Going Monolingual
By thomas on Dec 15, 2007 in Japanese
I mentioned a few days ago that I finished my first Japanese manga, Doraemon. Normally when I read something in Japanese, I input some sentences into my SRS. I didn’t do this with Doraemon. I was 500+ cards behind in my SRS and I wasn’t ready for more. Well, now my SRS is down to zero. Clean slate. Fresh start. Shouldn’t I do something to mark the occasion? Yes!
I’m going monolingual.
My language learning hero, Khatzumoto, recommends using a monolingual dictionary as soon as possible. Looking up Japanese words in a Japanese-English dictionary means you are still thinking in English. Why am I thinking in English when I’m studying Japanese? Optimally, I should be thinking in Japanese 100% of the time. Why not look up Japanese words in a Japanese-Japanese dictionary?
Well, I’ll tell you why not: it’s hard. It takes a lot of time, especially at the beginning. You look up a word and the definition has three words you don’t know. So you look up those words and the definitions of those words have more words you don’t know. So you look up those words… It continues like this and in the end you might spend ten minutes before you understand the meaning of the original word. Man, that sucks!
But I did it all in Japanese!
And it’s only going to get easier.
Goodbye Japanese-English dictionary. I’m going to reread Doraemon without you.
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Thomas,
I am not a language learning hero. But I don’t recommend you to use a Japanese-Japanese dictionary. In fact, I don’t recommend using a monolingual dictionary for language learner in any language.
Look up the word quickly from a dictionary in your language, and know that the translation is only a rough one. Then move on with your reading. This saves you a lot of time down the road.
Edwin | Dec 15, 2007 | Reply
Using a Japanese-only dictionary to read Doraemon … that would take half the fun out of reading Doraemon, I think.
That said, I applaud your efforts. It’s not easy to make a complete switch to another language. How do you think it will be before you can take the JLP1 test?
ジェイソン (Jason) | Jan 20, 2008 | Reply
@Edwin: The monolingual dictionary work is going pretty well actually. If I look up an entry and it is extremely complicated, I will fall back on the Japanese-English dictionary (this happened with the word 結核, which had a huge defination, but ended up just meaning “tuberculosis”), but for the majority of the terms, I can catch on to the meaning pretty well. For the record, I am using an electronic dictionary, so lookups are fast, and Japanese has the perk of using kanji, so if there are words I don’t know in the definition, often I can guess the meaning based on which characters are used. I will be writing an update soon about my current methods of studying, and you might be relieved to see that I have phased a bit of Japanese-English dictionary back into the mix. But I have been getting a lot of benefit from using the Japanese-Japanese dictionary.
@Jason: I’ve already read the Doraemon once through with a Japanese-English dictionary. So the monolingual dictionary was going to be used for the second time. But my project has changed a bit since I received a cool Christmas present from my wife. I’m going to post about it soon.
As far as the JLPT goes, right now it’s not a major goal of mine. Sometime this summer I’m going to take a look at some JLPT 2 study materials in order to decide if I want to pursue it this year or not. JLPT1 won’t come until after I pass 2. Right now my study efforts are focused more on practical literacy and listening skills. A JLPT 2 or 1 goukaku is a great accomplishment, but there’s a difference between studying for a proficiency test and studying for real proficiency.
Have you taken the JLPT? Are you going to take it next December? If so, what level are you aiming for?
thomas | Jan 20, 2008 | Reply
As far as I’m concerned, using monolingual dictionary is a great boost in language studies, so you’ve got someone supporting you in it wholeheartedly:)
I started using this method for English studies back in 2000, when still an intermediate student. It was a pain first, but I got used to it in a couple of months, and progressed much faster than my peers.
Oh, and Jason: making a complete switch to another language might be and is difficult, but it’s usefulness has been proved by thousands of learners already. And what mostly shouldn’t be done is looking up every single word one doesn’t know while reading a book: you just have to understand in general what it says. At least, that’s how the method is explained…
Thomas, good luck!
Lao | Jun 7, 2008 | Reply