I am no longer a Free member at LingQ. I am now a Basic member. I just upgraded to Basic. I bought a 6-month membership. I received 500 points for upgrading too.
I am getting kind of addicted to LingQ. It needs more Chinese content though, and it still does not parse spaceless languages correctly. We must insert spaces between words so that our saved lingqs will be highlighted. So Chinese and Japanese, the ones I use, are still in beta. Anyways, it needs more content so I uploaded some.
Here is a link to LingQ: http://www.lingq.com/
Monday, September 08, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
All I need to do is...
For quite a while now, I've been thinking about how I can go from intermediate to fluent. As is quite common for learners like me, speaking skills lag way behind. Nobody knows how much actual knowledge I have in my head, so they can only evaluate my Japanese by listening to me speak.
Some people are quite lenient. They recognize that I have a high degree of understanding. Other people seem to think that my speaking skill is the mirror image of my knowledge of the language. And I've always known that if I could speak as well I understand, then things would be alright.
I now know without a doubt what I can do to bring my speaking ability up. I need to stop using English as my thinking language and start using only Japanese to think. I once tried to do this about 4 or 5 years ago but I was so limited that I couldn't complete my thoughts and it hurt to not be able to think. But now I have sufficient knowledge and I need to put it into practice. Once I get used to thinking in Japanese and make it a natural habit that I don't have to force upon myself, then I will really be able to speak the language.
About 3 years ago, I met a Chinese guy at a volunteer Japanese class. We were working with the same tutor that day. I was still studying for Level 2 of the JLPT. He had already passed it and was studying for Level 1. He had been in Japan for a year longer than I. His Japanese ability was unbelievable. His pronunciation sounded native-like. He spoke so easily. We were asked what language we usually think in. His answer was "Japanese."
Some people are quite lenient. They recognize that I have a high degree of understanding. Other people seem to think that my speaking skill is the mirror image of my knowledge of the language. And I've always known that if I could speak as well I understand, then things would be alright.
I now know without a doubt what I can do to bring my speaking ability up. I need to stop using English as my thinking language and start using only Japanese to think. I once tried to do this about 4 or 5 years ago but I was so limited that I couldn't complete my thoughts and it hurt to not be able to think. But now I have sufficient knowledge and I need to put it into practice. Once I get used to thinking in Japanese and make it a natural habit that I don't have to force upon myself, then I will really be able to speak the language.
About 3 years ago, I met a Chinese guy at a volunteer Japanese class. We were working with the same tutor that day. I was still studying for Level 2 of the JLPT. He had already passed it and was studying for Level 1. He had been in Japan for a year longer than I. His Japanese ability was unbelievable. His pronunciation sounded native-like. He spoke so easily. We were asked what language we usually think in. His answer was "Japanese."
Friday, August 01, 2008
How is my Chinese?
Maybe you would like to know the answer to the question. I have decided to begin to learn to speak Chinese. Until now I have just listened. But now I need to start practicing so that I will be able to actually converse.
I'm attaching a sample to this post. It's really just a bit of encouragement. I was practicing a sentence. Anyway, this audio clip is only 10 seconds long.
20080801.mp3
I'm attaching a sample to this post. It's really just a bit of encouragement. I was practicing a sentence. Anyway, this audio clip is only 10 seconds long.
20080801.mp3
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
手話入門３
Today, the third and final class in the introduction to JSL (Japanese Sign Language) took place. I was present and accounted for.
The first thing we did was to review the finger-spelling signs. Then the deaf members introduced themselves. And then one of them lectured for a while. After that, we played some games. The first was Bingo. A learner would act out one of the words and then we could circle it on our Bingo card. Our cards were blank and we had to fill in the words ourselves. So everybody had the same words but in different places. I put all the Katakana words at the bottom and I almost got Bingo.
The next game played was with writing in the air. About 10 people were lined up and starting from the back passed on the message by writing the word in the air. That game was done twice and I was in the second group. I got to be the last in the line and luckily it was easier than the word the first group did. They had めがね (glasses) and we had くるま (car).
The final game was similar using charades instead of writing in the air. The last two groups lined up and passed the message on one by one. Then there was time for one more round, so all the men were selected for it. This time I was second to last. The person before me didn't know it was "skydiving" so I only understood "parachuting" from him. So that's the message I passed on.
That about sums up what we did today. We didn't learn any new signs or practice any sign language. So all together from the whole course (all 3 classes), we learned greetings, how to tell your name (self introduction), and finger-spelling the syllables and the numbers.
The Beginners' course or Elementary course starts next week. It will go until next March. I guess I will join it although I'll be doing all my learning outside of the class. The class is going to proceed too slowly. But I haven't established a person to learn from yet, so I still need to make some contacts. I can attend next week, but the following two weeks I can't because of work.
In other JSL news, I bought a DVD book yesterday from the bookstore. It is supposed to cover the Basic JSL signs. It was only 1500 yen + tax (1575 total).
The first thing we did was to review the finger-spelling signs. Then the deaf members introduced themselves. And then one of them lectured for a while. After that, we played some games. The first was Bingo. A learner would act out one of the words and then we could circle it on our Bingo card. Our cards were blank and we had to fill in the words ourselves. So everybody had the same words but in different places. I put all the Katakana words at the bottom and I almost got Bingo.
The next game played was with writing in the air. About 10 people were lined up and starting from the back passed on the message by writing the word in the air. That game was done twice and I was in the second group. I got to be the last in the line and luckily it was easier than the word the first group did. They had めがね (glasses) and we had くるま (car).
The final game was similar using charades instead of writing in the air. The last two groups lined up and passed the message on one by one. Then there was time for one more round, so all the men were selected for it. This time I was second to last. The person before me didn't know it was "skydiving" so I only understood "parachuting" from him. So that's the message I passed on.
That about sums up what we did today. We didn't learn any new signs or practice any sign language. So all together from the whole course (all 3 classes), we learned greetings, how to tell your name (self introduction), and finger-spelling the syllables and the numbers.
The Beginners' course or Elementary course starts next week. It will go until next March. I guess I will join it although I'll be doing all my learning outside of the class. The class is going to proceed too slowly. But I haven't established a person to learn from yet, so I still need to make some contacts. I can attend next week, but the following two weeks I can't because of work.
In other JSL news, I bought a DVD book yesterday from the bookstore. It is supposed to cover the Basic JSL signs. It was only 1500 yen + tax (1575 total).
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