Let's learn Japanese (old thread)

So how are you going to pull this off?? Are you going to offer Kanji sheets and grammar lessons as well? Vocab?

I've just started learning Japanese at my university so I might be able to give some advice on a level beginners can understand because I do exactly the same right now. Me and my peers had to learn the kana (hira+kata) in 1 week though and the best way to memorize them is to forbid roomaji, at all. We never ever write in romaji, neither on the blackboard nor in assignments - kana all the way.

 

Kana are easy to learn, and fun too. I often sign my artwork in katakana.

 

OK, it's been 3 weeks, everybody still with us or do we need to give anyone a short crashcourse on those 10 Hiragana?

Assembler, do something!

 

Alright ? update ?

 

I'd love to see an update on this. Japanese is something I've wanted to learn but I've never really had the chance or time... Regardless though. those first few excersises were good fun!

 

I want to learn this, ill make my homework.

 

I'll do these learning sheets! I really need to start learning Japanese ><

 

Hiragana and Katakana are the basics, really. Never learn Japanese with Romaji, it's just irritating and pointless in the long run.

You can pick up the 100 character basic alphabet of Kana in about 1-2 weeks, anything else would stretch it a bit too much I think. You want to make some progress after all!

 

Indeed, always do your writing exercises! And it's also a bit hard without a teacher who corrects it because sometimes you tend to make mistakes which you never notice because you think it's the right way to do it (i.e. writing the katakana tsu/shi strokes the wrong way around; or missing the small stroke next to the hiragana ka). :S

Who's in for studying it anyway? Maybe one should do poll and see if there's interest afterall.

 

Ive been studying Japanese on and off for about 3 years now. Learning the characters I find isnt that difficult as long as you practice atleast 15 mins a day but the part I find hard is the actual speaking aspect of it because you need someone else to practice with. The only sulotion to this I have found so far is to hire a tutor but it can end up getting expensive. Another thing you can do is to go to a Japapnese language course and if your lucky you'll find someone else there that wouldnt mind practicing together like once or twice a week.

 

[h=3]James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji[/h]
Guys I just started with this method.

It teaches you to associate Kanji with english stories.

Bear in mind I live in Japan (for 1 1/2 years, have a full time job & GF who is japanese but speaks good english).
I do self study and have private japanese lessons but honestly this book has motivated me the most.
I know i wont understand the japanese meanings (On and Kun) after hopefully going through this book but I honestly feel this is a good first step.
I cant drink caffeine or have any stimulants like sugar so am usually tired so its hard for me to absorb information especially through traditional teaching methods.

I have a better visual memory than other memory channels so thus far (2 days and 150 Kanji in) it seems to serve me well.
I have just started and I am through 150 Kanji but let me keep updating you guys with how i go.

Hopefully fingers crossed it helps me then proceed to the next step of learning the readings

 

I'm not a big fan of the Heisig method, personally. There are a lot of inherent flaws with the method, mainly that everything is taken out of context. It's kinda like learning tons of vocabulary but without learning the true meaning and usage of them in a sentence. That said, it works for some people, so it's hard to completely dismiss it.

 

Welcome to the forums Code001
I understand where you are coming from.
It wont teach me the Japanese meanings at all - I will learn (hopefully) a bunch of kanji that I can write and using that system when i learn the Japanese meaning they will stick around.

It's like when Chinese learn Japanese they have a nice headstart because they have all this Kanji to work from.
As you mention it works for some and not for others.
For those who are crap with memory like me its something i dont mind spending from 30-mins to a few hours a day trying to work on (in addition to my other language aides).

I also use Anki flashcard system with
Tae-kims-japanese-guide-to-japanese-grammar
Minna no Nihongo (which i am using in my private lessons)

 

Anki is really good, but the spatial recognition can get very out of hand at times. It'll either be too overwhelming, or it won't be reviewing stuff enough. You also have that annoying leech issue that doesn't seem to go away, even if you max out the value. Tae Kim's guide is really good for basic stuff, and it's free. Minna no Nihongo isn't too bad, but I think Tofugu's latest offering and Genki I+II (or Japanese for Everyone - it's like both Genki books combined and no need to buy the work books + answer booklets) are the most solid options out there.

More than anything else, however, is using it. You HAVE to use it. You also have to SPEAK it. That's a big issue with all of these resources. There are very few people to speak Japanese to for most learners. You also rarely hear it in everyday life. You have a huge advantage already living in Japan and having someone who can help you out, but most people don't have that luxury. For those of you who don't, your best bet would be to try to immerse yourself in as much Japanese TV and radio talk shows as possible (the real shows i.e. not anime) and speak phrases that you hear out loud. Record them, play them back, compare them to how a native speaker would say it, make sure you understand everything you're saying, etc. The reason I say you should watch/listen to the actual shows and not anime is because anime has very clear and precise prononciation. Many native Japanese speakers, however, tend to really slur their words. There is also tons of slang thrown around that you never hear in anime.

It's also worth noting that you should spend time writing it. Although you probably won't be writing a ton of it in everyday life, it helps reinforce the characters. It's not as critical as it used to be thanks to everything being digitized nowadays, though.

 

You are absolutely right - watching shows is really good for picking up spoken Japanese and remembering words.
You have to filter through a lot of crap shows but hearing regular spoken Japanese is important.
However I am not a good vocal learner but I try to pick up pronunciation 発音 from TV.

I have already started and almost finished book 2 of minna no nihongo but I need to do more exercises - that's important, lots of workbooks I believe that have daily communication. In minna no nihongo its almost simon says.

 

One more thing I'd like to point out - you mentioned you also have a girlfriend to help you learn Japanese. That's great, but people like that might not be the most reliable sources out there. The reason is because they're native speakers, and they learned it all naturally. As a result, they may not be able to properly explain how certain grammar situations works. I'll give you some examples: How do you explain the difference between "who" and "whom?" How do you explain when to use "I" and "me?" How about "a" and "the?" "A" and "an?" For some people, these may be easy. You might have noticed that you always use "a" with a consonant sounding letter and "an" with a vowel sounding letter. There are exceptions, though. Can you name them? These are rhetorical questions, btw. I'm just trying to point out that it's hard for most native speakers to fully explain what to use in which situations, what the exceptions are and so on. It's just something to keep in the back of your mind when you're learning this stuff on your own and without a language teacher. It'll require you to work harder and research more than one who has an actual teacher. The good news is that there are tons of forums just like these with helpful people out there, so it's not quite as hard as it used to be. :05.18-flustered:

 

I know she isn't the best... I asked her what does
"何となくâ€￾　nantonaku - mean and she said it was difficult (it means somehow; for some reason or another)
same with "ある程度" あるていど - it means to some extent
I was taught these by my workmates eventually.

Also most of the time her Japanese is too fast and hard I don't catch it...
And she speaks english which is unfortunate as I easily resort to it as I know she will understand what im saying.

Teachers (my private one and sat class one) teach grammar but most girls in Japan cannot.
I am the same with english, I cannot teach it