[Course Forum] Suggested Guide for Japanese Literacy (SGJL) course series

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Charles_Applin35 2016-06-05 06:53:26 UTC #1

Based upon my original roadmap/guideline to Japanese fluency on the RevTK forums, the Suggested Guide for Japanese Literacy (SGJL) will be a 32 part series of courses plus supplemental immersion courses that gradually moves students from complete novice to advanced linguist. All courses will attempt to be based upon freely available resources when possible and include native level audio if available. Each major section (basic, intermediate, advanced) is expected to require 400 hours each of dedicated study and review including immersion courses.

Disable Memrise Timer - Due to some of these courses having lengthy sample sentences being learned making timed tests difficult or improssible, the use of a Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey scripts to disable the Memrise Timer is highly recommended. Download it here: http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/174879

Basic Courses 01 - 12

SGJL 01 - Remembering the Hiragana in 3 Hours
SGJL 02 - Remembering the Katakana in 3 Hours

SGJL 03 - Remembering the Kanji + KO2k1 pt 1 1 - 555 Kanji
SGJL 04 - Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar pt 1 - Basic
SGJL 05 - Core 2K/6K Vocabulary Optimized Pt 1 1 - 500 words
- one [JDI Course] "Japanese Drama Immersion"
--- Example: Hana Yori Dango ep 01

SGJL 06 - Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar pt 2 - Essential
SGJL 07 - Core 2k/6k Vocabulary Optimized Pt 2 501 - 1000 words
- one [JDI Course] "Japanese Drama Immersion"

SGJL 08 - Remembering the Kanji + KO2k1 pt 2 556 - 1110 Kanji

The following are still in progress/editing and will be made available soon:

SGJL 09 - Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar pt 03 - Essential
SGJL 10 - Core 2k/6k Vocabulary Optimized Pt 3 1001 - 1500 words
- one [JDI Course] "Japanese Drama Immersion"

SGJL 11 - Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar pt 04 - Special
SGJL 12 - Core 2k/6k Vocabulary Optimized Pt 4 1501 - 2000 words
- one [JDI Course] "Japanese Drama Immersion"

Intermediate Courses 13 - 22

Material collected, will be uploaded and edited after Basic is completed.

Advanced Courses 23 - 32

Material collected, will be uploaded and edited after Intermediate is completed

izildop 2016-06-06 09:21:32 UTC #2

Thank you of sharing your way in getting better in Japanese.
Like I said before I got 200% motivation, I just need a good path that I can follow, I hope this will help me.

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-06 09:52:00 UTC #3

I honestly hope it helps. Please provide feedback as well if you can as you go through the courses.

Snowcone 2016-06-07 00:45:59 UTC #4

Thanks for creating these. I've recently restarted my Japanese studies after a number of years and this helps as a guide to follow in addition to my textbook.

I'm currently going through the kanji course. I've noticed that during every question the list of meanings shows up. When it's a kanji -> keyword question this is very distracting since the answer is in the question. Is there a way to turn that off? Also of note, In lesson three 'true' is in caps. Is there a reason for this? It's the only capital answer I've come across so far.

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-07 01:12:22 UTC #5

There's currently no way to limit what auxillary info is shown based on test directions. I want them visible when the more important keyword to kanji portions are tested since Heisig's keywords can be limited at times and have synonyms. Plus, I want to reinforce the idea that kanji can have multiple meanings which can cause confusion during vocabulary and grammar courses.

If you're on mobile, it's not too difficult to cover that area with your hand while you visualize the answer. On desktop, the screen is bigger so probably ok to ignore as well. Truth be told, Kanji to Keyword is not as difficult and really you'll get more practice when it turns into Kanji to Vocabulary in the following courses.

True is in caps because "true" in some (poorly optimized) online and spreadsheet databases apparently fucks with the logic systems so it's a hold over when I copied it from my spreadsheet. You might notice the same with "myu" not being accepted in the Kana courses.

DarthHaro 2016-06-07 17:01:42 UTC #6

Is it worth getting Memrise Pro while taking your course?

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-08 02:28:42 UTC #7

Got your message in my e-mail. Personally, I'm not seeing any benefits for the pro version for the course unless you want to use the listening tests. I got the pro because I was impressed with what Memrise was offering to everyone for free and decided to support them.

DarthHaro 2016-06-08 16:07:27 UTC #8

Do you accept donations or is there anyway I can give back?

You could start a kickstarter with the goal of finishing the SGJL series.

Hydroptere 2016-06-08 16:31:14 UTC #9

good idea!

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-08 23:27:13 UTC #10

Nah, no need for donations. This is just about time to get them into Memrise. The materials have existed for years on Anki. One user already is offering help as a contributer on the grammar courses by making the Audio Text to Speech in an easier to upload manner.

If you think these courses work and are legitimately effective, just promoting them on the learning sites would be enough of a donation. I like that there are nearing 100 people trying out the Tae Kim grammar for instance.

Edit: Thinking about this, I might set up a Patreon account. Unlike a Kickstarter, a Patreon is meant to reward continuous creation and improvement of material. Finishing this series, creating RTK videos like I did with Kana, and creating Japanese Drama Immersion courses could justify people's support and build the overall learning material.

DarthHaro 2016-06-09 01:22:17 UTC #11

I'm all for Patreon.

I haven't watched jdramas in more than 10 years but the ones I liked were Pride, GTO and Hana Yori Dango. Not saying you should do any of those for JDI Courses.

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-09 11:45:29 UTC #12

Too late. Hana Yori Dango ep 01 JDI course

It's not perfect and since the Patreon idea sounds interesting, I think it can work where I make each translated sentence be as good as it can be so others can use it for learning as well. While it would be better if one "translated" their own drama, this can be a reasonable alternative.

DarthHaro 2016-06-10 17:04:13 UTC #13

I notice you have 先 as meaning "before" but then I saw this post on reddit. Is it still fine to think of it as meaning "before"?

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/4nfbdj/telling_if_%E5%85%88_means_future_or_past/

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-10 23:45:34 UTC #14

先 is one of those kanji that have multiple meanings or flavors depending on what word the kanji is used. In these cases, the keyword holds one of those meanings but is more important in eliciting the story that helps you recall the kanji. If it helps, when I see it in 先週 (せんしゅう), 先月 (せんげつ), 先生 (せんせい) or 先輩 (せんぱい) I think of the kanji as marking "Something that comes before others".

DarthHaro 2016-06-11 02:34:45 UTC #15

Thanks for the quick and understandable responses. I'm really liking this system, because after I read the stories for the kanji they get remembered quickly and most of them stick during reviews.

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-11 15:10:15 UTC #16

That's good to hear. Also, don't hesitate to create your own Memnote with your own story that you think works better. Most of the stories I posted are actually just copy/pasted from the Reviewing the Kanji website's top ranked stories. However most of them are almost 10 years old with some dated references, hence a lot of Batman Begins for my "person" based stories.

On topic, I've just pasted the last of the Basic 12 parts to Memrise. Now I need to start uploading audio to the grammar and vocabulary courses. After that I'll copy/edit/format the Tae Kim lessons to the last three grammar parts like I did for part 1. Once Basic is fully done, I will move on to Intermediate. That's currently Vocabulary only as there's no open source grammar sentences, though seeing that Genki is uploaded in full on a number of courses, maybe I can do the same with Kanzen Master Level 2 and A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar.

DarthHaro 2016-06-13 03:56:09 UTC #17

I noticed that you put はなよりだんご (thought I practice my kana typing ) as an "example", how will the actual JDI courses be different?

Hopefully by the time I'm done your course I can practice typing with kanji too.

Charles_Applin35 2016-06-13 09:40:46 UTC #18

Best way to practice typing is just to type. What I did was take the transcript (linked in the lesson course introduction), and just type that out. Same could be done with the subtitles themselves, a page from a book or anything. You could also type out 2ch thread conversations or something from /r/newsokur on Reddit.

As for the actual JDI, since Memrise is limited it'll be pretty much like 花より団子. It would be better if definitions of words and phrases could be included. Until then, Memnote is the only solution. However, the level of people trying the course will not be known as the idea is many of these courses will be collected for other students to choose from during their studies.

With Anki it was easier as you knew if you understood the line or forgot what it meant. Memrise I have to include the English translation so you have something to select. Best of a bad situation I guess.