So, yeah I’m super early on in the learning! To the point where attempting to read most things is a slog. However, I’m taking much solace in the fact that mnemonics and stories actually seem to work for me for memorisation (I kind of knew this before, because if I studied in certain situations they would be part of my recall, but I’ve never used it to this extent).
I started KaniWani yesterday, and with typos I was at 74% over about 2/3rds of what I’ve done so far, which I don’t feel is too awful. Those were all ones where I first pictured the Kanji, then worked out the words, so I at least have a vague idea of how things should look, and could give a reasonable attempt at drawing from memory.
I’ve just gotten the wave of Level 4 vocal that comes after guru-ing the kanji (barring a couple, again mostly I’m submitting too fast and getting typos at this stage rather than actually not knowing), and this in particular had me excited. All the vocab I unlocked I was able to parse the meaning of, and aside from the weird mixes of on/kun’yomi was able to work out the Japanese - including all but one of the rendaku.
It’s really not saying much at this early stage, but I don’t often feel good about myself xD So it’s exciting to feel like something is making sense. I’m sure I’ll feel differently in a few levels, but for now I’m happy and I just wanted to share.
Being able to guess the meaning always cheers me too, especially when the amount of lessons remaining looks horrific - you think, ah maybe this isn’t so bad!
Keep up the good work and good luck.
Yeah I guess it’s not a race (and sleep is important for good brain function so don’t be too hard on yourself! When this lockdown ends and end up commuting again there’s no way I’ll be able to keep going at this (not particularly speedy) rate. But better to be progressing than be overwhelmed and give up (this is my thinking, I kind of worry because I don’t want to lose what I’ve managed so far). Last night the youtube algorithm threw up a video of ‘50 Japanese verbs’ in sentences and I was astounded to recognise many words already, it really gave me a boost. So that sort of thing seems to happen quite quickly as I’m only just out of level 9. And the other thing I wanted to say was to agree with you that Kaniwani is helpful I think to help draw things out of your memory. (My scores vary a huge amount on there, but I kind of treat it like practice and repetition, so I don’t really care).
sleep well!
Ha, yeah I’m sinking my claws into it and will just keep on with ‘it’s clicked before so these characters will get there too’, while trying to ignore the ‘somewhere, an 8 year old is having no trouble with this at all’ voice.
I’m well acquainted with feeling mentally incapable anyway, I’m fantastic at maths, work everything out myself, blah blah blah, would get to my maths exams and all of that would go on holiday leaving me with nothing xD
At least lockdown has proven to have some benefits for some! Mostly hasn’t made a difference for me.
Sleep is very important, just it evades me all night, then come a stupid time in the morning cocoons me and won’t unwrap until another much later stupid time. Throws off all my review times and drives me crazy ^^”
I’m hoping I can speed up my level progression but my sleeping pattern is broken, so we shall see 