How I learned Japanese words – Part 2
In my last post, I talked about how I learned Japanese vocabulary. Basically, I read the dictionary and learned from trying to read things in Japanese. This is a bit of a simplification but if you can read more if you are interested in my last post.
From the time I purchased my first dictionary to right before I went to Japan, I was more focused on learning to write and make sentences than learning a bunch of vocabulary. But, the three months before I went to Japan I made a special effort to increase my vocabulary.
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Intensive 3 Months of Reading the Dictionary
I was in high school at this time and was planning on going to Japan for a year. I wanted to learn as much as I could before I got there. So, what I did was spend the next 3 summer months away from school to learn as much as I could. I had a plan this time though. I decided to take that same paper dictionary and read through it every day until I went to Japan. This was not as crazy as it sounds though. I only read the Japanese to English side. I also tried to skip pages that I felt I knew a lot of the words on. I did not want to spend time on things I thought I knew. It would take me a few hours the first few days but I began reading faster and skipping more words.
By the time I got to Japan I was able to understand quite a bit more than I expected I would. It was mostly thanks to getting a good grasp of the vocabulary in this dictionary. I did not understand everything of course and still had lots and lots of trouble. But, this was the catalyst that allowed me to more quickly learn Japanese when I was in Japan.
A Year in Japan
This does not need that much explanation. I was in Japan and I learned vocabulary through listening and speaking with people. I did still try to read and study as much as I could though. At this time I had a fully Japanese dictionary with no English which I struggled to read here and there. I carried this around with me through Japan for the first 3 or 4 months. Then I started to use it less and less as I could listen and understand conversations better. So the last part of the year I mostly learned Japanese from talking with people.
How I Continue to Learn Japanese Vocabulary
After getting back from Japan I continued to read my Japanese dictionary which was all in Japanese. I read would carry it around and read it here and there like I did with the first dictionary. But, after a year or so I got less and less benefit out of doing that. There were a few reasons for that. I will explain two of them here:
- I knew enough Japanese that reading the dictionary stopped being exciting
- Now that I knew Japanese I was able to get more benefit from reading
Reading the Dictionary was not Exciting
The more Japanese you learn, the fewer unknown words you come across. This is obvious but important to understand. If you learn all the basic words you need in everyday conversation then you stop seeing unknown words everywhere. A basic dictionary is good, a small dictionary with the basics is good in the beginning. It gives you all the words you need to know to be able to talk. But, after you actually learn Japanese it becomes less helpful.
Vocabulary Becomes more Specialized
If you have a larger more comprehensive dictionary then you can learn lots of less common words. This may help you sound more sophisticated. But, most likely you will just be learning words that are unrelated to anything you do or are interested in.
When I had learned Japanese I was not able to enjoy the dictionary as much. I would read words but wanted to learn more about specific things I was interested in which may not be in that dictionary. In order to learn more specialized words that required reading more in topics, I was interested in. That means that my Japanese would continue to get more specialized. Just like it would for any other speaker. Not everyone knows all the same words or has all the same interests.
The Internet
The Internet now became the main source of learning more content. It was mostly at this point from reading or watching stuff of interest. There are other things I have used such as Memrise. But after you get to a certain point in your studies most of the new words will be from reading and listening.
