I was wondering about everyone’s weird little study habits. What do you do that most other people probably don’t do? And do you feel that it is a big plus in your studying, or do you experience it as more of a hindrance?
To start of, I’ll share my own “weird” habit. I started rewriting all articles and texts I read in my word processor in the vertical right-to-left format, with furigana next to every kanji (even those I know). I started doing this to get more accustomed to japanese texts, because the format always threw me off. The furigana I added later, both to aid me should my memory fail me, but mostly to get rid of the annoying habit of looking at the furigana and ignoring the kanji. Now that EVERY kanji has furigana, it’s a lot easier to ignore. In the (roughly) month since I started doing this, I feel that my reading skills and “feel” for grammar have improved at a way faster pace than beforehand.
Save my hour lunch-period every day at work which I also devote to studying, I’ll always read things out-loud in Japanese when I read them. Even if I already know the reading, it just feels like it burns it into my brain more to vocalize it. And as I plan on migrating, I know I need as much practice with accent as possible.
So I just sit around my room bumbling in a Japanese accent like a dork whenever I study or watch Japanese Youtube If you stood outside my apartment door long enough you’d think me insane.
This, btw, is a good example of how not to make an app, but anyway, it’s a sticky notes app; this is a page containing radicals. I can click on any radical to see the kanji it’s used in (the ones I’ve added):
From that I can either go to the radical info page for each radical that make it or to the kanji page of that radical (if the radical itself happens to be a kanji). Or I can see the usage of the kanji
Wow, that is absolutely amazing! I can only imagine how much of a boon that must be to your studies. The sheer amount of work this must take speaks volumes to your character and determination, I really respect it!
Haha, nothing wrong with being a little crazy! I love the idea, I read out loud during my shadowing practice, but I think I’ll start reading out loud the rest of the time too, sounds like a great idea!
I’m almost always chewing gum when I’m studying. It helps me focus somehow. Its starting to get out of hand honestly xD. I go through gum faster than a smoker goes through cigarettes.
Do you mean besides the wanikani vocab? Or do you skip those too? Any special reason for this?
Absolutely nothing wrong with prioritizing other things during your studies, only so many hours in a day after all! But, if you are starting to experience this as a hindrance, could it be worth considering changing your study methods?
Haha, that’s great! I seem to remember reading an article a long time ago that chewing gum also helped with memory and recall during learning. The effect wasn’t supposed to be profound, but hey, every little helps, right?
Tell me about it! Sometimes even the simplest things, like “Hmmm… must be the seven-thousand time I come across 6時, better check that it still means 6 o’clock”!
Same as @Saida, I don’t study vocab outside of what WK throws at me (can’t say it’s been a problem though).
Also, I read everything at least once through without a dictionary, even if it means skipping over most of it without understanding anything. It’s a bit time consuming but I feel like it helps overall…
A complete first read without looking anything up seems like a great idea. Will try this out today. Do you mark your texts when you encounter something you’re uncertain about, or do you re-read the entire text looking everything up?
I just blunder through, and then read the whole thing through again looking stuff up. I find that a lot of things that didn’t make sense the first time do the second time, even before I’ve looked them up.
I might note down stuff that still don’t make sense as I read through with the dictionary, for further research/asking on the forums.
Besides WK. I am learning Japanese in a class, and between catching up/working ahead to increasingly advanced classes, I would focus more on grammar than vocab. In the beginning especially I would easily pick up words in context and exposure. But now I am in the most advanced class, having skipped 16 vocab heavy chapters of Minna no Nihongo chukyu books. Plus all the listening practice words we are expected to learn from the Jdrama we watch in class, (of which I missed one completely by joining the class late), I just just haven’t taken the time to catch up.
I see, I can only imagine what a workload that must be! But I’m certain that you’ll do amazing and pick these up eventually, the mere fact that you’ve managed to work your way up to the most advanced class shows your grit!
Weird study habit I have is thinking in Japanese. Sometimes it’s unconscious like if I’m thinking about something in reference to my “Japanese life” or opinions I have as… Well not a Japanese but not as an American either.
I find my Japanese thoughts ocassionaly surprising. Mostly they are mundane and deal with family life but sometimes the American side of me is a big surprised at my own opinions.
Not to sound like a lunatic or anything. But if anyone here is a bit of a nerd and knows sapir whorf hypothesis it’s pretty par for the course.
Haha, I absolutely love the differences in thought patterns in different languages, it’s a big part of why I love learning languages. Had to look up Sapir-whorf, but it’s the same as Linguistic relativity isn’t it?
If I have a hard time with a vocab, I teach it to someone (in some cases I teach some japanese in the lunch break to some pupils at my school). It is really fun, but also a bit annoying to see how quick some of my friends and students pick up on things I have used hours to learn. I think my boyfriend remembers every history based vocab i have thought him…
If you stood outside my apartment door long enough you’d think me insane.
