It’s become popular of late to “collect sentences”. As though this is a goal unto itself.
There have even been a few discussions on the interwebs. Some have even blossomed into organized efforts with semi-elaborate controls on copyrighted works.
I did my own experiment with these a while back because I thought this was a good idea [...]
Burnout is the greatest enemy of learning any language. It takes a goal like fluency that motivates you, that drives you, and turns it into something you hate.
I think most of us have had that moment when we’ve worn ourselves down trying to memorize as much as we can in as little time as [...]
Sunday, February 10, 2008
All the tools I’ve seen out there are about learning Kanji Now! Fast! Locking it in your brain forever! Special mnemonic techniques! Learn hundreds of Kanji in a few days, remember them forever!
While it would be lovely to flip a switch and immediately understand another language. These things take time. So I’ll [...]
Saturday, December 8, 2007
How do you take something that’s fun to learn and make it soul crushingly boring? Make flashcards.
I’ve made flashcards by hand with my hideous handwriting (the technical term is “chicken scratch”). I’ve bought thousands of Kanji flashcards. Good cardstock, cheap cardstock. Curved corners and decks of paper cuts waiting to happen. [...]
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
I’ve never been a fan of tests or reviews for the simple reason that they are rarely used to move you forward.
Did poorly on a test because you had difficulty understanding the material? That’s nice, the class will be moving on now.
Reviews, Tests, Quizzes and the like are typically used to determine what you [...]
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Keep it simple. It’s amazing to me how many people learning Japanese do everything within their power to not read anything in Japanese. As though there is this magical point when they have memorized enough Kanji, drilled enough vocab, and crammed enough grammar, reading fluently will spontaneously occur.
Now, to be fair, reading Japanese [...]
