It's like a turtle's pace man.
I've determined that my best skill is undoubtedly writing. I can write like a mofo. I guess then listening and speaking tie and finally reading. I am a super slow reader.
My recent undertaking is trying to refamiliarize myself with kanji. I had begun to learn it but it was so long ago unless it's numbers 一 through 十 or simple kanji like 日 or 月, I have forgotten anything I might have learned so it's all new to me again. Unfortunately, 漢字 is not like ひらがな or カタカナ which each consist of 46 letters. To be fluent in Japanese you need to know approximately 2000 - 3000 kanji characters. It is estimated that there may be some 100,000 kanji characters! What I find interesting about some Japanese people is that even they do not know ALL the characters. It seems a bit of an impossibility doesn't it? Sometimes a friend of mine will flat out admit that they do not know a particular kanji character.
Japanese schoolchildren generally learn these 2000 - 3000 kanji by the end of junior high school. This means I have 7 to 9 years of catching up to do, depending on how long you think junior high lasts. To be honest I haven't even mastered 1st grade characters yet. But I would like to start tracking my progress through the language on this blog. After all, it's Lost in Japan and I'm currently lost in the language.
One of my necessities for my house was a printer/scanner. I'd like to scan some sentences I write from time to time and post them here. I know I can type 日本語 on the computer obviously but this will help me practice my writing. I hope you will indulge me and I hope you enjoy this new feature on my blog.
Now if you'll excuse me, it's 日本語のクラス time.
Best of luck with your Japanese studies!
ReplyDeleteI remember going to a beginners Japanese class for free in Osaka city. I went with an open mind, ready and eager to learn with fellow beginners. I attended 2 classes of this and gave up!
ReplyDeleteFirst class I went to, we were all sitting down and my first thought was, am I in the wrong class? Am I in the class for Japanese speaking “experts” versus newbies like me? Everyone was lightning years ahead of me. They were speaking in fluid full sentences. Talk about a complex! They were writing like paragraphs. The teacher said write a paragraph about yourself. One girl wrote 2 pages. @_@ I however was a real newbie didn’t even know how to write my name! I left that class feeling quite low. Two weeks later was a cooking class. Everyone was once again speaking Japanese with no trouble at all. Joking around in Japanese. Honestly....I was lost. They were either way too far ahead or I was way too far behind. I thought it was a beginners class. So, I never went back. : )
And for what it’s worth, I did learn to speak Japanese. I learned it at my own speed (I learned it at a snails pace so I understand what you mean totally; ). I now can speak and joke with the best of them. You'll get there. : )