Forum - View topicLearning Japanese
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ChaoZ
Posts: 17 |
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I apologize if there's already been a thread on this, but I did a brief search and didn't find anything.
I love anime and I am appreciative of subtitles, but I want to learn the language to hear what is said first-hand. As I understand it, anime is not exactly ideal to learn the language because it often uses exaggerated inflextion and so on. Has anybody had success with any of the language packages out there? If so, which one and how long did it take you? I tried a bit of Rosetta Stone, but didn't really like it. Something to listen to in the car would good, but I am willing to go the extra mile to learn it written (I already have a basic understanding of Chinese). |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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While I haven't used them enough, I have Pimsleur's japanese cds. I like them. The description of why it does some of the things it does seems well thought as well. It tells you why its teaching method works well.
I'm also interested in writing/reading as well and if you are, check out Heisig's books. One to learn both the katakana/hiragana characters, and three for grammar/pronunciation/kanji etc. I have the kana book and his first kanji book. A dictionary and a workbook or two as well. I can say from experience that his kana book works. I memorized all of the hiragana, 46, in probably 4-5 hours time using his book. I still have mild trouble recalling like 3 or 4 of the characters, but it was still extremely fast. I'm sure if I used it more often I would be able to remember them all perfect and read a lot faster.(When I say read, I mean purely the sounds. The kana book merely teaches you the sound/shape of each character, it is not a language/grammar book. |
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rascalking
 Posts: 59 |
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the "listening in the car" thing never worked for me......Japanese takes a LOT of dedication to learn, its considered one of the hardest languages out there. It's not something you can just pick up. I have been studying for about 2 and a half years, AND i lived in Japan for a year, I can barely call myself "intermediate".
Buuuuuut, if you're really serious about learning it, and you want to use audio, I suggest you start off with "Pimsleur". To me, there the best it gets when it comes to japanese tape lessons. But listen to each lesson several times until you feel compfortable! Also, I suggest buying a grammar book or two. Hope that helps! |
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Nirvana
Posts: 261 |
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Take a class at a community college. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
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Anime isn't ideal, but if you take everything with a grain of salt (i.e., they probably don't really run around calling each other "baka" all the time), you can learn some basic framework that will help you learn more. Plus, good DVD subtitles or fansubs will show if a character is speaking slangy, broken, childish, rude, dialectal, or super-formal Japanese.
As for resources, I would recommend: Barron's Japanese Grammar-good explanations of lots of stuff, plus a refesher on what verbs, pronouns, direct objects, etc. are if you happen to be grammar-challenged. Essential Kanji, by P.G. O'Neill, is a good basic kanji reference, and if you want to shell out more cash, try Henshall's "Remembering Japanese Characters." I might have to get a true kanji dictionary one of these days, though. Any decent dictionary, preferably one with romaji (aka the letters I'm typing with now) and kanji/kana for the Japanese entries. I have a decent one from Random House that has the Japanese words in English alphabetical order. I started with a book called "Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese," which is OK in a "get your feet wet" way, since it's all in romaji, but it helped me understand anime a bit better. Some websites: http://kanjisite.com http://japanese.about.com http://nihongoresources.com http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm Apologies if some links don't work, but you can search on Google for the names and find them that way. |
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zhir
 Posts: 353 Location: Nampa, ID, USA |
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Agreed, I take a community class at a local college, and it's much better than trying to learn with books and tapes. |
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ChaoZ
Posts: 17 |
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Not a bad idea. I need something to fill up some free time anyway.
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BoygetsfireD
 Posts: 475 Location: earth |
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The most effective way to learn a language is called "total submersion." This means you would go to an area of Japan where there is little english spoken and live there for a while (over a year), so that you would be forced to learn the language to survive.
however, this is fairly difficult for most people, but if you can, it would be a great experience all around, not for just learning the language |
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rascalking
Posts: 59 |
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hehehe.....thats what I did.....lived in Urawa for a year...best time of my life!
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zhir
Posts: 353 Location: Nampa, ID, USA |
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How did you make money?
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rascalking
Posts: 59 |
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i did what most americans out there do.......i taught english....
i worked at a school part time for some decent pay......but then had many private students on the side, and thats where the REAL money comes in.......u can make anywhere from 2000-4000 yen per hour doing private lessons..... |
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Jeikobu
 Posts: 154 |
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Aside of watching anime, I have been reading "Japanese for Dummies", and am also doing "Yookoso" for my Japanese learning, and both have definitely been good thus far, though I am still pretty early in Yookoso.
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rascalking
Posts: 59 |
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eek.....japanese for dummies = bad memories......
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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I've always wondered how can you teach a language if you cant communicate what your are teaching in a language the students can understand?
if they are new to English they arent going to understand instructions in English. I mean what do you do if they ask a question in Japanese and you dont understand it? |
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rascalking
Posts: 59 |
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I consider myself "low intermediate" when it comes to Japanese, and thats after 2 years of constant study and living abroad, so I was able to work through lessons ok. Don't forget, I did most of the talking, and they usually repeat, or respond. Also, believe it or not, the japanese are required to take 4 years of English to graduate!! so, actually most Japanese understand English a lot better than ya might think........its speaking it that gets hard......
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