- Past month or so I’ve been too worn down to have any shits to give about Japanese, but somehow I managed to still do something with it at least once a week. Which I realized when I went to iKnow and found that I hadn’t skipped a week, even if one of the weeks was only ~20 min of study. Still better than nothing.
- This is not to say I’m in good shape– I’ve realized it’s even harder to produce Japanese than it had been, probably because I’ve skipped out on all my tutor sessions and haven’t been trying to write in it either. Not really bothered by this, per se, since it’s sort of expected and I don’t really expect it will be that difficult to get back up to speed when I’m ready, but it is a little surprising how quickly certain things atrophy without use.
- Trying to use a different language with people you know is much harder than doing it with a stranger. With people you know, there’s no reason to go over the simple topics (“Hello, my name is ___” / “What are your hobbies?”) that are typically taught (with good reason) in language programs first, and it’s sort of maddening to try to deal with normal situations.
I’ve been trying to come up with things to say to my mom in Mandarin that I currently know how to say, but since my vocabulary/sentence patterns at the moment are limited to what I’m learning from Pimsleur (which, while I suppose I could tell my mom to 給我一點美元, but it’s not really something that fits into the conversation when I don’t actually need any) and random shit I know from growing up that are mostly food items, I draw a blank a lot. And since our default language has always been English, it’s hard to remember that if I call her up I should try to ask where to go or when in Mandarin rather than English because that’s what she’s using to me. And when we’re in settings with my father, too, it’s even more difficult to switch since he doesn’t speak Mandarin.
- Also, learning from a lot of online materials is really confusing for Mandarin, since often it’s teaching a Beijing dialect, which… while I don’t think I won’t be understood, it’s not what I grew up hearing and it’s not what the people I know speak, and some words are entirely different. Like the snippet I used above, Pimsleur would have said “gei3 wo3 yi1 diar3 mei3 jing1” but Taiwanese dialect uses “dian3” instead of “diar3”. Also I just couldn’t figure out how to write “jing1” so I’m not sure that’s a dialectical thing or my ineptitude with the Chinese IME. Also not sure “mei3 yuan2” is the right word anyway, but whatever.
- I’m definitely not doing N3 this year, because I can’t guarantee focus on Japanese to make sure it’ll be worth it for me.