Competitive Learning: Japanese Language Group

1) I totally agree!
2) I noticed this immediately, so I shifted my focus more towards memorizing any new words and concepts I come across. Compiling a vocab notebook is a good idea. I'm also considering creating flash cards to label things around my house so my mind is always exposed to the language. Shame the app doesn't have a way of flagging specific words, phrases or kanji and then turning them into flash cards.
3) Agreed and hoping the group grows because it's only going to make things much more fun.
4) Once again I agree with you, which is why I am praying we can get a few fluent speakers into the group who don't mind helping out by guide members or pointing out grammatical errors when they see them so no one develops really bad habits over time.

 

I've heard great things about realkana when I first started 2 years ago. But what got me pretty far from noob til now was the Human Japanese app. Its just really pleasant with how it gives context and gramatical tips that will stick with you from a fundamental standpoint. Give that a try its on Android but should have iOS too.

I've been having a lot of FUN with Duolingo and thats the best thing I can say about it. Keeps me coming back and havent hit a a wall yet like I did in the past so I'm picking up vocabulary at a nice pace and it seems to be sticking. Will keep pushing.

 

Duolingo is like VF so now I'm starting to feel the competitive part. Everytime Epileptech jumps ahead of me I have to pop in to get my lead back. Its dope. I finally maxxed out Hiragana and moving into untreaded territories!

But I'm gonna ask that you lower level noobs step it up. Jk

 

Thanks for the resources @cobratron . I actually had the lite version of Human Japanese on my phone, but don't remember actually using it. I'll definitely check it out later this evening. And yeah man the competitive side of things is a nice touch. I can't wait for you guys to join the group so we can try to get some conversations in Japanese going. Me and @Oioron started a little something, but I'm very rusty so I've been slacking in terms of responding. Gonna give myself this week to try and get my vocab back up a little and then dive back in to conversing. I'm hoping to converse on a daily basis if possible.

 

I'm gonna use the FLR Method program as my one-two punch along with Duolingo. I bought this from Laoshu5055's website a month agofor $40. I haven't really got to deep into it. Its a 4 week (to 8wk) course which should have you actually holding a common conversation with random native speakers you may encounter by the end of the month.

https://flrmethod.com/buy-language-courses/

Also he uploaded a new vid today thats pretty sick

 

Bookmarked all the shared resources so far.

Some more resources that I found/re-discovered:

1. Kana Drill - I believe this iOS only for now, but it's an alternative to realkana app/site for those interested.
2. https://www.tofugu.com/learn-japanese/
   • This has good write-up on basics for complete beginners with zero knowledge of the language; i.e--introduction on the three writing systems.
   • I don't like that it pushes the mnemonic method but it may work for you. Never worked for me.
3. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/
   • Good resource on grammatical rules such as verb forms, particles, etc...
4. Speaking of particles, here's a book I used back in college and was written by my college professor Kawashima Sensei: A Dictionary of Japanese Particles
   • This is the only textbook that I kept, in the off chance that I was coming back to learning the language.

All of this should be more than enough for us to get good foundation and get going.

Looks like @adamYUKI and I are the suckers for paying for the app. Was hoping that it didn't show, lol.

 

well someone's gotta pay for it. I gotta get my exp up.

 

So pissed I lost my streak this morning. I thought I had done my daily lessons yesterday when I first got out of bed, but turns out I had stopped prematurely to get my kid ready for his morning commute. I ended up being 20 points short of the daily requirement.

Note to self, do not do your lessons first thing in the morning when you have to get a baby ready for the day. Hoping to get my streak going again and praying you all fuck up like I did hahahaha.

@Oioron , my wife and I are considering purchasing the plus account. Can you clarify how it works offline on mobile? Specially, does the prerecorded messages still work without an internet connection? Riding the subway this morning, I lost my connection so many times so I also lost the ability to hear the prerecorded messages. If the plus account resolved that issue I think I’m gonna get it.

 

Not sure what you mean by "prerecorded" messages. But if you mean the sounds from the lessons, then yes you can download the lessons for offline use with all the sounds. You can also skip levels by taking and passing a test. Also no more ads. Other than that it's the same.

I decided to upgrade for the offline feature since I travel a bunch. It is perfect for NYC train rides.

 

Spoke too soon. After testing it, the voice audio is not playing consistently when offline. It plays for some lessons but not others. Bummer.

 

Aww that sucks! I was hoping you wouldn’t need a constant connection for the sounds, but I’m still interested though so I may upgrade eventually.

 

How's everyone doing with their Japanese studies so far?

I can see that both @cobratron & @Epileptech are maintaining their torrid pace. Do you mind sharing your workflow with the app?

I'm currently trying to max out each section to Level 5 before moving forward. I try to do at least 50 lessons a day on Duolingo and occasionally take the test to move up a level. Then I try to do at least 5 kana drills.

After reflecting on past attempts to learn the language, I learned that my past goals were too broad and open-ended. So this time, I've decided to use the JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test) as a framework for my goals. And I think I will plan to take the N5-Level test by end of this year, then re-asses and decide if I want to move up and tackle the next levels.

Anybody else interested in taking the same test? The American Association of Teachers of Japanese administer the test in US. The next chance to take the JLPT in the U.S. will be Sunday, December 1, 2019. Registration will open in late August, 2019.

 

In Duolingo I find that I'm able to go through the level 1 lesson of any subject then do the shortcut test to max it out. I've only failed maybe 1 or 2 times and only by 1 point. This applies to every subject I've done currently up to Time 3. So to me it seems you can get the jist of a subject by the end of the first or second level. The subsequent levels are all mostly more advanced exercises and quizzes based on what you already did. The shortcuts are really just these same exercises. You either know it or you don't.

I jumped back into Human Japanese after over a year of neglect. The Chapter review quizzes are more tricky and will give you discipline on spelling since the multiple choice words can be almost identical. It teaches you to cut the bad habits off before they even start which I find really valuable. Also since it completely goes through the Hiragana and Katakana unlike Duolingo I start to fit the puzzle pieces together by using both apps.

I've done SOME of the week 1 portion of Foreign Language Roadrunner. I think for my sake I should get further in Duolingo and Human Japanese before I do more FLR. But just from glancing at it after I cram with the 2 apps I can see how I'm almost where I need to be for FLR to sink in.

I've heard about that test for years and some of the hardcore books you need to read for them and I got really intimidated because I saw already pretty fluent or somewhat fluent speakers were barely passing or even failing. So I figured I wouldn't be able to test for some time. But hey I seem to be getting alot further in the past couple weeks than I have in the past 2 years. Maybe its doable and since its at the end of the year I can probably be ready by then.

 

I'm currently taking a japanese class right now, but I wouldn't mind doing duolingo at the same time to learn some extra vocab. Do you need to friend everyone in the group to join it? Or just 1 person?

 

You can use the Club Code:45GCCD. There is a bug with the Android app regarding clubs, iOS is fine.

 

I'm using Android. When I input the code it said "invalid classroom code"

 

Looks like you're going to add us for now. Add me at: Monty488871. You can peruse my profile page for the rest of the VFDCer's that you want to add.

 

im at cobra845103

 

I'm still using Duolingo but not as my primary learning tool. It serves as a practice and testing material for me. I have a 54 day streak

My other focus is on learning kanji. Found https://www.wanikani.com/, and tried it's first 3 levels for free. I ended up really liking it decided to move forward and subscribe. The mnemonic system they have in place doesn't always work for me, but I'm able to write my own notes within the program. I also find the available metrics to be helpful in reviewing my progress. So far, I've been using it for 46 days; currently in Level 5 with 134 kanji and 289 vocabulary learned. When I say learned, I mean that I know them fairly well and can recall the meanings and pronunciations with some delay. There are 60 levels in all.

Around Level 10 in Wanikani, I'm thinking of supplementing my studies with podcasts and visits to NHK Web Easy.

 

Took a haitus sadly but at least trying to flex what i know a bit while here in Japan. Also GentlemanThief has leveled up quite a bit. We're still using Duolingo here and there.

Yamada showed us her Duolingo ranking last night at dinner and she is currently destroying Homestay in English with a score of +15,000. Well HSA is trailing by about 6k points not bad. So I'm currently at 7500 which is exactly half of Yamada so I feel like reaching at least that is my new goal for this app.

Those other suggestions you guys listed sound great so I will have to give them an honest try. By next year BT or EVO Japan i want to be way better than I am now which is really not too good lol.