Hail to the Hive!

43 days ago I made a commitment to follow through with learning a language as I felt it was something I had overlooked and regretted not pursuing.

Since I restarted my Japanese self study I have noticed a pattern in my learning behavior and how my frustration surfaces at times. I am almost educating myself on how to stay focused and motivate myself at the same time as learning the language. I am trying to use as many tools at my disposal seeing as I no longer have any native speakers close by to assist.

Duo Lingo and other apps can’t do it all and have their limitations.

Source: screenshots from Duolingo app

The do have their pros though in that I can access them at will and I can use them to help me stay on track. I’m not interested in racing through the progression as I’ve noticed that it can sometimes feel like a computer game.

It can get a bit repetitive and my brain starts seeing the patterns. So I tend to randomly keep back tracking to much earlier to be sure I am reinforcing what I have previously learned.

They have a league system I scoffed at to begin with but I have noticed that it does often motivate me to do more each day when I’m notified someone has taken my number one spot. How dare they!

I still use a few learning videos That I randomly select to check I am actually making progress and I’ve noticed my vocabulary is improving and increasing. 43 days into my Japanese reboot and I feel like I’ve made more progress than I did in the months of lockdown. I think this is because lockdown gave me a rudimentary base that I am now building on.

Source: screenshots fro Kendras language school on youtube

The videos help a little as it’s quite passive and kind of laps away at my brain like waves on the beach. More and more my brain is translating the phrases before they appear written on the screen. This basic reinforcement makes me smile at times as I can feel the progress in those moments.

Added to this now in the evening I have taken to watching Japanese movies on youtube. I still need the subtitles obviously but I am ‘hearing’ more words I recognize now and I think trying to open my ears and brain to the rhythm of the speach is important.

I’m enjoying the movies too as some are quite amusing

Source: screenshots from ‘Zatoichi’ on youtube.

There’s a whole series of these Zatoichi movies so I figure I can get familiar with it all and have some fun. Who knows maybe in a year or so I’ll be less reliant on the subtitles.

This would be awesome.

And then just to really mix it up and have some fun to help keep me immersed in Japanese as much as I can

Babymetal!

Just can’t not smile watching and listening to this. Bonkers ,crazy, cute and fun.

Keeping it fun helps me stay motivated and keep the thread going. I’ve often checked lyrics on google translate to see if i heard what I thought I heard. I wouldn’t mind seeing these live also, what a show!

Also posting on Hive about my studies is a way of holding myself accountable. I know @daveks speaks Japanese and I’ve recently found @koto-art who’s art and posts and food are worth checking out too so hopefully they can also help keep me motivated!

Checkmout the video though if you’ve got this fat. Even if Metal isn’t your cup of tea I defy you not to smile 😊