szarolina

[szarolina]

Langblr Asks

🤷‍♀️ When and why did you start learning your target lang(s)?

👅 Hardest sound for you to make in your target lang?

👼 Do you think certain people are born with a talent for learning languages?

🌟 Tag 5 langblrs you look up to or admire.

📱 What language is your phone set to?

😂 Share a joke, pun, or meme in your target lang.

🧓 How many languages do you want to be able to speak before you turn 70?

🙇‍♀️ Between learning vocab and learning grammar, which do you find more difficult?

💎 What does fluency mean to you?

�� Have you ever been discouraged by others from learning a certain language?

😍 Tell me 3 things you like about your target lang.

☕️ Favorite thing about the langblr community? least favorite?

👨‍🍳 Have you ever used a recipe that was in your target language?

🗣 What’s your favorite quote, saying, or expression in your target lang?

🦉 Give me 2 language learning tips.

🗑 Name one misconception about language learning.

📰 Go learn 5 new words in your target lang, and tell me what they mean.

🏋️‍♂️ Of the 4 skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), which is easiest for you? which is most difficult?

📚 Favorite language learning resources (Duolingo, Memrise, textbook, etc.)?

🎁 What’s on your language learning wishlist (textbooks, subscriptions, stationery, etc.)?

😻 Give me 3 of your favorite words in your target lang.

💋 Share a pickup line in your target language.

💤 Have you ever dreamt in your target language? What was it about?

🔮 If you could be instantly fluent in 2 other languages (that you’re not already fluent in!), which would they be?

🎧 Do you listen to podcasts in your target lang(s)? If so, which ones?

👩‍👧‍👦 Favorite language family?

⚖️ Would you rather be fluent in 3 languages, or intermediate in 5?

🙅‍♀️ Have you ever quit learning a language, and why?

💃 Talk about your proudest moment as a language learner.

[szarolina]

17.08.2023 | 33°C

14:42 | I've came to conclusion that I overplanned so need to reschedule some things and slow down. As for today, I'm revising chapter 38 of Minna no Nihongo and some kanji.

Besides, it's too hot and stuffy to live or think.

[szarolina]

Hiii! I’d also like to take up Japanese, but beyond memorizing the Hiragana and Katakana characters I’m not exactly sure how to proceed with vocab and learning Kanji at the same time.

Do you have a plan/sources that you stick to? I also like how your sheets are organized! Did you do them yourself?

Hi there! ♡

First of all I should stress that my experience may be slightly different since I was learning Japanese via university course, with help from a tutor. However, I'll try to answer the best I can.

Get a textbook. It will provide you a structure and introduce to basic grammar points in suitable order, together with kanji and vocabulary. My knowledge isn't very broad here, because we used a specific series in class which is Minna no Nihongo (probably one of, if not The most common one). The significant disadvantage is that it's written entirely in Japanese, so not exactly the best for total beginners who don't have exercises explained by a teacher BUT there's also an English book "Translation and Grammar notes" which, as it says, includes translations of dialogues, texts, example sentences, etc. + vocabulary lists for every chapter alongside very neatly explained grammar points and grammar structures, so I can't stress enough how profitable it is to get it too. Apart from these, I also came across a kanji book. Fortunately, pdfs can be retrieved from google (hit me up if you're interested and have problems with finding them). I've also seen praising reviews of Genki, I looked it through and apparently also have everything what one could expect from a regular textbook, just better divided on different grammar/vocabulary/reading/so on parts than Minna and, unlike MnN, it's written in English.

About kanji and vocab. You probbaly noticed that things like nouns, verbs, adjectives and such are often written with kanji, so it may seem a natural move to learn all these kanji at once while learning vocabulary. I'm saying - not exactly. The good thing is that for the beginning you can write new words only in hiragana (or katakana) memorize them, and later "match" kanji to them (not like in mandarin chinese, yes, i'm looking at you mandarin). For example, you found out that "to study" is べんきょう する (benkyō suru). It's ok to write it this way and later replace "べんきょう" part with kanji (勉強する). We did it at the course, I had been knowing only hiragana writings for maaaany words and only after some time introduced kanji to them, gradually. Otherwise I would end up having to learn hundreds of kanji early on and I'd definitely feel discouraged by that.

About kanji and readings. It somehoew refers to what I wrote above. Don't memorize ALL possible readings of a kanji without using them in practice. For example, according to a dictionary kanji 人 "human, man, person" has five different readings: ジン, ニン, ひと, り, と. It looks like kun/on readings soup. What's a better way? You learnt that "person" (人) is pronounced ひと. Or "population" (人口) is じんこう (see ジン reading here?). Wait, that's better - "doll/puppet" which is にんぎょう (人形). You see my point?

Summing it a bit up, when making a vocabulary list, firstly write words in hiragana/katakana and if you at some point learn a kanji for some of these words, replace them using that kanji. When learning kanji themselves, sure, learn how to write them, stroke by stroke, even memorize their basic meanings, however, if learning pronounciation (readings), add a word, two, three containing these kanji alongside the full reading.

I'm planning to make a kind of masterlist of resources I personally use but for now I can recommend dictionaries like jisho (online) or kanji dictionary (Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary). For extra grammar explanation "Tofugu" and "Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese" websites or a book "Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" are good sources. The sheets you're asking about I made myself. Kanji are from class and featured in Minna books, verbs as well but mostly taken from another Kodansha book. Like I wrote, I'm going to list everything in a separate post so just give me a moment to compile it :)

Sorry for the lenghty answer, not sure if that's what you expected but I hope I helped!

[szarolina]

10.08.2023 | 19°C

19:31 | I haven't been feeling well recently, so not much done in two days. I decided to relearn (?) all kanji from the beginning (~400). I'm mostly writing them again - even if I already know every single stroke because it calms me down - while recalling readings by studying vocabulary featuring a particular kanji. I also created memrise course for vocab lists which I'm going to study gradually.

[szarolina]

8.08.2023 | 19°C

15:19 | I finally put together a super huge list of Japanese verbs and highlighted those I already know. Also tried to read some original text with translation side by side and it's going better than expected.

By the way, if any of you have recs on reading resources (intermediate level), please share!

[szarolina]

//

When you're at that particular level of learning a language that you know how to say "blood cell" but have no idea what's the name for carrot.

[szarolina]

7.08.2023 | 19°C

13:10 | Learning kanji today and figuring out what to do with one of my 9736282+ empty notebooks I keep in drawers (a new notebook is never a bad idea right).

[szarolina]

Kanji #3 | 飲

Radical: eat, food 食 Meaning: to drink, smoke, take

Kun: のむ, ‐のみ On: イン, オン

Example compounds

飲む (のむ) to drink, swallow, take (medicine) 飲食 (いんしょく) food and drink, eating and drinking 飲料 (いんりょお) drink, beverage 飲��� (いんしゅ) drinking alcohol 飲み物 (のみもの) beverage 愛飲する (あいいんする) to be fond of drinking

[szarolina]

Kanji #2 | 電

Radical: rain 雨 Meaning: electricity

Kun: n/a On: デン

Example compounds

電気 (でんき) electricity 電車 (でんしゃ) train 電話 (でんわ) telephone 電池 (でんち) battery

[szarolina]

Kanji #1 | 旅

Radical: square 方 Meaning: trip, travel

Kun: たび On: リョ

Example compounds

旅行 (りょこう) travel; trip; journey; excursion; tour 旅客 (りょかく) passenger; traveller; tourist 旅先 (たびさき) destination; place one stays during a trip 旅券 (りょけん) passport 旅館 (りょかん) ryokan; traditional Japanese inn

[szarolina]

I'm a new studyblr, my dashboard is a bit empty so I'm looking for more blogs to follow. Let me know if you

study international relations, international markets, economics, political science, etc.

learn Japanese / Chinese / Korean language

post mostly or exclusively original content

I follow back!

[szarolina]

intro

Witam! I had been lurking in the studyblr community before I left Tumblr a few years ago. Yet here I come again and hope I still fit since I'm not a student anymore. I hope we'll get along!

About

I'm Karolina and I'm 27 years old.

From Poland (with love ♡).

INTJ & 5w6 / 8w9

I'm a graduate of two Master degrees: 1) International Relations in Asia 2) Russian & Central Asian Studies. I'm currently writing two theses and hopefully finish them by December.

Next, I want to enroll in PhD program and focus on politics, economy and markets in East and Southeast Asia.

In the meantime I'm looking for a job in the field. I'm thinking of an analyst of the area (just Asia or better Eurasia so it would cover both my degrees), but mixing it with academic path, so while pursuing PhD degree.

One of my hobbies are foreign languages! Over time of my education I've managed to learn English, French, Russian and I'm still learning Japanese (currently at B1+ level). I used to learn Mandarin Chinese, but I intend to get back to it at some point. Also, I'm interested in picking Korean.

I like learning often just for sake of it since my mind needs to be constantly on the go (it gave me sleepless nights several times). It could be picking some textbook (I learnt bases of macroeconomics by myself), doing some online quizes on all seas, gulfs and straits or reading a popular history/science books (because of the Oppenheimer movie, I bought "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes and yes, that's my current read!). I just enjoy it.

I have a never-ending books list on my Goodreads account (2600+ and counting). I like nonfiction (history, biography, political science, business, economics, you name it) and catching up on classics. Also, a h u g e Nabokov fan.

I'm one of these people who need to write everything down, from day schedule, important dates and tasks to all kinds of lists, trackers and brain dump. My Filofax is with me everywhere I go.

In general, I tend to be super-organized and put together. That applies to my daily or at least weekly schedule, surroundings or appearance - otherwise I can't properly focus.

I can't live without good coffee and I'm very picky about it.

Blog

The plan is to make it more personal by posting original content: hopefully daily, realistically a few times per week - mostly covering my writing proccess and languages learning, but also other random things. I intend to reblog some posts too, but I wish to keep the balance between that and OC.

Tagging #szarolina and #karolinatalking

My inbox is always open! c: