Hello, I am very early in my journey to acquire Japanese, roughly 60 hours immersion with 500~ Anki cards on the JP1Kv3 deck, and I am a going to be taking about a month abroad this summer for a school program during which we will be learning my schools version of "Intermediate Japanese." Given this amazing opportunity I wanted to know if there was something of a milestone or goal regards hours immersion or comprehension I could be striving for that would make my trip more efficient for learning. I've read about the snowball effect and wonder if a certain level of comprehension before going could be beneficial. I currently do 2 hours a day active immersion and 20 cards. I know every person is different, but a rough estimate of what's possible in this timeframe would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
#Study Abroad Comprehension
tropic tangle
wispy palm
School Japanese and self-directed immersion take different paths toward the same goal. At the beginning they won't help each other very much, which is unfortunate but at least I can give you realistic expectations.
From the perspective of school Japanese, our goal for stage 1 is to become familiar with a lot of words but not a lot of depth. About a thousand words, but we don't encourage you to be able to translate them in either direction. We want you to read a few pages of grammar notes, but without any exercises. Most importantly we want you to watch TV and guess what's happening.
In 2A we want you to start applying your vague grammar and vocabulary knowledge by scavenger-hunting through target-language subtitles for lines that you seem to understand.
The things we do look extremely sloppy and impossible to grade. If you're lucky, a teacher will understand the method behind this madness. If you're unlucky, they might openly mock you, most likely you'll find a reaction between these extremes if you even mention Refold.
Refold will most likely help you notice the absolutely appalling classroom accents that you and other students have. This can be discouraging (in fact, noticing accent differences is the first step towards sounding like you want to). You may find the classroom vocabulary pace to be a bit slow. ("Twenty words this week? Lol.")
Homework exercises will probably feel unfair, the usual "wtf, the details of the にparticle makes no sense" experience that classroom students go through.
(Refold delays that struggle until about stage 2C, then the confusion isn't quite so bad: you at least have a good idea of what things mean and the only mystery is how grammar connects meaning to words.)
I'd guess that you'll be around stage 2A, which means you'll seem "talented" in class - above average intuition for what things mean, vocabulary may be easy. If you're skipping ahead to an "intermediate" class you'll probably be missing grammar theory. (we're not big fans of theory)
Take advantage of opportunities to absorb language and culture.
You might have to pause Refold techniques during your trip. That's fine - I'd recommend keeping up Anki reviews if that's not too much burden.
At your level you'll still be gathering basic pieces of the language. Don't expect to put them together just yet.
tropic tangle
Thank you for the response! I've noticed that the two paths look incredibly different, and yes the homework is absurd. I am currently taking the elementary 2 class and took the elementary 1 class last semester. This program is an "intensive intermediate" course which allows for 2 semesters of class credit to be gained in 7 weeks. This will move me to "Advanced Japanese 1" where the class is spoken entirely in Japanese to my knowledge. However, I am sure during my trip I will be able to get some intense immersion, are you saying there isn't a milestone or goal I could/should be reaching for before I arrive? My idea is that if increasing my hours per day from 2 to 3.5 for example could get me from a level 2~ "bits and pieces" to a level 3 "gist" that would be great before spending so much time around native speakers.
wispy palm
Those are levels from the comprehension scale, and the comprehension scale isn't consistent. Different situations will change your comprehension by a lot. Personally I experience everything from lv 4 to lv 6 every day, and lv 3 isn't rare either. Conversations are different from media too: if someone has good communication skills they can give you a huge boost by simplifying their language and using non-verbal channels.
Something like https://www.youtube.com/@ComprehensibleJapanese will allow you to experience lv 3 or 4 relatively quickly. Refold advice is maybe a little too oriented towards independent learning. You have an opportunity to be babied more (nobody expects you to get your own taxi back to your own apartment after you try to keep up with the adult-level conversation at the 飲み会 after-work drinking party) and so focusing on simpler topics seems like it would be helpful.
As far as hours, you should insist on keeping your schedule sustainable. It sounds like you're enthusiastic now, which means you're more likely to overestimate how much time is healthy. It's the same state of mind that makes you overload your plate at an all-you-can eat buffet. Getting immersion time outside of class, even if it doesn't seem like a lot, means that you're going to outperform students who don't.
tropic tangle
Thank you! You're totally correct I am definitely overestimating myself currently. Ill check out the channel. I appreciate the responses!
light fog
School Japanese and self-directed immersion take different paths toward the same...
Hahaha this is really funny for some reason with how in depth and accurate it is
I started going to the Japanese classes at my college for fun and now this semester I’m taking Japanese 4 and it’s pretty much as you say, but I’m further into refold
The professor was like, hmm your Japanese is odd, but hasn’t said much about it (negative) other than that
@tropic tangle if your studying abroad from what I can gather, it might be worth it to try and learn some words for everyday things like shop names, how to say “this one please”, etc
That’s up to you though
light fog
I started going to the Japanese classes at my college for fun and now this semes...
Although not everyone actually has such a bad accent, older people especially have bad accents but some of the students around my age are better than you’d expect
And yeah the super unfair things that are expected is totally true lol
The grammar things taught in class are always like review to me and I still struggle sometimes to figure out what the teacher is asking of us