Comments on: Cute Girls, Mathematics, Language

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:50:50 +0000

I’m actually doing this now. Since I have already watched several hundred hours of amine subbed before starting the ajatt method, I decided it would be a good idea to rewatch my favs sans subs and also rip the audio from the eps to listen to from my iPod. I actually really like having some kind of idea, from previous viewings, of whats going on. Also, an unlikely source for this is crunchy roll. I generally watch random amine, and since the site has soft subs, one can easily turn the subs off. The only ‘problem’ is that the site has commercials, but I generally spend that time SRSing.

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By: Anotherkanjisite

Anotherkanjisite — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:44:02 +0000

I strongly agree with the issue of adult stubbornness. There are a number of factors in play, it would seem. Definitely as you’ve pointed out there’s the wanting of the “one button” approach, though I blame the modern American media especially for this one (it’s all consumer-oriented, each advertiser attempting to promise grander results than the next, disillusioning the poor folk into thinking they are kings to whom the world will belong if only they dish out a sufficient enough amount of money at a cause).

There’s also the issue of the adult ego – adults hate being wrong, they hate feeling like they can’t understand something. As they try to study, the ego becomes stronger until it screams at them to stop trying the thing they are bad at and to return to the thing they are good at in order to help the ego feel better. Children have no egos, they simply have no choice but to go through countless series of mistakes until they ultimately achieve the knowledge.

Another factor that comes to mind is learned helplessness. While children experience no reserve at trying something over and over again, even if it’s falling off a bike and looking silly, adults have often learned to fear failure. They have instructed themselves that in order to avoid that which they fear, they must not pursue that particular venue. This is a subconscious habit that runs in many adults, especially if they are used to following established routines every day that they have grown comfortable in.

An interesting thought just came to mind, too. Imagine if someone had never learned to ride a bicycle. Think of all the hard-headed adults you know. Picture them trying to learn to ride a bicycle for the first time. How likely is it that they would agree to go through with it? They’d rather stand in the corner and frown and nod at the children riding bikes than “stoop down” to learning it themselves. And then they group up and blame it on “deterioration of ability due to age”. As long as they keep nodding at each other and agreeing with this “consensus” they get to live in a world that feels comfortable to them because in it, they are not at fault. But really, they’re just being too uptight and keeping themselves from having fun.

Sorry, felt like ranting a bit. =P

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By: Critical Frequency: A Brand New Way of Looking At Language Exposure | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:40:34 +0000

[...] I used to subscribe to what you might call an absolute volume (critical mass) model of language acquistion. Basically, it goes like this: [...]

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By: khatzumoto

khatzumoto — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:48:07 +0000

睡眠時間も一応カウントするよ・・・（＾＾）

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By: nikurasu

nikurasu — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:25:26 +0000

“Because she spent 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a years studying Japanese. She has spent 40,000 hours listening to Japanese. Her name is Didi.” こう書いたけど、４０万時間は毎日で２７時間と同じことだよ。不思議じゃない？一日２４時間とか２２とか大変すぎるのよ。寝る時間とかない。多くの人は勇気を失うかもよ。そんなに沢山勉強してるのが無理でさ。誇張と違う？誇張なら、言って。お願いします。

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By: AJATT Plus » 子供を過大評価するな

AJATT Plus » 子供を過大評価するな — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:24:06 +0000

[...] ★元ネタ：Cute Girls, Mathematics, Language [...]

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By: All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Why Have You Been Killing Babies?

Sun, 23 May 2010 04:00:36 +0000

[...] and you need it badly. In fact, you need it more than a “real” Japanese person does: they’ve had their fill; they can wait. Many of you have gone the entire first 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years of your life, [...]

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By: All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Ask Dr. Khatz: Sidetracked in Salt Lake, Part 1

Sun, 09 May 2010 10:02:04 +0000

[...] K: Bingo. (Cute Girls, Mathematics, Language) [...]

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By: All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » お巫山戯、日本語で: Japanese Babies That Suck…Even Harder Than You

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:01:45 +0000

[...] have to admit, one of the most humiliating parts of learning a language is when you realize that even three-year-olds put you to shame—after months or even years of trying to learn the blasted thing. When I go to a Japanese [...]

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By: MeisterKleister

MeisterKleister — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:45:50 +0000

Thanks for this great web site!

Question:
Does anyone have any good advice on Japanese radio streams? I only found two fully Japanese radio streams at
www.windowsmedia.com/radioui/Search.aspx?culture=en-us

i-Radio is fairly good, from what I can tell and the other stream is a live stream of the Tokyo stock market ( >_>)

Any other good fully Japanese radio streams from Japan? Anyone?
Thanks in advance.

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By: Jonathan Mahoney

Jonathan Mahoney — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:18:23 +0000

Beautiful post. I love the way you talk. I’ve become a disciple of Katz. This is where it’s at.

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By: mpz

mpz — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:06:10 +0000

I agree it’s just a matter of input, input and yet more input.

The internet helps you find a lot of input material. Use it to your advantage.

And many people seem to equate “takes a lot of time” with “hard” or even “difficult”. We can argue about the semantics of “hard” until the end of times, but “difficult” or “impossible” it most certainly is not. I’m not saying it won’t take a lot of time, but with current technology (MP3 players etc.) it’s very easy to carve out even small slices of time from your daily schedule and fill them with input, input and input. If you just keep doing it, you’ll rack up some serious numbers before long.

Japanese is just a language. It can be learned. It’s not difficult. It’ll take time, so you better start already and Just Do It.

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By: Naomi

Naomi — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:22:52 +0000

Wow Khatzumoto!
You are an inspiration. The way you explain things makes them seem so simple.
I’ve only just started reading your blog, and already, after just reading the first 100 or so kanji in RTK I feel l have finally made progress…. even though most of them are quite irrelevant (I can now comment on sparkling chickens…) I’m not stuck in a rut.

One problem though… I am finding it impossible to create the 100% Japanese all the time environment – I’m like, 16, and have school….I tried listening to my podcasts in school…. confiscated……I have no iPod this winter lol.
I know you said no excuses so I’m wondering how I can get around this?

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By: Alyks

Alyks — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:44:49 +0000

Hey, Khatzumoto, you said you logged 20,000 hours of listening time in this article. Did you really log it each day? How did you?

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By: J-Learner15

J-Learner15 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:26:09 +0000

whenever u talk about “listening” to Japanese, does that include like music, or should dramas and films take up more of that sorta section. thanks!

oh, also! is it a good sign if you can sing your way through an album in Japanese?

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By: Jake Freeze

Jake Freeze — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:41:59 +0000

“Come back with 5 figures, and then we can talk, literally”

>>>>>>.<<<<<<<;;;;;

When I read this I was so jealous of the fact that you CAN say that, and ofcourse my instantaneous reaction to this statement of yours was a very eloquent one: “You beotch.”

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By: Meshi

Meshi — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:48:35 +0000

Ok, I’ll try that.

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By: khatzumoto

khatzumoto — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:32:42 +0000

>How much good will it do me to listen to Japanese while my mind is on something different?
More than you might think. Try it.
You don’t only learn when you’re trying to learn. You will pick up quite a bit — I did; I wasn’t by any means paying 100% attention 100% of the time, but the Japanese was playing close to 100% of the time as possible. That includes family time — there can be Japanese going while you spend time together/eat together etc. with your fam.

>are you serious?
Very. There’s sleeping time in there, too. But most of it is waking hours.

>now that I hear things like 5 figures of listenting to Japanese its more scary than motivating for me
The hours are there. They will pass anyway. Simply redirect as many of them as humanly possible.

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By: Meshi

Meshi — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:19:37 +0000

Wow, Khatzumoto your site is always motivating, but now that I hear things like 5 figures of listenting to Japanese its more scary than motivating for me .

Its just, now if we talk about mathematics, I don’t think I have anywhere near the time to rack up that many hours.

I know, I know… you’ve said before, no lame excuses, and that you were busy and had a life too.

The thing is I am really enjoying Japanese and I can do it all day long without getting bored, so whenever I can, I get in some study or listening to something or trying to read something. However I can’t do it when I’m working… if I put on my iPod to listen to Japanese I can’t concentrate much on my work. Or well… I can focus on only one or the other. How much good will it do me to listen to Japanese while my mind is on something different?

Outside work I spend time with my wife & kid and I can’t neglect that.

So, out of my waking day I can usually put in a couple of hours of focused study, and maybe a couple more not so focused. That was fine for polishing off RTK1, no problemo. 10s of thousands of hours of listening? Big probemo!

To quote “For the record, I have logged about 20,000 hours of listening since June 2004″.

Ok lets do some mathematics… 20,000 hours in about 3.5 years, so you’re counting pretty much every waking minute of the day every day as “listening to Japanese”. Hmm, are you serious?

Somehow I hope you’re not so serious, and that my puny ~4 hours a day is actually significant.

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By: khatzumoto

khatzumoto — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:26:47 +0000

@Rob
I don’t really put an upper limit on it. As long as you’re not bored, keep repeating. I do all the time. Like you said, comprehension definitely increases as the repetitions increase, so keep enjoying the increased comprehension. I have watched looped the same DVD of Powerpuff Girls for a week straight. So…yeah, just let fun guide you.

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