#like immersion... and then adding unknown stuff to the anki

[centipedve]

we think we've successfully given ourselves a habit that we can actually fulfill cuz like. we forget to do our german vocab stuff right. like normally. and then the next day it says we need to memorize 100 different cards because we performed sin. (normally its 30-40 which is annoying but can be done in 15 mins). and you know we think if we saw 100 cards to review normally we simply wouldn't but alas when we actually remember it we do it. and then it only takes 5 minutes more than 30 card reviews! maybe learning german isn't a losing battle maybe we can do it

[puncture]

10/14/21

briefly emerges from beginner grammar depths

I finished reading Tae Kim's grammar guide. It only took me like six years.

I have a feeling this was only the beginning of my relationship with this guide though. I definitely tried to understand every concept that was thrown at me, but reading all that in the span of three days of course it only got me vaguely familiar. The basic grammar section was all review, with some nuances. The essential grammar section was like 25% review. Everything else was basically new to me other than some patterns I'd already come across when reading. So I can see myself rereading at some point, on top of constantly referencing.

Phew. That was exhausting and very difficult to make myself do. I've always been bad at just sitting down and studying like that, and this time was no different. I haven't given Tae Kim enough credit all these years I've been avoiding his guide though, it really isn't too painful to read. It's a lot, but his tone is enjoyable and he makes things pretty simple to understand. I think his writing and format does a good job of not wasting the reader's time while still having character so that it's not a complete snoozefest. I'd like to get my hands on his grammar guide's physical book.

So now to reassess my grammar studies. I will probably stop reading Genki II. I cross referenced the five chapters I have left in Genki II against Tae Kim using Bunpro's "paths" and yeah there's kind of no need to finish reading Genki II grammar now. If I'm reading and don't understand something, I can check Genki II to see how they explain it, but there's no point in just reading that when I can be immersing now. I might finish the readings since I found them interesting.

I'll absolutely still be using all the resources though because I need my grammar to level up. I might start using a grammar deck in anki. I'd probably do like three new cards a day alongside focusing on reading and mining words.

Just a thought but I may also start keeping a grammar spreadsheet. Something like Bunpro that has a point and then various places where I can read about the point. Bunpro is good for this but a spreadsheet would be easier for me to search through and I'd also be able to curate it myself. I'd like to add stuff from various JLPT prep materials. You can kind of do this if you have a paid subscription to Bunpro, to be fair.

--

Comprehensible Japanese on YouTube is an amazing channel that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who wants some listening content. Yuki-sensei's new video on Kabuki was really interesting! I was pleasantly surprised that I understood it even though it was an intermediate level video, but she's really good at using gestures and drawings to give context clues pertaining to unknown vocabulary. I may go through and watch the rest of her free intermediate videos. As soon as I'm able I'll definitely become a paid user because I think she puts out high quality content.

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Well that was just a check in. I'm off to try to get some reading in! I'm hoping to put out a post that's less of a diary format and more of a "these are native materials I would like to consume in Japanese" self inspiration post. Lately I spend a lot of time looking at JP books and adding them to my wishlist.

[rigelmejo]

Ok now speaking of Daomubiji:

I tried to read it again in chinese. Last time I tried this, I got through a few agonizing paragraphs of chapter 1 then quit.

It has been eons better this time around! I am looking up 1-3 words per paragraph. Not great, but way better than “literally 50% or more of all words.” The raté I’m looking up is quick enough that I can still read at a decent pace, and only need to slow down if I want to study these new words to try and remember their characters/pronunciations a bit.

I am doing WAY better this time around. Both times I read this digitally, so I’m comparing the same kind of reading style. So apparently, just like Tamen de Gushi, overall my need to lookup words has decreased.

Things I suspect may have factored into helping me, making this easier this time around:

1. I’ve read the chapter in english BEFOREHAND, this time around, so I have more context to guess unknown words. I have less effort I need to put into catching the plot, so I can spend more time/mental effort actually noticing words and wording. I know the names of proper nouns so when I see them in chinese I am not struggling to determine if they’re names or objects or something else. So yeah... immersing in stuff you have prior context for... again, clearly much easier.

2. I’ve been going through an anki deck for Remember the Hanzi, I’m at around 1000. I think to some degree, I am recognizing more Hanzi, and that makes unknown words much easier to intuitively “understand” and remember and “recognize” once I’ve looked them up once. So I do think going through RTH is helping with broader reading comprehension.

3. I haven’t done much reading practice lately... but I did recently brute force my way through chapter 1 of MoDu by priest with no dictionary until after I finished reading, to clarify a handful of words. While the task was pretty challenging and I only understood the gist, I think it got my brain more “used to” getting thrown in the deep end in reading. Aka I am tolerating ambiguity better without it feeling As Much of a slog.

4. I’ve been Watching the Daomubiji dramas lately so like. Even though I’m watching them with dual subs or English subs, to some degree I’ve got keywords in these stories more freshly available in my mind. Words like: tomb, body, grave, robbers hole, dig, mural, gun/bullets, bloody corpse, bug, bell, coffin. I’m sure those kind of key words being easier for me to notice, in general is making the story easier to read since many of the key plot points jump out at me (since they contain those kinds of words). Which helps me pick up more plot details even just from skimming.

But yeah. Basically: yes RTH is HELPING with reading, so I shall continue it. And YES reading every so often with no dictionary at all, is helping (despite me sometimes feeling it’s not).

Also: I am currently reading it with the MandarinSpot Bookmarklet tab, then opening the Daomubiji site. When I read with the Bookmarklet, i can click a word for definition and it will give all “core/relevant” definitions without being excessively in depth. It is a somewhat simpler interface than Pleco Reader (which also means it has no audio, no ability to bookmark/flashcard words, no in depth dictionary entries). But I do find that it speeds up my reading, because I have less to distract me. I can just look at the word definition/pinyin quickly than move on. I know that personally, while I love the added features Pleco has, sometimes I get slowed down and distracted when I have more options. (Which is a major reason I even TRY to read my print copies of books as often as I do - yes it’s brutal cause I have no tools to help me, but it’s also task-wise the easiest way to do JUST ONE SINGLE THING, READ.) And I’m so much better at staying focused when I genuinely only have to do a single task.

[rigelmejo]

Ok adjustment to suddenly no flashcards is strangely weird I think it’s cause I grinded too much. On the upside, if I suddenly slack off then it’s not like it was a priority ovo)/

So I got the better version of the SpoonFed Chinese anki deck today, it’s 8000 cards. A lot of it is very basic for me. but I figure it’s still good comprehension practice, good for reviewing words I know in context (instead of in isolation), good for me practicing shadowing and production, good for me practicing seeing correct grammar.

I’m using the settings: good for good, again for the ones I need review. I heard that’s the best for the “Lazy Anki” mass immersion approach setup. I am also using easy for the cards I ALREADY KNOW completely. Because it’s fine if their intervals are huge - I know them already. Also I would like to normally use the option of 20 cards a day. I’m just bulking it up rn because I know most of the sentences and want to speed through all the completely known ones.

I’m toggling with the deck a bit - because when I learn the deck it gives me very basic sentences I could probably skip. But when I went through it in the Browse area and tried to ‘suspend’ cards I knew so I can save them in case I want them, but have them not be in my learning/reviews - I saw a lot of sentences that went from simple to complex fast! Like 1 new word or grammar point building from the prior sentence. So together studied in order, every sentence is easy - but if I came across one right away, it might have 3-4 things I don’t know in it. I’m not sure if it takes a couple hundred cards in to start seeing this? But I figure if these cards are really building off each other, I might as well just keep most of them. Even the ones I know completely are good production practice and good review. I’m also contemplating ‘suspending’ all the Card 2 types In my deck that prompt with English first. I decided ultimately to leave them for now - since they give me practice on production. But if I find they bother me, I’m suspending them since they just cover the same material twice.

Anyway flashcard wise, I figured this deck is simple and easy to stick to. It covers stuff I can use, and it’s easy to study. I do think the Pleco pre made sentence decks I have are good (maybe even better for ME since the difficulty spikes quicker and my brain learns when its being challenged a lot and loves to slack when it’s not). But I don’t like using flashcards in Pleco for srs much. I prefer to use it like a big notebook of words I know/am studying/etc. Also i guess just mentally, it lets me keep seeing Pleco as my reading/notes/reference area. I like to keep it separate from srs flashcards I guess since... I usually hate flashcards, but love Pleco a lot lol.

I also was trying out my Chinese Grammar deck on anki - it’s a great deck. This one again has sentences mostly of stuff I know and understand - but this one is focused on grammar patterns and I think it’s a bit helpful for improving my production and grammar understanding. Along with just being more review of things I know. I also have a Hanzi deck on anki with simplified and traditional - idk how I feel about it or if I’ll use it. It’s not mnemonic containing, it’s just ordered on frequency, but I do like that it includes traditional so I can see both. Ultimately, these are just optional things I’m checking out. These two decks are free.

The SpoonFed Chinese deck has a free version - which I used to use and is perfectly useful so I recommend it. The big drawback I guess with it, was it seemed to occasionally have the same issues Clozemaster sentences have - since a beginner made it the sentences came from a bigger site source and if there were mistakes they were unedited, also the audio is compressed and sounds a bit harsh (but usable). If you look up the deck it shows up on anki, and the shared deck page also includes the creator’s link to the paid version they made. The paid version is $4 (or more if you’d like to tip etc). Its the version of the deck that’s been gone through for errors (so significantly less errors), for usefulness, so that the sentences are more sequentially I+1 instead of only sometimes I+1, the audio is WAY better.

It’s clear the creator went through it with more language experience, and they stated their Chinese wife also helped go through this version of the deck. I do think as I’m going through it, its noticeably better organized than the original was. Most noticeably though, I think the material is a little more thematically coherent and the difficulty curve is much more steady - it reads almost like the difficulty progression of some paid course or some college classes I’ve taken. This might make it easier for beginners to start it.

In the 4$ version of the deck I started today, my 20 cards basically introduced some ‘new’ words in simple sentences, then in more complex sentences with new grammar happening, and over time with new words added. It felt well structured like a purposeful course rather then a random list of sentences organized by ‘word frequency’ and length’ without much further work. The original deck is mostly like this too, just bulkier, and with a bit more of a chaotic I+1 organization where some chunks of sentences are all completely comprehensible them suddenly there’s a chunk of I+i sentences mixed in with totally new unknown sentences and I+2 or more type sentences. I think how well organized the 4$ version is... definitely motivates me to study more. Also I do think, If you had ZERO prior chinese knowledge of Hanzi or vocab words, the new structure helps guide you through learning the sentences much easier.

Also, just in general, the person who made the deck put instructions up as well on how to download and install it, how to change certain settings if you prefer, what to study beforehand if you have zero prior knowledge (it links to pinyin and tones), and I just really appreciated how thought out the instructions and notes were. Again, it makes it much easier as a beginner (and easier for me since I know almost nothing about anki and dearly needed the instructions today lol).

Lol this is all assuming... I stick to using anki instead of dropping it like always >o> we’ll see

Here’s the original deck on its page on anki: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/867291675

Here’s the edited $4 deck: https://gumroad.com/products/IEmpwF

And, if you are wondering, no I still didn’t buy the $25 dollar anki app for iPhone. I’m just using the mobile website anki, as usual. Maybe life would be easier if I used the app but oh well. As far as I’ve heard there’s not a noticeable enough difference...