600 words!

I currently know around 600 words of Japanese, although the official figure is probably higher since this is only the official score according to the Anki decks and does not take into account all the words I picked up from dramas over the years. This total does include 50 Kanji. Just to give you an idea of where I am with my progress, I can tell you that the JLPT 1 which is the highest level of proficiency test requires someone to know around 20,000 words and 2000 kanji. That means I am 3.5% of the way in terms of word knowledge and 2.5% in Kanji. So roughly, according to my calculations, at the speed I am learning at I need to do 30 more times what I have already done to get to that level which would take me approximately 5 years. I really wanted to learn a bit faster than that. Hmm maybe I should work out the number of words I learn per day and then add more.

Slow Progress

So last week I was really bad and did not study for three days, and it is surprising how much you can forget in such a short space of time. The reasons why I did not study was tiredness, and also feeling a little disheartened because my grammar was becoming really awful. However, I must have spent over 3 hours the other day creating an Anki deck focusing entirely on grammar and practicing sentence structures. I am pretty annoyed at the lack of examples of how to use certain phrases in the textbook. For example まで and how to use it in a sentence...there was only one example but it has three different meanings :S My friend Joe says that once we both get a job that it would be a good idea to get Japanese lessons from a teacher and I think that it would help me if I have someone to correct me. I am now back into the swing of studying again, Chapter 6 is taking a hell of a long time but it should be completed by the end of this week. The picture is of a wood carving I found in the woods near where I live. I think it is is a badger or a mole? The red scarf really reminded me of the kitsune statues you find at shrines with red bibs.

Correcting my work

Starting chapter 6 tonight! Just went over the correction for my journal entry style piece and I made some really stupid mistakes! How did I manage to forget the ンin チキン!? Note to self: Always proof read things. I think I have learned a bit about when to use Kanji and Kanna. I always assumed if there was a Kanji for a word then I should use it but it seems that some Kanji are just not used, like in the case of the word おいしい. I'm still a little unsure about some of the corrections, but I have just discovered the Lang 8 website where native Japanese will translate and correct pieces for free so hopefully I can get some more clarification on some parts. Sorry everyone who had to read my Japanese, I know its really terrible but I have only been learning for a month and a half.

Chapter 5 is completed!

Completed chapter 5 today, Im going to start Chapter 6 tomorrow. Im now exactly halfway through the book! HOORAY!!! To celebrate, here is a short piece in Japanese, practicing some of the grammar and vocabulary I have learned.

昨日は午前十一時に起きました。寒い朝でした、だから、出かけませんでした。私は姉と朝ご飯を食べました。其れから、怖い映画を見ました。よかったです。私の好きな映画は千と千尋の神隠しです。午後七時半に晩御飯を食べました。チキスープは美味しかったです。今は木曜日です、午前一時です。寝ましょうか。　

What this should say is something along the lines of - Yesterday, I got up at 11am. It was a cold morning so that is why I did not go out. I ate breakfast with my sister. After that, I watched a scary film. It was good. My favourite film is spirited away. At 7:30pm I ate dinner. The chicken soup was delicious. Right now, it is Thursday. It is 1am. Let's go to sleep! 

UPDATE: My friend Taishi checked over this and has corrected it to this - 

昨日は午前11時におきました。と言いますのは、寒い朝でし たので、外出しなかったんです。姉と朝食を食べた後、怖い映画を見ました。その映画は良かったです。私のお気に入りの映画は「千と千尋の神隠し」です。午 後7時30分に夕食を食べました。チキンスープはおいしかったです。今木曜日の午前1時です。さあ、寝ましょう

Forgetting Japanese D:

Started doing some worksheets this evening only to find that I have forgotten most of the grammar points from lesson 4 and 5 :( I don't have many opportunities to practice using Japanese, and for some reason, I can not recall how to form sentences properly when I want to speak them aloud. Then I decided to see how far along I am in my progress to see if I am near fluent enough to do the JLPT 5 and I got most of the questions correct but there is still a way to go. I think starting from tomorrow I am going to do what I said I would do in my first post and practice my grammar by writing a short paragraph about my day in Japanese.

Chapter 5!!!

I started Chapter 5 yesterday! I'm almost halfway through the textbook now, so by my estimations...I should finish Genki 1 by the end of March. This is a bit slower than I would have liked; I set myself a really unrealistic goal of being proficient enough for the JLPT 5 by the end of April >_< I think the first 2 chapters of the book flew by in a few days because I already knew most of the grammar and vocabulary beforehand. As the book has progressed, I have found the content has increased each time and I have to add I adjectives and Na adjectives to the list of verbs, general grammar etc. So that means each chapter is going to take me a little longer than a week. I finished learning chapter 5 vocabulary today, so tomorrow I am going to start on the grammar. My "official" number of words learned now is: 449! :) I was also very happy to receive a postcard from my friend Yuki, who visited the Studio Ghibli museum! I want to go there so bad!

Happy Setsubun!

It is now the 2nd of February and I have not started Chapter 5! D: I have spent the past day stuck on a particular question. I found another reason why Genki is not so great for people who want to teach themselves: they seem to purposefully omit certain information so some questions can't be completed correctly, so that you are forced to buy the answer key. The Genki textbooks NEED to have more examples and more explanations. Luckily for me, there are plenty of people on the internet who are happy to help, and as it turned out, I actually had guessed the correct translation! I was also correct about not being able to remember all of the Kanji and vocabulary I learnt the other day! I know most of them now but I am still making silly mistakes. I took a sneak peek at Chapter 5 and saw that I am going to be learning complicated adjectives :( Also it is Setsubun in Japan! I drew a picture! Happy Setsubun!!