Restarting Kanji Study using Anki

by Declan on February 8, 2010

I dove back into Heisig’s remembering the Kanji today. Armed with a notebook for practising writing I went through some Kanji that I had left queued up for weeks ( months even )

I was surprised that some of them actually seemed really familiar, although some were completely baffling. I didn’t spend long practising, I’m just hoping to do little and often from now on.

Finished on this one. More to come tomorrow.

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Daily Updates on learning Japanese

by Declan on February 8, 2010

I’m pretty lazy and inconsistent when it comes to updating this blog.

*tumbleweed*

But I do have a big motivator because I’m going to Japan for a holiday at the start of March.

I’ve been really impressed with Chris Gaunt’s efforts recently as he’s been posting every day about his Japanese study. I know I probably couldn’t keep that up indefinitely  but I’m going to post something everyday about Japanese study until I leave for my holiday.

I’m not going to spend too much time on any one thing – I’m going to use AJATT’s resources and some of the books and manga that I’ve got lying around and I’ll season well with some Kanji study via Anki.

If I don’t make a post here I’ll tweet about it.

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Going to Japan

January 18, 2010

I’ve only been to Japan once before and loved it.
In March of this year I’m going for a short holiday again and I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m only going for 11 days in total so I won’t have enough time to see everything but I’m looking forward to simple things like restaurants, going to [...]

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JLPT December 2009

December 20, 2009

I had the great pleasure of taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this year for the first time.
It was actually the first time ever in Dublin, until now people wanting to take the test have had to go to another country, typically travelling to London. I think interest in Japanese has been steadily growing over [...]

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What word in Japanese will you never forget?

October 5, 2009

I’ve already posted about my reasons for never forgetting the word “Irassaimase“. I was basically sorrounded by the word and bludgeoned with it.
As strange as that experience was, it did show me that the best way to learn a language is by immersion and really experiencing it in daily life.
One of the great experiences [...]

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First time in Japan: Typhoons, Tremors and Tako

August 5, 2009

After being bounced around Europe for hours ( Thanks for going on strike AirFrance ) we finally arrived in Japan.
I was like a giddy child when I heard that there was a Typhoon. A typhoon! I’d never seen one of those before. Maybe it would be better to see it from inside a nice warm [...]

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Surrounded by Welcome

July 22, 2009

Many department stores in Japan employ someone at the shop entrance to welcome customers as they come in.
They usually bow as the customer goes past and say
Irasshaimase ( Welcome )
The first time I go to see it was in a Robinsons Dept store in Kasukabe, I was with my Waifu, her [...]

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9 Learn Japanese Blogs

July 5, 2009

Ever since I decided to go the self study route I’ve been looking out for blogs of people doing something similar. Here’s some of the blogs I’ve been reading and are most similar to what I’d like to do on my own blog.

AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com – Already mentioned above Khatz’s posts are almost always insightful and [...]

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Handwriting Kanji

June 18, 2009

Everytime I practise my kanji I use the flashcard style SRS system over at kanji.koohi.com.
I get shown a keyword ( in English  ) and then try to write the Kanji on paper before I continue.
I’ve often seen the keyword and thought I knew the answer ( It’s the one with the squiggle, the line and [...]

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Recording your progress in Japanese

June 13, 2009

Japanese people are generally quite encouraging when you try and speak a little bit of Japanese. Get your please and thank you’s right and you’ll be told that you are jyouzu (fluent).
It might seem a little patronising to be told you are fluent when all you can see is a few phrases but there’s actually [...]

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