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Are you learning just the meanings, or the meanings, kunyomi, and onyomi? I ask, because I'm somewhere in between ２級 and １級 with the JLPT, and since I've only

by donw 17y ago

Are you learning just the meanings, or the meanings, kunyomi, and onyomi? I ask, because I'm somewhere in between ２級 and １級 with the JLPT, and since I've only spent a collective six months in Japan, it's a bit of a struggle sometimes to retain vocabulary. I'm finding that I have a very easy time with the meanings, and so I can figure out new compounds pretty easily. For example, in the novel I'm reading last night, 脱皮 came up, and although I figured out the meaning (a snake shedding its skin, a crab moulting, etc.), I still had to look at the dictionary because I couldn't remember the onyomi for the first character, even though it's very common. Reading out loud has helped a lot, and I'm going to start blogging in Japanese about starting a company, but I'm always looking for tips on improving. :) Newspapers still send me running for the dictionary, but I think that's because I read a lot of articles about politics and business, which are very kanji-heavy.

brianobush 17y ago
at first, I focused on production of kanji from a keyword, e.g., discuss -> 談, at this point there is no Japanese and I spent four months getting through all the kanji. I still test daily and have gone through 21k kanji tests. Currently, I am reading みんなの日本語 wherein I am focusing on sentence mining and grammar. My current deck of sentences is around 800 sentences that I review as well, wherein I review recognition and speak out loud. My level is currently in between basic to low-intermediate. In the sentence mining I learn the readings of the kanji in context and could care less about kunyomi/onyomi, e.g.,幼稚園 -> ようちえん (or infancy-immature-park in RTK keywords). The method I am using is summarized at: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com I don't follow it all, but some of it is good. I studied Japanese for 12 years half-assed never getting anywhere. For the first time I am making progress and I have a plan (which is the part that I lacked before). BTW, to retain vocabulary, I would recommend Anki http://ichi2.net/anki/ http://ichi2.net/anki/ it is open and regularly updated.

by donw 17y ago

brianobush 17y ago

at first, I focused on production of kanji from a keyword, e.g., discuss -> 談, at this point there is no Japanese and I spent four months getting through all the kanji. I still test daily and have gone through 21k kanji tests. Currently, I am reading みんなの日本語 wherein I am focusing on sentence mining and grammar. My current deck of sentences is around 800 sentences that I review as well, wherein I review recognition and speak out loud. My level is currently in between basic to low-intermediate. In the sentence mining I learn the readings of the kanji in context and could care less about kunyomi/onyomi, e.g.,幼稚園 -> ようちえん (or infancy-immature-park in RTK keywords). The method I am using is summarized at: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com I don't follow it all, but some of it is good. I studied Japanese for 12 years half-assed never getting anywhere. For the first time I am making progress and I have a plan (which is the part that I lacked before). BTW, to retain vocabulary, I would recommend Anki http://ichi2.net/anki/ http://ichi2.net/anki/ it is open and regularly updated.