Current Events > Hit a wall in learning Japanese. Not sure where to go next

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm at a point where I know basic sentence structure and a couple of particles (XY, , )

Should I just be focusing on vocabulary at the moment, then incorporate more grammar once I have some words to use with it? Also the kanji is hard as fuck

I know there's some people here learning it as well, so any advice would be appreciated
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Next you should go buy a bag of Pockys and perhaps a Honda.
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Would a Subaru work
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Mitsubishi
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MarqueeSeries posted...

Would a Subaru work

emilia or rem won't allow it

if u go rem route u should end up living with her in japan-like country.
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start translating doujinshi

Have you been reading any language books? You can find PDFs of Genki study books and work books. Each chapter has vocab, kanji, grammar portions, along with listening comprehension.

Id say read through Genki I and II first and foremost. Once you get there you have a good foundation and can start listening to Japanese learning podcasts or things like news broadcasts that are slowed down to allow comprehension.

If you want to focus on kanji, thats trickier, but I have some suggestions that have worked for me.
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Always focus on vocabulary.

The more words you know, the easier it's gonna be to put together the grammar pieces on your own.

As for Kanji, there's no way around it... Read NHK EASY and "mine" the ones you don't know, which should be most of them. Ignore location names because those will come on their own since they're so common.



To pick a few reasonably easy sentences that look nice in here and also touch on some nice grammar, or otherwise highlight the features of the Japanese language...
- I like the "and" "" form here in the first half, and "can do (the thing of) opening" in the 2nd clause is a nice example of 'ing up a verb to noun-ize it.

21
First clause has the used in its arguably more confusing form (using/in/by means of) as well as the 2nd, FOR THE FLOOR, Plus we get the super-underrated and SUPER useful to say that we can at WHILE 'ing France which was by on the 1.

Also of note - We don't really stack descriptors/modifiers/adjectives in the same way in English. Notice that

Is modified as follows, looking at it literally.

Cooks-on-the-first-floor-made-French

This may not really help, but this is pretty much how things go in Japanese. Knowing this CAN help you to anticipate it though, as we typically expect this to be set up more like "Guests seated on the 2nd story can look at the beautiful scenery while eating French Cuisine made by the cooks on the 1st floor."
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Practice with a Japanese friend. If that's not possible then just quit. It's ridiculous to learn a language and have nobody nearby to speak it with. If you're only doing it for games and cartoons, you're doomed.

Good shit guys, especially @YonicBoom

I actually haven't finished Genki 1 yet, still working through it, so I guess I'll focus on finishing that.

I also own Remembering the Kanji. What are your thoughts on that book? The only think I don't like about it is that there's no readings included
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@MarqueeSeries

I never did Remembering the Kanji even though a friend who gave up on Japanese gave me her copy when I started. It's a cool idea but I just do vocabulary and take the Kanji along with them. As a beginner, it was always most useful to me to know the readings of things as they were most relevant at the time.

For example, () on an RPG command menu is awesome, but until you meet a word like or there's REALLY no point knowing that can also be read as .

In the same vein, is super useful to know in the same battle menu, and you'll likely see the Kanji again soon in something like , which are GONNA show up because they're super common. But of course, you don't really need to stress over readings when you'll just learn and independently of .

And outside of really old games/the news, it's doubtful you'll EVER see read as . Take that as sort of a "bonus" someday, but don't worry too much about it or you'll just mix things up. Solidify the "useful" readings in words and the "weird" readings will be a lot easier to digest in some months when you actually meet them in the wild.
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Kanji is a web of implied meaning, multiple pronunciations, and character components. The best approach is to study in tandem with new vocabulary. But critically, you should never feel compelled to learn everything about a character all at once, just like you won't learn every related vocab word all at once. It's better to focus on the relevant parts of as many instances as possible. Read a lot, listen a lot, and you'll create a web of understanding in your head. Even if it seems like a lot of what you take in just passes on through, all you need is for some of the stuff to stick to the web. The more you practice, the more chance things have to stick to the web, and eventually you'll come to realize that you understand a lot more now than you used to.

This is especially true with kanji itself, because while it's fairly obtuse at the beginning, you'll find that more and more recognizable patterns begin to emerge. You'll notice that certain shapes tend to have certain sounds. You'll notice other parts that seem to imply some sort of broad category of meaning. And as you study, you'll come to understand exactly what those are.

Grammar, meanwhile, is just about learning new structures. Japanese grammar is actually pretty straightforward, if quite a bit removed from English syntax. A good approach is to try and think about the goal of the grammar rather than the formula. If you tie what you're learning to some sort of practical application, it becomes easier to remember.

Also, I honestly dislike Remembering the Kanji with a passion. But that's mostly because I think trying to learn kanji through a series of mnemonic devices, even initially, only acts as a crutch when it comes time to learn what the actual patterns in kanji are all about.

SaithSayer posted...

Practice with a Japanese friend. If that's not possible then just quit. It's ridiculous to learn a language and have nobody nearby to speak it with. If you're only doing it for games and cartoons, you're doomed.

Dragonblade01 posted...

trying to learn kanji through a series of mnemonic devices, even initially, only acts as a crutch when it comes time to learn what the actual patterns in kanji are all about.

I think the prevailing notion is that you will discard those mnemonics as you see them more and more/need them less and less, but I also believe that you can indeed cut out the middleman and just do vocabulary and it will not only sort itself out in time, but you'll also be able to read stuff sooner rather than later which is really the important thing here. This would also root the words deeper in your soul earlier on.

My other worry about RTK is that by the time you're "ready" to do Japanese stuff once you're done with RTK, you're gonna forget a ton of them (unless you stick to some pointlessly rigorous study regimen which will make you hate Japanese) as you stumble through grammar/vocab building, which is ultimately gonna end up with you just doing vocab anyway.

The "patterns" with Kanji aren't exactly consistent, but you're probably better off discovering those things on your own. Stronger memories and all.
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