The 2008 (and 9) weaboos learning Japanese thread *chairs are thrown at miles*

Yes, I know these threads come up like twice a year but whatever. I'm making this thread to discuss the Japanese language and to ask for advice on studying it.

Right now I'm in my second semester of first year Japanese. My college uses Genki (which is a fabulous book) and next week we're starting Lesson 8 (of 12). By summer time (and the end of first year Japanese) we should have all of volume one covered with Volume 2 being covered 2nd year. This class is pretty fast paced and we only get like 2 and a half weeks to cover a lesson before we jump to the next one. First semester was extremely easy but now we're getting to the point where I need to study at least 14 hours a week outside class in order to get an A. I did get an A first semester.

Anyways, at this point I can read and write hiragana, katakana, and about 72 Kanji. I can write fairly basic Japanese sentences with the vocab words I know or have a short conversation. We are expected to learn all the vocab words in each lesson by the time we begin the next one. Lots of memorization , but that's normal in a language class! I'm not surprised though that HALF of my class has dropped out this week since its the cutoff time for dropping out. At the speed we're learning it having a few other classes on the side could lead to very busy study evenings. I don't mind all the work since I've always wanted to learn a second language. Plus learning a foreign language that is so different from ours is quite the challenge.

My reading and writing skills are decent. I'm making less and less grammar mistakes on my worksheets as time goes on. I think the hardest part about this class for me is speaking and listening comprehension. Since none of my friends speak Japanese I only get speaking practice during class. So at this point I feel this area is way below what it should be and I need to work on it since I'll need this ability for my summer trip to Japan. I think neglecting my tape CD is some of the reason my listening comprehension sucks. ._.

What I was wondering is if there are any good elementary level books anyone would recommend I read. Our Sensei said at this point we might be able to read and understand a first or second grade level book. She said to look in Japan town but I'd rather order something online. Any suggestions or advice on my learning the language would be helpful.

Is anyone else taking Japanese at this time? How do you like it? What's the hardest part for you? Did you take it in the past at one point?

Discuss discuss discuss~

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Welcome - Sasuga Japanese Bookstore

Can anyone recommend any decent beginner books in Japanese? You know, ones that are at a grade school level. Even if I can't fully understand it at this point its fine. I just wanna improve my ability to read a bit faster and don't wanna buy a random book thats mostly kanji with no furigana.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Rollins

Are you looking for more beginner textbooks or actual books in Japanese? I could recommend a few textbooks offhand, not so much on the actual book side.

However, if you're looking for grade school level stuff, I've had tons of fun/practice reading Doraemon manga...they're easy to find and everything in it has furigana. Of course, it's going to be simple (you've gotta start somewhere) but I do like that you do get an exposure to more casual Japanese than you usually would (albeit, little-kid Japanese, but not too far off from more mature casual Japanese). However, I might be biased just because I <3 Doraemon.

Not text books. Genki itself is doing fine. Though I'm thinking of getting a kanji flash card kit. I wanna learn more kanji than the 15 or so we learn every lesson. But yeah, I'm looking more at actual books or raw japanese manga that's easy for beginners. I'll check out Doraemon.

Today I bought a journal from Wal-mart so I can write an entry in Japanese every other day. I can practice what I know now and in future entries I can integrate the new sentence structures and vocabulary words I learn and make longer more detailed entries. This should help me remember older vocab (if I can find ways to use them) as well as help me create sentences faster. I'm hoping in the next 6 months it'll take less time to write out an entry.

I still need to work on my speaking and listening comprehension. We did listening exercises in class yesterday and I did rather poorly. I have to replay a single sentences multiple times before I can get what they said since I'm not used to hearing my vocab words spoken so quickly. Plus when I'm put on the spot in class to make up a sentence to the picture our sensei is holding up my mind often goes blank. There's a Japanese meet-up group in Sacramento and I think I'll try to attend the next meeting and make a few friends I could possibly practice with off meeting hours. I have a vocal test in two weeks and I'm nowhere close to ready. ._.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

So after a whole year I am bumping my old Japanese thread. Mainly because I saw it in that other language thread. >_>

So how is everyone's Japanese studies going? I just finished all the Japanese courses offered at the community college (and they actually filled in quite a bit of GE requirements for transfer to UCD) and I think I want to continue my studies. In fact, once I transfer, I am considering studying abroad for a half a year to a year once I make the jump to the University. That would definitely help me improve my skills quite a bit. I know it requires at least a 3.0 GPA to qualify but I'm at a 3.68 so I should be good if I can keep it. :3

In my Japanese class we killed both the Genki books. However, it felt so rushed and the class was so fast paced that I feel most of Genki 2 didn't sink into my head. So since I don't have any more classes to take until my transfer I am going through Genki I and II again and covering the areas that I didn't focus on very much before. Mainly the kanji, misc vocab (like the days of the month/colors/etc) and trying to understand the dialogs and readings without the use of a dictionary or translation. I also picked up this and some study aids from amazon.co.jp:

Amazon.co.jp&#xFF1A; An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese &#x4E2D;&#x7D1A;&#x306E;&#x65E5;&#x672C;&#x8A9E ;: A. Miura: &#x672C;

I'll try to study enough to pass the JLPT3 this year. Then I can work on 2 before I get to the point where I study abroad.

Originally Posted by Rollins

Good luck with your journal exercise, as I said before, that's the best way. I do think speaking/listening is the toughest to get going in the beginning, but eventually you'll find it will soon surpass your reading/writing (mainly due to kanji at the later levels >_>)

Are you NorCal based? I studied at Berkeley and am actually going to be back for a few weeks in March and May. You're probably at Davis if you're going to Sacramento. If you can make it down to the Bay Area, there's tons of Japanese speaking chances, mainly because they kept advertising them in our classes at UCB.

Oh by the ways people, I recommend this dictionary if you have a DS...it's not quite as powerful as a true Japanese/English electronic dictionary, but it's a really useful dictionary for figuring out kanji since you can draw in the kanji with the stylus.

Buy Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten (Nintendo DS) - Order Now!

I bought that dictionary for the DS. Good stuff! It helps when trying to read manga or native writings outside a computer. I have the firefox plugin for Kanji but of course it doesn't work on printed stuff. >_>

Yeah I've been to UCB a few times with my friends. Really neat place. There aren't too many Japanese speakers here in Sacramento so I have to look elsewhere for practice. I do keep a lang-8 journal and have a decent amount of Japanese friends on skype but I always get nervous speaking to them. XD

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

You need a BA to qualify anyway, don't you? I plan on studying abroad via my university anyways. But yeah, it is a good way to get a free pass into Japan considering how strict they are on giving out long term visas to foreigners.

I was speaking idiomatically.