The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Help, I'm turning japanese!
Shurakai
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Konnichiwa.
I'm just starting an introductory Conversational Japanese course and I'm wondering if anyone knows of good tools or websites that could help me while I'm taking the course. Its a once a week thing so personal review is pretty much required. Any freeware or shareware programs that has stuff like Hiragana flash cards and the like would be probably the most useful since I figure character memorization will be the hardest thing.
Other than that, any tips people can offer for someone just starting to learn Japanese would be excellent as well.
Arigato gozaimasu!
I'm just starting an introductory Conversational Japanese course and I'm wondering if anyone knows of good tools or websites that could help me while I'm taking the course. Its a once a week thing so personal review is pretty much required. Any freeware or shareware programs that has stuff like Hiragana flash cards and the like would be probably the most useful since I figure character memorization will be the hardest thing.
Other than that, any tips people can offer for someone just starting to learn Japanese would be excellent as well.
Arigato gozaimasu!
Shurakai on
0
Posts
As far as I know it's still free, but they want you to donate (sponsor) if you like the program.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/news.php
http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/fg=r/inline/dict <-- AWESOME
http://www.kanjisite.com/
Kanji will kick your ass, it will, learn it hard
Also, try to stay one lesson ahead of the teacher, or learn some words you guys arent learning. Try getting a manga in Japanese, or getting japanese script, and try translating it. It helps keep up your vocab and your symbol recognition.
Good luck and have fun with this! Nihongo wa kakoii desu! ^_^
very true.
Don't slack in your class if you don't have quizzes or anything, study as if all the material you are learning will be on a quiz the next day. memorize memorize memorize. But also memorize and understand.
If it's possible (I don't know if you are a student or what) find a Japanese international student and become friends with them. They will appreciate your conversations with them in English, and you will appreciate your conversations with them in Japanese. Speaking Japanese is the best way to learn it in my opinion.
Don't take a break from Japanese. Last term I took Japanese 101, I learned a lot but then I had a month long christmas break, where I did not study Japanese at all. When I started Japanese 102 in Early January I felt sooooo far behind, and I really regret not practicing it when I had time off.
Does anybody know if those work at all?
I don't think listening to music would be a very good idea while trying to learn a new language. Maybe classical music is alright, but I would think it would be too distracting.
but then again, maybe you could make connections between parts of a song and words you are learning, for when you are recalling those words.
I would personally recommend complete silence while memorizing.
edit: and those learning tapes, I only imagine they would help you learn faster, if you're listening to them in addition to your class.
I've found that when learning a foreign language it's best to practice a little every day than cram alot once every other day.
Also, where do you live?
College. Its a once a week night course. Basically made for people with a day job, but I am also a full time student during the day so I suppose that also counts. I just had my first class yesterday, and I was already a little bit ahead of everyone with some words and pronunciation because I watch alot of subbed anime and picked up some Japanese along the way, it seems.
Is the way Japanese people talk in person that different? Most of the pronunciations Ami-san (our teacher) spoke were quite similar. Also, we aren't learning grammar yet at all, just words one would use day-to-day in Japan and Hiragana.
To answer another question, I live in western Canada and am attending RDC (Red Deer College).
Thanks for the links so far, guys, looks good!
Manga is very improper, and is usually read like you were speaking to a friend. Manga also isn't too useful in the writing aspect, as it just etaches you to read, not to write. 40% of my Japaneses classes are japanese-speaking students trying to learn how to write the language.
There's little quirks about Japanese that are a wee bit important. Like they omit certain sounds in speaking but when writing it, it's in full, example:
Sumimasen - written, "excuse me", etc
pronounced soo-ee-mass-en, the "mi" is there in written form but it's usually said without it.
same for Desu - used for statements and is close to "to be"
pronounced "dess"
remember that there are no plurals in Japanese, as well as no future tense verbs and no distinction between "a" and "the". the characters for "i" and "u" are used to elongate sounds in words with not only "i" and "u" sounds, but "e" and "o" sounds respectively. If you see this, then treat them as the "e" or "o". But most of the time, characters are pronounced the same always.
he particle "wa" is written as the character "ha" (when it is a particle). But when a sound of "ha" or "wa" in a word is used, the regular symbol is used.
Hiragana is good stuff to start with, learn it with flash cards and IMPRINT IT on your brain, like you'll be using it for the rest of your life, learn it so well that you can 100% ace anything hiragana-related. 99% isn't good enough, you'll be using Hiragana for 90% of your Japanese speaking life
Katakana is also important, and is used for "foreign" words, words that the Japanese have incorperated into their own language. Brand names, like McDonald's and random everyday words like handsome are usually written in katakana. Katakana is just another set of symbols like hiragana, use flash cards and imprint on your brain.
Kanji symbols will destroy you and make you cry, they're complex characters used to denote concepts, objects, etc in one small space. Learn these as best you can, there are a LOT of them, if you're taking Japanese I, you're probably not going to run into too many outside of numbers.
practice your writing, a lot, I mean write the hiragana over and over and over, this will help you learn them and will greatly impress a professor
Japanese is really really fun if you keep on top of it. Good luck
Don't make the mistake of neglecting kanji like I did.
This is true. I've got notebooks full of my just practicing the characters over and over and over and over again. It got really boring, but I made a sort of game out of it. That definitely helped.
What?
Watashi - I
Watashitachi - We
I think that's a plural.
Also, even though there is no distinction between an infinitive verb form and a future tense... a 'masu' conjugated verb can point to future events.
It's complicated. Watashitachi certainly implies more than one of a thing, but you don't say kurumatachi when talking about more than one car.* (I suppose one might do so if the cars' multiplicity were specifically important towards some point, but I confess I'm not really sure.) The multiplicity of a noun is left grammatically vague, but context generally supplies any necessary information if the number of the thing in question is not explicitly stated.
And while masutai verbs can be either present or future tense, there are no auxiliaries specifying which it actually is; so "Oyogimasu." could be translated as "I swim." or "I (auxiliary)will swim.", without knowing the context in which the utterance was used. This can be initially confusing for learners of Japanese but really is not much of an issue after a while. Unless I'm getting this all horribly wrong.
*The use of "tachi" is interesting. As a pure guess, I would say it affixes to words expressly singular in use ("me" and "you" are all that come to mind) to create a similar idea: "we" and "ya'll". Just a guess, though.
Our pronunciations seem to have already been modified slightly to be more like how Japanese actually speak it. Sumimasen is written as Suimasen on our word-sheet, and I used the word within minutes of learning it to ask a question. She seemed pleased, haha. She taught in Japan for quite awhile so you really get a sense of how competitive it is there, and how you want to compete and get the teacher's favor. When I was done sketching out the first couple lines of Hiragana (AIUEO, KAKEKUKEKO) she even gave everyone a little stamp with what looked like Totoro and friends on it.
Oh no, I completely agree with you. I just wanted to state that saying that there is no future tense (like Chinese) or plural form is incorrect.
http://www.terra.es/personal/fujiko/sec_en/knkj.htm
This was very helpful for me when I was in my class.
And -tachi is just with people - like you can say Suzuki-san-tachi to mean the Suzuki family.
To the OP - try to use Japanese as much as possible. A handheld (DS, PSP etc) and an import game would be great.