Ramblings: How I stop myself from over-studying

As I'm sure everyone else has their limits, I am no exception. There is only so much I can stuff into my head every day, if I want to remember those things later. For me, cramming only serves me for short term purposes. For example, when I was in high school, and genuinely had no interest in remembering the things in class (I may regret it now) I would cram before every test/exam/final for hours. I would successfully remember everything, and even ace tests left and right. However, give me that same test now and I would surely fail.

Because I was a pro at cramming for short term purposes, I am always at danger of getting back in the habit of over-studying a certain subject. The last thing I want to do is over-study Japanese, learn a lot of things, move on, and realize when it's too late that I don't remember anything I learned. This has actually happened a few times, but I quickly catch myself, back-tracking until I am sure that I fully understand everything I learned.

What is considered over-studying? Like I said earlier, everyone has their limits. For me, I can't get away with studying over two hours in one sitting. At that point I start slowly losing the stuff from the beginning of my studies, like one of those VCR tapes that erases itself as you watch it (know what I'm talking about?). I am also a big fan of taking breaks. Honestly even a half an hour can significantly improve your memorization and ability to understand what you are reading without overwhelming yourself.

If you think your in my learning range (which is far from genius quality), here is a few golden rules I always try to follow.

★ Do NOT study Japanese for more than 2 hours in one sitting
★ Do NOT study textbook (in my case, Genki Integrated) for more than 1.5 hours in one sitting
★ Do NOT study late at night, even if you feel "wide awake." You'll realize the next day you weren't
★ DO take a break if what you're learning gets jumbled and confusing in your head
★ DO study vocabulary thoroughly before partaking in a textbook chapter, otherwise the lack of knowledge will be a crutch when trying to learn grammar, etc.
★ Do NOT attempt to learn new kanji every day if you do not completely remember everything you've learned. Instead maybe spend every other day or so purely on review.
★ Do NOT go a day without learning something new. If you don't have time to sit down and study, DO try to watch at least one YouTube video that teaches you something you didn't know.

I'm sure there's more, but that is the main points I try to follow. But again, everyone is different, and I bet there are people that can go 3 or 4 hours flawlessly. I cannot, because I have what you call, a "short attention span." ^_~


And purely for records sake:
Kanji count: 194

Progress

Although I have been interested in Japanese culture and attempting to learn the language for the past couple years, it wasn't until this past January that I really sat down, got some resources, and made a genuine attempt to learn.

However, balancing college classes, a part time job, my boyfriend, family, friends and whatever drama at the time, it has been a lot harder than I hoped. But I am still as motivated as ever. After quitting my part-time job (for various practical reasons, I swear, hah), I have been able to put much more effort in teaching myself. I spend almost every day studying something, but sometimes it ends up being every other day, especially these past two weeks where classes are throwing papers left and right.

Anyway, I wanted to list out what I'm using as primary resources!

★Kanji learning: "Remembering the Kanji" by James W. Heisig
★Kanji practice: Anki, and the Reviewing the Kanji website ~ http://kanji.koohii.com/
★Guideline for learning: Genki Integrated Elementary Japanese Course I
★Vocabulary practice: Smart.fm
★Listening practice: The Genki companion website has great links ~ http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/self/self.en.html . I also use YouTube! There are great teachers such as:
~~~www.youtube.com/gimmeaflakeman (150 lessons and growing!)
~~~www.youtube.com/thatjapanesegirl
~~~www.youtube.com/misshannahminx
~~~www.youtube.com/bumnumba1 (I can't help it, but learning Japanese with a teacher that is drunk and profane is absolutely hilarious)
★Grammar, phrases, etc: The Daily Yo-ji ~ http://www.thedailyyoji.blogspot.com/ . And Maggie-sensei! ~ http://www.maggiesensei.com/jp/
★Sentence practice: Lang-8 ~ www.lang-8.com


Anyhow, those are the primary sources I like to use as much as possible. There are more websites I enjoy visiting for more cultural/news related information, but I think that's due for another entry. ^_^V

Smart.fm

There are many resources I have found on the internet that help make learning Japanese easy and somewhat fun! One such website I have been using more frequently as of late is Smart.fm.

I think the website is really neat in that you can create your own lists to study, or study of other lists created by difference users. In my case I was very lucky to find what I was looking for, and that is vocabulary lists for the chapters in my Genki text book.

What is special is that there are a few different programs you can use, which includes iKnow!, Drill Beta and BrainSpeed. I believe (though I could be mistaken) that the first two are alternates for each other, which BrainSpeed is a way to test how well you react to words you learn.

More into iKnow!, which is what I primarily use. When you open it up it will tell you if it is time for you to study. There is a calendar included that shows how many times you studied in one day and what days. The further along you get with a list of words, the more spaced out the program wants you to study, so that you have optimum memorization. How many times I have tried to memorize vocabulary in one sitting, just to forget it in two days I can't even count. But this prevents you from practicing them all in one go.

Here is a screen cap:


When you begin studying a list in Japanese, you have the option of choosing romanji mode, kana mode, kanji focus mode and full mode. I think this is awesome because I'm officially done with relying on romanji, but have yet to tackle kanji, so I am able to study in all kana.



Long story short, I love this website. I think it is way better than normal old flash cards, because when you use the iKnow! program, it revisits words you have problems with constantly. And not only does it test your Japanese to English translation, but English to Japanese and English to written Japanese (where you type in the word itself). It's a great learning tool and I highly recommend it!