So… learning japanese

• April 2, 2011
• japanese  
• Uncategorized  
• learn japanese language  

I have been wanting to learn japanese for a while, and only until recently I gave myself enough determination to do so. I’ll try to describe my journey, the choices and the progress I make, to hopefully reach an acceptable Japanese level of fluency (as in being able to converse, and think, in japanese, not being able to write a book…).

Here’s where I start:

• June-July 2010: First grasp of the language with Pimsleur Japanese I, II and III. Having a 2 hours work commute each day can have its advantage… I found the lessons well done, and I actually learned quite a few words from it. For an introduction to the language, I would definitely recommend it. The thing is, even by completing the lessons, I am still at a basic beginner level

• August 2010: starting Remember the Kanji, got to about 200 kanji, then for no real reason, stopped. It seems it is a common period for the majority of first time learners

• March 2011: back on track with RtK, a few painful lessons, but keeping an (almost) strict schedule of 20 kanji per day, I am now up to 802 Kanji. It’s almost half of the entire ~2000 common Kanjis, so it’s pretty encouraging. I’ve also been trying immersion, preached by AJATT, by listening to NHK news and some Japanese dubbed TV shows (also known as Stargate!)

• April 2011: The goal is to learn 30 Kanji per day, and 100 on the week ends, which should equate to 250 per week. Knowing myself, I’ll probably skip a few days, so rounding it up to 200 per week, I should be done by end of May… One thing I’ve learned is that while sometimes you have to push yourself, the big idea is to have fun and enjoy it. Immersion seems to be working well, I only spend a few hours each day, but I’m starting to pick up words…

I will list here all the websites, tools and resources, oh so useful in one’s search for Japanese fluency. And here I go, learning my 30 daily kanjis.