Why You Should Keep Listening Even If You Don't Understand
Mandarin Mini-Transcript: Men In Black / I Make This Look Good
LiveStation
NHK High School/NHK高校講座
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix
KanjiPoster
Remembering the Kanji
Remembering the Kanji III
Remembering the Kana
All About Particles
Japanese In Mangaland
Japanese In Mangaland 2
Japanese In Mangaland 3
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference
Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics (Part 2)
Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics Vol 1
13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese
英語は絶対、勉強するな！２：不安が消える・疑問が打っ飛ぶ・マジでペラペラ
英語は絶対、勉強するな！：学校行かない・お金掛けない・だけどペラペラ
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You
The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fastテメエら！というよりは、愛する読者の皆様。勝元で御座います。本人（＝俺）は、病名不明な病気の為、現在休養中なので暫くは新しい記事をアップしますん（どっちだよ？！）。
兎に角じっと待っててね、そのうち直ぐ復帰するから^^。やっぱ膵臓ってイイね。もう絶対に馬鹿にしない（笑）。
Hey everyone. Young Khatzumoto (= me) is sick — too sick to even work at a computer long enough to get some proper writing done — with an as-yet-undiagnosed minor illness. Let’s just say he appreciates his pancreas more now than when it was second on his list of “organs I like to ridicule”, right after the spleen. Apparently this condition also precipitates writing in the third person. Anyway, please patiently await his return.
get well soon Khatz!!
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OMFLIPPINGGOOOOODNESSGRACIOUSME…I got the first comment. That’s amazing! I think I’m gonna go treat myself to some Burger King or TBell<—-scratch that, rewind. I’m doing KANJI!
No. Seriously though, I hope you feel better.
No. Seriously, GET WELL SOON!
Just kidding. A word of warning! The pancreas may be forgiving, but the Spleen! That be a feisty one! And less forgivin’ too! Don’t make it angry ^ _ ^
Oooh! pick me! pick me! I know how to make you feel better! Go watch Densha Otoko or any other crazily awesome J-Drama (or in Cantonese?) You have to make sure it’s one of those where it’s funny yet practically embarrassing to watch. The kind where you’re wincing, chattering your teeth, and blushing every two seconds because the main character is so embarrassing (yet awesome at the same time). You’ll COMPLETELY forget about your sickness, your pancreas will be laughing so hard YOU’ll be crying, and your Spleen’ll be too embarrassed to do anything. It’s the perfect cure. Lol. anyways, I gotta get back to my Densha Otoko–my obsession is calling me…Hope you feel better!
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actually, i got the first comment >_< but who is counting anyway?
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AAWWWWWW. Now that ain’t fair. I swear, I was most definitely the first one “actually” writing the comment. Seriously, the first comment is shorter and obviously was started after I did mine. (starts to hyperventilate–Wuuu-saaaaaaaa) I can’t help it if I’m add and it takes me ten minutes to do a short post because–hey LOOK! A BUNNY!
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しょうが無いね。
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Khatz, I`m sending out possitive vibes to you as we speak (if you get visions of Back to the Future in Japanese you can guess why lol). Get well soon.
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Get well soon, man. I’ll team up with Luke to send positive vibes your way.
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Yikes! I hope you feel better soon!
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Never commented before, but hope you get genki soon.
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Good luck, don’t strain yourself and it’ll be over more soon than if you would strain yourself.
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GET WELL SOON KHATZ! BEEN MISSIN’ YOUR POSTS!
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Oh, no! The great Khatzumoto is ill!? This is absolutely terrible! (I’m not being sarcastic…)
Hope you get well soon, Khatz.
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I was beginning to worry about you a week ago…. I hope you fell better soon.
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ナースとナンパしないようにね。
日本語が喋れれる外人だから、安くしてくれている？俺、小さい町に住んでた時には病院に行っていつも半額してもらった。逆差別はいいな・
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Hope you get well soon mate! All the best.
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残念ですね！ じゃ、勝さんお大事に。
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先生、けっぱれ！
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Hey, Khatz! Get well soon, man. This site isn’t the same without you and your posts. Just make sure you don’t break the keyboard due to accumulated energy when you get back .
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I have 2 questions for you, answer them when you have the time/feel better.
I have calculated my pace for leaning kanji to be 4-5 new ones learned a day. Started about mid july with learning the kana (didn’t know about your website then) and I am currently at 405 kanji. Do you think I should be going faster? Realizing that as I know more I will learn them faster (I am definitely seeing this).
Just wondering if my pace is comparable to were you were and any thoughts you may have on this.
Thanks for any help!
I really enjoy the web site!
p.s. currently watch streaming TV Tokyo as much as I can
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Akira, try learning at least 25-30 kanji a day if you can… and use this website to do it as it follows the remembering the kanji books: kanji.koohii.com
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@Hashiriya Yea I use that site everyday, 25-30 you say yea that seems like a reachable goal. Not looking at any statistics I think my current pace is around 10 pretty comfortably.
How many reps per day do you do or did do if you are in a different stage.
Mine for last week was “163.6 cards/day”, so I estimate I would have to do 400ish to reach the goal you said.
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Oh and btw I meant I get my kanji and “stories” from there, I use Anki for the reps.
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as for me, i didn’t ever do RtK the right way that most people have, i studied to first book and part of the 3rd by myself just breaking all of them down and rewritting them a bunch of times… that was before i found that awesome website and now i really regret that i didn’t use it from the get go.. right now i am kinda making my own way of studying by using iknow www.iknow.co.jp i am just building up my vocab and grammar everyday without writing anything… i didn’t learn those good stories that kanji.koohii.com … if i did i would be writing more because i could remember better… i fully intend to go through that kanji.koohii.com website all the way through one day though and then redo iknow in kanji focus mode to enforce the words and how to write them… after doing it for awhile of the RtK book with just pen and paper i think 25-30 kanji a day seems like a reasonable goal…
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Ganbatte Khatz
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Akira,
I learn about 35 a day. You should try to increase the number becuase you’ll get done just that much faster. I started with RTK at the end of September (20th) and now I’m at 1471. I’ve had a few off days.
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@Akira
I know you want to get finished with the kanji as quickly as possible because getting to the sentences and reading is so tempting, but my personal opinion is to not get in such a hurry that you sacrifice the actually learning the individual kanji. It is very easy to come to a kanji, make up a mnemonic story or borrow someone else’s and move on to the next. It takes time and review for all of the kanjis to sink in. Once I got to a 1000, I decided to take 2 weeks to only do reviews before moving on and I think it helped me immensely. Now when I read and come to a new word, it is very rare that I don’t remember the keyword or meaning of the respective kanjis. Hope this helps.
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@ akira
Yeah, IMHO, I wouldn’t try to hold yourself to like 10, 20, or 30 a day. If you can and feel like doing 30, then, great, do 30. But if you only feel like doing 5 (or 10), then just do that. In my experience, the ones that I don’t wanna do because I feel obligated to complete some certain number are always the hardest to learn. In fact, I almost always have trouble remembering them. Try and capture the exciting moments where you feel like doing kanji and you’re like, “Yes! I can’t wait till I finish!” Then, timebox it and get as many as you can done/as many as you feel like getting done. I often do kanji in fifteen minute segments for timeboxing. When the fifteen minutes are up, I go watch anime or something for fifteen minutes. Then I do kanji for another fifteen minutes, etc until I get tired. Though, I do agree that 5 a day may not be quick enough. So, whatever floats your boat. If you feel like doing a poop-load of kanji one day a week and just few the rest of the days, go ahead.
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Does age by any chance play a role in how much you do? The older you get the more you do?
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@Juz098:
If by age, you mean you’re too young to buy online then yes.
Performance-wise no.
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@Igor well currently I am just reviewing until I feel like stopping. Though I am watching a bunch of video and audio in Japanese so I may be doing good in other parts of the studying.
@Rob I think the major reason for me going so slow in the beginning is since I did the kana first which is really hard to learn compared to the average kanji (I wish I knew about this method then). I wish I could look up when I started the kanji, since I assume they would make up a good portion of the time.
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Here’s hoping that Khatzumoto makes a swift and graceful recovery.
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@Igor
Please don’t devalue the comments section with that first post bullsh**.
@Khatz
I hope you get well soon. Undiagnosed illnesses are the worst. Just, I dunno, eat chicken noodle soup and stay in bed. Get lots of fluids and sleep.
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Random question here: You say don’t ever use text-books.
The thing is I really actually love doing the linguistics/grammar exercises and seeing how the language work. Do you think that doing Japanese elementary school/ones intended for foreigners that are all in japanese grammar books, count as constant language input. Or can learning grimmer rules actually slow you down because the language becomes less natural?
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Oh dear! Get well soon!
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好好休息，Kaz!
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“I wish I could look up when I started the kanji, since I assume they would make up a good portion of the time.”
I meant kana :/
I should really get into the habit of reading what I post more.
Get well Khatzumoto!
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kana took you along time. I got them all down in about a week. You should try this DSAPP called Project JDS. It helps a lot.
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Get well, motherlover.
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すぐに良くなる、勝元さん。
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Hope you get better soon.
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健康第一！
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Chuck F, avoid English like the devil past the beginner’s stage. True, you should be going toward what you enjoy (Japanese grammar books are totally ok, as long as you enjoy them), but really, staying in English textbook Japanese is not going to get you too far. 庭三郎(にわさぶろう)’s grammar guide (google it) is very good from what I’ve heard.
And that’s really a big part of AJATT. Do what you enjoy in English in Japanese.
Also, grammar is not what teaches you the language (or doesn’t), it’s the amount of exposure. Based on my experience, the constant exposure will give you deeper insights into the workings of the language (that and a monolingual dictionary =]) than any grammar book in English could.
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About doing what you enjoy in English.
I like Douglas Hofstadter, Neal Stephenson, Raymond Kurzweil, Enders Game, personal finance books -achieving financial independence aspirational type trashy books
, articles about programming techniques – particular high level stuff, futurists, indie computer game development, interesting science, AI, robots, pretty typography and general writing about aesthetics, writing and character development for novels, hearing how people created cool things such as books, games etc.
Given that stuff does anyone fancy giving me a few links or names to things I might find interesting! Thank you
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Get well soon Khatzumoto!
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I hope you get well soon Khatzumoto!
As a side note, I just started my Kanji on Monday and I’m doing 20 kanji a day. I’ve currently done 100 kanji so I think I’m moving at a good enough pace. I’ve put a couple of Japanese songs onto my Ipod yet I can’t get the amount I want. Can anybody suggest a page where I can get a lot of japanese music without a lot of difficulty? By using limewire I am gaining nothing so I need a more effective method. Also, any links to where I can find raw anime such as Death Note, Samurai Champloo, Air Gear, etc.?
I would appreciate any help I could get on these things since I really need to Japanize my environment more cause it’s still too English oriented.
Oh and one last question, since I’m only a beginner should I still be watching shows or trying to browse Japanese pages even though I don’t understand anything? Or should I wait until I understand more Kanji and then Japanize my environment to its full potential?
Any help on these questions will be deeply appreciated. That’s all for now.
Once again get well soon Khatzumoto!
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@ Diego:
Go, Diego, Go! Jk…
Um, for music, I would try jmp3.net. It’s free, and there aren’t any obnoxious torrents or any other stupid things to sign up for, just direct download. I would recommend: Orange Range, Shaka Labbits, Aqua Timez, Namie Amuro, and maybe…yeah, you should just check out Khatz’ page of music recommendations. But basically, that site’s awesome.
As for anime, I’m not sure where you can download raw anime. I think you could do like torrents or something, but I obviously have no idea what I’m talking about there, lol, so… Anime that I have on DVD I watch without subs (unless I have them with Japanese subs, but even then…). I know Khatz recommends watching things ALWAYS WITHOUT subs, but I’ve found it to be not that detrimental. In fact, I’ve picked up a few words that I hear often but just haven’t quite made the connection on my own just yet. Anyways, I probably won’t do this once I start sentence mining. As for doing stuff explicitly in Japanese, I’d say shows with english subs until you finish kanji and start sentences is fair game (as long as you don’t get obsessed with subs), and I would probably hold off on only Japanese only pages till you’ve done kanji. Don’t get me wrong, I “read” them often to test my kanji recognition, but, other than that, I don’t think I’d ever get anything done, lol…Then again, maybe you should just stay away from surfing the net at all until you can start doing it (with meaning) in Japanese. This’ll minimize english surfing time, and you’ll have more time for other things like anime and dramas (and Densha Otoko…) BTW. Don’t watch the anime of death note. please. Just read the manga or watch the movie(s). The show is pitiful. You’ll just hurt yourself, and you’ll never like the series as much as you would otherwise, lol…
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btw, check out keyholetv. xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/. It is so cool. It took me 1 minute to get in on my computer and running, and it takes up almost no space (note: my computer is older than the hills, so this means a lot) Basically, it has a whole slew of popular japanese tv stations for free in realtime: terebi asahi, terebi tokyo, fuji terebi, etc… The audio and video quality isn’t that great, but this is still amazing.
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@ igor
Wow thanks for all the info igor it helps a lot.
That link for the live japanese tv is awesome thanks.
Oh and I already watched Death Note, I thought it was pretty good actually, but anyway everybody has their own opinion xD.
Oh and I get the “Go, Diego, Go!” thing so many times during the day that I find it natural now lol! xD
Anyway thanks again for the help.
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おちついて、勝元さん。
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personally i think www.livestation.com/ is a lot better than key hole tv…
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Anyone else going through AJATT withdraw? I keep checking for new posts…
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Hahaha. I’ve been doing the same thing. Everyday, I probably check twice when I get on my computer “just in case.” Lol, I should probably be doing something in Japanese. That’ll probably help the withdrawal symptoms…I can’t really blame Khatz, though. If you’re sick, you’re sick. I wouldn’t want to have to deal with whole bunch of fangirls (like myself) on the Interet, lol…
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BTW, I tried livestation, and it looks like it would be totally cool, but I couldn’t get any of the stations from Japan to work on my computer. I think that has something to do with regions or something. Looks like I’m stuck with keyholetv. That’s okay, it’s kind of addicting…
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I agree with Igor: Keyholetv is very addictive + it must be the only broadcast program that works with my low internet connection…
AJATT is SO ADDICTIVE! can’t get enough. I discovered this website on a wednesday 2 weeks ago and on the sunday I was at 100 kanji (in fact104!). I’ve been in raw immersion since something like 1 year and a half without even knowing what the word meant ^^; listening to a lot of (obscure) punk jazz rock bands, watching interviews, etc…
I needed something, a motivation to start learning the language. I’m glad I found it by chance. (Tokyosam vid on youtube…)
today I’m at about 350 kanji, I keep my good Heisig pace and really, this website achieved to convince me…it became obvious, it was the thing to do right now.
thanks Khatz
get well soon.
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[...] there, industriously clicking and typing away, minding my own business, when suddenly I fell sick (again!). But then I went to see the doctor (great guy!) and he gave me the merchandise (drugs!) and now I [...]
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