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How did I do? (ブログの2017年6月4日)

My attempt:
自転車に乗っているとき、また雷を見ました。今回のは遠くて心配なかったから止まらなかったけど、それでも怖かったです。
This is a bit advanced (maybe even for advanced learners), but using sentence final particles makes your Japanese sound natural, for instance それでも怖かったですけどね.
I'm by no means an advanced learner, or even upper-intermediate, but I'm glad to see my attempt turned out the same :D
I've been especially trying to work on my use of particles in "implied meaning" situations (not sure the term for this), such as 今回のは etc, but as I mainly learn from conversations with my labmates it can take some time to calibrate my understanding and use what I hear correctly.
 
Judging from your post, you must be advanced, or more likely fluent.:)
Not at all, but thank you for the encouragement. 😅
I've been self-studying for about 1.5 yrs, after a 3-month intensive course, and now I'm studying for the N2 this December so that I can begin job-hunting next year...although, since I'm trying to enter academia, I'll undoubtedly need N1 as a minimum.:unsure:
I've only recently began looking through the Japanese language section of this forum; it's quite useful! よろしくお願いします! \(^ ^)/
 
Wow, that looks really helpful. I've ordered it, and will probably order the others once I get the basics straightened out. (No sense in buying a book for something when it's probably way beyond my league.)

For the record, I also ordered the first GENKI textbook after getting an inkling of a sense of how much I need to learn.

Also for the record, you have shown yourself to be sensible, open to advice, and quite a good sport as well. I can't say that any one of those three traits are common among self-learners who come from a background of having an interest in Japanese cartoons or comic books, at least not to the point one would take note of them.

I look forward to hearing your impressions of both Genki and the grammar dictionary after you've had a chance to thumb through them a bit. I would especially like to hear your thoughts regarding how the quality and amount of material covered compares to what was covered over the entirety of your high school Japanese classes. And I would like to hear your thoughts on the amount of material covered in just the dictionary, considering it is just the first of three volumes, and any thoughts it may inspire regarding the practicality of learning by osmosis through watching cartoons versus learning by active study with proper materials prepared by professionals.

Of course, you should feel free to ask for help with any questions that come up during your use of your new materials. Even if it is just wanting someone to check that you got the answers to exercises correct, we're happy to do that as well.
 
I've never heard of this before. I have feeling neither has our president. But he probably belongs in a textbook about it.

I don't see the need to pollute the thread with American political bile and am especially disappointed to see it done by a forum moderator.
 
I finally looked through a bunch of GENKI 1.

First thing: I've seen a lot of this book before! My Japanese teacher used pages from it a lot during the first couple years. In fact, the first three lessons correspond almost perfectly to the first two years. The last two years were a hodge-podge of things mostly covered between lessons 4 and 9 of GENKI 1.

I actually remember something that bothered me about what GENKI was teaching when I was in Japanese class: very little of the vocabulary taught is applicable to high school life, especially so early on. 14-year-olds don't have jobs or majors, don't buy things all that much, and probably don't go to the bank at all. But seeing it now, it does seem like it's a great selection for college students (the target audience).

Compared to Japanese class, the coverage of how to use grammatical constructs is much more thorough. As an example, like I think I said before, the ~ている form's nuances weren't described in detail in Japanese class, only the specific example of 死んでいる. Luckily, it seems I extrapolated the correct interpretation of why that is, having read the explanation in GENKI. Japanese class tended for focus on specific examples in this sort of manner, with the interesting exception being conjugation. For the ~ない form, we were taught "shift the last syllable from the う line to the あ line and add ない, but turn う into わ rather than あ".

The speed of progression was one big difference I noted. To be fair, a lot of the time spent on the first couple of years was learning hiragana (in year 1) and katakana (in year 2). But it probably would be possible to squeeze more in. Maybe a lesson a week or at least a lesson a month, rather than a lesson throughout the whole year. Then again, I don't know what it's like setting up a high school class.

The grammar dictionary is great. The only minor criticism I have of it is that it would be nice if entries were 五十音 ordered rather than Latin alphabetical, but that's really minor and I understand why they did it that way. I took a look at the entry for ~ように, and I found that it's very clear and detailed. The introduction to basic Japanese grammar characteristics at the start is a treat as well.

Attempting to learn by osmosis is out the window in my book. It is still a nice bonus when it happens, though! I'm starting a new nightly routine: no Internet use when I come home from work, just stretch, study Japanese, and get to bed. (I work evening shifts.) That should get me back into a rhythm of learning, and it also takes advantage of the fact that you remember things you learned just before going to bed better. I'll be using the same tools as before: Tangomon for vocabulary and kanji recognition (it works really well for me), a plain old piece of paper for writing (esp. kanji), and a notebook with a list of current kanji that I can also practice elsewhere with when I'm bored.
 
Thanks very much! I'll comment more later, but for now will just say that is the first post I've ever bookmarked.
 
Quick addendum: I misremembered a number. Third and fourth year covered various topics taught between lessons 4 and 11, not 9.
 
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