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

Originally Posted by Hachifusa

It's like Rollins(?) said about not watching anime but drama series. Definitely, anime is too fantastical in speech to be taken seriously. Think about it for a few seconds... do you actually want to speak like (ack) "Naruto"? If you want to drive the point home, watch the series in English and see how stupid they sound - and realize that whenever you mimic the Japanese, that's how you sound. Although drama series are better, I'd remind the prospective student that in drama shows though they tend to speak correctly in a grammatical sense, and although they use everyday phrases, they do so in a dramatic way. Don't pause too much and glance at the moon and speak with your eyes closed - though this is standard fare in drama series, no one really speaks like that, I promise. In this case, it'd be like speaking like one of those lawyer/doctor/teacher shows on at prime time here. You know how they are very melodramatic in their speech? That is similar to the drama series.

If you can, speak with real, normal people (and if you can swing it, not fellow otaku) from Japan and copy them. Listen to them, even if they want you to speak more "generically" than you would like. I can't pinpoint how many times I made an utter fool of myself by using really ridiculous language. (Case in point: if you're male, please please please avoid the use of super-cool "ore" to speak about yourself for at least a year, and even then be careful. It's just not worth it.)

Finally, give it the attention it deserves. I didn't and as a result barely scraped by my last year. Japanese really will require something like two hours a day of study, and if that's too much for you (i.e. you work outside of school) I'd question the choice. All language learning requires time but Japanese requires learning two new alphabets and a whole slew of kanji that you can become completely overwhelmed.

Yeah, while I recommend drama over anime anyday for actual language practice, of course, you've gotta avoid the overly romantic expressions too. Although I have quite a database of romantic phrases now, I don't think I'll be using them anytime soon...for my money, family (renzoku) dramas, which are more about everyday life are a bit more grounded and better. But I think dramas are a bit later on in your Japanese learning career.

I do enjoy people who use "ore" without really knowing why/when to use it. I, myself, am a "boku" fan, I don't think I could pull off an "ore" without feeling silly.

You also mention the alphabets (hiragana/katakana) and kanji...it's kanji for me that will continue to inhibit my Japanese ability. Alphabets can be memorized given enough time (and you should do this first off), but as you know, kanji by its sheer number will take forever =/ But yes, nothing you can do but flash cards and repetition...there's no real trick here. This is where continual reading helps, you gotta keep the kanji fresh in your mind, otherwise you'll forget.

Originally Posted by Miles

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. ._.

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!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by nanaman

I'm interested in it, so I'd appreciate it a lot if you would share it with the rest of us.

I've always been interested in learning Japanese, but I haven't taken any classes yet. I've got a basic understanding/speech ability of the language though, from watching lots of anime/j-dorama and game shows, but I don't think I couldn't hold more complex discussions than where to find the toilet or that I'm hungry or whatever. Oh yeah, I did go through a few "lessons" of some Learn Japanese video about some guy called Yan-san methinks; you guys might know what I mean. I didn't get very far though.

I totally forgot about that post. xD How do you wanna go about this? I can send it to someone later today.

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

Originally Posted by Miles

Not text books. Genki itself is doing fine. Though I'm thinking of getting a kanji flash card kit. I wanna learn more kanji then 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.

Manga is probably the best way to go, then -- if there's a Kinokuniya (japanese books import store) near you, definitely check it out. :3 Otherwise, you can order stuff from Amazon.co.jp.

Unfortunately for text-based weeaboos, actual japanese kids' books are written primarily in hiragana. If you have oral-based vocabulary, you can tackle them, but if you're dependent on kanji (like me), you may be stuck. ^^;

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

<_<


>_>


<_<


... I'm sticking to my standard response to this type of thread.
READ THIS.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Manny Biggz

I totally forgot about that post. xD How do you wanna go about this? I can send it to someone later today.

Hmm, well I dunno really, you don't think you could upload it to rapidshare or something? Any method works, it really doesn't matter to me what method you want to use.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Shorty

<_<


>_>


<_<


... I'm sticking to my standard response to this type of thread.
READ THIS.

I LAUGHED, AND FELL OFF MY DINOSAUR

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Shorty

<_<


>_>


<_<


... I'm sticking to my standard response to this type of thread.
READ THIS.

You must have forgotten that this is a discussion board.

See, we were discussing something.

What is there to discuss about a link that's older than the internet?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by nanaman

Hmm, well I dunno really, you don't think you could upload it to rapidshare or something? Any method works, it really doesn't matter to me what method you want to use.

It's a folder with 31 .rar files. I'm too noob to know how to correctly zip/rar them together into one file.

How ya doing, buddy?

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

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It's really hard to believe it's been over 2 years since I took the JLPT3. Jesus. I enrolled in Japanese in my University, so hopefully after taking those classes, I'll be able to take the JLPT2 soon, maybe next year. The gap between the two is huge, though.

Anyway, I've gotten extremely rusty. Vocabulary is probably my strongest point right now, and that's not saying much. Gotta work on my grammar over the summer to get back to where I was before. And Kanji? Haha, let's not talk about that.

Gotta find my Genki books.

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

Dunno if anyone wants to try, but the JET program is also another option if you want to learn the language.

The JET program stations you in rural areas of the country (so yeah, you basically would need to learn how to communicate in the community) to teach mostly middle school to high school level English. You get paid just like a regular job, and you get to live there for a year or so. With the economy at what it is now, if you can get into the program I'd say why the heck not, but that applies to recent college grads. =/

I wouldn't recommend it for those whom already have a job like you Miles...

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.

Shorty, JET is really really freaking picky these days and probably one big reason is the economy and folks trying to jump on what is essentially a free ride to Japan for a year. If you plan on doing it you'll need to get to doing your application like yesterday and pray that should you go in for interview that you do well b/c surfer Steve could be all yah brah and the Japanese man in a business suit will clap his hands with glee and send him to the children in Okinawa while a guy who majored in linguistics at the top of his class and studied German, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese and taught ESL classes for a year with great success gets passed over. Just sayin'. =/

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Acer, have you tried getting into JET? I was thinking about it since I just graduated and had some time on my hands. I did a bit of research into the application process and found it pretty convuluted at the best of times.

FELIPE NO

I think I've known some people who've done JET through some Japanese contacts, and if I can track them down I'll let you know if they say anything useful. I got to cheat and take Japanese in High School and University for a little though =D.

Still can't write or read it for shit ;_;

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Thanks. I stupidly forgot about Japanese courses while I was in university. I know JET says knowledge of the language is not mandatory but I'd rather go with some basics at least. Might as well try to track down the Genki books . . .

Jam it back in, in the dark.

If you're looking for decent textbooks, we used Yookoso! which were good, but you have to teach yourself Hiragana and Katakana first which is just a lot of memorization really. But better to learn in the language than in romanji. But anyway, the textbook itself was good because they would group units into situations you might run across, they'd address slang and alternate pronunciations. Not very academic which is good if you're just trying to learn the language for casual purposes.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah, I've heard that learning in romanji is the worst way to learn the language. And I might have more luck finding Yookoso here than Genki. Hmmmm . . . I can wait for the new semester to start and see which textbook the university classes are using.

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

Originally Posted by horseman85

Acer, have you tried getting into JET? I was thinking about it since I just graduated and had some time on my hands. I did a bit of research into the application process and found it pretty convuluted at the best of times.

No, I haven't applied but a very good buddy of mine who I described did and was flatly rejected. They won't tell you why you failed your interview either. It's just "please try again next year".

The application process is pretty convoluted but hey if you want to do JET it's something you have to muck through. I wish you luck if that's what you want to do.

How ya doing, buddy?

Everything I've ever read and heard about JET leaves me to believe that it's the horribly frustrating, low-paying and fast-tracked way to get yourself sent to east buttfuck for a year.

I'm unintentionally living the internet dream, being on exchange in central Tokyo and living in an apartment here 10 minutes from my university by train.

If you really want to come here for whatever reason then teaching English should pretty much be your last resort. You're not going to make an impact on your students (like anybody wants to do it for the love of teaching English) and chances are you'll get placed somewhere where you wont be able to court your dream submissive wife, or make sugoi nihonjin tomodachis

p.s. if you're a fat greasy nerd you're going to be one here as well. I live in Harajuku the self-proclaimed weird fashion and subculture capital of Japan, and being a furry, fatso, pierced and dyed freakshow just gets you pity and carefully guarded asian sneers, not acceptance.

p.s.2 if you really want to speak the moonspeak properly throw out genki and yookoso. You can't learn a language from one textbook and that kind of study isn't going to work

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Decoy Goat

p.s.2 if you really want to speak the moonspeak properly throw out genki and yookoso. You can't learn a language from one textbook and that kind of study isn't going to work

No, it's not going to teach you the language but it can help you brush up on certain things. I still think the only way to properly learn a language is to get out there and start speaking it but if you're interested in looking up certain verb patterns/vocabulary etc, a textbook or some sort of language guide can help clarify things that are floating around in your head.

When I was in Japan there were a number of things that I was figuring out grammatically in Japanese in my head. And I was using them semi-right just based off context but when I finally took the time to look up what it was it helped immensely. That and there's the obvious response which is: everyone learns things differently.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

no no, I'm not one of those morons who think you can magically learn everything perfectly by immersion.

I just mean as far as textbooks go, those are standard issue, comes-as-a-sample-in-the-mail books when there are a bunch more appropriate and useful things available that are often online at no cost.

If you want to go the way of piracy you can get giant torrents of Japanese learning materials (search for this exact text) that are around 1gb or more with a hundred other textbooks that will do a better job, with videos and mp3s. Basically all I'm saying is that if you use a single textbook, chances are you're going to learn some idiosyncratic Japanese that won't enable you to have a conversation with a real person.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

No, I haven't applied but a very good buddy of mine who I described did and was flatly rejected. They won't tell you why you failed your interview either. It's just "please try again next year".

The application process is pretty convoluted but hey if you want to do JET it's something you have to muck through. I wish you luck if that's what you want to do.

Regarding JET, I had my interview a couple of months ago, and it seems like the emphasis is heavily placed on what you know about your own culture. The whole Japan atmosphere is almost like an afterthought, at least from my impression of the interview. It seems as though you'd have to be very knowledgeable about your local culture, and what you can offer to the kids in respect to that knowledge.

Of course, the whole process is convoluted and takes the better portion of a year, and it's not like JET is the only program that'll land you in Japan. It's just the most popular and well known one. I applied to another program sometime around midnight, and the very next morning I got a call, saying they currently had a hiring freeze due to every contract being renewed, although they expressed deep interest in my application. Apparently so, since I wasn't expecting such an instantaneous turnaround. Point is, you should look into other opportunities too!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Thanks for the insight Summon. I've known a couple people who did it and a couple people who applied for this year's JET program and didn't get in. Most of the rejection reasons I heard from those who didn't get in this year was due to hiring freezes and something along the lines of "reduction of funds."

As far as "getting fucked in the rear end" as some people have mentioned, I've only heard positive things from those who did the program. If any, all their complaints mirrored anyone who teaches (that I know of) in the United States (e.g., low pay, kids being jerks, the parents being assholes, etc.). Most if not all said they enjoyed their time there. I think it shouldn't be dismissed as a "last resort" in my opinion though. You can apply and give it your best shot, and if you don't get in, well, you know plenty of reasons not to take the offer. =p

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I totally just finished my first week studying Japanese for uni. Got a friend who starts the JET thing in a few weeks so it will be interesting to see how it goes

There's nowhere I can't reach.