42-53 SilverSpoons – Immersion
Ah it’s been quite a while since my last post on SilverSpoon. Nearly 2 weeks! but do excuse me for the lack of posts on SilverSpoon, as I’ve made it up with some other Japanese content. I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about this but nothing “new” or “exciting” has changed as of yet. But I can tell you, we are now in stage 2 out of 6 spoonfuls to our fluency in Japanese! You are probably wondering what I’m talking about. I’ll try my best explaining it, without giving out too much.
When we signed up for SilverSpoon (I mentioned this earlier in my past posts), we had an overview of what we are going to expect for the 595 days. This was broken down into 6 big spoonfuls, it listed what we are to expect during each big spoonful. This spoonful gets broken down even to smaller pieces for each day, which make it easier for everyone.
For example,
Day 1- 50 – We do Kanji, shadowing, checking out jp websites, etc.
Day 50-100 – We do sentences, review Kanji, Hiragana , etc
I hope this helps in your understanding in what I’m trying to convey
Due to the lack of comment on the actual SilverSpoon, I’ll make this up by doing another comment on how I find SilverSpoon so far and has it really helped me.
I’ve been immersed in Japanese for at least 20 hrs everyday for 53 + days. I can stay immersed in Japanese as much as possible due to the fact that I’m on school holidays. Once holidays are over, I’ll do an update on how long I can be immersed each day. You’re probably wondering 20 hrs? That’s quite long. The truth is, 8-10 hrs of that is sleeping whilst listening to Japanese podcasts ^^” And the other 6-8 hours each day is watching anime, drama, playing games, reading manga, etc^^” And reviews are done throughout the day.
What I’ve found with immersing myself lately is that I’ve been able to pick phrases such as “大した事無い” (たいしたことない, taishitakotonai) , 口に合う (くちにあう, kuchi ni au) Although I never knew the meaning of the phrases at the start, after hearing it numerous times, I somehow “understood the meaning” Although I can’t put it into words, I just could understand it! Believe me or not but it’s just that “gut feeling” you have. How I came to slowly understand these two phrases were due to the fact that I was exposed to it quite a number of times, I wouldn’t say a lot but enough. The images helped me in my understanding too and reading manga, especially with the phrase 口に合う (which can be interpreted as to suit ones taste and the literal would be to suit one’s mouth). Especially with this phrase, in anime, they normally have a scene where a girl cooks for a guy and she normally asks this phrase. Although probably not exactly 口に合う but something similar along the lines of 口に。。。. And normally the other character reacts (usually in a bad way^^”) and you can take a guess to what the girl was asking.
(I’m sure most of you know this scene, especially during one of the episodes of K-ON)
I believe I’ve only been able to pick up phrases such as 大した事ない and 口に合う is due to the fact I stopped watching any subbed jp content. Yes, English translations are helpful and feel free to use it but I find I spend too much time reading them instead of “focusing on the scene”If you can find jp subs for anime, that would be even better and a “plus” Other phrases most of you probably hear often and know are , おかえり (okaeri)、おめでとう (omedetou)、頑張って！（がんばって, ganbatte）、お元気で（おげんきで, ogenkide）、ありがとう (arigatou)、馬鹿（ばか, baka）、アホ (aho)、行ってきます! (ittekimasu)、いらっしゃいませ！(irasshaimase)、ただいま (tadaima)！and one which most people like, お帰りなさいご主人様〜(おかえりにさいごしゅじんさま, okaerinasai goshujin sama）- Welcome back, Master (Usually hear this in maid cafes or someone who employs maids) And what’s great with these phrases, you can usually deduce the meaning as it’s normally use at “specific scenes”
Source: Japanese Element Symbols ( I was searching for an image to help portray what I was trying to say and this image does a perfect job! Do check out the site, since from a glance of it, it looks good)
For example, 行ってきます！(ittekimasu) Normally the person (father, daughter, child) opens the door and says 行ってきます！before they leave the house to school, work , going out with friends , etc and you can probably deduce that as “I’m off! I’m going, etc” And the mum always goes 行ってらっしゃい！ Which you can probably take it as have a safe trip, good bye, etc.
Well that’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed it and sorry for the lack of talk on SilverSpoon.
And as usual, If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
P.S There’s probably typos in this post somewhere^^” so please feel free to tell me also.
Thanks for the post. I’m always curious about what’s going on with you guys. You’ll find that the longer you immerse, and the more you learn of the language, the more you’ll have those experiences of learning words and expressions without ever trying. It’s probably one of the coolest parts of learning another language.
No problem at all and thank you for always taking a read.
Haha indeed, it’s only since I’ve stopped watching subs that I’m really able to just enjoy it like any Japanese person and also, immersing more. Yeh, it does feel quite cool, as you just learn it naturally.
I think the most important factor that people don’t think about is, “immersion with Japanese as much as possible” (I was one of them)
Good to hear that you made such good progress after these few weeks
hahah thanks a lot!
Thanks for the post! I have a question which is a bit unrelated though: on the regular Ajatt blog, I saw the last article: “Protected: AJATT SilverSpoon Sign Up
”. A password is needed to read the article, but when I use my Silverspoon password there, it doesn’t seem to work. What about you?
About Silverspoon itself, I’m at day 46 and I miss the different activies which were proposed at the beginning, since after day 36 every new day tends to have more or less exactly the same content as the day before (namely kanji and shadowing activities). I hope the next days will be a bit different.
Thanks!
Hmm sign in and click “home” It should display all the articles;) Are you referring to a specific article? I think on certain days, you can only see certain articles? (not so sure)
Ah I see. Very true, although repetitive, its very little things to do. I’m sorry to say but it will be the same for a while^^” (I’m on day 54) If you find it a bit “boring” take a longer break, do something you enjoy in Japanese and when you’re ready again, go back to SilverSpoon. As he said, you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. Take a look at the overview to see what you can expect
EDIT: It seems like it might just be a password for those to sign up for SilverSpoon (not so sure)
You can’t access it neither?
Yup, since I think it’s only for those given a pw by Khatz to access it to sign up.
Interesting read. I’m on day 17 and i’m not picking anything up. I can’t stay immersed anywhere near as long as you as I have to work and look after my daughter in the evening. I get some time in the day and night so i’d say im immersed about 3-5 hours a day. Nighttime is disrupted by my daughter waking so i need all the sleep i can get, therefore I cannot use the night time learning aids. If I listen to 3-5 hours of japanese a day for 565 days then i’ll hit 3k which isnt even nearly enough.
But at least it will be better than nothing.
I did hear the phrase 恥ずかしいセリフ禁止 today rather a lot because i kept replaying the video with it in. Just made me laugh and I guess this is what it’s all about.
haha thanks~ Hmm, it takes time to pick these things up, so don’t worry! You know, you’re doing a good job already, 3 -5 hours is better than “none” As long as you can stay in contact with Japanese as long as you can, you’re doing fine! Which you seem to be doing. Why not leave your earphones in one of your ears. (unless that would disrupt your sleep^^”)
Haha I think you need to stop worrying about the total amount of hrs. Just remember, as long as you have contact with Japanese, it’s all good. Even if it’s one minute, it’s better than none. From your comment, you are trying to be in contact with Japanese as much as you can and you’re doing a great job. Especially since you got work + looking after your daughter. SilverSpoon is suited for busy people;)! So you should stop worrying about not getting enough Japanese and just enjoy it.
ahaha glad to hear you picked that up;)! and good luck!
Im amazed at how to can stick to the schedual of keeping up with SilverSpoon, i would find it hard to keep track and most likely fall behhind. This is serious kanji lessons your taking, overload of it more likely but does it really help you?
its gret your taking those steps of change, no more subs huh, and always listening japanese. haha maybe i should start, but im i need to go over my hiragana, im quite rusty still , mada mada ne.
Ah I use to do 100 kanji a day and I’d consider that more heavy;) I’ve already gone through the RTK 1, so this is just helping me better remember them. Ah, it’s more of suggestions of what you can do, you can change it to suit your schedule/needs
Haha yes, although no subs, it feels great to actually just appreciate it as it is. Ah you should, best of luck with you!
20 hours… geez. I’d just made up my mind to give that a shot tomorrow – try to take in as much Japanese as possible, I mean. Honestly wondering if my brain can handle that much, lol.
But yeah, it sounds like you’re doing very well. I think I’m at day 50 at the moment, and I hate to say it, but I’m considering canceling my subscription so I can use more of my (extremely meager) funds to buy Japanese stuffs. My only problem with silverspoon is that I already have the drive to do all of this by myself; I don’t feel the need to look up a what-to-do list anymore – at least, not with the current to-do list. Still, I’ll keep it going for a bit and see if it gets more helpful in the near future. (I’m almost done with RTK1, btw)
That said, I think silverspoon is great for people who are just starting, but for those of us who are a good ways into it, it seems mostly useful for fixing poor immersion habits and acquiring useful equipment / media. That’s just looking at it from my personal experience though
ahha good luck. It’s nothing really^^” After a while it may feel that you can’t take it anymore but you will slowly and gradually get use to it.
Haha it’s really up to you. If you feel that xx amount is better spent on japanese content, then by all means. For me, the problem was with mono dics and I didn’t know how to tackle that. Good luck with finishing RTK;)
Haha definitely, it’s especially good for those who know nothing. Yes it does help us fix our immersion habits, techniques, media, etc.
Any updates? I am really curious how the silverspoon experience is going. Thinking about signing up myself.
I am a bit confused. How much does the course cost? I’ve read from your post its 1 dollar a day or more depending which course you choose but how do you pay? per month? per week? Or do you pay all at once ($595)?
So, do the lack of updates on SilverSpoon mean you are no longer following the program? It’s been almost a year since you last wrote. I’m considering SS, but the price has grown steep. It would be great to know how it’s worked out for you, both the positives and negatives.
I have a question man. You said you were studying for 8+ months, studied RKT1 and already had 3000+ sentences under your belt. Why did you feel the need to use AJATT SS (nothing against it, just wanna know why didnt you just go on with what you were doing)