Recommended Study Habits:

The general rule for successful study in college is “to spend two hours preparing outside of class for every hour that you spend in class.”

Most students who master the material are students who review kanji everyday, without fail. I would estimate that one hour everyday is the bare minimum amount of time that you could spend reviewing kanji and still survive. You will also need some time to review grammar patterns.
In addition to kanji review, you will also need to devote at least one hour everyday to reading ahead in our textbook so that you will be prepared to read aloud or discuss any sentence in class.

It has been my experience that students who run into difficulties in Japanese 300 are students who believe that they can “get away with a decent grade” because they already “know how to speak Japanese”. Since these students know that they are already destined to get a good grade, they feel little motivation to study. Indeed, these students begin to see the process of constant review as a waste of time. These students quite naturally begin to ignore their Japanese studies in favor of more pressing priorities.

These students remind me of a piano student who has been told time and again that she needs to practice everyday for at least an hour. But on Monday, her Friday afternoon piano lesson (think: “kanji quiz”) seems so far away. So, on Monday she skips practice with a promise to herself that “I’ll work twice as hard tomorrow.” But on Tuesday, she discovers that even though she skipped her Monday practice, she has not been struck by lightning. She again puts off practice saying “OK, I’m really going at it tomorrow. I mean it! Now, would you stop bugging me?” Wednesday comes and goes with hardly a reproach from her conscience. Indeed, even though she has skipped three straight days of practice, the world continues to revolve and it seems that there has been no price to pay for ignoring her studies. However, on Thursday, she recalls “Oh my heck! (Typical Utah teenage parlance) I’ve got a freaking piano lesson TOMORROW.” With newfound resolve she sits herself on that piano bench and has a marathon three-and-a-half hour practice session. However, at her lesson on Friday, she discovers that those long three-and-a-half hours she spent the previous day do not seem to bring even half the proficiency she used to gain when she had practiced one hour everyday.

Students who really master the material are those students who have the discipline to review, practice and study everyday. These students realize that learning a language is like playing baseball. The baseball team that consistently wins is the team whose players hit singles inning after inning. Baseball teams that count on achieving success through a grand slam homerun (think: “cramming just before a test”) rarely, if ever, win games.
You will do so much better by chipping away at kanji day by day rather than studying in marathon cram sessions once in a while.

Please be aware that this course moves at a fast pace. Students who fall behind usually experience difficulties in catching up. Since the class will not stop and wait for you to catch up, students who fall behind usually end up spending all their time on old material while ignoring the material we are covering right now. Ironically, they end up falling even further behind. This results in feelings of frustration and discouragement. Therefore, do everything you can to stay ahead of schedule.

Keep ahead of schedule by:

1. Learning next week’s kanji during this week.
2. Reviewing this week’s kanji this week.
3. Timing your kanji studies so that you already know all the characters before even attempting to do your homework. Treat homework assignments as a “take-home quiz” for testing yourself to see whether you really do know the characters.
4. Never cram to learn kanji right before a quiz; always be reviewing kanji that you have already learned before a quiz.
5. In your personal study time, read ahead in your textbook to a point at least a half-page ahead of the material you think the class will cover.
6. Go to class to check up on your comprehension of what you have already read and translated yourself. Never go to class to read a passage for the first time.

Another problem I have observed with some students is that a student will get the idea that kanji are the most important thing in this class. Now, it is possible to learn kanji for kanji’s sake. But I would prefer that my students learned kanji as a means to an end. You should have two ends in mind as you learn kanji. First, kanji are a terrific means to expand your vocabulary. Second, kanji are a wonderful means to improve comprehension in your reading.
The problem I see with students who believe that kanji are the most important thing is that these students spend ALL their Japanese study time on just kanji. One of these students may study Japanese two hours a day, but that entire time is spent exclusively on kanji alone. I have to admit that these students do well on homework and 20-point kanji quizzes, but they usually do rather poorly on comprehensive kanji quizzes and do even worse on midterm exams. This sad result is due to the fact that homework and 20-point kanji quizzes are testing you on your kanji studies, while comprehensive kanji quizzes and midterm exams are more concerned with testing you on your reading abilities.
I hereby wish to issue a warning: if you ignore reading practice to spend more time on kanji study, there is a heavy price to pay. To appreciate this warning, please reference below the “Grading Procedures” section of this syllabus. You will find that homework and kanji quizzes will be worth a total 40% of your grade while exams will be worth 50% of your grade. Granted, kanji are important (like 40%-of-your-grade important!) but reading ability is more heavily weighted at 50% of your grade.
In order for you to improve your reading abilities you have to practice reading. Every hour that you spend in learning kanji should be met with an hour practicing reading. You should check your comprehension by trying to put the Japanese into English. If you truly understand the Japanese, then you will be able to translate the passage into English.
Never feel like you are finished with a story after you have successfully read it once. Before the next midterm exam, go back and at read it again. Try to observe if your reading speed is improving. Notice whether the story seems any easier to understand the second or third time through.
One study technique to gain the motivation to read is to form small study groups to go over the reading assignments in the text. Some students will study harder and practice reading more before group study sessions. These students will gain motivation to study by wishing to avoid embarrassment caused by an exhibition of ignorance. I suggest that you get the phone numbers of at least two classmates that you can contact if you have questions or need help studying.