#nihongo.txt

1. You'll learn the most from stuff you already know

This sounds weird but bear with me. I thought that the best way to learn new vocabulary is to pick up something new to read/watch. Wrong! I often find myself being so immersed in the plot that I'm more focused on finding out what happens next and I opt out of looking up new words or appreciating the beauty of the syntax/word usage. However, when you already know the plot, you have time to stop and think and really take in the linguistic aspect of it. The way I like to do this is to read corresponding manga chapters aftet finishing anime episodes or just straight out re-read/re-watch the thing at a later date and go "oh wow this is so much prettier than I remember"

2. Furigana is actually good for you

Listen. I know this sounds even weirder. And I sincerely believed that furigana is for the weak until I completely switched to stuff that almost doesn't feature furigana (except for 義訓 and some obscure words) and realised that I under-appreciated it all that time. Unexpectedly, it's much easier to look up the word when it's reading is written to its right instead of playing the game of "this must have been the first kanji in that word..." or something like that. Plus, if you encounter this word often, you are more likely to remember both its meaning *and* its reading just over how you see it every time. The problem I have developed is that while I remember the meaning of words, I can't recall their readings just because I don't see them all that much. It's a bummer. (Yes, 矯正施設, I'm looking at you. I can never remember if it's きょう or こう...) Either that or I just presume a word's meaning on the hunch (like, I know one of the kanjis and from the context I can guess that it means...) which is honestly very sexy of me but while it works about 70% of the time there are still those 30% that can really mess up my understanding of the text.

3. Having subtitles on and actively reading them can actually be extremely useful

Yeah. I guess that's somewhat similar to the previous point. Except instead of just seeing the reading, you *hear* it and we humans often remember stuff better when we either say it ourselves or hear someone else say it. I recently realised just how much kanji/vocab I've learnt by watching stuff with subtitles. So much so I'm thinking that watching stuff *without* subtitles is actually worse for me language learning-wise. Go figure.

Also, anime has this beautiful tendency to use uncommon words. You are not going to hear 断末魔 in an everyday conversation but you *will* hear it in Attack on Titan season 1 part 2. And this rarer vocab can be really hard to grasp by ear.

4. Looking up translations helps

It does! I have some difficulties (mainly not being able to visualise stuff very well, turning words into pictures is a complete 無理 for me) and while I'm pretty confident in my reading abilities, I still look up translations to check with my understanding of the text. Well, it can go both ways: you either find mistakes and translation and have a self-indulgent laugh like "hehe I'm so smart" or you realise that you got something wrong and the shame you experience carves the correct meaning/usage into your brain. At least, that's how it works for me!