I am, in fact, still alive...

Thanks for checking in, though!

I personally think that the best excuse for not holding up one's end of a daily dedication is "homework" or "school". But, in this case, the dog didn't eat my homework. My homework ate... my time. *forced guffaw*

But, I am not here for excuses! I am here to give a nutshell edition of how I have been following my schedule for the past week or so, to take the place of my slightly longer explanation of part I of my Japanese Box. (I should give it a better name.)

First of all, writing and speaking on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays have been going exceptionally well. The only trouble I am having so far is what to review on Sundays' "Review Day". I find myself not being able to absorb information by just looking over them two times; in fact I probably am an auditory learner. I ended up just turning back to pages I had done on Monday, etc. and re-writing my notes on those days (which didn't help much at all).

 I also have trouble creating quizzes and tests for myself! If I know the material already on the test-- well, first of all, it takes away the authenticity of being able to have not studied some of the material (which is something I do often-- it's all a part of the fun), and secondly, it's not much of a review if I wrote the questions and answered them myself as well, unless I wrote the test a month in advance! Which would mean, I'd have to start planning for the test as soon as I begin a new unit. (I wonder if that's what real teachers do. In fact-- I should ask them.)

I used to have great fun creating Hiragana and Katakana quizzes for myself, which was much easier because I could structure the quiz without having known any of the characters yet:

Yeah, it's not such a great picture. 

Sorry...

But, as you can well imagine, I used lots of creativity and variety in my quizzes.

Just how creative do you think one can get with learning this kind of material? :(

Beside that, I have been doing pretty well with this new schedule! P.S. I am LOVING the book "Kanji Pictographix", which is a book that helps you easily memorize well over 1,000 Kanji pictographs, as well as both the Kana syllabaries. If you are looking into the study of Japanese writing, I highly recommend this book!

Have a great week!

--JP Otaku

My Japanese Schedule!

Just for reference. ;)

Mondays: Japanese-- Writing

• Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji
  
• Translating romaji into traditional Japanese
• Writing in Japanese in journal

Tuesdays: No Class

Wednesdays: Japanese-- Speaking

• Practice writing Japanese sentences using correct Japanese word order, grammar, and proper particles.
• Learn new words and phrases from Japanese in 10 minutes a Day.
• Listen to Japanese Youtube videos, songs, or anime.
• Observe rules of Japanese from textbooks.

Thursdays: No Class

Fridays: Japanese-- Speaking

• Practice writing Japanese sentences using correct Japanese word order, grammar, and proper particles.
• Learn new words and phrases from various workbooks and textbooks.
• Observe rules of Japanese from textbooks.

Saturdays: Mixed bag

• Study rules of Japanese, learn new Japanese words and phrases.

-AND/OR-

• Review Hiragana and Katakana, review Monday's Kanji. Translate romaji Japanese into traditional Japanese writing. Write in Japanese in journal.

-AND/OR-

• Watch a bunch of animes or read a bunch of mangas.

Sundays: Review

• Review material learned in the past week.

Dear *anyone who is learning Japanese, or any other language*, I STRONGLY recommend you create a schedule like this for yourself if you want to further your studies. I have learned the hard way that studying on impulse never tends to work out. If you do create a schedule, and if you follow the schedule religiously, you find that it slips in neatly with the rest of your week, and you can comfortably learn as much as you want while following a self-determined regimen. While keeping this in mind, PLEASE do not over-exert yourself! Learning too much material at one time will inevitably end up in you forgetting the material altogether. Repetition is key in this case, so make sure to review what you have learned responsibly.

Thanks!

--JP Otaku