OH.MY.GOD.

Damn, holiday has flown past me faster than I thought.
Serious study time...
As it happens every holiday, I thought there was another week! Haha, that'll teach me for being too comfortable.
I went to Melbourne, it was great, funny how much time I spent in asian DVD stores and anime memorabilia stores secretly pretending I was in Japan, rather than across the ditch.
Well, time to cram some study into my brain. Let's see how that goes... ^_^

(Brief 3: Reflections are unseen in muddy waters)

So, looking back on the work I’ve been doing, I have come up against quite a few hurdles. One of the major issues I’ve had is comparing what we have learnt in class up against the slang I know. The structures are so different. Particles are dropped, words are shortened. Jesus Christ I opened a can of worms, Haha.
The amount of times I have written and erased my work has been ridiculous. There is no way to cohesively join the two, especially at my (low)level of Japanese.
On the plus side however, writing and re-writing has helped me retain a few things here and there, and any writing practice is good. The unfortunate thing about language learning is that if you stop using it, even for a day or two, you forget ALOT.
I’ve certainly been learning that the hard way this semester, vocab is ever disappearing from my brain. It’s actually quite frustrating.
I initially chose to do that because(and I guess it’s the same for everybody with every language) I always seem to remember the slang words and rude terminology. I find it fascinating that that can stay there, and it puzzles me as to why my university studies do not seem to have the same effect. I guess it’s like trying to skip proper education just to kinda “be down” with my Japanese friends or something.
As times speeds towards the end of the semester, I have shifted and changed where my 2nd brief is heading. I haven’t really posted anything to this blog. Still avoiding mahara, my sworn enemy(I’ll get you mahara...). Just writing and re-writing on paper as I need that practice(curse you 3 alphabets!!!). Maybe I should scan some of my handwriting and post that up.
In all honesty, I intended to make this into a dictionary/reference place for my uni work, but it never occured to me how time consuming, and ultimately pointless that would be.
I guess, all in all, that it’s turned into a gigantic mess, that is barely salvageable.
Still, mustn’t dwell on what’s already happened, focus on trying to fix the key problems I had.
Also realizing I cannot really write anything in Japanese as my lecturer will not be able to mark it has become another hurdle I need to try and overcome.
And then I found the answer. Writing about how I had gone about “learning” this semester.
It’s all too perfect. It fell into my hot little hands.
What did I do? I analyzed what I had been up to in the whole studying realm of this here semester 1. It never occured to me how much wasted thoughts were spent dodging the learning in the name of it until I wrote it all down.
So here I am, egg on my face, feeling like I’ve wasted a semester in a way, disappointed at how Japanese has been going for me, only to realize, I had secretly been learning something else this semester. How to sabotage my own learning.
That’s right. My brain tricked me into alot of timewasting habits and destructive studying patterns. I remember thinking to myself “I can’t study here!” while I was home by myself, so I ended up meeting a friend in town to “help me study”. I did anything but. Shame.
But it’s time to break free of all this.
I feel that what I speak of in the other entry(brief 2) is the most important lesson I have learnt this semester and am going to remind myself of these thoughts through the rest of my uni life. I might even keep up entries with this blog, it's been great in many aspects, and infuriating in others, but that's learning!
Hear’s to not robbing ourselves of our own education.

Brief 2(Learning learning learning)

(Hey Robo san, wanna make studying easier for me???)
OK, so to completely turn around what I was initially doing, I have decided to voice my opinions on the learning of Japanese. The do’s and don’ts(mainly the don’ts, from personal failures, haha) of learning the wonderful language of Japanese.
First of all, I wanna talk about distractions.
How many of you have “intended” to study, yet trick yourselves into doing the complete opposite?
I myself, am guilty of this very thing.
It seems that despite how much you may love Japanese dramas, j-pop or anime, the cold, harsh reality is that you won’t learn anything from it whatsoever. Argue with me if you disagree, but the reality is THERE’S SUBTITLES!!!!(well, maybe not in the j-pop thing, I'll let you off on that one...) Even looking away from them and trying to work it out all by yourself, you’ll find that the only things you’ll pick up are the things you have learnt in that lovely little Japanese classroom you’ve been neglecting.
Do you have a bad habit of considering the watching of Japanese dramas actually studying of sorts. It’s not true. It won’t work, turn off the TV, and hit the books!
Speaking of distractions, have you found yourself scouring youtube and plundering torrent sites for easier ways to learn and study? If the answer is yes then you should take into consideration how much time you are spending doing that. That time would have been better spent studying the text books you purchased at the start of the semester that sit unloved in your schoolbag.
I mention all these things because THEY ALL APPLY TO ME. I am guilty of these things.
Studying has become harder and harder as the years zip by. How can one study on a laptop with wireless internet? It’s too easy to check your facebook and post inane comments on people’s walls and status’.

(I could have been studying, but I doubt it...)


I know, I know, I’m a terrible student. Things tend to leave my head as quickly as they enter it. Sooooooooo... I’ve thought of things to help me(and you) make the most of studying Japanese. It’s not that it’s extremely hard, more that we make it hard for ourselves. We trick ourselves. BUT... It will take some time... a WHOLE lot of time.
So be patient, and bear with me.


Flash cards:

Flash cards are very useful to help you study, they are a fantastic tool. But they are not always your friend. They’re definitely good for initial recognition, or a quick revision on the fly, but if you rely on them, you’ll soon realize that your writing sux. Writing is very important! Not really much point if you can identify something but aren’t able to write it!
I learnt this the hard way.
A friend suggested to me that I do things the old fashioned way and write every kanji I’m supposed to learn 100 times. I thought to myself, you’re crazy! But recently I’m discovering that I could have EASILY written them all out 100 times with the amount of messing around making flash cards. I mean, I went out, purchased some blank cards, new pens and markers(I needed new markers for new cards!) then sat around slowly and neatly writing them all. And after doing 150 flash cards all I had to show for it was that i knew what 1/2 of them meant in English! Bah...
I’m not saying flash cards are bad, but I’m suggesting you spend at least the same amount of time writing them out(the kanji that is), boring as that may be. Think how great they'll look later on down the line!

Speaking:

I’m sure in our heads we all speak like we’re fluent Japanese speakers. So good in fact that being in Japan chatting to Ms Ogawa watering the garden she won’t even realize we’re foreigners! Ummm, yeah... Sure...
How often do you speak to Japanese people? Ask yourself that...
Last year I had quite a decent number of Japanese friends that I could talk to/practice with etc, but they’ve all gone home now, and even when they were around I never really took the time to practice speaking with them.
The other day, I was speaking to a Japanese friend of mine and I realized I only tend to talk in Japanese when I’m at the tachinomi up the road and I’m(for lack of a better word) Shitfaced.
9 times out of 10 this is a very bad idea. Do you remember being in high school and teaching Pier the French exchange student to go up to the prettiest girl in your class and say ”I need to take a dump.”? Well it can often end up like that. I personally have said so many horrible things to people(thankfully they usually laugh it off) and it can get a little embarrassing.
People in my class avoid language lab like the plague. I used to try and attend regularly but these days I think to myself “Oh, I have the mp3s from the workbook, I’ll just do it at home. Do I? Sometimes. But all in all, it’s just an excuse to shave half an hour off your time in class. I suggest that unless you ACTUALLY DO IT AT HOME you should not pass up the opportunity to record and playback your speaking of Japanese. You can learn alot(humility being one thing) from hearing back your speed, pronunciation and general understanding.

Study Environments.

Here's another tricky thing... Basically, I had decided I was going to take my studying to my favourite haunt. NOMBE. Probably not a bad idea all in all, but I soon discovered I could not sit down there trying to cram 200 kanji for an exam with cold, delicious yebisu in hand.

(Doesn't this seem like a wonderful studying environment?)

Best place I've discovered to study is... IN THE LIBRARY. Level 6, go and find a nice comfy booth, fight the facebook urges and study(don't talk, you're not allowed to!).
And just to reinforce an earlier sentiment, DO NOT HANG OUT IN BARS THINKING YOU CAN ABSORB THE LANGUAGE LIKE SOME LINGUISTICS VAMPIRE!!!

(AH, the cave... nice place to visit, bad place to study.)

I did learn a bit from being in the local Japanese bars and restaurants, but I wouldn't recommend studying there all the time. Definitely a decent place to go to practice what you've been studying, or ask a few questions though.


So there it is. All in all, I've felt the burn of lack of studying. It's a hard place to be in at times. You really feel a range of emotions, biggest one disappointment, as you feel you had been studying, alot(!), but hey, you can always give it another shot.
I am going to take all these things into consideration next semester and really strive for the most I can get out of this learning game. The most important thing to learn is... TO LEARN.

Hitting a brick wall.

So, as usual I have managed to get myself into a pickle, haha.
Everything I have been working on has ended going around in circles and going nowhere.
Currently on a salvaging mission.
Have been doing all my work on my laptop. Never posted it as it was not ready to put up.

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