Japanese?

[teck]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

50 kanji a week is a fucking lot....  Good luck....

[desocietas]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

50 kanji a week is a fucking lot....  Good luck....

That's what I was thinking... The 390 I've learned was from when I started in April of this year.  Learned hiragana in that time, too, but still, it was maybe only 10-15 kanji a week when I was really on top of studying.

[90snostalga]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

50 kanji a week is a fucking lot....  Good luck....

That's what I was thinking... The 390 I've learned was from when I started in April of this year.  Learned hiragana in that time, too, but still, it was maybe only 10-15 kanji a week when I was really on top of studying.

50's a lot but I'm going to push for that much. 

[90snostalga]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

50 kanji a week is a fucking lot....  Good luck....

Are you going to continue studying?

That's what I was thinking... The 390 I've learned was from when I started in April of this year.  Learned hiragana in that time, too, but still, it was maybe only 10-15 kanji a week when I was really on top of studying.

[sin2beta]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

50 kanji a week is a fucking lot....  Good luck....

That's what I was thinking... The 390 I've learned was from when I started in April of this year.  Learned hiragana in that time, too, but still, it was maybe only 10-15 kanji a week when I was really on top of studying.

50's a lot but I'm going to push for that much.

As a teacher, I feel like I have to warn that type of learning can be counterproductive. The goal is to retain the Kanji. Aiming for 50 a week is a setup for failure. NO ONE (barring strange neural conditions) can retain that much. If you are completely new to the language, start with 5 a week. If you are intermediate, go with 5 a week. If you are advanced, go with 5 a week. Basically, go for about 5 a week. As you move on, you can bump it to 10. But put 5 of those 10 as review Kanji from previous lists.

There's a limit the brain can absorb and recall. It's called cognitive load. 50 is way past it. It's estimated to be between 5 and 8 facts per lesson. Responsibly, aim for 5. For cramming before a test, aim for 8.

[desocietas]

As a teacher, I feel like I have to warn that type of learning can be counterproductive. The goal is to retain the Kanji. Aiming for 50 a week is a setup for failure. NO ONE (barring strange neural conditions) can retain that much. If you are completely new to the language, start with 5 a week. If you are intermediate, go with 5 a week. If you are advanced, go with 5 a week. Basically, go for about 5 a week. As you move on, you can bump it to 10. But put 5 of those 10 as review Kanji from previous lists.

There's a limit the brain can absorb and recall. It's called cognitive load. 50 is way past it. It's estimated to be between 5 and 8 facts per lesson. Responsibly, aim for 5. For cramming before a test, aim for 8.

This is sound advice.  The reason I'm not as on top of the studying as I was has to do with the amount of retention I need to maintain with all the kanji I've learned up to this point.  Learning 5 or 10 in the beginning seems too easy and you want to rush ahead, but I currently have about 40 new items to learn in my current level (Wanikani has a level system with radicals, kanji, and vocabulary) and, while that's certainly doable in a few weeks' time, WK also tests me on all the items I've learned up 'till now... which is a helluva lot.  I currently have over 500 items it wants to test me on.

But as difficult as that is for me, it's certainly reminding me that I need to go back and re-learn some of those items... and in turn, this reminds me that I will need to take my time with the upcoming lessons.

[90snostalga]

As a teacher, I feel like I have to warn that type of learning can be counterproductive. The goal is to retain the Kanji. Aiming for 50 a week is a setup for failure. NO ONE (barring strange neural conditions) can retain that much. If you are completely new to the language, start with 5 a week. If you are intermediate, go with 5 a week. If you are advanced, go with 5 a week. Basically, go for about 5 a week. As you move on, you can bump it to 10. But put 5 of those 10 as review Kanji from previous lists.

There's a limit the brain can absorb and recall. It's called cognitive load. 50 is way past it. It's estimated to be between 5 and 8 facts per lesson. Responsibly, aim for 5. For cramming before a test, aim for 8.
[/quote]

Thanks for the advice.  May I ask, do you teach Japanese or any other foreign language?  I remember your first video on the Sg Awesome mentioned you were a teacher but I can't recall what subject.

[sin2beta]

Thanks for the advice.  May I ask, do you teach Japanese or any other foreign language?  I remember your first video on the Sg Awesome mentioned you were a teacher but I can't recall what subject.

Mathematics. However, I am now in industry at a Biotech company. Cognitive load is fairly universal though.

[teck]

I did fairly decently with about 20 a week, but I was studying for several hours a day at the time and was consistent in revisiting previous kanji every weekend as well....  I wrote every kanji character I knew at least 20 times a week....  It also REALLY helped to do combinations....  Even basic ones that won't get used much like certain family names like Tanaka and Yamada for example since they both have simple combo kanji with very low stroke counts....

[stuntman64]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

Reading and writing is much harder than speaking, but why would you only want to speak Japanese?

[stuntman64]

As a teacher, I feel like I have to warn that type of learning can be counterproductive. The goal is to retain the Kanji. Aiming for 50 a week is a setup for failure. NO ONE (barring strange neural conditions) can retain that much. If you are completely new to the language, start with 5 a week. If you are intermediate, go with 5 a week. If you are advanced, go with 5 a week. Basically, go for about 5 a week. As you move on, you can bump it to 10. But put 5 of those 10 as review Kanji from previous lists.

There's a limit the brain can absorb and recall. It's called cognitive load. 50 is way past it. It's estimated to be between 5 and 8 facts per lesson. Responsibly, aim for 5. For cramming before a test, aim for 8.
[/quote]

I heard 7 was the most numbers a person can remember in a sequence.

[90snostalga]

I guess really, learning how to read Japanese is more important to me than speaking.  Any one recommend any good soft ware other than Rosetta Stone?  Stone is way too expensive.

I'm using Textfugu and Wanikani right now.  Textfugu is an online textbook while Wanikani is a webapp.  They both have open access to the first few levels.  I think WK is still in beta, but you just have to sign up for it, and they'll email you fairly soon.  They are $5/month, I think.

I've been too busy to keep up with it lately, but my last tally was something like 390 kanji.

I started using Textfugu last night.  Thank you so much for recommending it.  It is a ton better than the youtube series I was watching before.  You get the flashcards from the Anki software, the youtube videos to help, drop and drag exercises it's pretty cool.  I haven't got to  a part were it asked me to pay but I hope I can learn a lot before that because 5 a month can add up but it's a great tool 

[90snostalga]

Yea that Kanji is crazy.  There are so so so so so so many to learn that it never stops.  I began an online course last night for Japanese beginning with the Katakana.  I will have to set a pace, and a good disciplined schedule to help learn everything.  Maybe like 50 Kanji a week or something.  For me, as long as I can read Japanese, I would be happy.  But just getting into the Katakana chart and sounds last night, I learned that speaking maybe easier than reading it.

Reading and writing is much harder than speaking, but why would you only want to speak Japanese?

If I had a choice, I would rather just read Japanese, but I have found out that to me, speaking it is easier because it helps contribute to reading it.  Overall, I don't just want to speak it, I want to read it as well.

[desocietas]

I started using Textfugu last night.  Thank you so much for recommending it.  It is a ton better than the youtube series I was watching before.  You get the flashcards from the Anki software, the youtube videos to help, drop and drag exercises it's pretty cool.  I haven't got to  a part were it asked me to pay but I hope I can learn a lot before that because 5 a month can add up but it's a great tool 

Glad you like it!  I really liked it to, but the cost for the whole thing is like $120 :\  I decided to go for it just 'cause at the time I felt really gung ho about the whole thing.  I still do, but am finding it a little harder right now to have the time to read it, but I want to get back into it as soon as I get time again.

Wanikani is the one that is $5/month, and yeah, it can add up pretty easily over time.  WK is more about spaced repetition, so it's not for everyone, and it's just vocabulary, not sentence structure (which is covered by Textfugu).  They're owned by the same people, so there's some overlap in some ways.

[90snostalga]

I started using Textfugu last night.  Thank you so much for recommending it.  It is a ton better than the youtube series I was watching before.  You get the flashcards from the Anki software, the youtube videos to help, drop and drag exercises it's pretty cool.  I haven't got to  a part were it asked me to pay but I hope I can learn a lot before that because 5 a month can add up but it's a great tool 

Glad you like it!  I really liked it to, but the cost for the whole thing is like $120 :\  I decided to go for it just 'cause at the time I felt really gung ho about the whole thing.  I still do, but am finding it a little harder right now to have the time to read it, but I want to get back into it as soon as I get time again.

Wanikani is the one that is $5/month, and yeah, it can add up pretty easily over time.  WK is more about spaced repetition, so it's not for everyone, and it's just vocabulary, not sentence structure (which is covered by Textfugu).  They're owned by the same people, so there's some overlap in some ways.

Was it just a flat 120?  No other fee's?