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Studying Japanese Language/Literature/History

ladyfaile
so i'm trying to do some livemocha lessons and either i've been away from it too long or it suddenly got much tougher, i can't seem to grasp this lesson. it's 101 unit 2 lesson 4: have/has but it's all about hair and facial hair and to understand the sentence structure when they are using it with difficult words strung together it makes it so hard to follow... this is the second time i've tried to get through this one >.<
"Kono otokonohito wa chairoi kuchihige wo hayashiteimasu." makes my brain hurt
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Kawaikochan
you can do it! just go slowly and don't be afraid to use the flashcards for vocab study. Think of it this way: the lessons are really good if you can' get through it on the first try :) ganbare.
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ladyfaile
ehh i got 88% on the review. good enough. when i get a bit better with vocab i can go back and redo some of the ones i didn't get high scores on, and i have to go back and do the writing and speaking submissions anyway. i tend to just want to rush on to the next lesson plus i don't have a mic on this computer
i thought the LM flashcards would be handy but they are full of kanji lol
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ladyfaile
next lesson is clothes which comes up much earlier in rosetta so i've already sort of done it though it was a while ago. should do better on this one ^^
i can't help but giggle every time i hear the word "wanpisu"
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ladyfaile
awww LM calls it "doresu" instead. that's no fun
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ladyfaile
ahhhhh LiveMocha>Rosetta Stone. I finally understand the difference between haiteimasu and kiteimasu thanks to the user tips. that and translations are what Rosetta is missing.
it is, however, confusing that they only use "no" after certain colours. ie: midori no shatsu VS shiroi shatsu. i didn't notice that before. is it pretty much primary colours and black and white = without "no" and everything else = "no" ? or is it even more complicated than that haha
anyway got 95 on the review for this one yay me and the ones i missed was because i was rushing through and not paying proper attention lol
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ladyfaile
hmmm i don't want to leave 5 posts in a row lol but nobody else is posting and i have a dumb question. i was doing some hiragana writing practice (to keep it fresh after doing a LM lesson i started practicing writing some of the words and phrases from the lesson in hiragana) and i just realized, is it わたしわ　or　わたしは ? i think i've been using the wrong 'wa' this whole time but i'm not sure, i could just be second guessing myself
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Kawaikochan
わたしは means "I [topic particle]". Same for こんばんは which means "evening [topic particle]". The topic particle romanized as wa, is really は and not わ. This is an example of why it's necessary to learn kana ASAP, just like you're doing :)

And sorry for not responding. For some reason I keep thinking i've posed a reply in my head, lol.
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Kawaikochan
also, be careful with live mocha's romaji in the reading/speaking section. There are a ton of mistakes. Fortunately, the native speakers who are reviewing your submissions will probably catch them and let you know. Also, you can leave grammar questions like "no" in your writing practice passages. I love live mocha compared to rosetta stone for the reasons you mentioned, plus live mocha is like a bajillion times less expensive for a better product (imo).

And as for scores: i go back and redo lessons all the time. I also do the supplemental lessons that do not have any impact on score or percent of completion. I highly recommend them.
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boutux
i've been slacking off alot lately when i should be getting more serious. maybe i should put a time table or schedule together to study cuz i'm not doing it as much the last 2 weeks. so maybe i need more structure. anyone has a plan of action that they follow (that works) that they are willing to share?
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Kawaikochan
I do have a plan of action, but I do not use deadlines. I have materials already picked out. Whenever I have free time, I try to work through the material until I finish it. Generally, I am motived by completing things, so this works for me. You may wanna make vocab flashcards or read a story. You may wanna look into the tadoku challenge I mentioned in a different thread.
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ladyfaile
omfg i typed out a huuuuuuge post and got a gateway error when i posted it. it's all goooooone!

ehhh what did i even say. >:[

Kawaikochan: totally agree about LM vs RS but i have a free subscription to RS so should try to make use of it also. and LM is full of mistakes. i always read the user tips because a lot of people catch the mistakes and leave comments and sometimes they do get fixed. i've noticed a few comments pointing out a mistake and the mistake isn't there anymore. so that's good at least. sometimes they're just nitpicking over the english translation or the use of '?' after 'ka' which yes is redundant but in romaji does it really matter =/ and then sometimes they point out mistakes that can mess up your score. like one i discovered yesterday, one of those sentence building questions where you drag the words.. it had the same word twice one capitalized one not, and it was the start of the sentence so i chose the cap one of course and it said it was wrong. switched it for the lower case and it accepted it. boooo.

ummm what else. i dunno.
oh right.. 'wa' ... i thought it was that way but when i was writing it i realized i did a whole written submission for LM with the wrong character. usually i do them in romaji but decided to be brave and do it in hiragana. woops. i haven't gotten a review for it yet i'm sure someone will catch it.
oh that was the other thing: my peeve with users is that they don't all rate my reviews of their submissions in english. i try to do one or two when they pop up and i am extremely thorough, it takes time to do it the way i do, i use the highlighter and strikeout functions to show where they made mistakes and then explain them underneath etc.... and they hardly ever rate me. i'd have much higher teacher points if they all did. all the ones who have gave me helpful or very helpful but there's more people who don't rate than those who do. aggravating.

i think that was it..

boutux: i don't follow a strict schedule but i'm just learning for fun mostly so you might be better off with a schedule. since i'm a night owl i find i have more patience for it at night than in the day. so sometimes i'll squeeze a lesson in during the day but i do most of my writing practice etc at night. i actually have started writing lines in hiragana while waiting for drama episodes to buffer lol. i try to do at least one lesson per day. i also was doing hiragana flashcard type games before bed since supposedly you retain info more if you review it before going to sleep, but picking the right character out of multiple choice has become too easy for me, i need to work on writing the right character from memory now hence the writing practice.
passive listening can be done any time also, i play Japanese music when i'm doing housework or anything not requiring sound like playing computer games and stuff like that
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boutux
gaprvtfvbc wrote:

boutux: i don't follow a strict schedule but i'm just learning for fun mostly so you might be better off with a schedule. since i'm a night owl i find i have more patience for it at night than in the day. so sometimes i'll squeeze a lesson in during the day but i do most of my writing practice etc at night. i actually have started writing lines in hiragana while waiting for drama episodes to buffer lol. i try to do at least one lesson per day. i also was doing hiragana flashcard type games before bed since supposedly you retain info more if you review it before going to sleep, but picking the right character out of multiple choice has become too easy for me, i need to work on writing the right character from memory now hence the writing practice.
passive listening can be done any time also, i play Japanese music when i'm doing housework or anything not requiring sound like playing computer games and stuff like that



i do all of that already. i have alot of japanese music that i know all the words to but don't know what the heck i'm singing. lol. my family has given up on me. i have the writing part down too. in fact i got arashi's love so sweet in romaji and wrote it in hiragana in my note book for practice. i had my japanese co worker go over it for me and she was impressed, she corrected the few errors i had. actually now that i think about it maybe that is part of why i'm not so motivated as much, my japanese co worker is no longer with us, she's gone back to japan. i have no one else here to verify my work with me. hmm....

so now i've realised part of my problem...? i feel like i need to elevate my level of studying or maybe find someone on the same level as me to study with. i need a plan. i gonna spend a few days trying to come up with smtng.
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ladyfaile
join LiveMocha :) it's free for the most part, i think you can pay for extra lessons and one on one tutoring but the basic lessons are free at least up to a certain point. it has a social network feel to it too, you can chat with people though i have no mic so i haven't done that but still, you can add other Japanese learners and fluent speakers to your friends list and practice on them
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Kawaikochan
Lang-8.com is another site that allows you to interact with native Japanese speakers who can edit your work. Personally, I don't study Japanese unless I want to. It makes it a joyful process. I don't like doing things just because I feel like I have to, so I definitely wouldn't turn learning Japanese into something like that for me.

Also consider studying Japanese history, literature, and culture if you need a break from language studies. I have a ton of suggestions for classic Japanese literature that can be found in English translations. If history is your thing, you may want to read up or watch nonfiction historical works/documentaries. If you like monsters, Japanese culture has A TON, kinda like greek mythology. You could also just find an interesting article about Japan on wikipedia and keep clicking on related articles. Many articles have a link to the Japanese version on the left side, below the search box. Studying each of these things helps to fill out your understanding. When you decide (if ever) to go back to studying language, you can pull on this cultural references to help you understand the phrases and concepts once you understand the words :)
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