The only other tangible experience I have with learning a foreign language is with Spanish. Spanish was never something I was particularly motivated to learn about, it was just something I'd grown up around and happened to be good at. I learned the same things over and over because the schooling wasn't very consistent, and I just didn't really care.
I'm struggling now with getting past that first hump of learning the basics. I am not conversational in any regard (I feel like I can barely talk about the things I know the vocabulary for), but I do have a good grip on the basics (the main uses of the particles, sentence order, vocab, phrases, etc.). Now that I've succeeded that first hurdle, I'm starting to get to a point where feeling rewarded for learning something new is getting a little harder. I have to imagine that it will get harder and harder to feel like I'm getting anywhere, but I have to keep pushing through.
This week, I'm learning "May I..." and "You must not..." phrasing. This was the most homework I've done for my class so far. And that's on top of all the other studying I do between Anki, kanji, and writing to try to use what I'm learning.
Let me give you a tip right now: please don't ignore kanji. Even if you're reading a manga or novel with furigana to practice your hiragana/katakana comprehension, I think it's a good idea to at least look at the character you're reading. It may seem overwhelming, but the more times you stare at that character and say the sounds, the more quickly it will stick in your brain. And writing them really helps. I am warning you of this now because I got through 13 or 14 chapters learning with this school before I started to pay attention to kanji, and I'm now having to reteach myself all of this vocabulary because I didn't know how to read it. It seems slower while you're doing it to learn everything, but it'll end up fast-tracking you to comprehension quicker.
I need to find more ways to practice actually speaking. This is everyone's problem when learning a language, and it's the easiest component to ignore. I have a conversation partner I usually meet with at least once a week. But he's a conversation partner, and I just said I'm not conversational. I try to say whatever sentences (or words) I can in Japanese, and I'll ask questions, but his English is football fields beyond my Japanese. There's another partner I've met with whose English is much closer to my Japanese level, so I need to meet with her again. I think it's scarier, but better if you meet with someone who has a low comprehension level. That way, you're forced to learn to communicate. When I'm talking with the first partner I mentioned, it's so much easier just to talk in English.
I'm just pouring out thoughts here. It's been a long day. I study probably at least a couple hours, total, every day, so I know I must be improving. I just don't see it most of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment