Why this is only sort-of the beginning, is that I had already started learning Japanese around May of 2015. I had a lot of quick progress throughout the summer, but as fall and the holiday season hit, I hit a bit of a slump. I just got very lazy with it, stopped reading my grammar book, did reviews less and less often... And since I want to travel to Japan before the end of this year, my hope is that this blog will help keep me motivated to study more often, and keep improving.
Resources
I use the following resources to study...
Genki Books
The introductory grammar books recommended by most. Provides a good foundation for grammar, as well as probably over 1000 vocabulary between the two books, if not way more.
Anki
Anki means memorize in Japanese, and it is a very useful app for anyone wanting to memorize lots of information, whether that be words in a new language, facts from your history class, or your grandma's recipe for chicken salad. Users can use the app to create flash cards, which are then reviewed via spaced retention system (SRS). The SRS is designed to review items at just the right rime so that you won't forget it. The more you get the answer right, the longer it will be until the next time you review it, and eventually it should stick in long-term memory.
For example... what's the Japanese word for memorize? Since you just read it 30 seconds ago, you probably still remember. But what about tomorrow? Think you'll still remember? What about 3 days from now? Unless you are also learning Japanese, or you use the app yourself, you probably won't remember. SRS is supposed to bring items up just when you are about to forget them, so you can review them again, and bring them back to front of your memory. Now if I remind you tomorrow that anki = memorize, even if you forgot, you have now seen it twice, and now instead of remembering for 1 day, you might remember it for a week. That's how SRS works. Eventually that time span becomes years, by which point, you know the information probably as well as you will ever know it.
Wanikani.com
A great website I found right when I started learning Japanese. Wanikani teaches it's users how to read kanji, the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. The site uses cool and funny mnemonics that build on each other, and an SRS system for long term retention. After completing all 60 levels of Wanikani (which could take about 1-2 years depending on your learning speed), you should be able to recognize almost all of the 2,000 or so kanji that all Japanese people learn in school, as well as learn over 6,000 words using all of those kanji.
The site requires a paid subscription (which can be paid monthly, yearly, or a one-time purchase lifetime membership), but you can join and use it up through level 3 as a free trial. While becoming fluent in a language is a separate skill from becoming literate, I believe that learning to read kanji greatly helps in learning new words.
The Rosetta Stone program gets a lot of hate. I believe this is mostly because it was really designed for one purpose, to teach English speakers how to speak basic Spanish, and vice versa. The program supposedly works very well for this. And it should work well for this purpose, because English and Spanish are very similar. Japanese, on the other hand, is vastly different from English (other than maybe one interesting aspect, which I will likely write about later). Japanese grammar is very complex, and can be very difficult to understand for a westerner from only hearing the language spoken. Rules need to be studied and reviewed, so that all the nuances are known. This is probably best done by having someone explain it to you, either in person, or in a book.
However, I am using Rosetta Stone for Japanese, as I believe it still has use. For one, I am hearing the language being spoken by native speakers, in a clear, slow voice, which is great for training your ears how to hear Japanese. It serves as a nice review of grammar and vocab that I learned through other resources, as well as an occasional new vocab word that I hadn't seen before anywhere else.
So when used as your main learning tool, Rosetta Stone will likely not be super helpful other than vocab really. But when used correctly, as a supplement to your main learning tools, which should be things like books, videos, and teachers, I feel like it can be useful. Though, whether it's worth the price tag is up to each person.
The site requires a paid subscription (which can be paid monthly, yearly, or a one-time purchase lifetime membership), but you can join and use it up through level 3 as a free trial. While becoming fluent in a language is a separate skill from becoming literate, I believe that learning to read kanji greatly helps in learning new words.
Udemy
Found about this site just recently, and they had a sale on Japanese courses, so I might check it out.Rosetta Stone
I know, I know... the worst way to learn a language ever... And maybe it is, but let me explain...The Rosetta Stone program gets a lot of hate. I believe this is mostly because it was really designed for one purpose, to teach English speakers how to speak basic Spanish, and vice versa. The program supposedly works very well for this. And it should work well for this purpose, because English and Spanish are very similar. Japanese, on the other hand, is vastly different from English (other than maybe one interesting aspect, which I will likely write about later). Japanese grammar is very complex, and can be very difficult to understand for a westerner from only hearing the language spoken. Rules need to be studied and reviewed, so that all the nuances are known. This is probably best done by having someone explain it to you, either in person, or in a book.
However, I am using Rosetta Stone for Japanese, as I believe it still has use. For one, I am hearing the language being spoken by native speakers, in a clear, slow voice, which is great for training your ears how to hear Japanese. It serves as a nice review of grammar and vocab that I learned through other resources, as well as an occasional new vocab word that I hadn't seen before anywhere else.
So when used as your main learning tool, Rosetta Stone will likely not be super helpful other than vocab really. But when used correctly, as a supplement to your main learning tools, which should be things like books, videos, and teachers, I feel like it can be useful. Though, whether it's worth the price tag is up to each person.
Progress
Genki 1 - Through Chapter 6
Anki - I plan on starting a new deck containing all words used in the Genki books. For a while, this will just be a lot f review, so I will probably go fast at first, then slow down once I catch up.
Wanikani - Level 16.
Kanji - Burned 185, Enlightened 233, Master 53, Guru 45, Apprentice 24. Total kanji known = 540 (as of January 27, 2016)
Udemy - Haven't started.
Rosetta Stone - Through Unit 5, Lesson 1
Goals
By the end of February...
1. Get through Chapter 8 in Genki.
2. Reach level 18 in Wanikani.
3. Do 25 new words per day with Anki as long as the words are review. Slow down to 5 per day after I catch up.
4. See what Udemy is about...
5. Finish Unit 5 of Rosetta Stone.
