“here is the overall, abstract set of meta-rules, memorize it, and then use it to crank stuff out”

Hahaha, that’s so true but I love it anyway. I was actually pretty surprised when I learned the past tense for verbs… it was so… easy. Before whenever I heard about it, it was described as being like the most complex thing on the planet. At the same time, memorizing sentences just kills me. @_@ For me, learning by sentence is just a way to enforce grammar. I guess the learning method just depends on how you learn, and most people don’t think about grammar.

>isn’t the definition itself kind of like a grammatical explanation?
I guess that’s a matter of definition …but, sure. What I understood to be “grammar” was the whole “here is the overall, abstract set of meta-rules, memorize it, and then use it to crank stuff out”. In real life, that doesn’t work, it’s not how humans work, I think…Computers are all about that.

>I’m just trying to make sure I get on the right track.
As long as it’s in Japanese…it’s always the right track :). Don’t worry, you’re not walking some tightrope with “certain death and crappy Japanese” on either side. Really. The key is just to keep things in Japanese and have fun doing it.

However, how are you supposed to learn some things without some kind of explanation? For example, things like “んです”　or “って”? I mean, they’re often not found in dictionaries, and if they are, isn’t the definition itself kind of like a grammatical explanation? I know questions like this must be obnoxious, but I’m really not trying to be annoying; I’m just trying to make sure I get on the right track.

Congratulations on finishing Heisig, that’s an outstanding achievement!
Thanks for your comment (and for the sweet method name).
Yeah, I’m pretty anti-textbook (http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-to-use-a-japanese-textbook), and the folk at AntiMoon are absolutely right: textbooks are often so sanitized that they give you an awkward, unnatural version of a language that’s light years away from the real thing. If you’ve ever seen a textbook for English learners then you’ll know what I mean. It’s like, yeah, it’s English, but who on earth says “how do you do?”.

Having said that, your textbook is
1) All in Japanese, and
2) Has sentences
If, on top of that, it is
3) Fun
Then there’s no need to summarily throw it away. You can certainly mine it for sentences. BUT if it ever bores you, then don’t feel like you have to “plough through” it. Japanese was meant to be fun; you’re sacrificing enough every time you choose something Japanese over something in English, you need not sacrifice joy as well.

There are two really cool quotes attributed to Bruce Lee; I don’t know for sure whether he actually said them or not, but they have some value and bear repeating:

>> “Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction…”
>> “Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”
We probably don’t want to deny textbooks for the sake of denying them. But if they suck, then it’s best to be rid of them.

Anyway, congratulations on doing all your stuff in Japanese! That’s wonderful. You’re obviously so good and so persistent already that fluency is just a foregone conclusion :).

I have started following your method or the 文章方法 as I am calling it. However I am already an intermediate learner and I finished Heisig Book 1 over a year ago and so I have moved straight on to learning sentences wothout translation. Even in just two weeks of using the sentence method my progress has increased rapidly. I honestly believe thinking in Japanese is getting closer and closer. I read on the antimoon page that using a textbook is not recommended. The textbook I currrently use is ニューアプローチ中上級日本語 (entirely written in Japanese). I am wondering if I should give it up and just concentrate on the sentence method?

what would your advice be?

james