tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14259858502800516052012-01-25T22:04:47.722+09:00Natural language acquisition via the TV methodKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.comBlogger2331100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-68198336858727906992012-01-21T11:04:00.000+09:002012-01-22T18:49:24.929+09:00

I found a new hero for Japanese language learners. Watch this video! This guy is fluent in Japanese. His speed of speaking matches the speed of native Japanese. It is really impressive. In this, his first video on YouTube, he is speaking without a script. He pauses to think about what he wants to say, not how to say it, nor does he pause to recall any words. The second video he posted is much

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-41183964464745681902012-01-14T08:00:00.000+09:002012-01-14T08:00:02.181+09:00

Do you use time-boxing for language learning? Does it work for you? I wonder how many language learners are time-boxing. Time-boxing means to set certain lengths of time for working on tasks. You might have 30 minutes for your French and 20 minutes to work on another language and so on. You manage your time so you are able to work on all of the things you want to do instead of getting carried

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-24546835044946533562012-01-12T19:00:00.000+09:002012-01-12T19:00:01.352+09:00

In English, it seems the average native speaker knows about 17,000 word families. A study of vocabulary comparing Dutch students entering university to non-native Dutch students found that the average vocabulary size of the Dutch was approximately 18,800 words. The Common European Framework for Reference of languages (CEFR), appears to cover the most frequent 5,000 words at the C2 level, which

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-35213969720613054852012-01-10T20:10:00.000+09:002012-01-10T20:10:00.080+09:00

I think one of the most important requirements to learning any language successfully is dedication. Without dedication, there can be no success. The best method doesn't work without dedication. That's really where the off-the-shelf language courses fail. Courses like Pimsleur probably do a great job until the course ends. After that, you can't really apply the Pimsleur method any more. And you

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-80721084717517632952012-01-09T20:00:00.000+09:002012-01-09T20:00:01.726+09:00

Guess what?! They are different. That's right! In case you have never thought about it before, "being able to speak fluently" and "being fluent" are 2 different things. You have probably never seen this argued before, so I hope to clearly explain this as well as to cover what fluency really is. Speaking fluently is something that every fluent speaker should be able to do, but every person

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-25387266400920555412012-01-08T21:05:00.000+09:002012-01-08T21:05:01.342+09:00

If you review your newly learned items in a foreign language by use of flashcards, what is the best way? Should you put a target word on the one side and a translation word on the other? Should you use whole sentences instead of individual words? If so, then what do you put on the back side of the card? A translation of the whole sentence? Here's an idea. Put a target word on the front and a

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-75994864011541248712012-01-05T22:30:00.000+09:002012-01-05T22:30:02.417+09:00

If you were going to try to achieve some kind of significant level in a new language in 3 months, how many hours would you put in? What could you accomplish in 3 months? What kind of fluency would you have, if any, after 3 months? I'm asking the questions here, so feel free to give me your ideas. I won't be answering my own questions today, but I'd like to think about it for a moment. Let's

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-37685297380257608612012-01-04T22:30:00.002+09:002012-01-04T22:39:05.475+09:00

Have you ever noticed how quickly people are able to judge your level in a foreign language?  Even people who can't speak a foreign language have this incredible ability to classify your linguistic skills.  I once had a cat with a Japanese name and when my landlord heard me call the cat she remarked with surprise how good my Japanese was becoming.  All I had said was the cat's name!  And no, the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-27586726126824136412011-12-27T08:01:00.001+09:002011-12-27T08:01:20.406+09:00

Everybody should read this article on why you don't need to study grammar. It describes how we can learn to do things without knowing how we are doing it. It also tells us that thinking about, or analyzing, is too slow. No one would be able to hit a fast-ball if it had to be consciously processed.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-12495477438345528772011-11-03T19:40:00.000+09:002012-01-09T17:28:46.993+09:00

Hello readers of my blog! Long time, no post! The purpose of today's post is to give away some LingQ points. Are any of you who are reading this post, active members of the aforementioned language learning community? If so, you are probably aware that we can give points to other members now.  Since I am receiving points for my submitted content that is used by other members and I am not so

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-28257818465111881092011-09-03T07:46:00.001+09:002011-09-07T01:28:10.982+09:00

Natalie Hunter is not Keith, but rather a guest blogger. She grew up wanting to be a teacher, and is addicted to learning and research. As a result she is grateful for the invention of the Internet because it allows her to spend some time outside, rather than just poring through books in a library. She is fascinated by the different methodologies for education at large today, and particularly by

Natalie Hunternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-79970356920870725332011-06-14T20:32:00.000+09:002011-06-14T20:32:55.361+09:00

I can't vouch for the results reported about yet another brain research experiment. I'm sure this one has some faults too, but it does seem to have made some good observations about our success in trying to recall words. The report was here at Science Daily. Basically, I think it says that you have better recall ability when the theta waves in the brain are high. To me, this relates to SRS,

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-17799955605330643772011-06-09T18:45:00.000+09:002011-06-09T18:45:12.320+09:00

Did you know? The president of the United States speaks Chinese? And so do his secret service agents. I don't know if it is a secret or not, but you can watch it on YouTube. I've embedded the video in this post below so you can watch it if you're interested in seeing the president speak Chinese. The scene is set in the Oval Office and there is only one bodyguard and the president. It's less than

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington D.C., DC 20500-0004, USA38.8976777 -77.03651738.897155700000006 -77.037429 38.8981997 -77.035605tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-18567389075158681182011-05-31T20:08:00.002+09:002011-05-31T20:09:23.918+09:00

Starting tomorrow, I'm taking a class. You read it right. I'm taking a class. And not just any old class, I'm taking a language class. And not just any old language class, it's an intermediate Japanese sign language class. I took the beginning course in 2008 and haven't found any way to hone my skills, so I'm still not able to hold a conversation in sign language. And my listening skills are

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-21417473666846440822011-05-24T22:30:00.000+09:002011-05-24T22:30:02.705+09:00

Which is better? To learn a language slowly or quickly? This may seem like a dumb question to you. If it does, then you've already made up your mind, which means that you're not being open-minded. If, however, you are one of the people who are interested in hearing my view on this, then please keep reading. I'm sure most people would say they want to learn a foreign language as quickly as

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-61577311221017139572011-05-22T01:51:00.000+09:002011-05-22T01:51:01.475+09:00

I think there is a common misconception that learning like a child will take 10 years to sound like a ten-year-old.  I live in Japan and I can tell you that there are not many native English speaking foreigners that can speak Japanese as fluently as a six-year-old, let alone a ten-year-old. While either child may not know some words that a learner knows, the child knows many more words than the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-54637364178359956262011-05-17T21:09:00.001+09:002011-05-17T21:09:01.046+09:00

As detailed in my previous post, after trying several different ways to learn Chinese spread out over a millenia, I settled on and stuck with the TV method. That's right, I stuck with something. Even without having any evidence of whether it would work or not, I enjoyed it and kept going. I made a commitment to watch 2,000 hours of Chinese. I never set any expectations for what I might achieve

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-50485983496900553762011-05-07T13:16:00.000+09:002011-05-07T13:16:12.440+09:00

Let me tell you about my Chinese language learning history by starting with the time I requested a college roommate from France. At that point, French was the only foreign language I had ever studied and I knew I wanted to be able to speak French, so on my roommate preferences form I clearly stated that I wanted a roommate from France. Yes, that is how my interest in Chinese began, by asking for

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-33905067456777368982011-02-11T10:30:00.001+09:002011-02-11T10:34:23.793+09:00

The current title of this blog is "Keith's Voice on Extreme Language Learning." Let's take a look at what this means. We'll start with the obvious. This blog is not entitled, Fluent in 3 months. Fluency is not in the title of my blog. Neither is there a time frame, such as, "pretty good in 2 months." It's also not entitled, Quick Foreign Language Acquisition. Quick is not a keyword that I use.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-24255222669931756932011-02-06T11:15:00.000+09:002011-02-06T11:15:06.345+09:00

Last night, I took another language test called The Friedemann Chinese Comprehension Challenge. It's a grueling 20-minute test where you watch scenes from a drama and have to catch every technical word and the names of all kitchen cooking equipment. Boy, was I not prepared! The video below is the result of the previous post where I responded to a challenge from Friedemann. Actually, Friedemann

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-15729071984888114752011-01-30T13:43:00.001+09:002011-01-30T13:44:44.926+09:00

In this post, I will respond to Friedemann's comments and his challenge. Friedemann says little kids cannot understand the new because of their intellect. I say, they cannot understand the news because of their lack of words and experience. Friedemann asked which dramas some words would be considered rare ones? For most of the words he mentions, I would say most dramas do not focus one those

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-19595924178231849762011-01-24T19:46:00.001+09:002011-01-24T19:49:22.700+09:00

Here it is! My first time to speak after an extended silent period. I'll refrain from criticizing myself and let you all criticize me instead. Of course, I've kept my promise to record the first conversation. I will record more when I can.  This video is what I call a language time capsule. I'd like to thank Rony Gao again for allowing me to record and upload my very first Chinese conversation.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com75tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-82887614594279176812011-01-19T22:14:00.001+09:002011-01-20T19:03:07.014+09:00

The following are answers to the questions from my previous post, two thousand hours. I'm glad to see there are still some people interested in the TV method. Thanks to all my readers, especially those who left a comment or question. The first set of questions came from William. How well do you feel that you understand dialog in TV shows? I feel I understand the dialog well enough to enjoy what

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-10719018861597552742011-01-11T20:22:00.000+09:002011-01-11T20:22:28.998+09:00

I have just completed 2000 hours of watching TV in Chinese. Hip hip hooray! This completes my 2000 hour silent period, and I now give myself permission to speak Chinese freely. Except for one restriction! I will not speak until I'm ready (haha). That is, not until I am ready to record my first Chinese conversation with a native speaker.  Hopefully that will be sooner than later.  I wouldn't want

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-31808134522315806752010-12-15T19:00:00.002+09:002010-12-15T21:37:36.986+09:00

This year I took 4 tests, all of them in the Japanese language, and I would like to share the results with you. Not all of the outcomes were necessarily good. In fact, one of them is embarrassing, but I won't omit it because I am not sharing the results to say that I am good at Japanese or any such thing. Those who have been following me know that I am not like that and I am very critical of my

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-24353676605179243582010-11-17T19:00:00.000+09:002010-11-17T19:00:01.179+09:00

Below, you'll find two articles that show how an accent will affect a listener. If you want to be more easily understood as well as appear more trustworthy, you'd better speak like the native speakers that you're talking to. Listeners' brains respond more to native accent speakers; Imaging study suggests accents are subtle 'insider' or 'outsider' signal to the brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-44714830751406811452010-09-24T21:45:00.000+09:002010-09-24T21:45:04.781+09:00

A while back, I received the following email from J. Hi Keith, I have a multilingual/polyglot question for you, one that's been on my mind lately. Perhaps you can lend me some insight. We both share the same uncontrollable urge to learn languages, but the question is: Why? For what larger purpose? That's the existential question I'm struggling with. I'm curious to know, what are you going to

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-3137667734220934792010-09-24T02:45:00.000+09:002010-09-24T02:45:06.438+09:00

Have any of you seen this article? Less pain for learning gain: Research offers a strategy to increase learning with less effort This is a pretty good research study because they had 4 different groups, which means they covered several variables to see how the results differ. The study measured the ability of the participants to distinguish between the pitches of different tones. The

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-44520842039726663532010-09-11T22:15:00.000+09:002010-09-11T22:15:13.582+09:00

The Sri Lanka Festival 2010 was held this weekend, Sept 11th and 12th. I went on the 11th and here are a few pictures from the event which is held at Yoyogi. The Sri Lanka Festival 2010 banner above the stage. More pictures. The entrance to the Sri Lanka Festival 2010 Booths at the Sri Lanka Festival 2010. The booth below has a sign which I didn't notice when I was taking the picture.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-85225046012434331002010-08-29T20:58:00.000+09:002010-08-29T20:58:16.669+09:00

I try not too bee to pluperfect. I sways yous a spell checkered. I can nut hep it if aim sways rite. Your junta gonna hafts a git moused too it. Whey strive four an imposable goal? Ax long as I right lick this in my naive luggage, I have nut to fair too go wen taming to peek my target luggers ask will ask my naive luggage. How about you? Do you strive for quality in your language learning? Or

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-58322690081957115042010-08-17T00:18:00.000+09:002010-08-17T00:18:16.894+09:00

Has it become an epidemic? A problem that's out of hand? Or is this some kind of cold, hard reality? I was so shocked that I figured I must write a blog report about this! What is this world coming to?!! There was once a test called the Japanese Test of Communication, or JTOC. I believe it had a scoring system rather than a level system. Anyway, it disappeared awhile back. Then there was a new

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-52986652309440574842010-07-31T01:30:00.000+09:002010-07-31T01:30:03.220+09:00

It's Friday night, past midnight (so technically it's Saturday) and I can't fall asleep even though I got up at 5:10 this morning. Usually after an hour, I give up and get back up.  I don't time it either.  It's just that when I check the time it's always one hour. Maybe I give up too soon. Anyway, so I decided to write this little post, since I was thinking about this anyway. I went to the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-20140622937039178782010-07-18T01:32:00.001+09:002010-07-18T02:16:16.681+09:00

I have finally stumbled onto a goldmine for Chinese language learners.  Of course, authentic content made for natives, not learners. If you want to learn real Chinese without buying DVDs, without membership fees, and without having to watch the same thing over and over, now you can! All you need is your modern computer and an internet connection. If you've been around the Chinese language

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-50113486122599991662010-07-16T23:23:00.000+09:002010-07-16T23:23:09.173+09:00

There is a 5 episode drama in Japanese available only online called Oh!myPROPOSE.  Is there someone willing to watch this and leave a comment about it here? I'm still watching my Chinese dramas and have been working 40 hours a week since April. I now have over 1556 hours of the TV method for Chinese logged. Looks like I'll make it to 2000 before the end of the year for sure! Although, my current

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-82832898840310052052010-03-31T21:31:00.002+09:002010-03-31T21:34:43.554+09:00

Have you tried the hodgepodge method? I would describe the hodgepodge way of language learning as one in which all kinds and types of effort are applied to learning a language. It's a kind of do-it-all approach and can be constructed in various ways. Absolutely no plan whatsoever is needed! Try some technique out and if you don't like it you can just discard it. Then try something else. When you

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-86356279749363057582010-03-14T19:14:00.001+09:002010-03-20T12:13:46.473+09:00

The last edition of my newscast on language learning blogs is ready and available. This is the last one I will do unless some funding should somehow come through. Since I'm not seeking any funding, it would be a miracle if it happened. So, dim the lights, start the popcorn, and enjoy the news.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-53285305256799459522010-03-06T23:20:00.000+09:002010-03-06T23:20:49.398+09:00

Here is a news report on the new blog posts and articles about language learning and language acquisition from this week. I hope you enjoy it.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-35345529901974980602010-02-25T16:16:00.003+09:002010-02-25T16:27:01.229+09:00

If you visit language forums, you will often see topics posted as questions about the foreign language. There are posts and discussions asking things like, "What does this word mean?" and "What's the difference between (this word) and (that word)?" Sadly, these questions could all be resolved by the learner himself, if he would just be patient and get more exposure to the language. What's scary,

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-30913037099276245522010-02-22T21:11:00.000+09:002010-02-22T21:11:45.763+09:00

A HTLAL forum member from Azerbaijan claims to have learned 2 languages from watching TV. Original post here: Learning Turkish and Russian from TV. It is the 4th post on the 4th page (maybe some significance?), marked as message 28. His username on the forum is vusalgustav. He seems to be quite a polyglot. I will reprint the post below: OK. Allow me to narrate my experience about the language

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-27865149254508487182010-02-21T03:35:00.001+09:002010-02-21T03:36:07.585+09:00

Here is a list of ways to tell if you are fluent in your foreign language. Actually, I just made this up for fun. I can speak more in your language than you can speak in mine. I can answer 20 questions about myself that are always asked of me whenever I meet a new person on Skype, and I always get complimented on how well I speak. I don't need a translator to get around the country. My friends

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-46932708212939987742010-02-14T05:40:00.001+09:002010-02-14T05:43:09.230+09:00

What is an SRS? SRS stands for Spaced Repetition Software. This should not be confused with flashcards. With flashcards, the learner is in control. With an SRS, the software is in control. The learner will review or test the information when the software decides. To understand why, we must look at the next question. What is Spaced Repetition? Spaced repetition is a learning technique that

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-55780901874299747562010-02-06T01:53:00.001+09:002010-02-14T05:50:24.192+09:00

In Chris' blog, he noted that in order for Heisig to be successful in selling his books, he must market to the beginners in the language. As you can well imagine, if Heisig's advice was like mine, which is to learn reading and writing after you've become fluent in listening and speaking, he would lose 95% of his customers! Now, I'm not implying that this is the reason for Heisig's advice, but

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-69024402315003318852010-02-03T20:34:00.002+09:002010-02-03T20:36:37.932+09:00

In my previous post, I introduced you to a former student of AUA Thai. Actually, I just quoted some text from the blog of someone who seemed pretty successful with the ALG method, as well as encouraged you to read it. It was good to get comments from those of you who did. Thanks. Another former student of AUA Thai is currently the director of the program. His name is David Long. Those of you who

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-81169310012721731182010-01-30T21:21:00.016+09:002010-01-30T21:32:18.463+09:00

While I have searched for blogs or experiences of students at AUA, I could not find any good ones through my own Google searches. But they do exist! And finally a good one has turned up. It was there all along but still it does not come up in my searches. Shame on Google! Searches always turn up with so many results that have very little to do with what you searched on. Google is not magic.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-48090365039780794212010-01-27T18:18:00.008+09:002010-01-27T23:29:13.543+09:00

The global recovery has only just begun and China is already nearing the top of some categories. With a population 10 times bigger than Japan's, China must have not reached even a quarter of its potential. China Dethrones Germany as Top Goods Exporter JANUARY 6, 2010 China took over the mantle of the world's top merchandise exporter from Germany in 2009, according to the latest figures, aided

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-80341611701694240442010-01-24T21:21:00.004+09:002010-01-24T21:28:17.227+09:00

Did you ask yourself that question? Did you even stop to think about it before you jumped into learning Chinese, Japanese, Thai, or whatever language you are learning? How many hours is it going to take to learn a new language? There are more people who know WHEN they want to be able to speak a second language than those who know how long it takes to reach that point. They want to speak NOW.  Or

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-49531528469406000442010-01-20T18:30:00.000+09:002010-01-20T18:30:29.461+09:00

I just found this video on YouTube of a Chinese-speaker introducing herself in Japanese. She says she started learning Japanese in Jr. High and she has lived in Japan for over 12 years.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-9889918182513391922010-01-15T16:26:00.000+09:002010-01-15T16:26:58.876+09:00

There is a Japanese test for Japanese people that has 7 different levels. 3 are elementary levels, and 2 each of intermediate and advanced levels. The elementary levels are at elementary school level. The intermediate levels are junior high and high school level. The two advanced levels are college and adult level. See the embedded spreadsheet below for a summary. I created it from one of their

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-83458123072632411882010-01-09T22:33:00.001+09:002010-01-09T22:35:14.395+09:00

I am writing this post to mark the point of 800 hours viewing Chinese TV dramas. All this means is that I have watched eight hundred hours of made-for-TV dramas in the Chinese Mandarin language. And is it working? Yes, I am increasingly getting better at following the language and understanding more and more of what is actually being said. I am picking up more vocabulary as well. Where was I a

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-58835479214952178682010-01-01T00:00:00.020+09:002010-01-01T00:00:06.082+09:00

Well, it's a new year, so happy new year! And it's a new decade, so happy new decade! Let's take a look at what the future holds for this language extremist. I'm starting the year off with over 750 TV method hours under my belt. Those are hours watching Chinese TV dramas. I shall continue this method for the entire year at a rate of about 3 hours per day. When possible, I try to squeeze in an

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-40654001346520252972009-12-15T17:41:00.002+09:002009-12-15T17:42:23.012+09:00

Today, I received my score report for the J. Test 実用日本語検定 which I took on November 15th.  I took the A-D level test. There are 7 different levels that can be attained on this test of 1,000 points. The lowest starts at 500 points and is D level. The highest level starts from 930 points and is the Special A level.  The last time I took this test level was 3 years ago. This time, my score is 154

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-80538784502997975012009-12-12T21:03:00.000+09:002009-12-12T21:03:44.781+09:00

The conversation still continues over in the channel comments of algworld's YouTube channel. I think part of the reason that some people think languages are always learned through translation is because of a misunderstanding of what it means to learn languages without translations. I had a brief talk with my webcam to explain a point about this, and my computer graciously offered to record it for

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-33002217573493108812009-11-19T21:30:00.001+09:002009-12-30T04:16:28.245+09:00

There's a bit of a debate going on over at the YouTube algworld channel page. I was trying to post a reply, but I get a processing error when I try to post, so I'll just put my comment here. Normally I would just give up, but I thought some of you might have a response to what I want to say. Sorry flippinnoraable, but most studies and research are conducted over a very short time and very poorly

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-18928824845962321622009-10-28T18:40:00.000+09:002009-10-28T18:40:21.303+09:00

It may not be official, but Pepsi is a product (of | in) Korea. (Circle the correct answer.) Just look what happens when you combine the Pepsi logo with... the flag of the Republic of Korea... You get this! Thanks to Hyunwoo Sun for pointing out the resemblence. And may these hotlinked images always appear in this post for future generations.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-27638471764681295832009-10-23T15:00:00.001+09:002009-10-23T15:00:00.666+09:00

I had a video conversation with Hyunwoo Sun. I asked him about this podcast series on Language Cast that is for Koreans who are learning Japanese. It was very interesting.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-41083352538497973132009-10-23T04:00:00.001+09:002009-10-23T04:02:58.470+09:00

Can we trust what the brain researchers say about language learning? Steve Kaufmann noted there was some contradiction in the research conclusions. So I decided to create a little video in response.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-88160886040274639062009-10-22T14:32:00.000+09:002009-10-22T14:32:38.594+09:00

I decided to talk about my preferred learning style for languages. I spent 5 hours on this 17 minute video. I had to edit out all the pauses. In the first part, I mostly talked about ALG and Dr. Brown's background teaching Thai. This is not a prepared presentation, so there are some parts that I should have expanded on and there are some parts I should have clarified better.  Also, I did not

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-71499571574970948052009-09-16T21:00:00.000+09:002009-09-16T21:00:02.050+09:00

Here's an idea. Read a book in your target language and then give a report on it. That's what I did! I uploaded my report to Youtube.  I read a Japanese book in about 1 week. I'm planning to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level one. I have only 2 more weeks left to apply for the test. I think reading is the most important thing for me to be able to pass the test. So I want to

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-63464188817863436202009-09-11T07:00:00.000+09:002009-09-11T07:00:13.110+09:00

Here is my first attempt to try to describe the TV method in a video. I want to get better at talking about second language acquisition and language learning like Steve Kaufmann. Some of my thoughts may not be well connected or well said, so please forgive me. This was my first time speaking about the TV method. I was not able to cover everything in 10 minutes. I actually spoke for about 13

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-43703396162431520762009-09-03T20:52:00.000+09:002009-09-03T20:52:49.404+09:00

After I had been in Japan for 11 months, I was able to take a one-month intensive language class. I had the class 5 days a week for about 3 hours a day. I had to take a train for 50 minutes and then transfer to the subway for a 10 minute ride. There was one other student who also took the class, so I was able to get a group price for the course. In that one-month class, I studied the entire

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-60497181326901047392009-09-01T14:08:00.002+09:002009-09-01T15:17:57.252+09:00

There is a series of books for mastering Chinese characters that takes an unusual approach and is often called the Heisig method because the author's name is Heisig. The books were first published as Remembering the Kanji and now there are Hanzi editions for Simplified and Traditional Chinese. If you are not familiar, you can find some good posts to explain it such as this one. My post is not to

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-79186489994388386002009-08-29T14:11:00.002+09:002009-08-29T22:52:36.237+09:00

A Science Daily article from March 2007, Kids Learn Words Best By Working Out Meaning, states that the kids observed in the word-learning experiment could acquire new words better by watching, observing, and guessing on their own than by being told directly the names of new objects.I wonder who will be the first commenter to tell me, "adults can't learn like children." The subjects of the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-26112129102718488542009-08-29T00:00:00.004+09:002009-08-29T01:13:59.128+09:00

I found a new template for my blog. I hope you like it. It took a while to edit and arrange. Unfortunately, I lost the list of other bloggers that are using the TV method. So if you are one of them, could you please leave a comment here with your URL again. Thanks. And be sure to use the html tags around your URL to turn it into a link.The tags look like this ＜ａ　ｈｒｅｆ＝””＞　＜／ａ＞

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-82932617540678237462009-08-26T19:17:00.000+09:002009-08-26T19:18:02.535+09:00

Mr. gbarv has stated in a comment in the last post here:I'm sure Keith will someday master his languages, with all that zeal and enthusiasm. It is certainly impressive to go from 0 to 25% percent understanding in Mandarin, but to be fair nearly 100% understanding should be attainable in 550 hours.I'm surprised that nobody has challenged that yet. But then again, not that many people have kept up

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-79216247467825604732009-08-14T20:14:00.000+09:002009-08-14T20:14:00.175+09:00

The title of this post is a quote from From the Outside In, a book written by Dr. Brown. He says: Understanding without noticing words—that’s the name of the game. Anything not attached to an experience is worthless. But can we really ignore words? Several paragraphs later:The answer I found is best explained with these two words: ‘wonder’ and ‘grow’. Words have to grow—gradually. Experience

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-38038663740924568422009-08-12T14:02:00.000+09:002009-08-12T14:17:19.791+09:00

The answer to my last post, what else causes damage?, which was given in the first comment by Thomas, is thinking. Here are some more excerpts from Dr. Brown's book: And, like the ‘speakers’, none of the ‘dictionary flippers’ or ‘note takers’ ever made it. We had been saying “Don’t speak! Don’t speak! Don’t speak!” We now changed this to “Don’t speak! Don’t look up words! Don’t take notes!”

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-42079904872432936202009-08-06T13:06:00.000+09:002009-08-06T13:06:39.382+09:00

More from Dr. J. Marvin Brown's book:Now, 15 years and thousands of students later, we’ve had hundreds of students who went more than a thousand hours with speaking and dozens who went the same distance without. None of the ‘speakers’ ever got close to my mark while some ‘non-speakers’ eventually passed it. But not all. That is, some ‘non-speakers' passed me and some didn’t. It looked like

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-5986746835526949542009-08-03T10:36:00.003+09:002009-08-03T10:45:35.663+09:00

Here is an excerpt from Dr. J. Marvin Brown's book, From the Outside InDid speaking really cause damage, or was I being unrealistic? Hard evidence had to wait three years. In July of 1987 we started the first year-long class of more than a thousand hours, and there were four students eager enough to go the distance: Paul, David. Peter, and Charly. Paul and David never spoke; but, in spite of

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-90864705204315651892009-08-01T19:07:00.001+09:002009-08-01T19:26:40.008+09:00

I found this extremely interesting article dated December 2000. Brain Research Implications for Second Language LearningIf you don't feel like reading it or just want to know what I found interesting about it, please read the following quotes from the article."Language learning is a natural phenomenon; it occurs even without intervention. ""The studies discussed below reveal the incredible neural

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-23700871614118778662009-07-30T09:26:00.000+09:002009-07-30T09:26:45.526+09:00

It's in the news! Science news. An article has just come out at Science Daily that says brain cells react and learn from successes. "After a failure, there was little or no change in the brain — nor was there any improvement in behavior."From the article, it seems the research was done on animals, such as monkeys. I wouldn't be surprised if the results were different for humans because humans

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-62509974405550595812009-07-29T13:53:00.003+09:002009-07-29T18:54:52.455+09:00

Catherine Wentworth posts interviews with successful Thai language learners and her latest post is an interview with David Long, the director of ALG World at AUA.If you are not aware, David Long is one of the first students to complete the AUA Thai program and reach native-level Thai. I still have yet to see a video of David speaking Thai, but since I don't know the language myself I guess I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-74272103699589015292009-07-28T14:29:00.000+09:002009-07-28T14:29:36.499+09:00

Antonio Graceffo has uploaded an interview with David Long, the director of ALG (Automatic Language Growth) Thai. It has 5 parts, and since Antonio hadn't created a playlist for it, I created one myself. It's a very good interview. Thanks Antonio!I hope to some day get a chance to go to AUA and enter this Thai program. I want to experience it for myself. And I don't mean "just experience it." I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-69313931873899572502009-07-22T19:22:00.003+09:002009-07-25T11:15:41.160+09:00

You will hear the lies. You will read the lies. Don't believe the lies!Let me list the lies in the article, Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily.The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7.The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-61858093499835873132009-07-21T06:33:00.002+09:002009-07-21T06:49:28.336+09:00

There was probably somebody famous who said, "when you can't reach your goal, change your goal to what you can reach." Now Wafa Zoghbor wants to add to that so that you also need to change your method. She proposes that aiming for an accent which retains your native language identity could be more desirable than reaching a native accent.I have never read anything so ridiculous before. If people

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-31759287503687680952009-07-19T20:08:00.004+09:002009-07-19T20:20:36.912+09:00

Have you every heard of ADSE? It stands for Absolutely Don't Study English and is also known as DESE, Don't Ever Study English. It's a method created by a Korean who then wrote a book for it. I believe the book was originally written in Korean and later Japanese and Chinese versions were published. Since it is a non-study way to learn a language, I am interested in finding out more about it and

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-11828355049093364582009-07-11T06:45:00.003+09:002009-07-12T07:33:38.525+09:00

If you've been trying to learn Kanji and need some motivation, why not join us in the 2009 Kanji Challenge? We've got 6 weeks to learn about 2009 characters! Isn't that enough time? Let's see who does it best and what methods are being used. If this interests you, then please join us! You can be a contributor to the blog, which requires a blogger account, so let us know and we can add your email

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-76113426598094721502009-07-10T06:28:00.001+09:002009-09-01T07:48:10.287+09:00

I think we all benefit from reading about various ways to learn languages. Whether we agree with the methods or not, they are interesting to read about and may spark new ideas. So I would like to write down some of my opinions about creating a language learning method. The meaning of a method For the purpose of this post, I'm going to try to decide what I'm talking about when I use the word "

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-13123118328337859572009-06-23T22:35:00.003+09:002009-06-24T17:54:35.338+09:00

I have a new interview on YouTube. This time, I would like you to meet Hyunwoo Sun. He is a Korean polyglot who excels at learning many languages. The skill which he has achieved in English just awes me. That is how I want to speak Japanese, Chinese or any language I persue. So I interviewed him to find out what he does, because I could not find that information on Hyunwoo's YouTube channel, in

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-57643040460403439672009-06-22T00:00:00.002+09:002009-06-24T17:54:47.826+09:00

I got the captioning done today for the interview with Charith in English and uploaded it to YouTube. This video is 8 minutes long.For those who've somehow landed on this page and don't know who Charith is I will give you a simple explanation. Charith is from Sri Lanka and he is fluent in Japanese. I've posted 2 other videos of him speaking Japanese already. So if you are looking for examples of

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-29842622884058527302009-06-18T20:48:00.004+09:002009-06-18T20:56:28.726+09:00

Here is the second video with Charith. After we had finished the first interview he had some more he wanted to say. At first he starts talking about watching TV even when you don't understand any of it, and about not using a dictionary. He says that the words will enter you and you will acquire them naturally. But then he goes on to give some more tips and advice. At the end of the 5 minute video

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-85230050496149689302009-06-05T18:50:00.001+09:002009-06-05T18:53:55.987+09:00

I have finally got the first interview with Charith ready. It is late because I decided to create subtitles for the video. I can only do so much typing at once. And then there was that day that I lost 2 hours of work on the subtitles.This interview is in Japanese. I have made Japanese subtitles and also English subtitles. You may have to turn them on and you may have to select the one you want to

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-70374259205069230312009-05-17T18:31:00.000+09:002009-05-17T18:31:31.939+09:00

I am beginning to watch TV in Japanese now. I've started with DVDs. I watched over 6 hours on Saturday and I made a new YouTube video in Japanese last night. We'll be able to see how much change there is over time. It depends on just how much watching or listening I do.If you want to see what I have done since I spoke to Steve, you can look at my Google document here. I will put this link on the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-49935468863127150452009-05-12T01:31:00.000+09:002009-05-12T01:31:42.619+09:00

On March 27th, I wrote a post where I told you about a coworker who used TV to get his Japanese fluent. I will do a full interview with him and put it up on YouTube in 3 weeks.For now, I have a preview that you can watch. I do an introduction to it in English and also the concluding part is in English as well. I also have painstakingly made sub-titles for the video. It should default to the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-83284999691596767852009-04-23T08:40:00.003+09:002009-04-23T08:50:12.845+09:00

I had a conversation with Steve Kaufmann in Japanese. This is the first time I have ever spoken directly to Steve and we did it face-to-face. Well, it was through the help of our webcams and Skype. For those of you who don't know, Steve Kaufmann is a super-polyglot.I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to record myself speaking Japanese as a record of my Japanese level before the up

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-4822436968402232372009-04-18T07:03:00.001+09:002009-04-18T07:04:46.723+09:00

In continuation of the previous post, I have to decide what to do about my Chinese acquisition during this period of concentration on Japanese. What do you think I should do? Here are the options that I am able to come up with right now.Option A) Stop watching Chinese TV completely. We don't know how long it will be until I will be able to return my focus to Chinese acquisition. Until then, I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-147009203656447332009-04-17T21:21:00.001+09:002009-04-18T08:57:11.732+09:00

Here's big news from the TV method blog.As you know, I have watched 549 hours of TV in Chinese. Lately I have been able to maintain a pace of 120+ viewing hours per month. Unfortunately, this has to change, starting now. I have to change focus from Chinese to Japanese and I won't likely break 100 hours per month.Why the sudden switch?I have to begin an employment acquisition campaign immediately.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-1145504080567751632009-04-17T11:44:00.000+09:002009-04-17T11:44:44.262+09:00

I just finished watching Phoenix, a Korean TV drama series. I watched it in Mandarin but also have the Korean audio track as well. I am thinking I would like to build up a collection of Korean TV dramas like this bilingual one. Of course I will be watching them in Chinese, but later when I start on Korean I'll have a whole library of Korean dramas available. Not only would I be saving money but

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-88138444856510694812009-04-14T23:50:00.000+09:002009-04-14T23:50:14.885+09:00

There is a new entry into the world of the TV method! His name is David and he is going to learn Japanese by watching TV. He emailed me and asked me some questions regarding the TV method and we exchanged a few messages. From his email I can see that he understands the principles of Automatic Language Growth and he knows what to expect.You can read David's story at Sushi and Sumo. I think we'll

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-16468408835741555312009-04-11T17:32:00.002+09:002009-04-17T11:03:00.466+09:00

In my quest to be the best, I have passed a milestone. That is, the 500-hour mile marker. I now have 530 hours of viewing Chinese TV. I have done the 500 hours in 6 months. I wonder what my ability to understand Chinese will be like after another 500 hours. It's hard to say exactly, but I feel that overall, I am understanding about 25% of the language now. So I miss out on the details of what is

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-32646562750480056442009-04-03T23:59:00.005+09:002009-04-13T23:31:01.273+09:00

The name's Bond, LOVE BOND.As it turns out, all 4 items that I bought from Amazon China are not originally Mandarin TV dramas. I knew that for 2 of them. One is Korean and the other is Japanese. But for the other 2 I didn't know that they were Hong Kong Dramas. For the 2 that I knew about, they have both the original and the dubbed audio tracks. I didn't want to buy dubbed shows unless the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-20470216202469988602009-04-01T18:10:00.001+09:002009-04-13T23:32:02.185+09:00

ALG World has uploaded a 3-part video from an advanced class. In the title it says 'Famous People' so I guess that is what the class was on.I believe the students need to complete 200 hours for each level, so that means the students in the class have put in about 800 or more hours of ALG World Thai and understand 60% or more. The students are also allowed to speak Thai and you can hear some of

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-81477322865178213172009-03-31T20:30:00.001+09:002009-04-13T23:32:42.922+09:00

The picture above is one of the new DVD boxes that I bought to store my TV dramas in. The disc you see on the left side is on a hinged panel. It swings around and the first disc is on the other side. What's interesting is the way the discs overlap on the right side. This box is the same size as a regular DVD case but holds 4 discs. It's 19 cm tall and 1.5 cm thick.You can see a picture in my

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-82986921568217434902009-03-27T23:27:00.000+09:002009-03-27T23:27:53.036+09:00

Whether used exclusively or as an addition, watching TV in your target language helps people to acquire fluency. One of the Japanese people I met when I briefly taught English conversation was not a student but rather a teacher just like us Americans, Australians, Brits, Canadians, and Kiwis. She had a perfect American accent and you would never suspect that she grew up in Japan. When I asked her

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-47623468099627382632009-03-27T22:50:00.001+09:002009-03-27T22:50:47.229+09:00

I finished my second viewing of Heroic Legend, a 23-hour, 35 episode Chinese TV drama. I watched it in Chinese with no subtitles, no translations, and no explanations. And I don't even speak Chinese. I am not a Chinese speaker. I do not have Chinese ancestry.So why am I watching Chinese TV dramas? I am not studying Chinese. However, I am learning Chinese. This is my method to acquire Chinese. I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-69347267791566792032009-03-27T04:00:00.004+09:002009-04-13T23:36:17.842+09:00

In response to the post, How difficult is Chinese?, I would like to express my current thoughts about the points made in that post.The first thing that comes to mind in general is that the difficulty of learning a language could be attributed to the methods used for learning that language and not the language itself. If you were to ask me about Japanese, I would say it is very difficult to learn.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-66927444929256851592009-03-26T01:45:00.000+09:002009-03-26T01:45:19.131+09:00

Thomas has asked a good question in the comment of the last post and I started replying to it there but my reply is so long I think it'd be better to make it a post.Hello. I thought your TV method sounded pretty cool so I started it with Thai recently (well, yesterday). I'm not going as hardcore as you are, but I'm trying to watch at least one drama episode per day.Naturally I understand almost

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-38320925897101787192009-03-23T18:24:00.000+09:002009-03-23T18:24:17.245+09:00

I've finished watching yet another Chinese TV drama. It has 24 episodes on 3 discs and is 16 hours long. I watched the first 2 discs yesterday and the 3rd disc today.This drama had less dialogue in it and it seemed to drag on and on. Therefor, I won't be able to watch this one again for a long, long time. I'll watch it again once I can understand Chinese pretty well and have forgotten most of the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-17830581403115274262009-03-21T23:30:00.002+09:002009-04-13T23:37:08.931+09:00

Yesterday and today I watched Last Agent, not for the last time, but for the first time. It has 22 episodes and is about 15 hours and 20 minutes long. This is the first Chinese TV drama on DVD that I've watched where nobody mentions the word "emperor." It's a modern day drama, complete with computers and cell phones. It is a drama with affairs and relationships and a conniving woman. It is very

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-54646724056709350302009-03-19T21:09:00.001+09:002009-03-19T21:09:01.538+09:00

This post marks the completion of my sixth viewing of the above-pictured drama (雍正王朝). This was the first Chinese TV series drama that I bought. I purchased it on 11/18/2008 which was 4 months ago. I have watched it 6 times already because I did not have very many dramas. Since then, I have watched 3 other Chinese dramas and I have 2 new ones that I will be watching next. Not only that, but I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-83858685263507909212009-03-17T20:47:00.000+09:002009-03-17T20:47:20.735+09:00

I can tell you that my order for 2 Chinese TV dramas arrived on Sunday when I was about half way through 雍正王朝. So I just need to finish watching that drama and then I'm going to watch the new ones.I bought the two new ones from a website which is available in 3 choices, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and English. They ship from several locations in Asia and my order should have come

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2