Rainy season has officially ended here in Japan, and now it is time to enjoy the free sauna that is the Japanese summer. If you are not familiar with the summers here, I would advise you to avoid them. It is incredibly hot and humid.
It’s a great time to stay indoors and crack a book or two (or head to the beach). I’m still rolling through Harry Potter. I’ve hit a bit of a rough spot in the middle of the book where there is less dialog and more descriptions of scenes. This makes it a bit tougher to read, but still pretty manageable.
I’m pretty darn close to finally making it to halfway with StickyStudy. I’m finding it more of a useful app to get some exposure to key vocabulary than actually learning it, at least at the N1 level. I feel like the review algorithm is a little off.
Lately, after it has shown me the new cards for the day it will show me one card that I have mastered. More often than not I can hardly recall the word that I supposedly ‘mastered’. I wish it reviewed these more often. I don’t think this is too much of a problem for the smaller decks, but for the large (3300+ words) N1 deck it doesn’t work so well.
The other thing I’ve been working my through is So-Matome N1 Listening Comprehension. This book contains some really tough listening exercises. Sometimes I feel they are tougher than the actual exam, which is a very good thing. It has turned out to be a lot better practice than I thought it would be.
I’ve found that sometimes I will listen to a piece and have no clue what they are talking about or only a faint guess, but when I read the script I can answer the questions somewhat easily. This is big indicator that my listening skills aren’t up to the level they should be. My reading and vocabulary is pretty good, but I need to improve listening if I’m going to pass.
Are we There Yet?
We’ve all heard this question right? Or we might have even asked it ourselves on one of those long road trips where you’ve managed to go through all your video games, movies on your iPad and have simply used up all the topics of conversation that you managed to think of.
I used to ask myself this question about Japanese a lot. Am I done studying all the material I need to know for 三級 (old N4)? Do I really need that extra book to practice grammar and vocabulary? Is it really necessary?
One of the most common questions I get from readers by email is if I do book X, Y, and Z, do you think I will be ready for the N4 in December? What book do I absolutely need to pass the test?
These are all very valid questions. After all, it is important to have a goal, and know when you have achieved that goal (or when you are ready to try to achieve that goal by taking the test). That is the whole reason why you set SMART goals to begin with right?
Well, there are two different approaches to studying Japanese as I see it. And both have their advantages and disadvantages. The first one I’ll call ‘language hacking’ and the second one, let’s call that one ‘mastering the language’.
Language Hacking Japanese
This is the approach that I used to follow in my early days. I used to study everything, but only review the things that I missed or I needed to know to get by. Essentially I focused on essential grammar structures and key vocabulary that I needed to know and didn’t bother trying to learn absolutely everything.
This saved me a lot of time with studying, and I was able to start speaking and having somewhat decent conversations with the language. I made a tremendous amount of mistakes, and I still wonder how I managed to pass 三級 but I did. The important thing was that I was usually understood (after a few tries) and so it didn’t really bother me that much.
The only problem with having all these mistakes was that when I got a more strict teacher here in Osaka. She was constantly correcting me, and I realized I wasn’t exactly as well-spoken as I once day-dreamed I was. That was a bit of a painful realization because I had to go back and re-learn a few things that I simply hadn’t spent the time on before.
But, everything ended up working out pretty well, so no harm done really. This form of study ‘triage’ can be really handy if you have limited time and simply just want to pass the test and have fun with the language.
Mastering the Language
The other approach, the approach that I have adopted recently, is to simply over-learn all the material. So, for example, with the grammar, I went through the book 4 times reviewing and refining my knowledge each time. And even now, I’m looking back through a little bit of it every day.
I’ve found that this has a few advantages. First, the material is sticking in my memory a lot longer and second, I’m confident of its meaning and connotations. This is really helpfully when I go to read material because I don’t have to stop and think about the meaning, I just know it. Over-learning something, eliminates all the ‘fuzziness’ about it, so I can be confident that I’m understanding something.
This approach has a few drawbacks though. First, it will definitely take more time. I spent a tremendous amount of time going over the sentences in So-Matome and going over my answers to the questions that I could have been spending doing something else like reading or listening practice.
Second, it will probably take a little more money. I went ahead and bought all the books I’m planning on using to pass N1. I got 8 books to practice with: New Kanzen Master Listening, Reading, and Grammar, So-Matome Listening, Reading, and Grammar, the official practice book, as well as Tanki Master. Just looking at the stack of books by my desk makes me think that it all might be a bit overkill.
But, I’m confident that this approach will really pay off in the long run. And that’s the thing, the ‘mastering’ strategy is more of a pay now and profit later system, whereas the ‘language hacking’ is more of a work now and profit now, but you might have to pay in the future. Neither strategy is particularly more useful than the other. It all depends on what you want out of your studies.
What is your Strategy for Language Learning?
Are you striving to be a master? Or would you rather hack it? Let me know in the comments below.
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Hi Mac, how are you? I tend to buy a lot of books for the JLPT exams, there’s a spanish phrase that says “mejor que sobre y no que falte” I probably have more books than I need to, but I preffer to be in this situation, rather than feel like I don’t have enough study materials.
So far for the N3 I have the somatome series (reading, kanji, kotoba, grammar and listening) then I have two reading comprehension books that I don;t remember the name right now, I have the gokaku dekiru N3 and the Tanki master N3. If Kanzen series were available at N3 level I’d probably buy it as well.
I think you have great material to study for the N1. If you ever think you are missing some more practise, have you taken a look at the Gokaku Dekiru N1? It really helped me for N4, and I have it ready when the time comes (probably on november) to try some mock tests of Gokaku Dekiru N3.
頑張ろう!
Virginia
I think with textbooks, the more the merrier to be honest. As long as you are using them and reviewing them, you might as well keep them coming. I just counted my books actually, I have 30+ books for studying Japanese and that’s just what I have with me right now!
I actually haven’t picked up the Gokaku Dekiru for N1 yet, but I might if I don’t pass again in December. I’ll be working through the reading and grammar books next. I just finished listening, which I hope will give me those extra little points I need. Thanks for the recommendations though!
頑張ろう!
Hi Mac , even i believe in mastering Japanese rather than just studying to pass the exam. As you have rightly said it will pay off in the long run. Especially if you work requires Japanese then just the certificate doesn’t help.
I am currently preparing for N2 and currently studying the somatome dokkai. I just want to know when you were studying for N2 did u read the comprehension passages over and over again to make the new vocabulary stick in your memory? Or did you just go through new words again and again and not the whole passage?
I tend to read the comprehension passages more than once. The new words stick in my memory faster when i read them in context.
Have you seen the speed master books for N2? They seem to be equally good. I am using the dokkai one for N2 and i am happy with it so far. You can view them in the link below,
https://shop.whiterabbitjapan.com/japanese-language/jlpt-n2/quick-mastery-of-jlpt-n3-set.html
Regards,
Surabhee
I totally agree with the re-reading of passages multiple times. This has actually been shown to improve your reading comprehension and speed in some studies (more than doing extensive reading). Now that I am going into the last couple of months before the exam, I’m going to really increase the amount of reading I’m going to be doing. I’ll probably end up re-reading a lot of passages over the next 2 or 3 months.
I haven’t tried the speed mastery books yet. They don’t seem to be as popular as the So-Matome and New Kanzen Master series, but I’d still like to give them ago. Maybe if I need more practice after the December test I’ll pick one up.
Thanks for the recommendation!