As you can probably guess from the title, I'm interested in learning Japanese. I've been interested in learning a second language after trying Spanish class in high school and discovered that while Spanish meant little to me the concept of a foreign language was very interesting. Fast forward a couple years and I've finally gotten myself comfortable enough with a choice of language to actually say I'm intending to learn it. Between watching a fair amount of anime and chatting with friends trying to learn the language it dawned on me that I was picking up letters, words and phrases without even thinking about it which made the idea of learning such a different language (from English) seem a lot more realistic and enjoyable. So enough about my story and on to the purpose of making a thread: Has anyone learned, attempted to learn, or is currently learning Japanese? Before I get too far into the learning process I'm all ears for tips, tricks and advice which anyone may have, or recommendations of any learning books, software, et cetera. Currently all I've got is a studying app on my phone and an open mind. And also, would anyone be interested in perhaps setting up "chats"? Something like a Steam group of people all trying to learn to use the language together and get some experience and learn from others. I couldn't say anything more than the most basic greetings at present but with time this could be more and more useful.
I started on Chinese as I sell to them alot but it's so difficult, even a Chinese person I work with says the lanugae makes no sense, I rekcon Japanese will be just as fun Good luck
That, is an absolutely brilliant idea. I did start learning japanese at my parents house through rosetta stone a fair while ago but it suddenly got hard when learning the kanji became essential. To begin with a simple speaking and listening ;evel would suffice for me and the reading and writing can come later. The suggestion of a steam/TS/vent/skype/whatever group just to converse to help with the learning is genius.
Just keep in mind that Nihongo isn't related to anything Western, so just clear your mind and start from scratch. Also, ganbatte.
I did start learning Japanese by myself but I've not been very diligent and as a result haven't progressed much further than Hiragana. I'm up for the steam thing though. You should also check out lang-8.
I speak broken French and extremely ropey, rusty Spanish. A good friend who I worked with for 5 years was a Language tutor studying for a Business & foreign Languages degree - what I didn't learn of those two languages in 5 years of mandatory foreign language classes at school, she taught me whilst we were at work I'd love to be able to speak either of them fluently - she used to have full blown conversations in French with the owners and waitresses of a local restaurant who came into the shop all the time. It was awesome to hear her speaking to them perfectly in their native language, then turn round to me and switch back to English with a Northern Irish accent! That's off topic because you're talking about Japanese though - I wish you the best of luck with it. Having studied with and been friends with Japanese and Chinese students over the years, I know how difficult a language it is. One of my good mates from my first degree course who was Japanese (but spoke perfectly fluent English as well, owing to growing up here) tried to teach me some of the language here and there. It all went way over my head I think that had a lot to do with what Kayin said - the fact that it's not related to anything remotely Western. That's probably where I was going wrong.
I can speak with very broken Japanese, not so great at writing it though (basic reading and writing like signs are easy to pick up but when you go into full blown texts like a magazine or news articles it gets a too complicated and I end up reading like a 7 year old who needs to sound out the letters). I've got no experience with teaching though so not sure if I'd be much help in a live chat/voice system, I'd imagine with someone who's not yet master a language like me trying to teach odd bits could go either way. I'll try to help if someone pops up a question that I definitely know the answer to though. The main thing to remember is learning Japanese (or pretty much any language, or even anything!) is not an easy process, you'll need to really put yourself into it and work at it as much as you can. It's one of those things where, ideally, you should be spending a bit of each day working on it to keep the progression active and all the information fresh in your head. An important and motivating thing to do is to write down a plan of action and something to remind you the purpose of your studies on a bit of paper and pin it up where you'll be spending most of your time at home. So get a bit of paper and a pen (no don't type it, actually force yourself to write it by hand!) and write down something similar to the following questions and scribble down the answers as well... Why am I learning Japanese? Will I actually use Japanese? Can I spare 40 minutes or more each day? Do I have a place to study with little to no distractions? How will I prevent myself from falling off the plan? How will I reward myself for doing well, or punish for not following through? Is there anyone around me who can help enforce the reward and punishment system? Why am I learning Japanese? (I repeat the question at the end to get it in my head because it's the most important thing to ask yourself) Basically if you have the questions hanging somewhere where you'll be looking most of your time, you'll notice them and it helps to motivate you to stop being lazy and do a bit of work. Another good bit to add would be a timetable of sorts, especially if you have a somewhat regular routine which you can allocate a specific time of the day to studying. Make the learning process routine will really make things feel much easier. As Throbbi mentioned Rosetta Stone... Rosetta Stone is okay, but I would recommend only using it as a minor supplement to your learning as it will get you into bad habits if you focus on using it too much. Also If you don't want to be forking out money, a free alternative is LiveMocha, it's a fairly good site where you can tweak your learning experience to fit a bit closer to your preferences. There's a big selection of languages as well, so if you want to go for another language it'll still be a decent side-resource. If you're not already familiar with Tofugu and Textfugu, those two sites offer some good information and in particular the Textfugu site has the first season of chapters available to go through at no cost. Tofugu has a good collection of links to useful resources, most of them free as well.
But yeah I've also been thinking of learning a new language and have always wanted to visit Japan. I know a few words (mostly from watching anime and subbed movies). Also been thinking of studying German. Think I could pick it up quickly as i can speak Afrikaans (very similar to Flemish) aswell. Cheers for the advise Suenstar
Maybe this will help revitalize your studies! I'll create the group tonight, PM me your Steam name if it's not in Hex's list. You're not kidding! Spent the better half of last night reading over some simple grammar rules, just covering wa and ga was a complete restructuring of thought. I haven't hardly looked at verbs, so this is a placeholder until I can do the correct conjugation and say I'll try my best! Whoa! Thanks for the advice (that goes to everyone!). Really like the idea of writing those questions down, I have nasty way of falling out of practice on things, hopefully having something like that will help. For the group, no worries what you do or don't know! Just having the opportunity of try and read (or listen to) and understand someone else's sentences, then try and formulate replies would likely be hugely beneficial in itself. PM me your Steam name if you'd like to swing by!
