Quote:
Originally Posted by steven
That's impressive Kyle!
As for the OP, there are a lot of different techniques. For me, they all include repetition. Mixing a few techniques together can help if you have a short attention span.
For starters, Japanese has a written language that is somewhat similar to its spoken language (in terms of how written characters represent sounds goes, not really grammar or what words are used). What that means is that you can actually speak what you write. In other words, when you practice vocabulary, one approach is to write them down over and over again while saying them. If you have no idea how to pronounce them that can be dangerous of course, so be careful.
Similarly, characters-- this is particularly a point made about kanji, have a specific stroke order. For whatever reason, paying close attention to the stroke order might help you remember the word. This might be a more advanced technique for a second/third/etc-language learner though.
Another technique is to do a lot of listening. When you listen, listen specifically for new words that you have studied. When you hear them and recognize them, this may cause better retention. The more you hear words in use, the easier it is to remember them. This technique also gives you context, which is for me at least a very important part of studying vocabulary. I think that when the brain hears a word that you've studied within the context of natural conversation, it subconsciously decides "that's important" and retains that word... even if to the slightest degree, on a native level.
Something else you can do is make up absurd stories behind the words. Obviously if you do this for every word your head will explode with too much pointless information-- but it can be helpful for words that are hard for you to retain. For example, when I was in high school doing my first year of Japanese, we had to learn the word 地下鉄 (chikatetsu/subway)... for whatever reason. It was one of those words that I knew I wouldn't have to use in everyday conversation but studied it anyways because I would be tested on it. Luckily for me, a loud-mouthed guy (who was a senior on the baseball team, just taking the class to mess around and get an easy A in) kept repeating "chicken sandwich". The idea behind this is that they have "chicken sandwiches" at an American "healthy" fast food chain called "Subway". After I figured out what that guy was doing and I got what it meant, I never forgot it. I don't think I ever had any trouble whatsoever remembering that word. This is in spite of the fact that I didn't use it in conversation for years to come. So if you can come up with stupid little things like this for "hard words" then you can use that as a device to help you retain them. Every time you see or hear the word you'll think of your stupid device and you'll know what it is. Of course that does cause a slight delay (as in word-device-meaning vs word-meaning) it can be useful to get by with during your beginner years.
Which brings the conversation back to what Kyle said-- a lot of this depends on you and your learning style. I think a lot of people have to employ certain study techniques that work for them and their personality/habits rather than just doing "standard studying". The thing is though, repetition is key. Combining repetitive study with hearing or seeing what you've studied in real life can solidify what you've learned.
And for a bit of a warning- I think that you'll notice if you continue to study Japanese that there might be months that go by when you don't feel any improvement. A LOT of people give up during those kinds of times. This seems to happen particularly with classroom Japanese. For me, it happened basically years 2-4 of high school and my second year of college. I noticed that after the second year of Japanese in high school, most people quit. I also noticed that after the second year of Japanese in college, most people quit. I wouldn't be surprised if there are patterns for that kind of thing.
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I'm never going to forget chikatetsu now, haha. I see how that works though. I was never really into standard studying anyway.
I hope I don't quit. I have so much motivation to get to Japan, I'm sure I'll get frustrated... often, but I know that there's an ultimate reward at the end. I've even posted several motivational posters in obvious places all over my house(much to the dismay of the rest of my family).