so i’m supposing I just need to learn in the order mentioned above right?
Yes, especially if you’re just beginning.
i’ve been learning using a very different method, using sentence mining, jlpt grammar + vocab decks and japanese from zero books. do you think this is better than my current method or should I just stick with it? thanks in advance.
The basic course series (SGJL 01 - 12) covers around N5 and N4 material. If what you’re doing covers the same I’d say stick with it. When you done with the JFZ books, try out the ADoBJG courses cause that’s a great book series to complete. Maybe try out the JDI course (Zettai Kareshi) as well.
Hopefully the Intermediate (SGJL 13 - 32) will be ready by the time you’re finished.
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how efficient are these courses as your only source to study? you’re not producing any sentences and so on. is this a really good way to start and guide your way up to advanced level? coming for someone who wants to get to atleast a conversational level
Using just one source isn’t ever the most effective or efficient path, but that said this does pretty much everything you can do with the memrise format to get you to fluency in reading and listening. For production you really need to sign up for lang8, italki, and or hellotalk and converse with natives and have them correct you. There’s no resource or book that can replace that.
A vast majority of your Japanese is going to be in consumption (listening/reading). For that these courses I’d argue are pretty efficient for the Basic course (1-12) as they’ll cover around 90% of whatever you’ll read/listen in Japanese media. Being able to listen, especially at a native pace, is important in conversation so I’d argue you’re getting conversation practice in that manner.
Now your point about production is important. Almost all of these can be “production practice” if you attempt to repeat out loud with fidelity the Japanese sentences. Repeating these sentences is no different than if you had a tutor that heard you say something wrong, they say it correctly and have you repeat them with fidelity. I’ll add you can go even further by repeating the sentences but changing key nouns, adjectives or verbs to make it a situation relevant to you.
Two things these courses don’t do: verify if you’re speaking good Japanese, teach you general conversation. The former problem can only be solved with talking to a tutor or a native speaker that’s able and willing to correct you. If you get a tutor, I recommend using them to listen to your Japanese reviews and correct your pronunciation. The later about general conversation I’d argue can be solved via the Japanese Drama Immersion courses that I’m putting together or equivalent. These are dramas that have people talking. You should see plenty of situations on how Japanese people react in various situations and apply it to your own. Obviously this works best with live action dramas without a completely weird or historic setting so perhaps avoid Shingeki no Kyojin to learn social moors.
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Hey Marine, thanks for the courses. Just a quick question,
Is there any chance of getting the vocab sections in the Core 2k/6k courses to be no typing? it’s quite annoying having to type “四” for example by first typing “四回” and then clicking backspace to remove the “回” every single time because it only remembers what you type. And on top of that having to stop and think "did I type yon or shi last time? because only one of those readings has “四回” listed. This is very distracting…
Originally there wasn’t any typing, but it turned out that for vocabulary a typing course is best for testing especially for those strong with Kanji recognition (you’ll know the right word, just not how to say it). You’ll see the discussion about it early in this thread or on the Core 2k/6k thread.
For your question, for the typical IME you hit SPACE to shift through Kanji choices for that pronunciation. So type SHI and hit space a few times till it comes up, then later it’ll be the first choice. You could also just type YON as Memrise is only checking that you had the correct Kanji.
In addition, on PC, you’ll see in the notes for entries that have same Kanji entry I added notes to the RTK Keyword to clarify which is correct.
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Ah, it seems to work a lot better when I use ‘space’ to cycle through my choices instead of ‘tab’.
It should be fine this way, thanks.
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Thanks for these courses. After a not so good ending experience learning Japanese in high school. I have regained an interest in it and want to keep learning it again.
Going through lesson 7 RTK memrise course and, should I be writing the kanjis or just memorizing them using the course?
Sorry for the late reply. For RTK, that’s up to you. If you disable the timer with greasemonkey scripts, you’ll have the time. If not, you can rewrite the kanji at the end of each 10 question session. It can be a useful skill but not essential for the “literacy” purpose.
Basically, it’s up to you.
Hello, thank you for making this course. How long will it be before the Intermediate/Advanced part of the course is out? Because I am a little advanced for the Basic level ones.
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The Intermediate Part One covers ~N3 and the Intermediate Part Two covers ~N2. There are people getting close to completing the Basic course series so I do need to start uploading.
Out of interest, do you like the way in which I’m presenting the material and methods for testing Kanji, Grammar, Vocabulary and Immersion differently? If you don’t like the format in the Basic series, you’re likely not going to like how the Intermediate and Advanced are laid out as it’s basically the same.
Hey Nukemarine,
thank you for this course. I started a week ago. Came only with knowing Hiragana and Katakana. Right now I’m busy with the first set of Kanji.
I have one question: After one has finished the basic course, do you think it’s possible to start with native material novels etc.?
Yes, based on personal experience when I finished the equivalent of the basic series eight years ago you should be more than able to consume native level material. You won’t have full comprehension of course but with context or some dictionary tools you can figure it out fairly well. Back then I began reading manga series and watching Japanese dramas with Japanese subtitles and could follow along. Even though I missed a lot of context, it was still entertaining.
Oh that’s cool! Makes me want to progress even more. Thanks for the information.
May I ask for some awkward question, so I’m going through RTKLite (1114Kanji I guess~) so If I am done with it can it be interchangable to your basic course? (I tweaked that Lite deck a lot so I have 12 Koohii stories in it it’s so convienience, also I hate to Kanji with Memrise but vocabs are fine)
I’m major in Japanese by the way so I’m very rush into N2, I heard that Lite did suffice go get methrough N2.
RTK Lite should be about the same as the two kanji courses in this Basic series. Any differences you should be able to pick up fast.