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General Japanese Learning Discussion


Optic

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So I'm currently taking a weekly Saturday beginners Japanese course at a learning institution. 10x 2 hour lessons for $200 which is pretty good value, and we get a fluent Japanese teacher to practice with. Small class of 10 too. ^_^

 

Anyone else considering learning Japanese? Or perhaps you studied it in school? If so what is your level of proficiency?

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I've learned some Japanese through watching anime, does that count? xD I did consider learning Japanese, but I really didn't get that far in it. Maybe I'll try to pick it up again sometime soon. Level of proficiency for me would be complete novice :P. I envy you for getting such a good deal, and as far as I know, they don't teach Japanese anywhere around here :'(.

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I really love to learn Japanese over Spanish tbh but my school doesn't even offer it. :'(

 

Plus I kinda learned few Japanese words from watching the animes. So my Japanese proficiently is beginner.

 

Again, this is where I'm jealous of you @Optic. :P

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I've learned some Japanese through watching anime, does that count? xD

Absolutely! ^_^ I reckon Clannad and slice of life anime in general are good for picking up Japanese as the seiyuu have more useful phrases you're likely to use in Japan, as opposed to say a mecha anime title. xD

 

I really love to learn Japanese over Spanish tbh but my school doesn't even offer it. :'(

I know the feeling Pokii-san. When I was in school I had the option to choose Indonesian or German. I chose German which was OK, but I haven't really had the opportunity to speak it since then.

 

@drill, @Pokii - I'm thinking of a crazy project that might be fun. At the end of each basic Japanese topic I learn there are a list of revision vocabulary words and phrases... I was thinking of making some anime screenshot flash cards of them. What do you think? xD much more likely to remember pictures than romaji alone.

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  • 2 months later...

I have taught myself a bit of Japanese and learned a lot through anime and I am hopping to start a Japanese language course in the next few months ii can hold an introductory conversation and know a few useful phrases but other than that I'm completely useless , tho I do tend to pick up a whole lot of errors it subs in anime I watch which irritates me to the point where I have to stop watching some times or put the subtitles off and watch raw I understand most of it just a few of the less common words confuse me so I end up putting the subs back on.

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When I was in middle and high school, Japanese wasn't a language option. I hear that it is now, though, as there are more people interested in it. When I was in my second year of high school, there was a Japanese course, but by then, I was already in my third year of Spanish, and I only knew one person who actually signed up for the class. A friend of mine who was a year under me. They stopped teaching it due to the lack of interest.

 

The college near me didn't teach Japanese either...but it had Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Latin, etc. Geez.

 

I went to a place that gave Japanese lessons about 10 years ago. When I tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)...I tried for level 3 (back then there were still only 4 levels)...but sucked big time on listening. I haven't tried the test again since.

 

Since coming to Japan though...my Japanese is still at a beginner level due to my being surrounded by so much darn English and not having anyone I can just sit down on a regular basis and speak Japanese with and with my job (which does offer free Japanese lessons), I still couldn't study it much since my schedule may change at the whim of a hat. Here's hoping that at the next place I work (hopefully still here in Japan) I'll have normal hours and can study diligently again. It's kind of embarrassing that my Japanese is so sucky.

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  • 1 month later...

Started my Japanese lessons last week and it was great it's R200 (equivalent of around 20$) for two hour lessons and I currently have a class of 3 including myself (usually the classes are kept to four but one class got split in two so i could finally get a spot :) ).

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Just providing an update - I finished the beginners course end of last year and it made me crave for more. I'm going to try some self-study methods and try to nail the basic kana as I really want to try and read some of the script.

 

And many of the textbooks out there have exercises in kana instead of romaji so definitely worthwhile in my opinion.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Jupiter

I've looked into it a long time ago and learned a few words, nothing accurate. Seeing as I can't speak the language...won't be visiting the country or have any desire to watch Japanese dub anime. I suppose there is no use for me to learn it. I honestly don't watch enough anime or Japanese movies to find the language to my use. Sadly speaking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It'd be cool if schools all over the world considered making Japanese classes, I'd love that.

 

I know some words and sentences, some learned from the Internet, some from watching anime. I have no idea writing though.

 

On a side note, I'd be awesome if this forum had like a special category for Japanese language, and the members here that know Japanese the most, can be like teachers or something. Practicing on this forum would be interesting. @Optic

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It'd be cool if schools all over the world considered making Japanese classes, I'd love that.

Because of the rising Chinese population here the schools are going to put in Mandarin/Cantonese as a second language subject (sounds like school could be fun here in the future) .

 

On a side note, I'd be awesome if this forum had like a special category for Japanese language, and the members here that know Japanese the most, can be like teachers or something. Practicing on this forum would be interesting. Optic

Sounds like an interesting Idea , but it might be hard to do .

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Because of the rising Chinese population here the schools are going to put in Mandarin/Cantonese as a second language subject (sounds like school could be fun here in the future) .

That sounds interesting but it just isn't the same. Japanese is way better in my opinion.

 

Sounds like an interesting Idea , but it might be hard to do .

Thanks. I don't think it'll be hard tho.

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This site is quite nice and easy to use for beginners , and the videos help a lot because you can turn on kanji , Hira/Kana , romanji and English subs while you watch , plus you will probably get a few good laughs out of the videos :P

 

http://i.imgur.com/is0EFwG.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

How are your studies going @Yuuki_Radosian ?

 

After a good month of studying I have almost learned all the Hiragana - yes I'm slow :P

 

The Dakuten (those double quotes and circle blobs) still trip me up a bit though and I feel like I'm reading Hiragana slowly like a child in Kindergarten... BUT it's good fun. Already I can recognise basis Japanese words in kana. (o^.^o)

 

Just need to finish off with combination hiragana and then can finally move onto Katakana.

 

I've had great success in trying to think of a picture for each kana so far. Then just keep revising them once a day, even if it's just for a little bit.

 

I treat each kana like this: :o

 

maintenance-anime-forums.jpg.8fab964b13059937761290585fe7fee8.jpg

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How are your studies going Yuuki_Radosian ?

My studies are going quite well , I keep having trouble when I have to write out Kanji ( but that has more to do with my handwriting being terrible than it does with anything else)

 

The Dakuten (those double quotes and circle blobs) still trip me up a bit though and I feel like I'm reading Hiragana slowly like a child in Kindergarten... BUT it's good fun. Already I can recognise basis Japanese words in kana. (o^.^o)

You get used to them quite fast , using か and が as an example , the way you move your mouth and tongue is almost the same so using the Dakuten makes sense if you think of it that way.

 

Just need to finish off with combination hiragana and then can finally move onto Katakana.

Also useful to think of as just adding the sounds like きょ sounds the same as き and よ together (sort of ).

 

My methods may not be 100% , but they made it a whole lot easier for me so they might help.

 

I've had great success in trying to think of a picture for each kana so far. Then just keep revising them once a day, even if it's just for a little bit.

Kana isn't that bad it's just double association that can cause confusion and then there's ソ and ン the death of me due to my handwriting , but context helps compensate for my atrocious handwriting.

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I'm not even attempting to learn Japanese, but I can recognise so many Hiragana and Katakana characters already, along with a few random Kanji. I must just be that much of a total weeb. Sometimes when I'm watching anime, I'll look away for a moment to grab a drink or something, and I'll still pretty much know what they say, so long as the sentence is simple. It's a weird feeling, but maybe it means I would have an easy time properly learning if I ever decide I want to.

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I'm not even attempting to learn Japanese, but I can recognise so many Hiragana and Katakana characters already, along with a few random Kanji. I must just be that much of a total weeb. Sometimes when I'm watching anime, I'll look away for a moment to grab a drink or something, and I'll still pretty much know what they say, so long as the sentence is simple. It's a weird feeling, but maybe it means I would have an easy time properly learning if I ever decide I want to.

Haha nah that's not weeb-ness you've probably gotten used to the language , the longer you've been watching the more you learn subconsciously and you start understanding without needing to translate (like when you see a cat you immediately think neko and not cat because you're used to it and eventually that changes to thinking completely in Japanese without translating to yourself) . I was the same before I started trying to teach myself , I gave up on that . . .and a few years later I found an actual teacher and it's both fun and well worth it.

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Haha nah that's not weeb-ness you've probably gotten used to the language , the longer you've been watching the more you learn subconsciously and you start understanding without needing to translate (like when you see a cat you immediately think neko and not cat because you're used to it and eventually that changes to thinking completely in Japanese without translating to yourself) . I was the same before I started trying to teach myself , I gave up on that . . .and a few years later I found an actual teacher and it's both fun and well worth it.
I was about to say this. You're just picking up on some things from the language.
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