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What should I study next??

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MarcusAseth
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Joined: January 19th, 2012 8:01 am

What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » April 9th, 2013 12:19 pm

Hi everyone,I am a bit lost with the audio lessons so I need a little help :roll:

I've studied all the lessons in Absolute Begginner 1-2 & Newbie Series 1-2-3, so today I've started Newbie Series 4 but I found the first lesson extremely easy,I could understand everything without need of any explanation,so from my point of view, that was 10 minute of wasted time,that I could use elsewhere to learn some new grammar point :D

So my question is: if I am totally focused only on getting the true grammar (without shortcuts,I want it in the hard way lol :mrgreen: ) ,after Newbie Season 3,where should I countinue to study??

mmmason8967
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Joined: January 7th, 2012 12:24 pm

Re: What should I study next??

Postby mmmason8967 » April 10th, 2013 7:30 pm

marcusaseth6443 wrote:So my question is: if I am totally focused only on getting the true grammar (without shortcuts,I want it in the hard way lol :mrgreen: ) ,after Newbie Season 3,where should I countinue to study??

You've been following the Nihongo Doujou series: the next season you should study is Beginner Season 4. The Nihingo Doujou series is made up of the following seasons:-

Newbie S2 --> Newbie S3 --> Beginner S4 --> Beginner S5 --> Beginner S6 --> Lower Intermediate S6

I've got an introduction to JapanesePod101 that might be useful, so I'll post it as another reply below this one.

マイケル

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mmmason8967
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby mmmason8967 » April 10th, 2013 7:31 pm

The lessons on JapanesePod101 do not follow an obvious sequence such as Lesson #1, Lesson #2, and so on. New students often find it difficult to work out where they should start. Hopefully this short summary will remove some of the confusion.

Overview
JapanesePod101 is based around audio lessons that generally last around ten to fifteen minutes. Lessons are grouped into seasons (explained below) and are categorised by Level (also explained below).

Each lesson has a variety of supporting materials including Lesson Notes and Lesson Notes Lite. These PDF files contain exactly the same information: use Lesson Notes Lite if your PDF reader won't display Lesson Notes correctly.

Levels
Lessons are categorised using four levels: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

The Absolute Beginner level contains two sub-levels, Absolute Beginner and Newbie. The main difference is that the Absolute Beginner sub-level is aimed at those who want to learn to say things in Japanese but don't feel ready for detailed grammar explanations.

Seasons
There are several seasons (or series) at each level. You are not expected to work through each season in order! When you have completed between two and four seasons at one level, you will probably feel ready to move up to the next level.

For most seasons there is a summary of the curriculum for that season. You can find the curriculum from the season's home page by clicking on the Explore Curriculum button. The Explore Curriculum button is also available alongside the seasons listed for each level on that level's home page.

Curriculum
Many members like to follow a structured curriculum. For these members there is a sequence of series called Nihongo Doujou.

Newbie S2 --> Newbie S3 --> Beginner S4 --> Beginner S5 --> Beginner S6 --> Lower Intermediate S6

Alternatively, there is another earlier sequence:-

Beginner S1 --> Beginner S2 --> Beginner S3 --> Lower Intermediate S1 --> S2 --> S3 --> S4 --> S5

Writing
You can find out about Japanese writing on the Japanese Writing System page.

The first stage of learning to read and write Japanese is to learn the kana (hiragana and katakana). A very good resource is the Kantan Kana video course.

MarcusAseth
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » April 11th, 2013 3:46 pm

thank you very much! now I can go on :D

community.japanese
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby community.japanese » April 12th, 2013 11:58 am

marcusaseth6443-san, マイケルsan,
kon'nichiwa :D

Thank you very much for the perfect help, マイケルsan!! :kokoro:
Good luck on your study, marcusaseth6443-san :wink:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

MarcusAseth
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » April 12th, 2013 3:20 pm

Thanks 私は頑張ります  :oiwai:

community.japanese
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby community.japanese » April 13th, 2013 2:38 pm

marcusaseth6443-san,
がんばってください!! :D :kokoro:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

toshimarise
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Joined: February 1st, 2009 6:52 pm

Re: What should I study next??

Postby toshimarise » July 30th, 2013 4:59 pm

Is there a list like this that continues into the higher levels? i.e., Do the upper intermediate lessons follow a doujo-style progression? I looked around on the "explore curriculum" options but I couldn't find any kind of guided study key.

Starting from my prior experience, I finished Lower Intermediate Season 4, most of season 5, and a handful of other Upper Beginner and Lower Intermediate lessons covering specific grammar points I needed for last year's JLPT N4. Should I go on to LI S6, soldier on through the uneven parts of the Intermediate season (which I know was recorded very early in Jpod's run), or try one of the Upper Intermediate seasons?

Any advice would be appreciated!

paloma_ill
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby paloma_ill » August 12th, 2013 12:17 am

Hi Toshimarise-san,

We'd recommend you to follow the order of the levels and season, so it'd be better to finish the last season for Lower Intermediate, then move to Intermediate season 1, then Upper Intermediate Season 1.

I hope it helps!
Paloma
Team JapanesePod101

MarcusAseth
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Joined: January 19th, 2012 8:01 am

Re: What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » May 31st, 2014 4:35 pm

Hi everyone, something like 1 years has passed since I opened this topic,and by following the suggested schedule,I am now at the lesson 5 of "Lower Intermediate Season 6" ...私は遅いですね  :?

But,I am struggling a bit trying to keep up with Naomi sensei's japanese talking,well,the other hosts as well, I am studying japanese like from 1 or 2 years,and I still don't have the ear for it...is a bit discouraging :(

So I wanted to ask,there is any other series I should follow wich would help me improve my listening & understanding?

community.japanese
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Re: What should I study next??

Postby community.japanese » June 1st, 2014 8:31 am

marcusaseth6443 san,

You can study at your own pace.
I can understand your struggle because I also have the same problem with English.
It’s said that speaking, listening, reading and writing skills are related each other so if you practise only listening, it’s hard to improve your Japanese.
In order to understand what people say, we need vocabularies and grammar knowledge and should know the context.
I don’t know how many vocabularies you memorise and how many grammar points you can hundle so it’s a bit hard to recommend series. I am sorry.
However, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask us. We always help you.

Yuki  由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

MarcusAseth
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Posts: 18
Joined: January 19th, 2012 8:01 am

Re: What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » June 1st, 2014 10:04 am

I know around 2000 Vocabs,I do quizzes and I add 7 new vocabs each day.
Also, I have listened to Absolute Beginner 1/2, Newbie 1/2/3, Beginner 4/5/6 and some other series,now I am in Lower Intermediate Season 6 and I have listened to a total of 217 audio lessons here on japanesepod101,I always follow the pdf while listening to the lesson and after the audio ends I read the whole .pdf once more.
And still,I have problems to follow even the most simple conversation without the text in front of my eyes...is like my brains needs time to recall the reading of a vocab and translate it,therefore it cannot keep up with the speed of a conversation...and this is frustrating,after 1-2 years :cry:

community.japanese
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Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: What should I study next??

Postby community.japanese » June 2nd, 2014 3:33 am

marcusaseth6443 san,

As I told you I totally understand your frustration.
I think you may be a visual learner and not an audio learner. I also like reading and writing.

How about trying other learning methods?
I recommend you to do dictation practice.
Dictation is that you hear Japanese sentences and write them down.
In order to do that, you need grammar knowledge, writing fast and of course listening skill.
Also have tried shadow speaking?
Shadow speaking is repeating recording without reading material even if you don’t understand that.
It is said that when you get used to listen and speak following recording, you can listen and speak in real conversation.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

MarcusAseth
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Joined: January 19th, 2012 8:01 am

Re: What should I study next??

Postby MarcusAseth » June 2nd, 2014 11:18 am

I don't feel confident about dictation because I have noone to correct me if I do mistakes in the stroke order,but I'll try this shadow speaking for sure,thanks for the suggestion Yuki :)

community.japanese
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Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: What should I study next??

Postby community.japanese » June 6th, 2014 12:08 am

marcusaseth6443 san,
I see.
However, many article shows dictation is useful for studying languages.
You can listen to our audio and check the spelling with lesson notes.
By the way, ganbatte kudasai.
Yuki  由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

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