This is a follow-up post on Classes Suck on All Japanese All The Time.
I’m studying Japanese full time at the University of Gothenburg here in Sweden right now, and my thoughts about classes are pretty varied. At times I find myself just sitting there and not really learning anything new, and sometimes they’re really good. A normal day in school is about 1-4 hours, “full time” is not like the 8-9 hours it used to be in high school. Because of this, I find that going to class is sometimes a waste of time.
Photo by scarletgreen
Let’s say that it’s Thursday and I have 2 hours worth of class time to attend. First off, I need 1 hour (at the very minimum) in the morning to prepare myself to go to school, like eating breakfast, showering and whatnot. Then it takes me 30 minutes to school and 30-40 minutes to get home. Of course I can still listen to Japanese during those 2 hours, but I could definitely use the time more efficiently. And while at school I end up speaking a lot of Swedish too. Sometimes going to class is worth those extra hours, it’s good to have things explained by a teacher and you have someone to ask your questions to. But it’s not always needed. Take Kanji classes for example, they are pretty much the same every day. The teacher starts by acting as a flashcard software, then we read a few sentences in the book, and then we’re introduced to new Kanji. This is nothing I can’t do by myself, and I probably would get more out of it doing it on my own, since I don’t have to listen to other people’s questions and rambles.
So, the Kanji classes are not really necessary and I decide not to go. Next class is where we do grammar and everything from the Genki books. I think this class is the one that I get most out of, but since I decided not to go on the Kanji classes I need to trade 2 hours for 1 hour of class time.
I’m currently testing to skip more classes and studying a lot more at home, so far I feel like I’m gaining more like this. To make sure what’s best for me, I’m going to continue to skip more (but not all) classes until the end of March when I have exams. If I manage to get good results on them I’ll consider continuing like this. I always read and do exercises of the stuff we’re going to talk about at least a day before the class, if there’s something I don’t understand, I know that I have to go. But most of the times, I understand everything and I therefore don’t need to go to school to have it explained to me another time.
Of course it’s also good to attend class just to be social, staying at home for too long isn’t good. But I feel like I’m actually able to spend more time with my friends now, while studying more as well. As my sleeping habits are better now, I get up around 9-10 AM, so I can study an hour or two before meeting someone for lunch. If I don’t have anyone to meet, I’ve been able to study 4-6 hours before everyone get home from work, and I’m therefore able to meet up with people then. I’m also tempted to do more stuff on weekends for some reason.
We’ll see how things go later this month, I’m positive that I’ll see good results. In the meantime, what’s your opinion on classes? Do you learn more by yourself or are classes good for you?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Classes are good! Well in classes you get to correct your bad habits that you may have picked up when you study alone. I know I sure corrected a lot of bad habits that I picked up from my 1 yr self study. Taking classes also gives you the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging and challenge. That works for me but everyone has their cup of tea. There is one guy in class who refuses to speak in our native language or in English when we have class so the rest of the class (and maybe even the teacher) get quite ashamed and yeah we tend to talk in Japanese more because of that.
Also I agree with you on your opinion on Kanji classes. You don`t really need to attend those and just learn the kanji on your own.
With language learning, exposure is really important or else it will slip. Do something everyday even for 5 minutes.
Good point! It’s indeed good to get your bad habits corrected. The people who refuse to speak in their native language in class usually learn a lot faster, but we’re not all at that level yet.
Attending classes is optional for me so I can choose freely which ones to go to, hopefully I’ll find a good balance.
To avoid this dilemma, I always take at least 2 classes a day. For some semester, I would pack all classes in one day (of course with time left over to eat) so I won’t be going to school for a few hours and go home. My school is also 30 mins away from my house and gas isn’t cheap these days.
For Japanese specifically, our classes have recording assignment. We record ourself speaking a drill (repeating it at least 3 times) or short conversation in the book. Our sensee would take a listen and point out anyone’s mistakes. Attendance is also mandatory so I kinda have to go either way. Though I do like going to class more since I can hear how the word is suppose to be said.
If you know that your pronunciation is decent and have CDs and other material to compare yourself with you should be fine. Recording yourselves and getting corrected is a great idea though. Conversing in class (at least in our classes) is 90% of the times based on the things we’ve just learned. We end up doing some 1on1 or group exercises which can also be done with the help of CDs, that way you’re also always exposed to native Japanese.
It would be good to have classes where you’re not so tightly connected to the book and can at least try to have a normal conversation rather than just replacing verbs and adjectives to make things fit.
Well, that depends on the formula of the classes. As you’ve said – most of the kanji lessons are useless – tedious assignments, repetetive tasks, you would make the most of it by just showing on the first lesson for the recommended materials and then, on the exam.
But I am attending any classes I can on writing essays and so on (sakubun juugyou), because editing and peer editing does amazing things to your Japanese. You just want to express yourself very precisely, so you come across new words, use them on the spot and in the context, check if you can not only fill in gapped text with right particle or verb form but rather if you can contruct a whole understandable sentence. You practice the kanji, the cohesion and coherence of your statements. It’s great.
Of course, it matters a lot whether we have a native or not as a teacher, what’s his or her attitude. Many points. But overall I can go to the classes for several hours, teach for several hours and learn for myself for several hours a day. My social life s a bit suffering at times, but this is just the way I am. I love languages more than people I suppose.
We have a “sakubun nooto” where we write things with the new grammar we’ve just learned, every week. The teachers or exchange students then correct it for you. That’s really good and I’ll continue to write in it.
I guess we all have different experience of classes and I’m in the middle of testing what works best for me. After all it’s not really about attending or not attending, it’s about how to get most out of the time.