Today I will show you the notebooks I have in learning Japanese Language (日本語). This is how I take down notes. Ways that helped me a lot in remembering kanji words and grammar structure. I hope you'll find this post helpful.
NOTEBOOK 1(My Personalized Kanji Dictionary)
This is one of my favorite notebooks, because this is where I've written all the Kanji words from N5 to N3 level. I often use this in memorizing the words and it becomes my very own personalized dictionary. You might be thinking that this is insane! Yes I know! (lol) It really took me a lot of time and patience in completing this. But I feel so fulfilled after I finished writing all of them. I did this during community quarantine/lockdown in our place. My major purpose in doing this is because I want to familiarize myself in the stroke orders of each Kanji characters. I find it more effective in memorizing new words whenever I write them. Also it served as my substitute from studying kanji characters when my eyes are tired from using gadgets. This is really a huge help for me in my studies. Also I feel more obligated to review this notebook because of the hardwork that I've put into it. It's a good motivation! (lol)
I want to show you how I study Japanese vocabulary. I've been studying Nihongo for almost 2 years now and so far, this is the best way I've found in learning new words. It's really effective to me since it helped me recall and use the words I've learned easily.
This is how I study new words. I learn them through context. I look for the definition of the word and write down sample sentences. At night, I will review my notes and create my own sentences.
I've already collected and written words from N5 to N3 level. To make my sentence mining easier, I categorized the words by their types on my notebook. Meaning, I've already determined if the words are い- adjective, な-adjective, noun or verb. This way, it would be easier to figure out how they are used in a sentence.
This October, I've decided that I'll fully immerse myself in Japanese. I have been studying vocabulary that's why I'm missing in action posting here in Japanese in the past months. I still have a long way to go, I'm not even finished with N3 vocabulary yet, so I'm not that confident to come back writing. I'll be focusing first on the input than the output. I know, I was very brave to actually write in Japanese before despite the lack of knowledge but I was just so excited to test it out. I'm actually happy about it, I'll maybe correct a few mistakes though. lol
Anyways, now I'm keeping a journal to write all the things I wanted in Japanese, somehow it's really effective since I'm able to correct myself along the way. It's really a good way to track your progress like this. Just to update you, I've been reading a lot of Japanese, understanding more the vocabulary that I've familiarized with. I seriously written the kanji words repeatedly in order for me to get used to them and their meanings, but I know I needed to understand them in context that's why I'm doing that. As I'm reading a lot lately, I realized that there's really no precise translation of Japanese context word for word. I think as long as you convey or understand the correct thought then that'll be fine.
I also watch japanese dramas and anime as well, that's why I got hooked up with The Millionaire Detective and Nakagawa Taishi. I met Nakagawa Taishi in my little lover drama and boy, he instantly became my fave! Followed him on instagram right after I finished that drama. Haha. I need to look for new anime and dramas to watch since I've finished these two that I've mentioned. If you have recommendations, then please leave it in the comment section.
Aside from reading, writing and watching, I also try to immerse myself back into japanese music again. I tried listening to Scandal band the other night and I feel so nostalgic! That was one great option for me to listen to, but my korean fandom is always pulling me back to them. So I've been looking for Japanese idol songs that somehow could keep up with my kpop sounds. And guess what!? I think I found what I'm looking for!
I found E-girls (Exile Girls)! Their music is really good! I haven't really researched about them thoroughly but their music just got into me that it's impossible to ignore them. I'm listening to them right now in youtube.
Lately I've been listening non stop to Kpop songs, it's not even the language that I'm studying. So I've decided to change my ways and found E-girls last night! I'm listening to them right now, I haven't played a kpop song yet. I think E-girls is really good that made me do such things.
To clarify though, of course I still love Kpop, Red Velvet especially. That still hasn't change. But since I'm trying mass immersion approach to learning japanese, then I need to listen to Jpop.
So far, here are my favorite songs from E-girls that you guys might want to listen to as well. I'm not done yet listening to their songs so this list of favorites may still change. 😊
Show Time
This was the first song I've listened to and I was surprised at how amazing it was. Somehow it reminded me of the coolness of a kpop idol, blackpink.
So I've been busy lately because of my Japanese studies. I really love studying the language, slowly and effectively. I think with this much of concentration and will power I would be able to succeed this time to achieve a fluency that I desire. Well, I know that this is going to be a life long journey (about studies), but I'm really excited to see my improvement along the way. Whenever I see myself improve by understanding (even a bit) the context of what Japanese people are saying or when I can easily remember kanji used in a sentence or in a video that I'm watching, I can't help but squeal out of fulfillment because I know that all my sufferings due to immense studying is finally paying off.
Watching a lot of youtubers (Matt vs Japan, Chad Zimmerman, Kemushichan, and Lindie Botes) doing their thing in studying the language gave me so much motivation and inspiration to do great in my studies as well. They basically give amazing tips that were applicable in their studies as well, which somehow I also apply a few to mine. Their tips aren't a hundred percent effective to each and every single person but it depends on how one takes them. We need to filter out everything that's fitting to our preferences too so we won't feel suffocated trying to follow something that's not even applicable to us. Anyways, for me, just watching them makes me feel like I have companion in studying. It's like the difficulties I'm encountering were also encountered by them and yet they were able to surpass it by how they've become now. It's amazing really, but just watching them isn't enough. We need to do the work, and I'm doing so by using this quarantine period to study all the way through.
Even though I haven't posted a blog entry in Japanese here in the blog, I still am constantly practicing my skills privately. I basically try to improve my grammar, my kanji knowledge at a time. I also tweet in Japanese (which is more convenient for me to access and use since my vocabulary isn't that much yet) and I also try to speak without writing first, it's like practicing how to assemble the words inside my head. And to be honest I find it satisfying whenever I hear myself speak in Japanese. lol
Eventually, I'll be back in writing stuff in here again in Japanese for everyone to see my progress so far. But for now, enjoy the blog with whatever content you find here.
Wow! It's been a year and 4 months now since I've started learning the language, and so far I really am enjoying every bits of it. Seriously and that's great news！Yey!
Oh let me drop here an AKB48 song, wherein Acchan and the rest of original Kami 7 were present. This is gold, so thank me later.
I haven't been to Japan but I want to go!
This is my reason I'm studying Japanese.
Someday I'll go over there!
It's not impossible, right?
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何か言ってもいいですか。
今日は一日中にナルトを見ています。
やっぱりサスケは強いです。でもナルトは弱くないです。
一生に二人の力は凄かった！
Can I say something?
Today I am watching Naruto all day.
As expected Sasuke is strong but Naruto is not weak.
Together their power is amazing!
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12月13日でIUはヒリピンにI行ってる。友達とコンサートに行く！IUのきれいな声を聞きたい。そこにIUと歌ったり、たくさん写真を撮ったり、商品を買いたりする。うわぁ~楽しみ！ On December 13, IU is going to the Philippines. I will go to the concert with a friend! I want to hear IU's beautiful voice. I will sing with IU, take lots of photos and buy merchandise. Uwa~I'm looking forward to it!
So aside from the Hiragana which I have discussed previously in Learning Japanese: Hiragana/ひらがな we also have Katakana as part of the Kana system.
Basically it has the same phonetic sounds as Hiragana, it's just that the characters that represent them are all different. Katakana has sharp edges while Hiragana has rounded characters. Katakana is only used to represent words from a foreign language.
For example:
グラフ
gurafu
(graph)
ゴルフ
gorufu
(golf)
アメリカ
Amerika
(America)
Since Katakana characters are very limited, foreign words do not sound equally the same in Japanese. So katakana will surely be a challenge for us foreigners of the Japanese language. I sometimes cannot understand how those words ended up like that. lol
From the first month of the year, I oath to learn Japanese language AGAIN. lol Attempt no. infinity~Damn!
But this time I'm gonna be serious. Coz these books I've bought are really expensive. Well aside from that, it's really hard to start all over again and again. It's like repeating the basics the entire time and no progress at all. Time is surely wasted with this type of negative habit. So I'm gonna put a stop on this laziness and just get on with it step by step. Therefore, I decided to post here the progress I've made every single lessons. Just so I could track whether I've learned it well or I've missed out something. In my case right now, I'm already in advance lessons. Meaning the topic that I'll post here were the lessons I've learned beforehand.
Also let me clear some things in here, I'm not trying to teach alright. So stop thinking that coz I'm no pro on this. I'm just gonna use this blog to basically become my tracker, my motivation to study more so I could post in here. Oh yes more blog entries! It's like killing 2 birds with one stone! Yep that's it.
Also blog entries like this would just share about how I study. How I study japanese. The easiest way for me to familiarize with things. So without further ado, let me start with it.
But wait! I'll post first from the very basic. I'm not gonna jump to kanji level coz that one is the beast. So let's take baby steps first and deal with one of the Kana characters which is Hiragana.
Although before we start right of the Hiragana characters, let's have basic understanding of what the Japanese Language first is. This one's really helpful and it's a video from youtube.
