand fiction story, very difficult indeed!

You also have to make decisions on what to translate and how. Do you translate Pin The Tale…” literally (word for word), as “a child’s game”, or into a similar if somewhat different game from the target language’s culture? It all depends on the context.

In English there are also many words that I have a hard time explaining. I just “know” what it means but can’t put it into words. Obviously my vocabulary in Japanese isn’t big enough to even attempt to translate there words, but I imagine if it was it would still be difficult.

One thing to remember is translation isn’t a natural process. The person doing it must be focused. I do believe that when one is first learning a second language that using your first language to help you learn it makes a lot of sense. However, as you learn more, it is easier just to use the second language and not to translate it back into your first language unless you are really having trouble.

I think that translating and/or interpreting as a job would be very stressful and hard. I don’t think it is the kind of thing that would get easier as you go along. Sure you would have your own system that you can streamline and improve over time, but I think that each text or situation would be new and challenging. Certainly it could be very rewarding and exciting job. For me personally, I think I would rather only translate or interpret situations that are of interest to me, I couldn’t imagine trying to translate Harry Potter, I think I’d have to shoot myself!

It still surprises me how many people assume that all languages can have a word-by-word translation into other languages. “Why did it take so long for him to say that one word?” Next time someone says something really silly I’ll have to remember to write it down so I can have a post “The Funny Things People Think About Other Languages” kind of post.

If people are interested, I would be happy to talk more about the individual topics that we talked about in class. This is an advanced level class, so most of the class was spent talking about the topics and then some (hard!) exercises involving what we were talking about.

Reading Manga For Japanese Language Learning

One goal for many learning Japanese is to be able to enjoy manga in it’s original language. It is one of my goals as well. I have quite a few manga in Japanese, collected from many places, such as YesAsia.com, I have mostly used these as motivation tools - “look at these manga, I will read them!!”

After about one year of studying Japanese, I tried. And surprised myself - I could do it!

Two Reasons Why Reading Manga Is Easy

• The Sentences are very short, to fit in the little dialogue bubble. So for the most part, someone with even a small amount of grammar knowledge will be able to read the sentences.
• There are pictures to help with meaning. Even you go through a page without understanding a word, often you can guess what was going on. Or you will later.

  For instance, in Sugar x Life, there was a page where she was watching TV and I thought she was thinking back on the two guys she just met. Well, she was, but it wasn’t til she ran into the boys again that I realised the boys had been on the TV at the time she was thinking about them, and they were singers/idols.

Two Reasons Why It Is Hard To Read Manga (For Me)

Others might not have these problems, but here is what was hard for me when reading manga for the first time.

• Kanji. While knowing kanji isn’t necessary because - at least in the manga I’m reading so far - they have furigana. So I know how to pronounce words, and sometimes I even learn a new kanji from knowing the word before. But often I think “If only I knew just a basic meaning about the kanji - even just an English key word from Heisig - then I would have an idea of the word’s meaning. Building slowly on my previous knowledge I’d be able to get more of an idea of meaning plus I’d probably be more likely to remember the word/kanji next time I encounter it.
• Vocab. I simply don’t know enough words. At the moment I am working on vocab building exercises. The more words I know the easier it will be to infer meaning of unknown words, especially with the aid of pictures.

 

So get reading some manga now! You may be surprised in how much you understand. It’s a huge confidence booster. And if you give it a go and find you can’t understand, do not worry. Just put the book down, and then try again in a month. You’ll have something fun to aim for!


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There Is No Best Method - Or Is There?

A little while ago I made a post called All You Need To Learn Japanese Is Time, a response to a post on a Language Learning forum. The argument at the forum was that all methods are equal, the only factor in language learning is time. I argued that both time and method are necessary. I liked how Alex summed it up in a comment:

Method is as important as time. Neither should be sacrificed for the serious student.

Since then I have found some other people’s responses to the forum. What follows are some highlights and some of my thoughts on them. If you are interested in this topic, here is some further reading for you and I’d love to hear your own thoughts.

How Should You Structure Your Flash Card Deck?

In my post Divide and Conquer - a Vocab Post, Atreya asked the question:

I am quite confused about the method by which I should structure my Anki Deck. By method I mean, how does one create the cards in Anki?

Now, the short answer is, of course: Any way you want.

But that doesn’t help those who may be a little lost in how to structure flash cards in their deck. The best way to structure your deck is a individual thing, and with trial and error you will find the best way that works for you. In this post I’ll show you the best way that works for me.

My program of choice is Anki, and so many examples are taken from Anki, however, I’m sure most, if not all, can be structured into any flash card system.

Three Ways to Overcome Burn Out

When I do something, I usually do it to extremes until I can no long stand to do it any more. For instance, when I was younger I stamp collected to death. All my spare time was devoted to collecting stamps until I could do it no longer - I’m not sure what happened to that awesome stamp collection, now I wish I still had it, but I haven’t looked at a stamp that way in many many years.

The same is true in most of what I do, including language learning. I do it to the extremes sometimes, which can be a good thing and a not so good thing. One side effect of this is that I often burn out.

I define burning out as not being able to find the motivation to do something, feel as though I’ve done it too much. But if I give up then my Japanese learning journey is over.

Learning a language is not fun and easy all the time. If it was we all know multiple languages by now. Unfortunately we sometimes need to push ourselves to just get that bit further. Here are some ideas on how to overcome burn out.

First things first, the most important thing to remember, no matter what you choose to do, is to not give up. If you give up you’ll never know Japanese. You can try blaming the language “But Japanese is too hard” - but ultimately it was you! Millions of other people can learn Japanese, so you can too.

Divide And Conquer! - A Vocab Post

Lately I want to learn a lot of vocab in a short space in time, using a “divide and conquer” type of method like Heisig uses. In Heisig’s remembering the kanji, one does not learn how to use the kanji, just how to recognise and write them.

Same with learning vocab in isolation. You don’t learn how to use the words, only to recognise them. For instance, 仕事　－　しごと and 働く　－　はたらく　both mean work. By learning only the word I wont learn in what situations these two words are used. However, when I encounter them in other situations it will:

Firstly, it will cement my knowledge. It will reinforce my memory of the word. When you encounter things you are learning in different situations, it will be more likely that you will remember them.

I will have more of a chance of understanding the sentence. Even though I haven’t seen the word used in context, I will “know” the word and a basic meaning, even if the meaning doesn’t exactly correspond. It means that as I use the word, and encounter it in many situations, I will gain a deeper understanding of it and will eventually be able to do away with the English “keyword”.

Building on the last bullet point, as I encounter the word in other situations, it is then that I will understand the word itself. Does that mean that memorising vocab by itself is a waste of time, and I’m creating more work for myself? I would say no. Now, when I read a text, I can’t understand anything because I don’t know enough words. By memorising vocab in isolation, I can learn a lot of words in a smaller amount of time than it would take me to go through many sentences. And so when I do encounter these words in the “real world” I will be able to build on knowledge that I already have. Opposed to now when I have no knowledge!

Occasionally I’d like to post some of the vocab I am attempting to learn. To give you ideas for your own studies as well as to record where I’m at. The following vocab words are taken from the first paragraph in The Assassin’s Apprentice - one of my favourite books.

Vocab - The Assassin’s Apprentice - 1st Paragraph

And here is a bonus word: にじみでる　- to ooze out. I like that word!

I have to admit, in the first paragraph I had 35 words I didn’t know. However, knowing the meanings of the words, I could understand, for the most part, the grammar. I would have to say though, at this stage, without the original text, I probably would not understand it completely. It is easier to reverse engineer than invent. It also took me two hours to read and somewhat understand the whole paragraph. Strangely, it was fun, and the time flew by. But here’s hoping it gets easier - and quicker - as I go along!

Tip: Is the Kanji too small on my page for you to really see it properly? Hit “ctrl+” on your keypad a couple of times to enlarge the text, then “ctrl-” when you want it to get back down again - these keys are for firefox, which is what you should be using!

How Fluent Am I After 18 Months?

On All Japanese All The Time, Khatzumoto has posted about how much he knew after 18 months of learning Japanese. I am comming up right now to the 18 month period, and while I don’t know nearly as much as Khatzumoto knew, I am very pleased with my progress.

I know more than what is in Genki I. Way back when, Genki was the original material that I bought to learn Japanese. This time last year I was probably not much past the first couple of chapters. Now I know all the kanji from it, and all the grammar points.

I’m 3/4 of the way through Japanese for Everyone, and I will be finished by the end of the year. In terms of grammar, I think that Japanese for Everyone gets you right into an intermediate level. It is really good and has a lot of bang for what you pay for it. I have started reading some books and I so far understand (most of) the grammar, even for longer, complicated sentences.

I am still getting through learning all the Kanji. Because of university I have had to utilise many different methods of learning the Kanji. If I could start again, I would have completed Remembering the Kanji before I started at university. I hope that I can get through this book by the end of the year.

I am understanding more and more of what I hear. Watching a lot of dramas definitely has attuned me to the language.

The biggest let down for me is my lack of vocabulary. I don’t have a large vocabulary which makes it hard to read or listen and actually understand what is being said. I am at the moment experimenting with some vocabulary learning exercises.

My speaking is also probably not very good. I haven’t had an opportunity to speak much Japanese besides following along with tapes and talking to myself aloud. I am going to Japan in November which will be my first real test of speaking and conversing.

I am very happy with my progress, I don’t think that I could progress any quicker. Even if it is not possible for me to be in All Japanese All The Time enviornment like some people can be, I engage myself in a Japanese language activity every day. It is very much a part of my life now and I will get to Japanese fluency. If you want a more “slow and steady” approach to Japanese learning compared to the AJATT method, I recommend my method: Procrastinating and Looking At Japanese Boys. It seems to be working for me!

Katakana - ナ to ノ

It’s カタカナ time!　

Lesson 5 - ナ to ノ。

ナ - NA
A nut cracker.

For me, it was always easy to remember that hiragana “na” means nun. And here is her cross!

二　- NI
These are two needles.

Of course, for those who know your numbers, “ni” also means two, and there are two strokes here. Infact, this is the same is the kanji for two, also pronounced “ni”:-
二　ニ　 can you tell which is the kanji and which is the kana?

ヌ　- NU
A noodle stuck between your teeth.
The フ shape is the mouth with the noodle stuck in there.

ネ - NE
You’ll never find your way on these roads.

ノ - NO
A needle and no button.

This ties in with ソ and ツ stories with the buttons and needles. However, the way I always thought of it was like saying “NO!” and putting a stroke through what was wrong.

I hope your Katakana studies are going well. To be continued in our next exciting episode of Writing Katakana.