Difficulty in memorizing verbs

[Scarlette07]

Hello everyone!
I've been self-studying Japanese for a month now and proceeding slowly but steadily. I'm not good at memorization (and have never been) so I decided to do a slow approach. Right now I can already read hiragana, some katakana and a little bit of Kanji sprinkled in the first chapters of Genki. I can now also understand some basic nouns, usage of "wa" ,"ga", "no", "ni", "desu" and "ka" in a sentence, and demonstratives (like kore, sore, then replacing "re" with "no" if I want to specify the object's name).

So far, memorizing the words as they get used in the grammar examples has worked for me. That is until I've reached the chapter about verbs and verb conjugations. I can understand the rules pretty well, but I'm having a hard time memorizing the verbs... I don't know why but I feel like it's far harder for me to memorize new verb vocabularies than nouns, and among all the verbs I've read while reading about the topic, I've retained a whooping "zero" number of verbs in my head.

Can you suggest a good way to memorize verbs?
Which verbs would you suggest me to memorize first, just so I could practice the conjugation rules?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Lacota]

The simple answer would be to create flashcards. That is how I learn them, and along with the text book example sentences which I like to write on paper. There is something about writing that helps etch vocabulary into the mind. I would imagine Genki will give you the appropriate verbs to memorise first? The book I use gives me a list of vocabulary before each lesson. I try and memorise a bunch of them, and I learn the rest by just doing the lesson. You'll find that later lessons will touch upon previous vocabulary - so that will help with remembering words. In essence - give it time and dedication.

 

[Lacota]

As a side note, you might want to read this article: Language - Japanese Verb Conjugations | Japan Forum

 

[Dad749]

I have been learning (at uni and self study) for about 4 months now. I was using paper flash cards but as I have now exceeded 400 cards, they began to become cumbersome to carry around and study with. I began using Cram.com: Create and Share Online Flashcards to tackle studying for my final exam that I wrote in December.

This website is awesome! Create an account and find a genki deck. You can then edit the deck and ad in a bunch of your own vocabulary as I did. You are then able to study from Japanese to English, English to Japanese, It will test and score you, and best of all, it is completely compatible with all English and Japanese language inputs and will synthesize audio to help with pronunciation (with kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

You could use it for individual characters, words, or full phrases. I have found it VERY helpful.
If you would like me to send you my own deck to start from I would be happy to (message me). It is now far better/complete than any I was able to find.

For me, writing also helps quite a bit. I practice individual characters and kanji on grid paper. This allowed me to learn hiragana/katakana in less than a few weeks and 5-10 kanji per day.

Good luck.

 

[Scarlette07]

Thanks for the tips! I guess I'll focus on memorizing the verbs first through flashcards before going any further. Thanks as well for the links to the article and the online flashcard.

@Dad749 I'd love to borrow your deck. However, I can't seem to find a link to send you a private message anywhere... ^^;

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

I'm terrible at memorization too. At the start I used paper flashcards, but later I found Anki:
Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards

it has a ton of premade decks, but personally I prefer making my own cards. I always put a context sentence on the front of the card with the word being tested highlighted.

I vaguely recall putting the same word into my deck multiple times in different conjugations back at the beginning, but I didn't keep at that once I got used the conjugations. (I don't think i even kept those cards. I did restart my deck a couple times... there are ways to migrate a deck to a new format, but I didn't for some reason.)

I don't know about 'cram.com', but Anki, Memrise, Surusu, and several other programs are in a class of flashcard programs called 'SRS' (spaced repetition software). The basic idea, is the more you pass a card successfully, the less often you see it. The more you fail it, the more often you see it. That way you don't waste time on easy words that you know anyway, and focus your effort where it's needed. The same thing -can- be done with paper flashcards and a collection of boxes (and originally was when the idea was developed), but software makes it easier.

While I'm personally fond of Anki, I don't have anything against other SRS software either. I do, however, strongly feel that SRS style 'smart' flashcards are -vastly- superior to 'dumb' flashcard programs that just show you stuff randomly, or worse, sequentially.

 

[Mike Cash]

It sounds stupid and feels silly, but a very effective method for common words (which you get a lot of as a beginner) is to just substitute them into your normal thinking to yourself. Don't worry about conjugation too much; if you know the conjugation then conjugate it and if you don't just treat it like an English word.

For example:

I want to taberu a hamburger.
I tabetai a hamburger.

I taberu'ed pizza last night.
I tabeta pizza last night.

I'm taberu'ing lunch now.
I'm tabete iru lunch now.

This incredibly silly practice will help your brain treat the new words as synonyms of the language you already speak instead of as elements of a foreign language. Of course, it works just as well for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. It has the added benefit of requiring no materials and of being something you can do all day while doing something you were going to be doing all day anyway and a little bit here and there all through the day is more effective for retention as well.

The only caveat is that it will become such a habit you really have to be careful not to do it out loud around other people.

 

[Lacota]

I'll have to check out these online flashcard software....

 

[Scarlette07]

@SomeCallMeChris Thanks, I've been using Anki as well but I haven't tried making my own deck yet. I think it also does a good a good job at keeping me from overloading my head with too much information in one day.

@Mike Cash Thanks a lot! I tried your method awhile ago and it seems like my brain can finally process the new verb vocabularies easier, as in literally, it feels like I've finally found a way to connect things. xD It's been super effective so far, I think the method suits me.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I've been using Memrise's '125 most useful verbs' list, though I think what helps me most is hearing them and using them in real time for functional purposes. If I find a situation I had to talk around due to lack of vocabulary and/or grammar I spend some time looking up the words I should have used and then I make a conscious effort to implement them next time.

The fewer funny looks I get, and the more Japanese responses I get instead of English, the closer I feel I am to hitting my goals.

For me, nothing beats needing to get something done as a motivator and nothing beats successfully getting something done as a reward.

 

[Mike Cash]

For me, nothing beats needing to get something done as a motivator

I never made any real, meaningful, useful progress in Japanese until I left the gaijin bubble and made the rent and groceries absolutely 100% dependent on functioning in Japanese.