Question:
My mum also helped me to pick up 'Learning basic japanese grammar' textbook and a grade 3 assessment book from a trip to Japan. I decided to concentrate on picking up Kanji and planned to memorise 10 Kanji compound words a day; it turned out decently - I have managed to get about a thousand words so far. No matter what people say, knowledge of Chinese is a big plus in learning kanji.
Other than from that, I've been reading grade 3 and 4 story-books and completing one a week. (Btw, what does 'konoyaroo' mean? it was spoken like a vulgarity in one of the books). The assessment book was also quite useful in testing my knowledge, however I'm facing the problem of getting more of them. Would Kinokuniya have them?
Anyway, is there anything else I can do to increase my reading ability more quickly? I have heard that it's a good idea to learn the kanji component words (what's the term) but I was thinking of doing that maybe after I have a larger vocabulary.
Also, I'll be going to Okinawa during my summer holidays for a japanese language course at the 'Japan Institute of Culture and Economics' (anyone heard of it?). Is there anything I should prepare or look out for to enhance my learning?
Lastly, is it possible for me to attain Japanese fluency (to a point where I can work there,and to be able to read newspapers and adult fiction) within 4 years? My plan is to enroll myself in weekly language classes as well as going for the immersion course at the JICE yearly for the 4 summers I'm in U.
Answer:
You say you know kanji so I presume your native language is Chinese. I studied with plenty of Chinese students and they were baffled at us English speakers' problems in some areas, it seemed so obvious to them. And they had a few blind spots of their own. But I don't recall too much of this as I was too busy struggling with learning the language myself. I can only suggest reading a lot, I find it's easier to memorize kanji in context. Maybe keep a pad of paper and copy unknown jukugo as you read, look them up later and reread. You will be able to acquire larger groups of kanji and kanji-based vocabulary at higher levels of study, so don't worry too much about the slow pace at first. Maybe looking at the Bonjinsha "Kanji Book" series would accelerate the process.
Haven't heard of them. I highly recommend doing overseas study but you should get some classroom work in first. I remember how hard it was for the relatively new students who were taking their first year or 2nd year Japanese class in Japan, they were pretty lost. It seemed like a pretty inefficient and expensive course of study, they should have got the basics out of the way first.
With overseas study, and 4 years of hard work, you have a good shot. It's sufficient baseline prep that you could live and work in Japan. My teacher always said that Japanese classes were just preparation for when the REAL work begins, when you get to Japan and have to operate in a 100% Japanese environment.
