Post by Jembru on Jul 21, 2014 22:17:20 GMT
As promised, I will share with you how I keep the video journal I so often mention in the forum. I started a video journal back in January 2013 when I realised after a year of intensive study, that I'd forgotten to learn to actually use Japanese in that time! I had noticed that people who make Japanese vlogs on Youtube appeared to develop their speaking skills quite quickly, being able to express themselves effectively even while their vocabulary was still low. One such youtuber even told me personally that she used to remake her videos several times to get a good take before she would upload them on Youtube. I realised that this process of retaking a 3-5 minute video several times would add up to an impressive amount of speaking practice.
So I decided to start keeping a spoken journal. I call it my video journal because it's just convenient to point my phone at myself and speak, but I actually record audio only sometimes too. I don't upload these to Youtube and avoid letting anyone see them because the point is that I feel completely at ease and free from anxiety over little mistakes.
I used to save all of my videos, but I tightened my system about 3 months ago and now I delete them when I'm done with them.
Before I describe the process I follow I want to outline the strengths and weaknesses I've noticed about this system.
Strengths
- The journal is basically your current thoughts so you tend to speak about things that are important to you personally. This forces you to look up and practice relevant vocabulary. When you come to speak to Japanese friends, chances are you'll seek out topics that interest you both. So for example, I am more likely to discuss minecraft and clothes with Japanese friends, than I am cars or politics. Making the journals has prepared me with the vocabulary I most often need when talking about my daily life and experiences, even if I have to ask my friend for clarity when she tells me why her car is off the road.
- You don't always notice mistakes as you're speaking and yet you're more likely to make mistakes when compared to writing, where you have time to think about grammar. Making a video or audio lets you play it back and pick up mistakes you made. This helps to reinforce the correct way in your mind so that you have a better chance of getting it right next time.
- Knowing that no one but you will hear your Japanese strips away the anxiety you may feel when faced with a conversation partner or when you know you'll be uploading your effort online. This is quite freeing and gives you the confidence to try out more creative grammar and vocabulary than you would in a conversation.
- You are at least getting some speaking time if you keep a journal. Unless you can chat with Japanese friends on an almost daily basis, it can be hard to get enough speaking practice, especially free speaking practice which most closely mimics the process or organising your thoughts into sentences that happens during an actual conversation.
Weaknesses
- For every mistake you notice, there will be another mistake you missed because you didn't realise it was wrong. These mistakes can quickly become repeated characteristics of your speech as you reinforce them every time you say it. This means you can end up sounding quite fluent as you learn to rapidly create Japanese sounds, but the actual content of what you're saying is confusing and at times completely meaningless (this is kinda where my Japanese currently is, so I'm speaking from experience here). One way to correct this, that I must admit I've only tried 2 or 3 times, is to type out a transcript of what you said in your video, correcting it as far as you're able and then posting to lang-8. When I did this I found out not only the mistakes I'd missed when correcting it myself, but also some of my 'corrections' were changed back to how I'd originally worded it.
- It can be difficult to force yourself out of your comfort zone. While speaking about minecraft, fashion, language learning and my insecurities about my appearance is second nature to me now, I find that I just repeat these same topics and often two different videos can end up almost clones of one another. One way I try to get around this is by starting my journals with the date, month, day and topic, so that I consciously select a topic before I start. Honestly though, I often skip this part and go straight onto talking about how badly my Japanese is progressing, or how bad I look in these jeans.
- It doesn't help much with developing correct intonation. In my experience my videos are a string of Japanese words sewn loosely together with bits of grammar. I am understood just fine by native speakers, but I lack the natural rhythm and flow of real Japanese. For this reason I like to spend a few minutes shadowing a Japanese vlogger before making my videos. This helps me to get into a more Japanese-like rhythm before I start.
- The videos don't help you to develop a more conversational style. As monologues, you can't practice all the interjections that characterise a Japanese conversation. You can of course learn them so that you can use them when needed, but they won't become automatic. Adding conversations with real people to your practice is obviously the best way to address this, but I've also heard that mentally rehearsing conversations in your mind can help. For this purpose I invented my very own Japanese imaginary friend. He only sometimes tells me to kill!!
My Method
I used to just point, click, speak and that's it. These days, I've added and tweaked and I think I've come up with a fairly useful system. It can be a little time consuming so I won't lie, as often as not, I just record my video and then play it back to myself during my walk home from work, never to return to it again before it's deleted! Assuming I'm being a very good girl, it would go like this;
Step One: Pick a topic;
I always try to select something relevant to my daily life to keep it personally relevant. I have a 'project book' that I keep my journal notes in and one section is vocabulary lists organised by topic. If I've covered the topic before, I take a moment to read over the list to remind myself of words I've needed to look up in the past. If I can think of any words I might need, I look them up and add them to the list too.
Step Two: Shadow my Language Model;
To warm up, I spend a moment watching my 'language model' on youtube. This used to be Kemushichan because being a non native speaker she spoke with more familiar vocabulary and has a nice clear style. These days I use a girl called Ruriko Yamada to ensure the language is 100% correct and authentic. It can be anyone so long as they are speaking continuously in the same way you will be. The topic is less important at this point. Just mouth or speak along with them as much as you're able. It is helpful to completely mimic them when you do this, each facial expression, flick of the head.. really step into them mentally.
Step 3: Make your recording;
It is always awkward because I always forget to write it down before I start, but I like to start the same way every time with the the date and then topic. It hasn't made me any better at saying Japanese dates though! >.< Then it's a simple process of speaking. My videos used to end up 8-12 minutes long, but now I try to keep it close to 5 minutes if I can because I'm less likely to avoid writing it up if it's shorter and my speaking speed is faster now so that I probably say as much in 5 minutes as I used to say in 8.
Step 4: Play Back
I have a short hand I created for playing back my videos and I use 2 different colours of pen for my notes. I write down 2 lists before I start: 'corrections' and 'good points'. Then I play back and scribble notes as I go. I record mistakes, things I need to check, words I wasn't sure of, and anything I thought I'd done well. Then with a different pen, I check things I wasn't sure of and look up words I needed to. If you want to be really good and have plenty of time on your hands, you can write out a transcript of your video (with corrections) and upload it to lang-8. That way you will discover the mistakes you missed and maybe learn some alternative or more natural expressions too.
Step 5: Write Up
In an ideal world you would actually retake the video at this stage with your better awareness of mistakes and vocabulary. I rarely do this. In fact I've maybe done it about 4 times over the 18 months I've been doing this. Instead then, I jump straight to the final stage. I write down my notes neatly in the project book. I draw a little vocabulary list for new words at the top, decorate the entry with a sticker and then write down the most important corrections or good points so I know what I need to work on, or build on. I add the words I didn't know to the vocabulary lists if necessary and I usually pick one or two new words to add to anki.
So that's it really. It doesn't need more than 10 to 15 minutes of your day and can be a pretty useful tool to improve your spoken Japanese. Well.. I say that. I still make as many grammar errors as I did a year ago, I just speak a bit faster and with a wider vocabulary. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to speak at my current level without the videos though.
So I decided to start keeping a spoken journal. I call it my video journal because it's just convenient to point my phone at myself and speak, but I actually record audio only sometimes too. I don't upload these to Youtube and avoid letting anyone see them because the point is that I feel completely at ease and free from anxiety over little mistakes.
I used to save all of my videos, but I tightened my system about 3 months ago and now I delete them when I'm done with them.
Before I describe the process I follow I want to outline the strengths and weaknesses I've noticed about this system.
Strengths
- The journal is basically your current thoughts so you tend to speak about things that are important to you personally. This forces you to look up and practice relevant vocabulary. When you come to speak to Japanese friends, chances are you'll seek out topics that interest you both. So for example, I am more likely to discuss minecraft and clothes with Japanese friends, than I am cars or politics. Making the journals has prepared me with the vocabulary I most often need when talking about my daily life and experiences, even if I have to ask my friend for clarity when she tells me why her car is off the road.
- You don't always notice mistakes as you're speaking and yet you're more likely to make mistakes when compared to writing, where you have time to think about grammar. Making a video or audio lets you play it back and pick up mistakes you made. This helps to reinforce the correct way in your mind so that you have a better chance of getting it right next time.
- Knowing that no one but you will hear your Japanese strips away the anxiety you may feel when faced with a conversation partner or when you know you'll be uploading your effort online. This is quite freeing and gives you the confidence to try out more creative grammar and vocabulary than you would in a conversation.
- You are at least getting some speaking time if you keep a journal. Unless you can chat with Japanese friends on an almost daily basis, it can be hard to get enough speaking practice, especially free speaking practice which most closely mimics the process or organising your thoughts into sentences that happens during an actual conversation.
Weaknesses
- For every mistake you notice, there will be another mistake you missed because you didn't realise it was wrong. These mistakes can quickly become repeated characteristics of your speech as you reinforce them every time you say it. This means you can end up sounding quite fluent as you learn to rapidly create Japanese sounds, but the actual content of what you're saying is confusing and at times completely meaningless (this is kinda where my Japanese currently is, so I'm speaking from experience here). One way to correct this, that I must admit I've only tried 2 or 3 times, is to type out a transcript of what you said in your video, correcting it as far as you're able and then posting to lang-8. When I did this I found out not only the mistakes I'd missed when correcting it myself, but also some of my 'corrections' were changed back to how I'd originally worded it.
- It can be difficult to force yourself out of your comfort zone. While speaking about minecraft, fashion, language learning and my insecurities about my appearance is second nature to me now, I find that I just repeat these same topics and often two different videos can end up almost clones of one another. One way I try to get around this is by starting my journals with the date, month, day and topic, so that I consciously select a topic before I start. Honestly though, I often skip this part and go straight onto talking about how badly my Japanese is progressing, or how bad I look in these jeans.
- It doesn't help much with developing correct intonation. In my experience my videos are a string of Japanese words sewn loosely together with bits of grammar. I am understood just fine by native speakers, but I lack the natural rhythm and flow of real Japanese. For this reason I like to spend a few minutes shadowing a Japanese vlogger before making my videos. This helps me to get into a more Japanese-like rhythm before I start.
- The videos don't help you to develop a more conversational style. As monologues, you can't practice all the interjections that characterise a Japanese conversation. You can of course learn them so that you can use them when needed, but they won't become automatic. Adding conversations with real people to your practice is obviously the best way to address this, but I've also heard that mentally rehearsing conversations in your mind can help. For this purpose I invented my very own Japanese imaginary friend. He only sometimes tells me to kill!!
My Method
I used to just point, click, speak and that's it. These days, I've added and tweaked and I think I've come up with a fairly useful system. It can be a little time consuming so I won't lie, as often as not, I just record my video and then play it back to myself during my walk home from work, never to return to it again before it's deleted! Assuming I'm being a very good girl, it would go like this;
Step One: Pick a topic;
I always try to select something relevant to my daily life to keep it personally relevant. I have a 'project book' that I keep my journal notes in and one section is vocabulary lists organised by topic. If I've covered the topic before, I take a moment to read over the list to remind myself of words I've needed to look up in the past. If I can think of any words I might need, I look them up and add them to the list too.
Step Two: Shadow my Language Model;
To warm up, I spend a moment watching my 'language model' on youtube. This used to be Kemushichan because being a non native speaker she spoke with more familiar vocabulary and has a nice clear style. These days I use a girl called Ruriko Yamada to ensure the language is 100% correct and authentic. It can be anyone so long as they are speaking continuously in the same way you will be. The topic is less important at this point. Just mouth or speak along with them as much as you're able. It is helpful to completely mimic them when you do this, each facial expression, flick of the head.. really step into them mentally.
Step 3: Make your recording;
It is always awkward because I always forget to write it down before I start, but I like to start the same way every time with the the date and then topic. It hasn't made me any better at saying Japanese dates though! >.< Then it's a simple process of speaking. My videos used to end up 8-12 minutes long, but now I try to keep it close to 5 minutes if I can because I'm less likely to avoid writing it up if it's shorter and my speaking speed is faster now so that I probably say as much in 5 minutes as I used to say in 8.
Step 4: Play Back
I have a short hand I created for playing back my videos and I use 2 different colours of pen for my notes. I write down 2 lists before I start: 'corrections' and 'good points'. Then I play back and scribble notes as I go. I record mistakes, things I need to check, words I wasn't sure of, and anything I thought I'd done well. Then with a different pen, I check things I wasn't sure of and look up words I needed to. If you want to be really good and have plenty of time on your hands, you can write out a transcript of your video (with corrections) and upload it to lang-8. That way you will discover the mistakes you missed and maybe learn some alternative or more natural expressions too.
Step 5: Write Up
In an ideal world you would actually retake the video at this stage with your better awareness of mistakes and vocabulary. I rarely do this. In fact I've maybe done it about 4 times over the 18 months I've been doing this. Instead then, I jump straight to the final stage. I write down my notes neatly in the project book. I draw a little vocabulary list for new words at the top, decorate the entry with a sticker and then write down the most important corrections or good points so I know what I need to work on, or build on. I add the words I didn't know to the vocabulary lists if necessary and I usually pick one or two new words to add to anki.
So that's it really. It doesn't need more than 10 to 15 minutes of your day and can be a pretty useful tool to improve your spoken Japanese. Well.. I say that. I still make as many grammar errors as I did a year ago, I just speak a bit faster and with a wider vocabulary. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to speak at my current level without the videos though.
