JLPT 2 2008/2009

[Pork Chop]

I have to admit, I don't do social networking online....so I don't really know how that works.
What exactly would be the advantages? (serious question,btw...no sarcasm!)

Well, lang-8 allows you to post a daily blog and a whole bunch of Japanese folks are on there & friendly enough to provide correction. Of course, it's nice to provide some correction in return.

Something like facebook allows you to provide up-to-the-minute status as well as a blog, notifying people on your list when there are updates.

Starting a group on most of these sites is pretty easy too.
With a group you can send out newsletters and coordinate/schedule activities.
Might even be able to chat.

Ideally, I think you'd want all of that stuff - a communication tool that lets you post daily blogs, bulletins, links, and guides.
Something with the speed of an chat (irc etc), but the persistence of a forum.
I'm sure there are options you can set in setting up a "group" on most of these sites to allow for chat, newsletters, and everything else you'd need to have an effective study group going.
I'll see what I can do on facebook if I find myself with any free time over the next week.

EDIT: I set up a JLPT 2 study group on facebook. The settings allow a discussion board, a shout-out/status wall similar to our shout box on here, photos, links, videos, events, broadcast messages and everything else. Ideally, we could decide on an overall curriculum and post daily updates/topics for everyone to study. If we've got 11+ months till the next test, we could break it up into as many as 300 daily lessons - or 40+ weekly lessons, covering x number of kanji a day, x number of vocab, x number of grammar points, and x number of reading selections. We could take turns at posting those lessons too so one person doesn't get stuck with the lion share of posting - this gets a lot easier if we decide in advance what resources we're going to use and how we're going to break it up.

PM me through this site and I can get you an invite to facebook as well as an invitation to the group.

[ss]

ただいま！こんにちは、みなさん。
I'm sure all of you will pass the test. All the best!

Katafei wrote:
And so.....we've got 51 weeks to JLPT2 2009 ^_^

There should be quite a few from the old crowd taking it, and quite some new ones as well, I'm sure....
So how about we get cracking?

I was thinking (while walking the dog in the evening woodlands, with a wonderful 十六夜 casting it's yellow light on the water)

How about getting together every 2 weeks?

The one time we could practise listening.
There's plenty of material on the net like YouTube and voiceblogs. What if we all took turns in choosing something suitable and adding questions? I reckon we all have ways to sollicit help with this preparation....

The other time might be for grammar.
We could cluster topics and take turns in preparing questions. Maybe even divide each cluster over 2 people, so we all get something new each session?
I figured we might ask some of the ever helpful regular cracks on this site to in turn proofread our questions?

(And of course always hoping Coco-san will be around at times.....!!! )

How does that sound?
Anyways, this is just a blue print, of course, but it would be nice to get the gang going again.....

(And this time, since I should have a decent foundation, I'm not too scared to take part in chatting, I think ^_^)

Count me in. I don't really know to conduct the meetings but I'd be more than happy to learn together in a group. In my opinion everyone who's thinking of taking 2 kyuu should benefit from this so don't be shy people and give your vote for katafei's neat idea ^^.

Katafei, thank you very much for the above suggestion, but I don't know much about facebook, have you people actually started the study group? And, are we using Pandion chat here for discussion?

Count me in should you have any on-going sessions, after the festive holidays, of course. Thank you.


-----
My friend from next class didn't do well last year and took 3kyuu again this year, she told me grammar section was more difficult compared to last year.

Did you spot any particular sign of the test which we should focus more on?

[katafei]

Hi SS,

Hopefully we can start in a few weeks. No group has started on TJP yet as far as I know. I haven't yet checked this facebook out...
Chatting once every 2 sounds better to me, really..

As for the test. Hmm, grammar and kanji are pretty straighforward, I think. Know your stuff and it shouldn't be a prob.

Listening is terrible, so any practise would be good. I've got some ideas about how to go about it.
Right now I listen to Yomiuri news and other podcasts, and every time I recognise a structure from JLPT2 grammar, I totally freak out with joy ^_^

Another important thing is reading practise. Comprehensive reading is a major part of the text, so.....that really should be a priority in preparing.

[ss]

Novel version for 十二国記
講談社文庫　　小野不由美作品
《月の影 影の海》(上)(下)
《風の海 迷宫の岸》 ISBN4-06-264833-4
《東の海神 西の滄海》 ISBN4-06-264834-2
《風の万里 黎明の空》(上)ISBN4-06-264998-5 (下)ISBN4-06-264999-3
《図南の翼》
《黄昏の岸 曉の天》
《華胥の幽夢》

Katafei!!! I misunderstood. Okay, 2nd book 《風の海 迷宫の岸》, from the list up there.
Sorry about that.

[katafei]

It's this Japanese habit of splitting books into two that complicates things!
I should have said 'second title'.

The way I understand it, there are 7 titles, and depending on which version you choose, the titles are or are not split up into 2.
I believe the teen versions are all split. At least, I hope so, otherwise I may have ordered the manga version.
Anyway, the covers look quite nice, so I'm really looking forward to the books.

Caroline mentioned the final JLPT3 chats taking place through skype....
This might be an alternative for people who have trouble with Pandion?

Now, I don't know anything about skype, I thought it was communicating through cameras or microphones?
(which I don't have, btw)

As for other kind of study chats (apart from this reading class), I think it's on hold for a bit until more people would like to join....



2009 here we come!

[Gundaetiapo]

I'm checking with http://www.nippon-export.com and www.yesasia.com to see if they bring Twelve Kingdoms in stock.

Skype offers chat with optional voice.

[katafei]

Great! You want to join as well?

We had probably better start thinking about ways how to shape these sessions...
I' ve been brainstorming a bit this afternoon during my daily walk through the woodlands with the dog. Always a good moment to think things over ^_^

This is only an idea, but:
how about each of us prepare some part of the text (2 pages, 1 page??), try to pick out JLPT2 grammar and JLPT2 kanji. Maybe adding questions like:
which of the following verbs does not belong to the list:

a.燃やす　もやす
b. 埋める　うずめる
c. 焦がす　こがす
d. 焼ける　やける

Or something like this, all relating to (words/grammar of)the text and to JLPT2....

Or maybe people have other ideas?

[ss]

Hi Gunda! Would you be joining us?

BTW, I wonder if many people are still having problem with Pandion?
Gunda has successfully logged in to Pandion after a several attempts! Oni is our savior!
In any case, Skype is one of the choices to hold a session. It sounds pretty interesting if we could learn 発音 via voice chat. But ... I have to get used to Gunda's American accent ... ^_^''

Basically, I agree with Katafei that we try our best to pick out related JLPT2 grammar points and kanji.
But for these whole series, I'm not familiar with many 語彙 or 用語 even though they are Chinese characters, or perhaps/maybe they are are just 古文？
Words like 蓬萊、天命、頓着、老婆、老爺、溜息 etc ...（花の咲いた園林には四阿ふうの小亭がいくつか設けられていた） I wonder what is 四阿?

Anyway, most important, we help each other with the kanji reading/pronunciation and to comprehend certain paragraphs. Each of us contributes a little idea, I think we can pull through this reading session.

[Gundaetiapo]

yesasia has them stocked now. Sea of Shadow だと決まりました？

[katafei]

はい、そうです。
@SS:
東屋; 四阿; あずま屋 【あずまや】 (n) arbor; arbour; bower; summer house; square gazebo

And shall we decide on 'skype' as well?

EDIT:
For listening practise, apart from 101 and yomiuri news, I use these sites a lot:
caspee
voiceblogs
volut

One of my favourites is:
Kotoba.
He's reading stories by Natsume Souseki and has a good voice. I' won't say I understand all of it, but it does get easier the more you listen.
Maybe we can use his stories in the same way we'll be doing these reading sessions?

[caroline]

Gunda, nice to have you back!
So, I guess it's set for "風の海 迷宫の岸"; at least that what I'm going to look for unless you post saying that I didn't get it at all!
For information, I seem to be logging all right on Pandion.
As for how to prepare for sessions, I think that - as Katafei seems to indicate - pointing out JLPT 2 grammar points and kanji/vocabulary in a set passage of the text, while exchanging our comprehension of it (which means english translation, I guess) should be profitable. I just hope it's not too much ridden with special vocabulary like Harry Potter would be...
But I'm not sure I'd care very much about hunting intruders from JLPT1, since one day or another, they'll come back to our attention... and it would take time.

[katafei]

But I'm not sure I'd care very much about hunting intruders from JLPT1, since one day or another, they'll come back to our attention... and it would take time.

Huh...?
Wakannai ^_^

I just hope it's not too much ridden with special vocabulary like Harry Potter would be...

I hope so too. Let's wait and see. Actually, a lot of the words in HP turned out to be in the JLPT2 list.
We could always in turn add a bit of another text for all of us to read.
The book I mentioned earlier, the one I'm reading, is actually full of JLPT2 grammar, as is Kotoba's blog. It's really fun to discover those structures. I'm sure it will be the same with the 12 Kingdoms!

[ss]

Katafei wrote:
And shall we decide on 'skype' as well?

If we decide to use "Skype", we probably need to PM the address to each other.

I wish to take this opportunity to ask Clay or Phreadom about the latest update on new TJP chat, as we might have read these threads:

The New TJP chat
(Possible to integrate with Rikaichan?)

Browser Based Chat

Thank you.

[caroline]

caroline wrote:
But I'm not sure I'd care very much about hunting intruders from JLPT1, since one day or another, they'll come back to our attention... and it would take time.

katafei wrote
Huh...?
Wakannai ^_^

That was an answer to :

katafei wrote :
which of the following verbs does not belong to the list:

a.燃やす　もやす
b. 埋める　うずめる
c. 焦がす　こがす
d. 焼ける　やける

Or something like this, all relating to (words/grammar of)the text and to JLPT2....

I guess I misunderstood what you meant, as there is indeed one kanji and related verb not on the JLPT2 list I have...

[Gundaetiapo]

Gunda, nice to have you back!
So, I guess it's set for "風の海 迷宫の岸"; at least that what I'm going to look for unless you post saying that I didn't get it at all!

I think we're going with 月の影　影の海, which is the first of the series.

If there's a rikai chan chat, I'd like to use that. Otherwise I am equally ok with Pandion and Skype.