2008-08-13, 14:30 | Link #1683 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Finland
|
Hey all! I haven't posted alot on this forum but well I thought I just had to share this and ask for some information! First of all i want to thank all the ppl contributing to this thread, I've probably read the whole thing and visited the sites linked.
I've been thinking, or no, rather my mind is set up on joining courses in Japanese, as there will be a 1st-time course held next month and a follow-up course later next year's winter/spring. I'm currently on the 2nd year of "gymnasium" here (our equivalent for 2nd last year of High School I guess) and have loads of work to do and days from 8-17 , and the course is being held a 1 hour bus/train ride from where i live two times a week in the evening. There is also another course starting the same time in a city closer to me, but the prices are higher, only once a week, quite more of "tourist" stuff regarding studying material of what i read about it, the follow up is not until autumn 2009, and the teaching is in English, not in Swedish , so I'm ready to take the longer route : / The book used on the course I will (try) to attend to is "Japanese for Busy people 1 (romanized version)", and I'd like to ask if anyone has any comments whether it is a good one or not ? (I recall it being mentioned somewhere before). It's gonna be alot of work but I really want to learn Japanese for future purposes and as quickly as possible, also I asked my classtutor if it earns me some courses in school and she said it does, so another plus! ( Got to ask if they could help me with getting a spot there heh ) Anyone more experienced who might want to share some advice? ^^ Thanks to all who bother to read this! : ) |
2008-08-13, 15:36 | Link #1684 | |
Toyosaki Aki
Scanlator
Join Date: Nov 2007
|
Quote:
It really depends on what your goals are. If you are going to visit Japan as a tourist, then sure. This book plus a phrase book will suit you well. If you plan on understanding anime/manga, as many people on these forums seem to want to do, you need a harder textbook and a LOT of study. Probably Genki Vol. 2/3 if you really want an English textbook. I still think that Tae Kim's Guide is the best Japanese resource, free or published.
__________________
|
|
2008-08-13, 19:08 | Link #1685 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
|
Anyone Take Japanese?
I enrolled in the Japanese class at my college and I'm really looking forward to it! Has anyone else taken this class at any other schools who could tell me what I've gotten myself into? My goal is to get into the study abroad program in Japan that they offer next year so I wanted some behind me.
|
2008-08-14, 03:33 | Link #1686 |
Honyaku no Hime
Fansubber
Join Date: May 2008
Location: In the eastern capital of the islands of the rising suns...
|
(Merging threads are so confusing when it directs you to page 1 instead of the original post that was merged into this one) x.x
Umm... Treat it like any other language subject. Be disciplined, be prepared to memorise like you've never memorised before. Do your homework, practice, practice, practice and good luck ^^ Some braincells may kamikaze themselves cause the logic (initally) is so vastly different to english structure and grammar wise and every new grammar aspect may seem like too much to understand and you feel you're not getting anywhere. But then you learn another new point, build on what you alread know and before you know it, your knowledge is increasing. ^^ Patience and persistance. ^^ I personally began with zero experience at university.... it was kinda hardcore and very academic and strict in its teaching, but man did i learn lots in a short space of time. x.x So as a result, my outlook on japanese language is fairly disciplined and influenced by my lecturers. Each school/college is different, so you may experience different things Eitherway, keep your focus and you'll be okay
__________________
Last edited by Mystique; 2008-08-14 at 03:54. |
2008-08-14, 03:46 | Link #1687 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
|
Quote:
It took me 3 months to learn/memorize hiragana and katakana + its combinations through self study before I enrolled in 1st semester JPN. Do what I did and you won't have to stay up very late just to learn hiragana and katakana. |
|
2008-08-14, 06:50 | Link #1688 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Florida
Age: 35
|
Since we're on the topic of college japanese classes how far does the average beginner 1/intro course go? About how many kanji did you know at the end of the course and what were the most complicated grammatical structures you learned etc? I'm planning on taking some classes when I transfer to UF (not until next year ) I'll have self studied for a year at that point and figure I won't really gain much from the first class.
|
2008-08-14, 23:31 | Link #1689 | |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
|
Quote:
Wow, I wish I had known that a little while ago. I already started looking through my books and that seems like the first little bit is going to consist of learning the hiragana, then it will go on to the katakana and it looks like the rest of the course will focus on Kanji. Unfortunately, my course begins in about two weeks, so I won't have as much time to do so. Definitely going to start now, though. I hear my prof is really good for it too, so I suppose that that will help. I was just kind of intimidated since most people said it was a very hard language to learn. I already took spanish previously, so I'm not totally new to a foreign language, but that did not involve learning several different writing systems. ^ ^' |
|
2008-08-14, 23:36 | Link #1690 | |
Le fou, c'est moi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
|
Quote:
*goes and studies for five minutes, gives up, and will regret it later very much* |
|
2008-08-15, 00:12 | Link #1691 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
|
Hiragana/Katakana //// make yourselves flashcards and spend an hour a day with them (or more) and you'll be in pretty fair shape once classes start.
Even *making* the flashcards helps in the memory process.
__________________
|
2008-08-15, 00:23 | Link #1692 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
|
I had actually considered doing that, My book has step by steps for most of the penstrokes that are necessary to make them, I guess I will end up doing that after all. It's the pronunciations that worry me about that. I wouldn't want to teach myself wrong on that and have to totally relearn the sounds/syllables.
|
2008-08-17, 02:12 | Link #1693 |
~
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Boston
Age: 35
|
The following two web pages show different stroke direction for the first stroke of 皆. Which one is correct and is stroke direction important?
http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/ka...a!OpenDocument http://taka.sourceforge.net/current/kanji/J3327 |
2008-08-17, 04:07 | Link #1694 | |
(`◉◞౪◟◉´)
|
Quote:
There can be several typefaces for a glyph. Depending on the design of typeface, the stroke direction might vary. I am so used to blush that I often make unconsciously serifs even when I write letters with a pencil. Last edited by LiberLibri; 2008-08-17 at 20:18. Reason: typing error |
|
2008-08-17, 18:17 | Link #1695 |
今日、海をみた。もう恐くない。
Join Date: Aug 2008
|
This is a really nice thread! I'm surprised it's not stickied.
Does anyone know where you can get a tutor for Japanese if you're not a college student (like how the OP has. Or were they a college student, as well?)? I used to live in Japan and they had tutors there for people who had no knowlodge of the Japanese-languange (someone in my family had taken one of the courses), but I didn't take any courses because I didn't have the desire to learn Japanese at the time. I've tried looking for Japanese tutors in America, but the only courses I can find is for college students. Currently, I'm using hesjapanese.com to learn Japanese. It's a really good site and has things like virtual flash cards (and print out cards, as well) and animation to show you how to draw the characters (though, it doesn't have all of the characters available with animation). It's a little bit of an Engrish site, though. So far, I've learned approximately 60%+ of the hiragana characters shown on hesjapanese. I've been studying for a few weeks now (some days I've been too busy to study). |
2008-08-21, 11:58 | Link #1696 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Florida
Age: 35
|
What's the best/least weird sounding/most common way to say that something must be done? I've read I think 4 different ways to do it.
kusuri o nomanakucha (ikenai/dame/naranai) (girly/kiddish sounding?) kusuri o nomanakute wa (ikenai/dame/naranai) kusuri o nomanai to (ikenai/dame/naranai) kusuri o nomanakereba (ikenai/dame/naranai) |
2008-08-21, 14:14 | Link #1697 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
|
~nakucha is just a contraction of ~nakutewa; there's one for ~nakereba as well (~nakya.) Neither are girly/kiddish, they're just informal. Dame's pretty casual; it's most likely to be used (so I understand) with one of the contracted forms.
"ないといけない" is giving me the biggest numbers on Google. |
2008-08-21, 20:21 | Link #1698 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
|
I just starting taking Japanese lessons myself. I hired a tutor for private lessons. I've tried web sites, books, tapes and software and I must say having a fluent speaker teaching you is so much better. If anyone happens to be near Baltimore and wants to learn, I can hook you up with him.
Anyway, the first thing I did was learn hiragana. I figured when I was hunting for a tutor that on my own I'd at least learn the two basic writing systems. Took a few weeks, but it wasn't that hard. I wrote a website that I can use to practice with to learn hiragana and katakana. Made it very handy. I need to put some polishing touches on it then I'll post the URL in case anyone wants to check it out. As mentioned before, prepare yourself for some rigorous memorizing hehe. I'm swamped in a sea of information, but it's very enjoyable! |
2008-08-22, 01:24 | Link #1699 | |
(`◉◞౪◟◉´)
|
Quote:
>nomanakucha young, soft, casual, girly >nomanakute wa mature, formal, calm, intelligent >nomanai to also soft, young - middle age >nomanakereba solemn, often seen in legislation [you shall do...] Similarly, dame is the frankest, naranai is formal, and ikenai is intermediate. I feel it unnatural if a 5-yo child says "kusuri o nomanakereba naranai", or an aged gentleman does "kusuri o nomanakucha dame" unless given any special condition. It is often used to depict characters' personalities in fictions; e.g. you can expect a girl has a very rigid character if she prefers "-nakereba naranai" expression. I cannot tell which would be the best without knowing your gender, age or the situation. But "nomanai to ikenai" does not sound risky in any environment. |
|
2008-08-27, 17:43 | Link #1700 |
9wiki
Scanlator
|
Two questions from me today!
Firstly: The greatest lack I find in Japanese dictionaries is the lack of pitch notation. So much effort in memorization is utterly wasted when I must re-memorize--or when I simply don't recognize--a word because I've previously only encountered it in text (and therefore do not know the proper pitch for each syllable). Are there any Japanese dictionaries that contain pitch notation? I am not necessarily looking for anything written for English-speakers (I'm pretty sure there is no such thing, as I've only found one textbook's vocabulary sections aside). A native Japanese dictionary is fine, if such a thing exists. Secondly: I'm curious as to what titles or honorifics might be used to refer to and address religious ministers in Japan. Since I'll be working with Christian ministers in Japan, I'm most curious about Japanese terms appropriate in such context (in English we would generally use "Brother"/"Sister" or "Reverend", except for church leaders who are addressed according to office, ie "Pastor", and Catholic priests who are addressed as "Father"), but I'd also be interested in knowing what is appropriate for ministers of other religions active in Japan.
__________________
|
Tags |
hiragana |
|
|