AltSci Cell

I've been learning Japanese again. If you don't know what's going on, check the previous posts. This is a short blog on how it happened and then the test result.

Sunday 2021-05-30
Practice reading the correct definition and reading and drawing the kanji.

Monday 2021-05-31
09:09 < Javantea> okay ready for today's test I suppose
09:09 < Javantea> breakfast was a banana
09:26 < Javantea> I don't know how but I forgot 千
09:36 < Javantea> 9 wrong out of 28.. 68%
09:37 < Javantea> Not bad considering it was my first test having learned these yesterday for the second time..

部 違 定 彼 飯 調 外 室 千

I'm impressed that I was able to do the whole month of May of Latin along with the weekly quizzes and monthly challenge. It's not so much doing it everyday -- the task is simple and pretty short. Without any other major responsibilities in my life I can honestly say that this is easy. What is not easy is convincing myself that I take no breaks for any reason -- a new game, nope; a rough day, nope; a long walk, nope; a really good excuse, nope; forget, nope. And you might say "good for you" but I've been learning Latin since October and each month I try and fail to get the whole month. Will I do June? Well, the lessons at Mondly are pretty weak. I don't think I'll continue them, but maybe I'll find Latin lessons and continue with my current knowledge. Does that mean I'm done with Mondly? Maybe, maybe not. The thing about their program is that it's cheap, easy, and addictive. We'll see how much my addiction drives me to continue.

Then I do grammar, Lesson 3 from Japanese for Busy People いま　なんじですか
15:00 < Javantea> lesson 3 is mind numbingly boring
15:03 < Javantea> okay let's try to race through it
15:17 < Javantea> 11-19 are regular except 14. you gotta be shittin' me
15:18 < Javantea> and 19 is not regular
15:19 < Javantea> Jan - August are regular, September is almost regular, Oct - Dec are regular =|
15:20 < Javantea> They could have made it worse.
15:33 < Javantea> finished.

It took 30 minutes to complete that lesson. But I know that completing each lesson without skipping will result in a more complete understanding of the language because the book is meant to rapidly introduce concepts that are difficult in a way that people can figure out. It makes sense to listen to the corresponding mp3s now..

15:37 < Javantea> ~/jbp/lesson3/09_track_9.mp3
Then after that I listen to: ~/jbp/lesson3/1*

入 飯 調 川 酒 願 元 室 昼 定 彼 気 白 食 院 赤 日 丁 母 上 茶 歩 部 林 違 止 女 工

I got 3 wrong on the test, but since all three are recognizable, I have decided to move on to the next row. I drew a garage instead of a lid for 室 and got the reading wrong also, it should be しつ. 彼 is missing a small piece but as with other tests, this is about communication, not calligraphy (yet). 食 looks funny but it alright. 部 I used the radical 土 instead of 立 which is a shame, but if we think about this shape, no other kanji looks anything like the one I drew except 部, so it's good enough to communicate. How do I know no other kanji looks remotely like the one I drew? See figure 3 for one of the tools I use to find kanji I see in media that doesn't have copy and paste.

As you can see pretty clearly, there is no kanji that looks like the one I drew except 部 and 都. Of these, 部 is closer. Finally you can see that I missed a 口 on 違 This is a pretty nasty kanji, but my learning method almost worked. How did I remember most of it? See my IRC log below:

10:13 < Javantea> 違 is road of course but the part that is hard is just a bunch of junk..
10:14 < Javantea> uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji
10:15 < Javantea> but it's the bottom of 五 with 口 on top of the bottom of 年
10:16 < Javantea> which is a shitty way to remember something, but it has 10 strokes..
10:16 < Javantea> so how does one remember 10 strokes? so this kanji is just hard

I turned 10 strokes into a mnemonic. When I couldn't fully remember the bottom half, I drew 年 because I knew that the mnemonic would help. It did. Are there any kanji that look like the one I drew besides 違? No, but since there are a lot of kanji, I can't screenshot kitenradselect as easily, so instead I'll just paste from radkfile.txt:

$ 込 3
逢違遺逸迂運遠迦過還逆近遇迎遣込遮週述巡遵進迅逗遂随髄逝選遷遡送遭造速遜腿退逮 達辿遅逐槌追鎚通辻逓適迭途逃透導道遁謎迩這迫避樋逼辺返遍縫蓬迄迷鑓遊遥遼漣蓮連 嗹慥撻暹燧燵邃篷縋縺膸褪譴辷迚迥迢迪迯邇迴逅迹迺逑逕逡逍逞逖逋逧逶逵逹迸遏遐遑 遒逎遉逾遖遘遞遨遯遶遲邂遽邁邀邊邉邏鎹鏈闥隧靆韃韆髓遙

To avoid losing memory of how to write kanji (as this method appears to be biased towards), I have decided to use a similar bit of software to do tests that focus on random kanji from all rows -- no bias toward the current row. This will give me a list of kanji I have either partially or fully forgotten. From that list, I can write over and over until it clicks -- without wasting any time drawing kanji I already know.

Until next time!

I'll hopefully post all tests as I pass them. Wish me luck.

Previous episodes:
Learning to Read and Write Kanji
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 5
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 6
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 7
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 8
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 9
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 10
Learning to Read and Write Kanji Row 11

Javantea out.