First, let’s discuss the different types of white meat.
White Meat: Chicken
The Other White Meat: Pork
The Other Other White Meat: My roommate R-star from freshman year at college. He was in ROTC and seriously pumped. Hunnnh!
Which brings us to the Other Other Other White Meat. This guy.
He learned Japanese using very similar methods to those you find on this site, but all before this site existed. We have so much in common, OMG! He essentially didn’t take classes (technically, he did a bit, but they sucked and he sucked); he had never been to Japan, but learned Japanese by living it, by changing his environment, all while in New Zealand (or one of those countries with weird English). Anyway, screw me telling you. Listen to his story.
He’s one lucky person, being able to go to Japan….
Anyway, I could sympathize most when he told us to treat our brain like our muscles and force it to do exercises. My daily Mnemosyne drills often feels very like so :).
Well, 皆頑張れ！
Hey Khatzu, When are we going to see your youtube video?
White meat??? WTF?
This is exactly, like word for word an identical success story between him and Khatz. They seem to have made the same connections (all based on everything Khatzumoto has written so far on this page) and their approach to the language is almost bar-none comparable. Kinda makes you wonder if there is a reason why things are done the way they are using this method?
Either way, Khatzu’s method seems to me, to be the most user friendly way to connect to another language. That’s what it’s all about anyways, making connections. The reason why this is the best way to do so is because no single person learns or makes connections the same way as another, and self study seems to be the best way to go, especially when tackling language. When compared to your native language, using a non-native language is like a second view point to connections that have already been made from your first encounter of the object in question. Discovery, probability, experimentation, research, and even chance, are some of the things that make learning Japanese fun for me because everytime I encounter something new when trying to use the foreign language, I always have the connections made by my native language to help back me up.
I’ve reached a point in my Japanese study where I have started to make new connections to the language without having to refer to, or look up what certain things mean in my native language and it puts a smile on my face everytime it happens. When that starts to happen, you know your close to fluency when connections just “start to happen without thinking about them”. I think I’ve already said too much, yes I have a bad habit of writing a huge story of something that could very well be condensed into something smaller.
One more thing, before jumping into the world of sentence mining (for people who are at that point) it is tiring and sometimes can have a negative effect on your understanding of certain parts of the language. But, the fact that sentences have a gold mine of new information avaliable to you such as: grammar, new word definitions, and native-only understandings of specific groups of words and phrases keep you plucking away, sentence after sentence until you’ve made enough connections to understand without reference. I’ve found an incredibly simple alternative, I shouldn’t say alternative, maybe “aid” is better meaning to help you along with understanding. It is costly but simple: The Rosetta Stone software. I’m telling you, even though on their commercials and website it says that Rosetta Stone is used for becoming “conversationally fluent” only, that is complete BS when concerning East Asian languages.
When you get the Japanese version of the software, it’s total immersion in your face kinda stuff. All the menu’s are in Kanji and Kana, but that’s the point, mess around with it’s interface until you make the connections to point you in the right direction. It really worked out well for me. Basically, you are given 3 options when running through the tests. You can see the written version of everything the narrator is saying in Romaji, Kana or Kanji (with some Kana). It’s great because, for example, Test 1 Frame 1 is the basics: you see pictures of certain things like a dog, cat, boy and girl. You can either make it display in Romaji: Inu, Neko, Otokonoko, Onnanoko – Kana: いぬ, ねこ, おとこのこ, おんあのこ – Kanji: 犬, 猫, 男の子, 女の子 – It’s great BECAUSE it has pictures to go along with your kanji and kana so you can make immediate relations with pictoral objects rather than mining through sentences and going into a dictionary and looking up the meaning of words you don’t know. It puts the relationships between the objects and the words right infront of your eyes so you can save ALOT of time trying to make connections! I’m sure that MANY people will find The Rosetta Stone software helpful in this respect. I have probably saved, I would say, maybe 3 to 4 months in making the spoken connection between many different situations and scenarios of words that the software produces for you.
Anyways, I’ve said too much, again lol. That’s all I have to say, and ask me any questions concerning Rosetta Stone. Talk back soon.
I can vouch for rossetta stone, It’s where i’m getting all my sentences from. While its far from essential, it has pictures, writing, videos and sound clips, all the multi sensory stuff Katz was on about. Also it starts light and builds up naturally to more complex snetences. Combine RS with an SRS and a dictionary and you got a pretty darn good system there.
Definately true. Regarding sentences, Rosetta Stone starts you out at a preschool level then moves you up slowly to new compounds and formations of words and tries to teach you connections quickly as you advance through it. It’s only great if you have knowledge background regarding Kana and Kanji though, otherwise all it can technically teach you is how to be conversationally fluent. I guess you might be able to get reading and writing from it, but it would take you a LONG time to figure out any connections at all. Using Khatzu’s method first, and later joining the Rosetta Stone software, you have a huge lead ahead of the game when speaking, writing and reading is concerned.
よろしくね！
Good info Dr Talon- I’ll look into the Rosetta Stone software when I’m done with RTK1.
ありがとう！
I want to see your success story, Khatz! C’mon, in the Land of Technology Supreme, you MUST have a video camera, or you could use a keitai with Utterz.com or something. We want video!
I just realized I made a small mistake on my final greeting in my last post lol. I put よろしくね instead of よろこんで , someone needs sleep, guess who?
いいやり方だと思います。僕はそういうふうに日本語を勉強してますけど４年勉強しても自然な流れはまだまだです。能力試験を合格したばっかりで小説を読むのがもんだいないんですけど、会話する時、全然そのレベルに当てない。日本にいるから毎日会話しますけど、ニュアンスの自然さが上達しない。助言とかあったらお願いします。