Anyone doing / did AJATT?

3000 kanji.

And fluency in everything.

Don’t sell him short here.

5 Likes

I don’t think anyone is telling you not to use whatever works best for you to learn Japanese. But what works best depends on the person and how much time/effort they’re able to put in, as you noted. Most of us are also tired of seeing people come in and say how X method is so much better than WK without even using WK beyond the free levels.

5 Likes

He basically said “if you’re serious about Japanese, get with the program and do AJATT, if not, then keep wallowing in WaniKani-dom.”

He later said he wasn’t saying that.

1 Like

There is no need to be a dick. Like I said previously, do your own research…or not, it’s up to you.

1 Like

Taking things out of context.
I tried opening your mind to new ideas / methods.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I’m out.

I’m actually on patreon supporting Matt too. Not that I’m doing AJATT, but immersion and the material that people share in the discord channel are always welcomed.
About AJATT, I have no doubt it’s a wonderful method, albeit a very strict one, and hard to follow, but if you can endure that harcore training, why not… it’s your time, life :man_shrugging:

About WK, I have no doubts it’s a terrific method as well. Some of the comments Matt talked about (writing and context mostly) are easily corrected if you decide on doing it.
Myself I did RTK for 3 months. And choosed to look somewhere else. THe writing practice that RTK encourage I find it’s perfectly useful for WK as well. As for context. I have “my” method for aiding with context. But immersion surely do the most important part on cementing whatever I learn.

@jprspereira : about EN>JP, I decided on not doing it (KaniWani for example). Spending much more time on reading english and trying to adjust to japanese “equivalent” wasn’t much of a goal for me. I find time better spended on reading and working on recognition, since talking and writing aren’t high on my priorities now, the exception would be writing kanji, which for remembering it’s quite a good practice, at least to me. I won’t be moving to Japan or anything. Mostly consuming media it’s what I’m trying to aim.
I have no idea how this will affect my overal production in the long term, but it’s not a big concern. I think if I were very interested in talking right away, would be a different story.

Anyway, I take all these japanese learning discussions with a grain of salt. AJATT or whatever. Each one is very capable of noticing if they are getting better or not.

PS: @Jasen : I think any story about a better method, it’s a better one AFTER your get to the goal. Otherwise it’s just speculation and hopeful wishing. By the way this is an english forum, what kind of AJATTing are you into???

10 Likes

I believe you.

6 Likes

The thing that really gets to me most of the time people bring up AJATT is that it tends to be from people who are more or less just starting out learning Japanese and they see people like Matt who make them think they can reach fluency in 18-24 months or whatever if they follow the same method. Maybe they can, maybe they can’t, but I think it sends the wrong impression to new learners and doesn’t accurately represent just how difficult, if not impossible, that actually is to do. The vast majority of people also don’t have the time to follow AJATT (from what I know of it).

7 Likes

Was looking up some stuff on Khatzumoto and saw this in the search results and was only planning on a quick comment (which turned into much more for some reason):

At least I still have Japanese audio on in the background :man_shrugging:

Damn it, I believed you Jasen.

11 Likes

Yeah that’s why I said this:

It is “hardcore” and not many people are willing to go through the trouble.

disappointed Leebo is disappointed. +1

4 Likes

Ahh man. I keep getting notifications from this topic :man_shrugging:

It’s fine to focus on something. The down of it is that you’ll have to SRS EN => JP later on or writing/speaking will always stay behind your reading/listening.

But as a generalization (like the article you shared a few months ago), I think it’s a dangerous idea that might not be clear for 2nd language learners. My 2c.

1 Like

I can’t look away…it’s like staring into a beautiful supernova…

6 Likes

That actually it’s not so clear to me. I think I could go Stephen Krashen on this, but my experience in english has been different. Mainly reading and watching provided a solid background when I’ve needed to produce. Not perfect, sure, but with time in a english speaking country my production goes really high in no time. I’m confident SRS wouldn’t be needed if I’m truly in a production required enviroment.

Anyway, just my thoerization about language learning, based on my english learning process… AKA … my 2 cents…

5 Likes

I agree :stuck_out_tongue: And that’s the important idea to take into account here: most of us will most likely not get that.

Last time I was in an English speaking country was when I was 4 years old.

1 Like

Speaking as someone who did full AJATT (with RTK for Kanji) for at least a year, I did not find it to be effective. The sheer volume of content I listened to helped my pronunciation, sure, because I shadowed a lot of it.

But like…unless you don’t have a job or any commitments outside of learning Japanese, it’s really unsustainable. And because it involves a lot of input without taking the time to digest grammar, it isn’t as effective and purposeful as it could be. So I burnt out and then didn’t do much learning at all for a couple of years, leading to a backslide that meant just going slower (and more deliberately) with my studies would’ve led to better advancement overall. But maybe I’m not hardcore enough.

Also, I ended up coming to WaniKani and liking it much better, but that’s anecdotal. Just keep in mind when discussing AJATT that for a lot of WK users, this isn’t their first attempt at learning Kanji or Japanese, and it’s possible that they have either looked into or used AJATT themselves and found it less than ideal.

20 Likes

I did AJATT and RTK for about 4 months. I found it quite effective as I would pick up words and started having dreams in japanese. However, it wasn’t sustainable at all. Lost sleep and couldn’t enjoy media in other languages, it felt isolating and mentally draining, eventually led to complete burnout. Didn’t pick up japanese learning for years after because it left me with bad associations. I have no doubt of its effectiveness, I just could not handle the pressure.

Besides, I don’t know why I was in such a hurry to learn the language to begin with. I find WaniKanis slower pace to be smooth and enjoyable :cherry_blossom:

5 Likes

Mmm, I guess that hardcore rythm keeps burning out right around the corner all the time…

By the way, is there any part of your AJATT routine that you currently use now?