November 02, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
Yes, it is.
Watching anime with
Japanese subtitles
counts as reading immersion
because reading the subtitles creates an inner voice
that competes with the spoken language that you're listening to.
As a result,
you are not fully paying attention to the native speech.
Instead,
you focus on your internal subvocalization while reading the subtitles.
If you watched anime with English subtitles before starting to learn Japanese,
you've likely spent thousands of hours listening to native Japanese.
However,
if reading subtitles did not interfere with your listening practice,
you would have already learned the language.
This is why we say that watching with subtitles counts as reading immersion.
When you read subtitles,
your own subvocalization interferes with and overshadows the audio.
Consequently,
you end up learning the language of the subtitles
rather than the language of the audio.
In this case, the language of the English fansubs.
Watching anime with Japanese subtitles can help you notice and learn more words,
but it will cause your listening skills to
lag behind.
Relying too heavily on subtitles can create a crutch,
making it difficult to transition to listening without any text support.
If you've spent a long time watching anime with Japanese subtitles
and neglected listening practice,
you will be frustrated when you decide to turn off the subs and watch raw anime.
While you can improve your listening skills by going cold turkey
and immersing with a lot of raw anime,
it will be challenging at first.
It's better to
train your listening ability
while you're still a beginner.
Therefore,
AJATT recommends prioritizing listening to avoid this issue.
We recommend disabling subtitles if you don't need them.
For those who need them,
enable them only when you don't understand something.
Keeping them visible creates a hindrance,
and you can't help but read the subs even if it's unintentional.
It's difficult to ignore them completely.
So,
regardless of your current skill level,
when we divide our study time,
watching something with TL subs counts toward your reading time.
Tags: faq
September 01, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
If you seriously want to master your target language,
textbooks are not for you.
We recommend skipping them entirely and learning the language through immersion.
Read more...
August 26, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
Ankidrone Essentials
consists solely of cards from the JLPT Tango textbooks,
maintaining the original order and content.
The deck is designed for those who have completed Ankidrone Foundation
or wish to expand their vocabulary
and supplement sentence mining.
In contrast,
Ankidrone Foundation
takes the N5 subdeck from Ankidrone Essentials,
but the card order is rearranged.
We tried to arrange the cards so that each new card is 1T.
The sorting algorithm we used prefers cards
with the fewest estimated number of unknown words per example sentence
and puts them in the beginning of the deck.
The deck is intended for complete beginners who only know hiragana and katakana.
The JP1K method
helps new learners get used to reading words with kanji characters
which can initially seem difficult.
Additionally,
many katakana words and place names have been removed from Ankidrone Foundation,
as they are typically unnecessary for learners.
For instance,
words like コンサート are straightforward since they are borrowed from English.
On the other hand,
Ankidrone Essentials includes these terms because they appear in the Tango textbooks.
We also introduced new cards into Ankidrone Foundation
when we saw that certain words needed to be learned before others to preserve the 1T order.
If you decide to skip Ankidrone Foundation
and jump straight into Ankidrone Essentials,
you will need to learn kanji and their readings from the beginning,
which can be more challenging compared to following the JP1K method.
However, this is a choice some learners prefer.
You will also need to suspend or delete any cards you already know,
as Ankidrone Essentials retains all content from the Tango textbooks.
And since Ankidrone Essentials does not maintain the 1T order
as effectively as Ankidrone Foundation,
you may encounter more unfamiliar words within sentences.
However,
it's worth noting that the Foundation deck is not flawless in this regard either.
If you have completed Ankidrone Foundation,
skip the Tango N5 subdeck in Ankidrone Essentials,
as they cover similar vocabulary,
differing mainly in card templates and order.
Tags: faq
August 13, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
Our Anki decks are organized into a comprehensive system
designed to guide learners through the process of mastering the Japanese language
using the AJATT method.
Read more...
August 11, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
The most important part of learning Japanese with the
AJATT
method
is to enjoy native content
and be able to grow your understanding of the language entirely through immersion
by picking up new words from the media you read, watch or listen to.
To transition towards learning directly from Japanese media,
first you need to level up your comprehension.
Ankidrone Foundation
is an Anki Deck for newcomers to Japanese based on the JP1K method.
If you want to learn the theory behind this deck, please read
this article.
Read more...
August 09, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
Ankidrone Essentials is the generally recommended Anki deck for newcomers to Japanese
who want to quickly learn basic vocabulary.
Ankidrone Essentials is made to skyrocket your comprehension of native Japanese.
Since the first release in February 2020,
it has helped many people and received positive feedback.
Read more...
June 02, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
I'm forced to output early. How can I mitigate the damage?
If you're already living in Japan,
or taking Japanese classes,
you may find yourself in situations where you need to speak Japanese.
If you're not fluent yet,
early output will damage your Japanese.
In this article, we'll explore strategies to help you mitigate the damage.
Read more...
May 02, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
In my previous article on Learning Kanji,
I mentioned that beginners do not need to
learn kanji radicals.
However,
radicals play a significant role in the Japanese language.
Understanding the proper Japanese names for common radicals
aids in grasping spoken conversations about kanji.
The advice provided in this article is tailored for people
who already understand Japanese.
If you are still a beginner,
I recommend focusing on more essential aspects of Japanese learning.
Read more...
April 09, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
This article addresses common questions about typing with Fcitx.
To enter anything when using Fcitx,
type what you want to type and then press the space bar.
Fcitx will provide predictions for the characters you intend to insert.
If the prediction is incorrect,
continue pressing the space bar until you find the correct one.
Main article: How to type in Japanese
Read more...
April 03, 2024 — Tatsumoto Ren
No.
There's a sweet spot
for making the monolingual transition,
and doing it either too early or too late can reduce your efficiency.
In theory,
you could attempt to go monolingual very early in your learning journey.
You might learn just the most common 50 words,
the bare minimum of grammar,
and dive into using only the target language for definitions.
It would be very challenging, but it's not impossible.
I've seen people who went monolingual much sooner than I advise.
It was tough for them.
Although they struggled and were often lost,
barely understanding anything for a long time,
they eventually found their way.
So yes,
an early transition is possible.
However,
going monolingual too soon is not the most effective approach.
The difficulty is so high
that you might end up spending an excessive amount of time
doing recursive lookups
and deciphering complex explanations in the monolingual dictionary,
which is not the best use of your time.
If the process is too difficult,
you'll likely spend more time lost in the dictionary than actually learning.
A more balanced approach is to expand your vocabulary
with the help of bilingual dictionaries first.
Then,
transition to monolingual dictionaries when you're more prepared.
This strategy allows for a smoother shift and sets you up for success.
Tags: faq
