- Home
- Member
- straightforward
- straightforward's entries
- A Big Challenge
A Big Challenge
- 229
- 16
- 2
My younger daughter who is in the 10th grade (she goes to a Japanese public high school) borrowed an English book, "Anne Of Green Gables" from the library during the winter holiday. At first, her challenge amazed me because there are many difficult words and phrases which she doesn't know in the book. Somehow I encouraged her because she and I knew it's worth doing.
Firstly, I thought it wasn't impossible, because she chose that book by her own will. Secondly, she has ever read a translated into Japanese version of the book, so it's not difficult to guess unknown words and phrases in the context. Thirdly, as long as she has fun, there's no reason for her to stop reading.
A Japanese renowned brain scientist, Kenichiro Mogi once mentioned in his book that when your brain perceives that learning English is fun, your action of studying will be reinforced. In other words, when you give joy to your brain, that is a shortcut to make a progress. If you have a wonderful meal, you definitely want to eat it once again. I thought it makes sense.
Anyway, she finished reading it at the end of holiday and I'm very proud of her. If you accomplish reading a whole book, you will have a confidence which helps you study more. Even when you have some difficulties, that confidence gives you a strength not to give up.
Firstly, I thought it wasn't impossible, because she chose that book by her own will. Secondly, she has ever read a translated into Japanese version of the book, so it's not difficult to guess unknown words and phrases in the context. Thirdly, as long as she has fun, there's no reason for her to stop reading.
A Japanese renowned brain scientist, Kenichiro Mogi once mentioned in his book that when your brain perceives that learning English is fun, your action of studying will be reinforced. In other words, when you give joy to your brain, that is a shortcut to make a progress. If you have a wonderful meal, you definitely want to eat it once again. I thought it makes sense.
Anyway, she finished reading it at the end of holiday and I'm very proud of her. If you accomplish reading a whole book, you will have a confidence which helps you study more. Even when you have some difficulties, that confidence gives you a strength not to give up.
Latest entries
Latest comments
| May 25th kuma |
| May 24th Pohnpei |
| May 24th bennatan |
| May 24th Nathan |
| May 24th krynn82 |
Entries by Month
I have been reading 1st and 2nd year short stories for children in Japanese, and they're mostly written in hiragana. I guess that helps my kana reading speed and grammar comprehension a little, but it doesn't help me learn much kanji. It becomes a catch 22, which can make Japanese not fun to study.
During the past 4 years, I have tried making Japanese study fun, and it always ends in frustration, which is demotivating at best. I wish I could say it was different.
Luckily, you guys studying English have one single alphabet to learn, and phrases and words you don't know can be easily looked up. Even just being able to read everything and not quite understand can be a lot more encouraging than being stopped dead because you can't identify a character, you know? I have had many a book reading interrupted by this, so it becomes impossible to feel as though I'm making progress in my studies.
I'm glad you're all enjoying your English studies, though! :)
Keep up the fantastic work!
Learning a foreign language never ends but I find much value in it. I love to communicate with foreign people who have different culture and perspective, so
I can't stop learning English.
One of my friends, whose name is cuavsfan, introduced a useful site. http://www.basic-japanese.com/Hilfsdateien/skipCode.html
You can see his comment, below.
If you use this, you can find unknown Kanji easier. Hope you like it!
I, myself, really enjoyed the televised series of "Anne." I never missed an episode! I may buy the DVD set if it's not too expensive.
My favorite is always American sitcom, Frasier. I love all the characters.
Secondly, she has already read a translated (into) Japanese version of the book, so it's not difficult to guess unknown words and phrases in the context.
In other words, when you give joy to your brain, that is a shortcut to make a progress.
Anyway, she finished reading it at the end of the holiday and I'm very proud of her.
If you accomplish reading a whole book, you will have the confidence which helps you to study more.
Even when you have some difficulties, that confidence gives you the strength not to give up.
I remember learning german until I graduated from high school. I found that german was quite fun until I entered high school. Then, I wasn't having "fun" in learning german anymore... So I didn't improve at all... And I forgot everything now... Such a waste...
I hope it won't be the same for japanese. ^^
添削して下さって、ありがとうございます。
英語を書く時、いつも一番悩むのは、単数、複数 そして、a か the の選択です。
非常に難しい。
I don't think you wasted your time. You can connect the dots someday, that's what Steve Jobs said in his speech at the Stanford.
My younger daughter who is in the 10th grade (she goes to a Japanese public high school) borrowed an English book, "Anne Of Green Gables," from the library during the winter holiday.
At first, her taking on this challenge amazed me because there are many difficult words and phrases which she doesn't know in the book. (We don't use "to challenge" in quite the same way as チャレンジする.)
Secondly, she has already read a translated into Japanese version of the book, so it's not difficult to guess unknown words and phrases in the context.
A Japanese renowned brain scientist, Kenichiro Mogi, once mentioned in his book that when your brain perceives that learning English is fun, your action of studying will be reinforced.
概念がだいたい分かっている本を読むのもいい練習だと思います。英語のハリーポッターというシリーズをすでに読んだので、日本語版をチャレンジしました。とてもいい練習でしたし、とても楽しかったです。
添削して下さって、ありがとうございます。curvsfanさんは、素晴らしい日本語を書いておられますね。おそらく、根気よく、日本語の勉強を続けてこられたのだと思います。
茂木健一郎さんの引用は、ちょっと説明不足でした。かれは、意味のない文章を（This is a pen. とか He is Mr Brown.）学校英語で習っても楽しさはわいてこない。
たとえ、ビギナーであっても、読者が楽しめるストーリーを読む事が、脳には必要だと言っています。私もその通りだと思います。
娘はハリーポッターが、大好きで、全巻合計５−６回読んでいます。以前英語で、読もうとしましたが、その時は無理だと気づきました。
同感です。初心者は漫画とかを読めばいいと思います。言葉が少ないですが、他の言語で楽しめるので、もっと読みたいって気持ちが育ちます。
僕もハリーポッターを何回読みました。英語で。新しい本が出たら、そこまでの本を読み直してから新しいのを読みました。だから、１巻や２巻を５回ぐらい読みました。日本語では１回しか読んだことが無いですが。(^_^)
高校１年生の娘と、cuavsfanさんは、きっと話が合いますね。彼女もハリポタの大ファンですから。
ところで、外国人が日本語を勉強する時の一番のつまずきが、漢字だと思いますが、
それだけの漢字の語彙を増やすのに、どのように勉強されたんですか？初めて知らない漢字を見たとき、読み方がわからないので調べるのに苦労しますよね。
大学で日本語の授業を受けましたか？
漢字を調べるのは、やっぱり読まないと調べ難いですね。今は知らない漢字でも読みが想像できますが、前はその手で調べられません。iPhoneとかのタッチ画面で入力したり、部首で調べたり、SKIPコードで調べたりしましたが、時間がかかりました。面倒でしたが、おかげで漢字を身につけました。
ところで、日本人はSKIPという漢字整理を知らないと思います。説明はこのリンクで
http://www.basic-japanese.com/Hilfsdateien/skipCode.html
読みが知らなくても、書き方が知らなくても、部首を数えられたら調べることが（割りと）はやくできるので、便利です。
独学でここまで、日本語を使いこなせるなんて、cuavsfanさんは、本当に忍耐強く、努力家ですね。そして、外国語を学ぶ事が、苦ではなく楽しみなんですね。cuavsfanと日本語で会話ができてとても嬉しいです！