2 comments

1. Back with another few questions today! (This is my fifth time trying to make my own post but the auto-mod keeps removing them due to me apparently not having enough karma). I posted in the daily thread recently to get help on picking my next textbook after Genki 2 and Quartet came highly recommended in many of the threads I looked at so I’ve just picked it up. However, I definitely feel like I haven’t fully grasped the grammar in Genki 2 and would like to revise the N4 grammar concepts as a transition into Quartet (as I understand that that’s more of an N3 level). I’ve just signed up to Bunpro but was wondering if anybody could recommend a workbook or resource that would have N4 grammar drills as I definitely find that I get more out of writing sentences out on paper to practice my grammar (like in the Genki practice sections) rather than just reading the concept or typing words into “fill in the blank” questions or multiple choice. I had been told in another thread that Shinkanzen Master for grammar wasn’t really a recommended resource at the N4 level. I’m also going through Tokini Andy’s YouTube videos on Genki 2 as revision and have been finding them really helpful but would also like something for more active practice. My second question is whether anyone would have some good Youtube videos or resources for shadowing practice that would be at an N4 ish level. I’ve just recently moved to Japan and my speaking absolutely sucks at the moment – I keep freezing up and can’t for the life of me remember any of the words I need. For context, I’m a woman in my 20s so would prefer to shadow someone of a similar demographic if possible.

   Thank you!

2. I’m just celebrating a little victory. I’m 130 hours into Japanese now, just listening to native speakers, and finally today I did an 8 hour long session and I’m finally starting to notice some real progress in Japanese. All along up until now I’ve been perceiving some improvement, starting with just being able to recognize I was listening to Japanese and not Chinese or Korean, etc. Then I started to get a feel for the cadence, started hearing pitch accents, etc. I’ve learned some very vague meaning along the way, especially for particles, though not any nouns, and I’ve been getting more of a feeling for sentence structure along the way. The thing that changed today, or at least that I noticed today, was that I’ve gained much more of a focus on what I’m listening to, if that makes any sense. Like in the beginning the language was basically just washing over me, I didn’t understand anything, so I was essentially just listening to jibberish. That’s hard to pay attention to, so I would zone out a lot, then pay attention for a while, listen intently to the musicality and sounds, then zone back out. But today I realized … I’m actually listening to this language now. And of course after only 3 weeks, I’m not getting a lot of meaning out of what I’m listening to, but I am getting a sense of what I’m listening to. I mean I can’t say what the specific words and phrases mean, but I’m really starting to hear the language now. There are words that I recognize, not the meaning of them, but just the sound of them, they are becoming more familiar, words and phrases. I’m starting to expect some particles to follow some words, and I can sometimes understand when two particles go together. It’s really the particles, I think, most of all, that are giving me a sense of meaning in what I’m listening to, particles combined with voice inflection. I’m also getting a lot better at recognizing pronouns. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post, because of course I still don’t understand Japanese, but I can definitely feel it all moving in the right direction now. Japanese is not nearly as foreign to my ears as it was just a few weeks ago, some of it is starting to become as least musically predictable. The rhythm and cadence, some of the words and phrases, the melody of the language, I’m really much better able to hear the sounds of the letters that make up words now. And with all of that, I’m starting to at least get a feeling for what is going on in conversations and Japanese media that I’m watching and listening to. It’s sort of surreal to be watching something, not know what the words mean, and yet still be interested, entertained, and engaged, and on some level kind of have a feel for what is going on. I’ve also got tons of Japanese words just floating around in my brain now, .. sort of like how you get a song in your head and it won’t go away, just these words and phrases that I don’t know what they mean but they are constantly moving around in my head.

   I’m also happy that I have been able to ramp up how much native input I am getting after making some changes to how I was getting it into my ear holes, and now I’m getting roughly 8 hours of input per day, and I’m working to improve that further.

   Anyway, not a big deal to anyone but me, I’m sure, but I’m happy! 🙂