|
Post by Jembru on Dec 11, 2013 21:14:08 GMT
LittleGaijin started this topic on the previous forum, and reading her recent article reminded me of the thread. By coincidence, I'd been keeping a dairy for a few weeks, where I wrote down every last thing I did related to Japanese, from casually listening to JP's anime, to writing forum posts. As accurately as possible, I also wrote down how long I spent on each activity. I discovered, that rather than the '1 hour per day' I've been telling everyone I spend on Japanese, some days I can clock up to 3 hours! Although this is partly because I've been doing more lately, such as writing lang-8 journals and actually getting myself into skype. I'm a bit disappointed, because I was so happy when I'd worked out how long it would take someone to reach advanced proficiency, based on just 1 hr of study per day (I think it was 4-6 years). It made me stop giving myself so much grief for being poor at Japanese. Now I know I study about 2 hrs per day on average, I'm feeling a lot of pressure to reach the advanced level within the next 12 months! Off the back of the diary I made, I have written a more rigid weekly study plan, that can be tweaked depending on whether or not I have work, or if I see friends. It is a little 'ticky chart' of 24 activities that need to be covered over a 7 day period. I also write a rough 'study outline' at the beginning of each week, based on my schedule, that I check against the 24 activities to ensure everything gets covered. It really helps me to see where I can fit my studies in, while still having a life outside of Japanese. Knowing I have set things to do, also keeps me focused on on-track. Before I share my weekly study activities (don't worry it's not 24 different things.. for example, I tick 'complete all daily anki reviews' 7 times during the week), I wanted to invite you all to share what YOU do. What are your daily or weekly rituals that allow you to keep up with Japanese, while still seeing your friends, doing your schoolwork, holding down a job, or whatever it is your life demands of you? Even if you posted in the previous, please share again, especially if what you do has changed since then. DISCLAIMER: The OP is not responsible for any of your ideas that she ruthlessly steals and adds to her own schedule. ^^
|
|
|
Post by 魔 on Dec 12, 2013 1:30:29 GMT
I've been using a checklist to add some structure to my Japanese learning(otherwise I might just watch Naruto). Checklist
I'm about to watch the last episode of Yakitate Japan. Then I can delete it from the list! I'd have done more of the list today if not for Busuu. They gave me a free trial again, so I managed to finish off the rest of the premium lessons.
|
|
|
Post by Bokusenou on Dec 12, 2013 2:14:30 GMT
If I have time then I read novels or watch anime, looking up new words if I can't figure them out, and adding them to Anki, in addition to the things I do when I don't have much time. When I don't have much time, I do Anki, and read a newspaper editorial or two, while having Japanese music or podcasts playing in the background every chance I get. All my devices with a Japanese setting have been turned to Japanese, which helps.
It's funny demonhead and Jemma both mentioned using checklist-type things. I use habitrpg.com, as well as the android app, as a checklist for getting things done, although my list of things there is all the things I want to get done, not just Japanese related things.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 12, 2013 10:14:49 GMT
Actually, my checklist is hand written! I like the idea of using an online app, but while I've digitalised much of my study, there are some things I just need to still hand write. I guess because of my age. I was of the generation that was only just starting to see the rise of IT. So my school only had 20 PCs, that we only used when we had IT lessons, which was only for half the time (half the class did IT, while the other half did PSE, then we'd flip over). So for me, school work was never done with smartboards and we didn't use computers at all for studying our main curriculum. I guess this is why I still love to have notebooks.
When I am more advanced, I plan to study more in the way you do Bokusenou, that is.. more passively submerging myself in the language. For now though, I have to take a more active approach unfortunately.
I'm interested actually. Neither of you mentioned what you do to practice speaking. You mentioned before that you have a language exchange partner Rin, and Demonhead, you're using kotobaminers right? Do either of you have any other tips for getting speaking practice into your busy lives?
I started writing up my daily activities but as ever, I started going into way too much detail. I'll try to be more concise.. There'll be a lot, so please forgive the typos there'll undoubtedly be here.
So I basically have 7 main study methods, that are each in themselves broken down in a structured way. These are: Anki, Video Journal, Lang-8, Conversation, Jpod101, kanji/reading and watching things Japanese.
Anki (Skills: vocabulary and reading)
Every day I ensure I cover the reviews due for that day. I also try to do at least one custom study per day, which is usually reviewing the entire 'tricky vocabulary deck'. Once a week I check for suspended cards and move them into the tricky vocabulary deck. I also put cards from the tricky vocab deck that I seem to be getting the hang of, back into my main deck. Most cards, besides those in my kanji deck, are in English first and I give the Japanese. After a few months, I flip the cards over and edit so it's kanji only, and start learning to read the word.
Video Journal (Skills: speaking fluency, grammatical accuracy)
I try to make a minimum of 2 journal entries per week. I used to try to make one per day, but I've actually only made around 50 since I started the journals back in May this year. To be honest, I don't get as much out of these as I would like. One of the problems is I never know what to say, so much of the time I'm just saying the same things and not challenging myself. The other problem is that I miss a lot of the grammar mistakes I make because I don't realise they're mistakes.
To try to address this, I now have 2 types of journals. The first kind I make for the speaking practice, but not get too hung up about. If I have time, I'll play them back and listen for mistakes, but I no longer note down mistakes in my notebook, unless I think it's necessary.
The other kind I make before writing a lang-8 journal. I write roughly what I want to say in my journal, in English, to help to focus my attention on the topic. I give myself a chance to look up words I think I might not know in Japanese. Then I record a video of myself talking about the topic in Japanese. I use this video to write my lang-8 journal, correcting my mistakes as best I can of course. This way, those things I said that I thought sounded okay, can be corrected by native speakers!
Lang-8 (Skills: writing, vocabulary, grammatical accuracy)
So that brings me comfortably onto lang-8. I wish I'd started using this ages ago. If I could, I would try to write a short post every other day, but due to the way I use lang-8, the amount of free time I have and the other study methods I use, once per week is more realistic.
I mentioned above that I say my journals out loud first, to the best of my ability. As well as correcting the mistakes and adding details, I also add things from a list of 'things to clear up with lang-8', which is basically bits of grammar or expressions I've come across that I'm not sure of the correct use for, or sentences I've tried to say but couldn't. I throw 2 or 3 of those in if I can, to see if the natives change them, or leave them as is.
I have a document on my desktop where I list the title of each lang 8 post and put under it which sentences I put in to test out. When I receive feedback, I first comment on what the natives made of those sentences, and cross them from the list if I nailed it, or add details like 'doesn't work with...' so I can try it again in a different context sometime. I then record all the useful feedback.
You were hoping I stopped there weren't you? Oh no.. if I stopped there, how ever would I ensure I made use of that great feedback in future? This is where my stack of Chococat notelets comes into play. These are small 'sticky note' sized, nonadhesive notelets that come in a little box. Each side has a little Chococat face in one corner. On these, I write myself questions based on the feedback I got from lang-8, and draw a speech bubble so it is like Chococat-sensei is asking me. On the reverse, he gives me the answer. They can be anything from 'what's the missing particle' to, 'which one of the following is NOT correct'. I can then dip into these every few weeks to stop me from forgetting the valuable things the natives tell me.
Conversations (Skills: Listening comprehension, speaking or reading)
Self-explanatory. Once a week I have to have an actual conversation with someone in Japanese. They can be native or non-native, written or verbal. I have a box to tick to say that I did this, then 2 boxes, one for written conversations and one for verbal. I've been realistic and only asked for one, but last week I managed 3 text conversations and 1 verbal.
To achieve this, I use skype, gaiwa chat, minecraft, play pokemon cards with JP (the only time his Japanese is considerably better than mine and I get to learn all kinds of cool stuff from him: last night, he taught me につき.. for saying things like 'take 10 damage for each energy card attacked to your opponents pokemon ^^) or I hang out with the conversation group.
Japanesepod101 (Skills: Vocab building, grammar, speaking and listening)
I'm still using the study method I created a few months ago for studying from this site. I was amazed by the results when I first used it. While I'm still not very fluent in Japanese, I can definitely verbalise, at least familiar sentences, much better than I could before. As I said at the time, my speaking seemed to catch up with my written Japanese within the first 4 or 5 days of using the method. After that, while I'm sure I'm still progressing, it slowed right down, so that now my speaking only improves as quickly as my knowledge is increasing, which is far slower than I'd like!
Kanji and reading (Reading and writing)
I only started focusing on reading and writing about a month ago, when I wanted to take that test Rin posted a link to, but couldn't read the sample questions fast enough (they declined my password request anyway in the end ^^), so this is possibly my weakest skill.
I use 3 tools for this: I try to read at least one authentic Japanese text per week, which includes playing Pokemon XY (although I'm currently playing in kana only: I intend to switch to kanji at some point), my chibimarukochan book, or the texts on NHK for school.
For writing, I have a book that is lined on one side and blank (will an illustrated boarder) on the other side. I draw squares on the blank side, so I can practice writing kanji, then on the lined side, I write the readings, meaning and a collection of compounds. At the bottom of the page, I also write a mnemonic to help me remember the kanji. I also have a hand-written journal, but I don't often have time to write in this. When I do, I put a few kanji at the top of the page and also have a pop-out card with frequently used kanji on it in pencil. When I start writing characters without looking at this card, I erase them and add a new one. Otherwise, I just use kana for everything ^^.
Watch Japanese (Skills: listening comprehension)
This is usually either Japanese TV (if the stream is working), or Lets Plays. I have a few movies in Japanese, like Hot Fuzz, which I watch now and then too. JP watches anime fairly often, so if I'm not busy, I try to listen to it. I try not to watch too much anime, because it can cause bad habits (like unnatural speaking styles and so on), but I think so long as you also expose yourself to real Japanese, it shouldn't be a problem. I particularly enjoy watching Yugioh because I know enough specific vocabulary to follow a fair bit. The same is true for pokemon, but I'm watching this series because I genuinely have a soft-spot for pokemon.
So.. this is kind of a new schedule. I've done these things for a while, besides lang-8 and reading/writing practice, which were both started about a month ago. I also didn't make enough of an effort to speak to others until recently, but I'll do what I can to stick to my plan and make sure I cover all 7 study methods so all skill areas are developed from now on.
|
|
|
Post by 魔 on Dec 12, 2013 22:25:54 GMT
It's funny demonhead and Jemma both mentioned using checklist-type things. I use habitrpg.com, as well as the android app, as a checklist for getting things done, although my list of things there is all the things I want to get done, not just Japanese related things. Thanks for the link, it's better than the thing I was using. I'm going to use the habit section for learning Kanji. The dailies is for the stuff I had on the other checklist. Not sure what I'll do with the to do list part yet JembruI've tried going to a meet up a couple of times, never really spoke any Japanese when I went there. It was just some pub where a bunch of people gathered. They are all mostly spread out in little groups and I don't feel like trying to push into them. Going there alone and buying overpriced drinks while trying to make conversation isn't so appealing for me. But the first time I went there I found out about a free weekly Japanese class, so it wasn't all bad. Lucid dreaming might be a good way to study, a couple of my dreams recently have involved more Japanese.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 12, 2013 23:00:53 GMT
JembruI've tried going to a meet up a couple of times, never really spoke any Japanese when I went there. It was just some pub where a bunch of people gathered. They are all mostly spread out in little groups and I don't feel like trying to push into them. Going there alone and buying overpriced drinks while trying to make conversation isn't so appealing for me. But the first time I went there I found out about a free weekly Japanese class, so it wasn't all bad. Lucid dreaming might be a good way to study, a couple of my dreams recently have involved more Japanese. Man I feel that! I actually went to a group like that once. It was just like you describe. They hired out a private room in a bar in Newcastle's Big Market. There was a table at the top of the room where mainly natives sat, then a table that was a little mixed, and finally a bunch of Brits sat around talking ABOUT Japanese rather than IN it. Now and then people from the middle table would float about and try to get everyone to mingle, but it rarely worked. I went to two of these events. The second time, I tried to sit at the mixed table. This is going back maybe 6 years, so I didn't know much Japanese back then. I tried to introduce myself and then some guy (British of course), started talking to me in (what seemed to me at the time at least) fluent Japanese, asking me which island in Japan Ikuta was in (because saying 'kanagawa, near tokyo' wasn't enough??). He was making it as awkward as possible, basically trying to intimidate me for trying to speak. I realised quickly why none of the other beginners/light dabblers in the language, didn't try to join in and speak Japanese; you just got slashed down for trying. Needless to say, I never went back! I have vowed never, ever to let this happen to my own group. I do everything I can to ensure everyone is included, and due to the way the group started there is 100% interaction between Japanese and non Japanese members (basically my language exchange partner and her husband, JP and I and a Japanese friend who's now in the US (maan I miss him so much >.<), used to go drinking together every Friday or Saturday night, and we decided it would be cool to branch out and invite other Japanese speakers to tag along after trying to join in with such a group and finding it had disbanded). Because Miyo and I are basically the nucleus of the group and have a good friendship, all other members sort of spiral out from us and this seems to stop the segregation from happening. My only complaint about our group, is that it is heavier on the Japanese than some. So far, there are more fluent members than beginners, so those who speak no Japanese sometimes end up sat on the end of tables looking slightly perplexed. I always make an effort to keep them included. Like (assuming I'm not also lost), I'll call over and say something like 'so and so is just saying how blahblahblah, what do you think?' then they can join in and the conversation usually goes into English-Japanese soup for a while. Sorry for the little story there ^^ Dreams? You know, when I dream in Japanese it is rarely that the whole dream is in Japanese and I'm unaware, but rather that I am in a situation where I need to speak it. I don't know why this is. Often it will be that I've joined a class or something and other students are trying to pick on me or make me feel stupid and I have to try to defend myself in Japanese, or I'm in a Japanese airport and missed my flight, but none of the airport staff speak any English.
|
|
|
Post by Bokusenou on Dec 13, 2013 1:51:56 GMT
魔Yeah, I find it a nifty little tool. I tend to use the to do list part I tend to use for bigger goals, like referencing your earlier post, I would have made "Watch one episode of Yakitate Japan" a habit (or a daily, depending on how much I wanted to watch it), and "Finish Yakitate Japan series" a to do. Use them in whatever way works best for you though. JembruI know what you mean about hand written things! I remember things better when I write them out, but I tend to use google docs or apps to write things down because they're searchable, and there is no chance that I'll lose it. I still like writing on paper better though, as well as paper books, even though I have an ereader for when I'm on the go. As for speaking, it's been my lowest priority for a while, since the only meetup for Japanese people here meets only once a month, and there aren't any other such things that I know of. I've been trying to practice on sharedtalk, and skype more, but haven't done it as much lately. I guess since I started learning Japanese to read and watch stuff, those are the skills which developed most. I think the thing I do most is think in Japanese. I try to do that whenever I can. I can't do it in front of people who don't know Japanese though, because it makes my sudden reactions happen in Japanese. Like if we're watching a show and a weird thing happens. I'll say へえええ?!, before I can stop myself while everyone else is saying "Wha!?". Also, thinking in Japanese makes me dream in Japanese sometimes. When I was starting out thinking in Japanese, I would carry around a dictionary. After I thought something with a word I didn't know, I would look up the word, and say or think the sentence with the correct word.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 13, 2013 2:14:10 GMT
I thought that was just me! I'm relieved to know others exclaim in Japanese too and it's not just because I live with JP.
Do you find it's taking you longer to remember English words sometimes too? My gran had dementia before she died and I panic when I can't remember English or mix up my grammar in ways I never used to. I seriously hope this is just because of the stage I've reached in Japanese.
Ooh, I might have to steel your idea about carrying a dictionary with you (I use jisho.org on my phone these days). A friend recently told me she thinks I'm letting myself think in English too much when I try to speak Japanese and this is what is slowing me down and making me forget what I was trying to say. I've started exploring ways to train this out of me and am planning on maybe using my findings as an article topic in the future!
|
|
|
Post by Bokusenou on Dec 13, 2013 2:33:13 GMT
I thought that was just me! I'm relieved to know others exclaim in Japanese too and it's not just because I live with JP. Do you find it's taking you longer to remember English words sometimes too? My gran had dementia before she died and I panic when I can't remember English or mix up my grammar in ways I never used to. I seriously hope this is just because of the stage I've reached in Japanese. Ooh, I might have to steal your idea about carrying a dictionary with you (I use jisho,org on my phone these days). A friend recently told me she thinks I'm letting myself think in English too much when I try to speak Japanese and this is what is slowing me down and making me forget what I was trying to say. I've started exploring ways to train this out of me and am planning on maybe using my findings as an article topic in the future! About remembering English words, YES! Only went I've been "in Japanese mode" a lot though. The thing I never realized before I started my English media ban, is that our idea of what's normal language usage is constantly reinforced by the media we watch. A lot of times after I started learning Japanese, I would begin to write something in English, and then be like "Wait, is that right?" and need to Google it. I think my English got a little weirder after I started learning Japanese. XD I use an EPWING reader app, and put dictionary files on my phone these days, though I used to carry a paper dictionary in my bag where ever I went.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 13, 2013 4:37:16 GMT
I'm pleased it's not just me!
I totally get what you mean by 'Japan mode' My Japanese is a lot better if I've been meeting with my friends more frequently and I've had time to submerse myselfin my studies. What I don't get though, is how from one day to the next, my Japanese can vary so much. For example, I made a video journal entry from work about 4 days ago, that I was so pleased with I just kept playing over and over.. Sure there were my usual little slips, but the complexity of the sentences and the speed I spoke, were much better than usual and it really surprised me. It didn't feel like it was me I was listening to and it filled me with hope that soon, that could be my normal Japanese ability! Then this morning I tried to make a video journal about my hair (I'm growing out the black so I can return to my natural colour) and I could hardly get to the end of a single sentence. I was just tripping over every word and ended up rage quitting after 3 minutes (my journals are usually around 8 minutes or so).
The same happens when I type actually. I find some days, I'm referring to jisho for almost every sentence, yet there are other days, where I forget jisho.org even exists and just rattle off my sentences without thinking. Does any of this sound familiar too?
|
|
|
Post by LittleGaijin on Dec 13, 2013 8:30:54 GMT
Thanks for the cheeky mention of my article, hehe! I just love that this thread is here now! Recently, I haven't been studying as much as I like because of all the craziness of the holidays... but, when I start studying I plan to go about it how I usually do! Here's what I do! Usually, I'll clean up my room at the start of a study day because I can get easily distracted and end up not studying at all. I store and tuck away anything that will distract me later. After getting everything that I need to do throughout the day done first (replying to messages, catching up on some shows, doing work), I'll start going about my studying. My diary is Japanese only (for several good reasons), so I'll write a page in the diary to start. When using my Japanese diary, I will not look at a dictionary. When you reach a comfortable level in intermediate, it's important to close the dictionary and force yourself to do without it 2/3 percent of the time if you can help it. This forces me to call upon all the Japanese vocabulary I know in order to describe something. Sometimes this makes me spell out sentences that are way longer than they could be if I were to use a dictionary. The other thing I like to do (specifically) is play video games with my sound recorder on throughout the entire session. I'll talk to myself in Japanese while playing the game, any game will do! I used to talk to a voice recorder, and practice speaking in Japanese that way when I was a beginner... but I would always run out of things to talk to and start rambling like a dummy. I'd delete the audio files without even listening to them again! However, when you talk to yourself while playing video games―there is always something to talk about! 「やばい!その所に誰かがいるみたい・・・見えないけど。危ないそれ。」or「やばっ!私は死んでいる!ゾンビ死ね、死ね!」If you are a gamer, like me, things like this can become your practice for when you play games with someone in Japanese sometime! I know that I need to start doing this again for whenever I skype and play games with Jemma and JP, or Jade!! The rest of the things that I do are easy to predict. I'll watch some Japanese movies or shows, and write down things that I hear that I don't understand or know. Afterwards, I'll look up the words I've taken notes of, and I'll write everything down into a notebook. And repeat. I'll listen to Japanese music while writing new kanji in a separate notebook, 30 times each. Listen to podcasts. And sometimes I'll even do a rare post on Lang-8! These are all the things I try to do each day whenever I'm in a Study Mode! I can't recommend using Japanese while playing video games enough though. Especially with friends on skype who also speak Japanese!!
|
|
|
Post by Bokusenou on Dec 13, 2013 22:28:35 GMT
I'm pleased it's not just me! I totally get what you mean by 'Japan mode' My Japanese is a lot better if I've been meeting with my friends more frequently and I've had time to submerse myselfin my studies. What I don't get though, is how from one day to the next, my Japanese can vary so much. For example, I made a video journal entry from work about 4 days ago, that I was so pleased with I just kept playing over and over.. Sure there were my usual little slips, but the complexity of the sentences and the speed I spoke, were much better than usual and it really surprised me. It didn't feel like it was me I was listening to and it filled me with hope that soon, that could be my normal Japanese ability! Then this morning I tried to make a video journal about my hair (I'm growing out the black so I can return to my natural colour) and I could hardly get to the end of a single sentence. I was just tripping over every word and ended up rage quitting after 3 minutes (my journals are usually around 8 minutes or so). The same happens when I type actually. I find some days, I'm referring to jisho for almost every sentence, yet there are other days, where I forget jisho.org even exists and just rattle off my sentences without thinking. Does any of this sound familiar too? The thing is, this happens in English too, at least with me. When I was in college, all the visual arts department classes had frequent critiques, and class participation counted heavily. As a result, I ended up saying as least a few things in my classes every day. Some days I was like "Wow, I thought of that awesome point, and worded it so well that the whole class was impressed!" while other days I was like "Why couldn't I think of a better point!?" or "I worded that so badly I don't even think the professor knew what point I was trying to make! Ugh!". A lot of times a bad day and a good day were back to back. I think what affected how eloquent I was mostly had to do with: 1. How self-conscious or stressed I was. 2. How tired I was. Those things also have a great effect on the quality of my Japanese.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 17, 2013 19:52:25 GMT
Sorry I didn't reply to this thread sooner.
@anna, I might borrow your idea about the games when I write my article about training yourself to think in Japanese. I'm still only just experimenting with the ideas myself, so won't be starting it until I've at least found things that worked for me so I can write from experience. Then I'll include things that others have done.
I think exclamations are often the first things to become automatic responses in your second language, possibly for the same reason students of English studying in the UK, find the word 'boll*cks' so easy to remember. So actually, banning English while you play video games, is probably a vey good way to encourage these things to come out without the need to think about what you want to say first. It's definitely a tip I'll include!
So, I'm now into week 3 of my study schedule and it's going okay so far. I'm just wondering how long it will be before I stray from it, lol. So far though, I'm feeling much freer to other things, and when I do study, I waste less time drifting off. I'm finding I often do more than the minimum expected of each item on the list, although I was late with my lang-8 post this week. I started writing another (the one I rage quit the video journal for), but there was so much that is hard to explain, that I ended up leaving it unfinished. Then on Saturday, I went to the Christmas market with JP and decided to write about that instead. The only problem is I had work saturday, sunday, monday and tonight, and while I was doing all my lang-8 stuff from work until last week, now nothing lets me input Japanese from that computer, so I had to write it in romaji and edit from home. It was all very time consuming, so I think I can forgive myself for being late just this once! ^^
@rin: you mentioned things that affect your Japanese. I can agree with every one of those (and not just because I want to use 'I had been awake for over 20 hours' as an excuse for my Japanese in the practice thread ^^). Especially, I notice when new members come to the conversation group, I feel under a bit more pressure. I don't know why, but I always worry that they'll be asking themselves why someone who can't speak Japanese is running a conversation group. It makes me want to try to sound fancy and show that I DO know more than basic 'noun wa adjective desu' sentences. The pressure though, just makes me worse than usual. After that though, the wine starts pouring and I stop caring. By the end of the night, I stop getting a single particle correct, but I'm recalling words surprisingly quickly (or lets more accurately say I'm recalling the general sound of the word, lol) and the, albeit broken, Japanese just pours from my mouth as smoothly as the wine pours down my neck! ^^
|
|
|
Post by MidoriAbby on Dec 19, 2013 22:24:39 GMT
Even though school's been busy I've been trying to come up with a good study schedule for vocabulary and kanji, since those are areas I still feel I lack in. This is my official schedule:
Monthly/Bi-monthly: Make a video-blog (speaking practice) Weekly: Write a lang-8 journal Daily: Learn 1 vocabulary word and 1 kanji Twice a week: look at grammar stuff (textbooks, JLPT websites, j-gram, etc.) Also twice a week: Have a conversation on Skype with a native speaker or go to Japanese group
It's pretty simple, as long as I remember to stick to the daily stuff.
|
|
|
Post by Jembru on Dec 24, 2013 4:59:36 GMT
I've had to admit defeat this week! I didn't manage to find time to write my lang-8 post. I would have written one, if the darned online input systems worked on my works computer, but nothing works. I've tried finding alternatives, but all of them just let me write in kana, or are really confusing if they do allow kanji input. Google cloud won't display the kanji in the drop down menu, it just shows up blank, and google translate doesn't show that little 'あ' in the bottom of the text box that lets you directly input Japanese, no matter what I click on... the browser needs updating, but you need an admin key, which obviously only management would have.. and not MY manager seemingly. I am not at home (and awake) long enough when I have night shifts, to be able to work on anything, and now I am off, it is Christmas so I'm going to be way too busy.
So this week, I'm just going to focus on keeping on top of my anki reviews. I at least got to practice Japanese last night at the conversation group's Christmas meal. I used way too much English this time though. I'm not sure why.. it wasn't deliberate, I was just automatically answering questions in English without thinking. I don't know why. JP reassured me that I was speaking Japanese more than I think I was though.
Oh and I got my Japanese novels back!! Woohoo. I now have a stack of books I can't read ^^
|
|