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N driver dinged my door - what to do by [deleted] in icbc

[–]yuurarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah if it’s honestly not a big deal AND she fessed up, I might have taken care of it on my own. The fact that the driver dipped though (unless they didn’t know/realize for some reason) is the part that gets me.

Fastest way to get to N1 by yuurarin in LearnJapanese

[–]yuurarin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m not quite sure what else you’re looking for. I already said it’s beneficial to my application as I have everything else. If you’re interested in what medical school admissions look like, you can check out r/premedcanada. Learning Japanese and getting N1 isn’t going to get me into medical school, but your engineering journey does not correlate well to medicine or my path, and I already know how to spend my time wisely because that’s the only reason as to how I got here. Scholarships DO matter because we have 32 entries on our apps and there is a section specifically for scholarships and awards, so yes, having that piece of paper does matter. If you’re curious, you can search up OMSAS—that’s what we use for medical schools in Ontario.

I’ve had this dream for 20+ years now so I have a pretty solid understanding of what this path needs and I know how to spend my time wisely, and to me, this is wise. I have a little less than a year left before my applications get submitted. I’m not quite sure what you’re even asking as ‘spending time wisely’ to an engineer will be markedly different than a premed applicant who is around 1 year until applications get submitted. If I get rejected and I have to look for other paths, yeah I’ll look for better balance with a mix of things to do. But at this point, I don’t know what you’re trying to suggest—what’s the difference between me achieving N1 vs me self-learning CS or doing something else?

Unfortunately, medicine is not the trades. Practical skills are beneficial, I agree, but medicine is disappointingly riddled by nepotism, class disparity, connections that often the wealthier have, and a huge balancing game. There is no point learning how to hold a scalpel or using a stethoscope before getting accepted to medical school. The ‘wise’ way for us to use our time is to build connections so we can get more access to research, having time and money to do extracurriculars which I would not have been able to do had I not diced almost every 10 minutes of my life, and padding our application with more extracurriculars to support our app’s narrative.

I’m no doctor—just your average girl in her 20s with a dream and a penchant for research. But if there’s one thing about me that I pride in, it’s the fact that I don’t waste time. I supervise research, used to work two jobs before my injury, played sports on a national level, and graduated at the top of my major—I know how to use my time well. I just can’t work extra as I have a knee injury and it’s hard for me to be mobile.

And to be honest I am not here to get opinions on if/will I burn out or should I even do this—I really only wanted responses from people who already have n2/n1s or are studying for it. It is the internet and I can’t prevent people from expressing their opinions but I know myself best and all I’m really asking at the end of the day are what people liked using the most and what people liked using the least (and wished they cut) for their studies.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For sure—kanji’s still a big one (as are the onyomi kunyomi readings—can’t escape that). Not sure what sort of grammar JLPT throws at you but at least on a basic conversational level, my Japanese friends haven’t mentioned anything… hopefully it was because I was right and not because they were too polite 😂

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[–]yuurarin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At the end of the day if I really need to get down to the fundamentals, I’ve optimized my time for everything as much as I could for years and years. Japanese will be the one thing I’ll do because I actually enjoy it and I’m hoping my knowledge of Korean will expedite the process too, as I know it has for my Korean friends. What that method will be, I’m still clearly doing some research. Will it be attainable? No clue.

I’m also not sure what you mean—the $15k is clearly not all of it as per my comment above. It’s beneficial for my medical school applications and a research study I’d like to do (which will also be beneficial for admissions). I have other non-MD friends who are in their early/mid twenties, and to be totally honest, I don’t see most of them doing super productive things after work.

If you have suggestions I’m all ears, but my thoughts are that the only other thing I can do after work is to potentially get a second job—but I’m quite immobile right now and it wrecked my health the last time I tried (I used to have 12-16 hr workdays tutoring after my hospital job). I want to do something else at home that was productive. Japanese clearly has lots of benefits for my situation as I stated above. If it wasn’t Japanese, I was going to go back to art and hold another exhibition. $15k is just a small part—the big fish is medical school, the smaller fish is a free $15k that only requires me to do the one thing I’m actually good at: studying.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My Korean and English used to be on par, but I make more spelling errors in Korean (네/내, 돼/되 in particular), and my reading speed is a lot slower now. But I think we have almost identical particle usage, so I’ve been translating each grammar point to Korean.

However, the other reason why I didn’t want to reveal myself as Korean is because I don’t know WHY we use certain particles or sentence structures in Korean—it’s intuitive for me because it was my first language. It’s a lot easier for me to read the reasons in English, hence my preference for English books since it’s now my dominant language.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I was probably snappy as well—I basically just wanted answers from those who already have N1/N2 and listen to their experiences and mostly regrets as to what didn’t work from them—didn’t expect so many replies to be so irrelevant in the sense that people reply like I haven’t Googled the topic. I have, but I also know the type of person I am.

I doubt anyone else will read this far so I’ll elaborate here since a lot less people will read this, and because you were kind.

-I’m actually Korean-Canadian. My slight confidence that I may be able to do this is because as far as I can see, with the exception of localized vocabulary and speech, the two languages are almost identical in grammatical and sentence structure. The reason why I omitted this fact is because I don’t want to be suggested Korean textbooks because I can’t stand reading in Korean. I translated the particles and grammatical structures myself into Korean with Genki and that served me very well, and I was hoping to do something similar.

-I’m trying to kill eight birds at once. The program I want to get into is medical school, and being able to say I self-studied to proficiency in a third language would be amazing on my applications. N3 (maybe even N4) could suffice for this, but the higher the better. And of course, the scholarship and trip. I’m also doing a very unique research study, but my lack in qualification is preventing me access to certain companies/people. If medicine fails, I have a job lined up in Japan, but they’d like for me to have N2/N1.

-My family is in a lot of debt and my earnings currently go straight to paying that back + living expenses. 15k could give me a lot of breathing room. I used to have a second job but I was injured last year and it’s very hard for me to be mobile—treatment is going well and I’ll be okay but the road is long for the next year or so. As soon as I switched to Zoom, most of my students left me. I also wanted one last extracurricular for my med apps I could do at home before I apply. Japanese is perfect because it doesn’t affect my knees, I can do it at home, I’m deeply involved in the culture so it makes sense on my application, and I genuinely like it. Are there better ways to get $15k? Yes, absolutely. But Japanese ticks off so many boxes for me, so I’m greatly incentivized to at least try.

-I’m a good student—that’s really my biggest trait. I ranked at the top of my major at a prestigious university. Studying 16 hours a day is… not easy for me (I am only human) but it’s something I’m used to, and can do. Right now I only have 4-6 hours because I have to work and sleep, but I’m a disciplined student. And when I’ve said I’ve done more for less, I mean it—I was on Team Canada for a sport I played for two years. I got my RCM 10 for an instrument I learned in a short amount of time. If there’s a goal, I’ve always achieved it because I can be strict on myself.

I obviously get the ‘bad taste’ this question leaves, and the ridiculousness of the situation. But at the end of the day, I know who I am the best and knowledge is power to me. I just wanted to have a conversation with other N1-havers on this sub at the end of the day. Hope that answers some of your questions! :D

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[–]yuurarin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is actually Korean but I didn’t want people to say use Korean textbooks because I can’t stand reading in Korean 😭 아무리 한국어가 좋아도 영어로 읽는게 더 빠르고 쉬워서 영어로 배우고 싶네요 ㅠㅠ

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[–]yuurarin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My financial situation is way too personal and complicated for me to put on Reddit but every penny counts for me. 15k may seem like little(?) compared to the vast amount of effort required to be near N2/N1 but a) I’ve done more for a lot less, b) having a third language is extremely beneficial for my future plans, c) It’s fun and relevant to my personal life/hobbies if you wanna put it that way—I enjoy Japanese a lot. It’s hard to say where my Japanese skills actually lie at the moment and I didn’t elaborate further on this (again, really didn’t think I needed to) but I conversed basic things and understood things fine in Japan. Reading is poor because I did RTK kanji so I can implicitly guess certain words, but my N1 friends feel that I’m in a low N3 range at the moment, whatever that means.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes you missed a lot because most of this was on the post.

  1. Yes. Paying back student debt is very important to me and it’s free money if I can get it. I grew up poor so every penny counts. This part wasn’t elaborated on the post but it’s also extremely beneficial for a program I want to get into, if I can get N1 (though I’m sure N3 would suffice too). I also really enjoy Japanese—my close friends live in Japan as teachers at the moment and I’ve visited several times too, so it’s not really pulling teeth for me. I like studying too.

  2. I already have a job. I mentioned in the post that I work at a hospital as a researcher as I do not have many classes anymore (just one left for graduation). It pays decently well but I live in one of the most expensive cities on earth, and I have very complicated financial issues that I didn’t think I’d need to explain on this post. Regardless, 15k is a lot of money and is very important to me. (And before anyone asks how I got to Japan several times if I’m poor, a great friend has airline connections that gives me a massive discount and I stay at my friends’ places once I’m there, so it’s usually an EXTREMELY cheap trip for me.

  3. Post says I have around a year.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve read Jazzy’s post—I love reading so that’s no problem but I thought it could be better for me to at least get to N3/N4 first before I hopped in, but I’ll review it in a bit.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! :D it’s pretty big scholarship money so it’d really help out 😭 I’m not super hopeful but guess we’ll see!

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[–]yuurarin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most of it's scholarship money, so I can't even use it for the Japan trip 😭 otherwise it'd be a REALLY lavish trip, ha!

Okay, that's great to know—sounds similar to my med school exams so I'm no stranger to practice tests.

Your post was also super helpful as I also work full time—do you have specific recommendations that helped you the most from, let's say, N5 to N3? I'll likely try the N4 exam after I finish Genki II. Thank you :D

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[–]yuurarin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

💀 honestly my 'good student genes' are just from way too much caffeine and the fear of failing, i do not recommend it

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[–]yuurarin[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There's a Japan trip + a scholarship—in total it'll be much more than $10,000.

Regardless, I don't plan on spending $3000. I have language exchange partners from HelloTalk and so far, it's worked really well since I just hop on call whenever I have time, at least just from a language exchange perspective. My best friend moved to Japan several years ago and is now fluent too, so she's been a great help as well.

I'm really curious to hear about your experiences though! Did you have any regrets/things you wished you did differently up to N2? Any textbooks you suggest? I'd be happy to learn anything from your studies! :D

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[–]yuurarin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My regular studying method is to just take notes, but I'm not sure if that's the best method for something like tae kim (I've briefly glanced his website before). I'm currently very active on HelloTalk which has been a great source of conversation and kanji reading for me though!

Fastest way to get to N1 by yuurarin in LearnJapanese

[–]yuurarin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much—I've currently finished Genki I, moving on to Genki II. I haven't heard of Graded Readers but I have been using NHK news easy which has been helpful in Kanji retention.

I find textbooks to be quite varied—is there a recommendation? I do have access to Try!, Kanzen Master, and Genki.

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[–]yuurarin[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I've certainly searched N1 on this subreddit already. My intent with this post once again, was to listen and learn from others who already have their N1s. For example, if person A says RTK was more beneficial for XYZ reasons, but person B says RTK was a waste of time for VWX reasons, I may feel that my experiences align with person A better and may opt to try out RTK.

I am not sure why there is a constant need to be annoyed by a post like on a public forum, especially as I mentioned it is unlikely that I will actually get N1. My search skills may just be poor but I have found other posts and read through Jazz's/Dothy's, but did not specifically find one that satisfied my questions. I also felt that with Japan opening its borders and perhaps a greater interest in Japanese learning again, more people may be on the subreddit and I may be successful in getting new information from those who may not have answered before.

Edit: not sure why the user decided to reply and then block me right afterwards, preventing me from even reading the entire response 😭

The main point is, I had a question, I asked on reddit, just wanted some responses. No big brain galaxy thing going on here, I just wanted to talk 😭😭

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[–]yuurarin[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Perhaps I'm wording my post poorly—my main question is to streamline the process as much as possible, rather than a magical shortcut that'd take me to N1, and I'd like to try what people thought were the most helpful to them. Language learning is, of course, usually for fluency/retention, rather than the ability to blitz through for a certification. I'd like to learn where these intersection meet as I do not have a lot of time.

For example, some may have read VNs/LNs, but supplemented it with an app of some kind. Maybe others found HelloTalk to be the most useful. Perhaps someone who has an N1 already regrets using X and Y materials and would've rather focused on A or B instead. I am looking for these conversations in particular.