learn japanese with anime?
 

would you use anime as a way to learn japanese?

i've picked up some words here and there, and thought it may be worth a try.

i've seen books where they use manga to teach japanese phrases and culture too.

any thoughts/suggestions?

I would only use Anime as a source to learn Japanese for greetings/goodbyes/formal speaking/etc. But not exactly for entire sentences in Japanese because the translations can differ with each translator. Or maybe they are close, but not exactly on the mark with what they actually said.

Not a recommended way to say the least. But it can be used to supplement your knowledge and it helps you enjoy the process :)

If you are rather serious about learning through anime though, then you should first pick up the basics from elsewhere then do the translations for the anime yourself. Play a short scene in the raw, translate it the best you can and then compare with a good translation. Rinse and repeat. Write down the words they say - IN JAPANESE - and correct yourself every time. Don't go for full length episodes because learning requires focus. It's imperative that you know Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji before you start with anime and that you know the basic grammar. Anime helps a lot with vocabulary and such and like I said, helps you enjoy the process, but without rigor, you won't be learning much, if anything ;)

No.

Of course, exposure to any language is going to lead to you learning bits and pieces, phrases and words, but you're not going to be become a proficient speaker of Japanese from watching anime alone. That's just a pipe-dream.

The thing with this question is that the replies never answer the question, "Is it possible for me to learn Japanese from anime?" The replies all answer the question, "Am I going to be able to follow through and actually study the language, or will I just end up a loser Japanophile with a lexicon of 20 words?"

Which is not necessarily a bad way to reply, because 99% of people who ask if they can learn Japanese from anime do in fact end up learning a few dozen words, minimal grammar, and call that progress. These are the people who walk around going "kawaii day-soo nay" and "sugooooy" at everything.

The short answer to "is it possible" is yes. The short answer to "is it practical" is no. The short answer to "is it practical with some supplementary material" is yes if you actually like the language. No if you are just doing it for anime.

Case study: myself.

Two years of self-study using internet grammar resources, attempting to translate songs, and watching tons of anime. After that I walked into the Japanese department at my college, took the placement exam, and started taking third-year courses.

BUT. I love the Japanese language. Once I started, I was hooked by its beauty, structure, and complexity. If you don't actually like the language, and if this is just an extension of your interest in anime, then STOP while you're still ahead.

That's all I have to say.

Personally (from someone that has lived in Japan years ago and has spoken the language (tho I suck at it)), I wouldn't use anime, manga, TV shows, movies or literature to study Japanese, since English and Japanese grammar varies so much and there's usually a bunch of terms that would be no use to any normal Japanese person.

It's like learning English by watching Friends or learning Italian by watching some mafia show. It just doesn't work well.

Though not quite the same, you can pick up some decent pronunciation skills from reading a few japanese literature books in english. Some books give a quick intro to pronunciation in the beginning of the story. Watching ending and opening themes in both english and japanese subtitles kinda helps too. Of course, this doesn't substitute for "proper" learning that others have suggested.

If you know what you're doing, sure why not. Any immersion helps.

The problem is you need to know what you're doing in the first place. You need to know when a character is using extremely casual language, when it's slang, when it's just a quirk, and there's also the way that voice acting does not sound like real conversation. Just like Western cartoons don't sound like real conversation.

And of course it's rather on the useless side for teaching the basic skills in reading, writing, and the all-important kanji study. Helps with hearing and comprehending though.

What Raiga posted for Great Truth.

I've been a fan of Japanese culture and history for 40-some odd years, sadly they did not offer Japanese during my high school/college years. Most places have some sort of instruction now -- do that.

Anime as a *supplement*, is just fine (oh, I understand almost half of what was said!!!). It will only get you in trouble if you use it as a primary source because about 3/4 of what you hear is incredibly rude when said to anyone but your closest friends.

Japanese 100% learned from anime; Chibi shojo kawaii desu!!!!!

Oh wait....

Learning Japanese from anime now that impossible but picking up some words at less that some thing you can get from anime

Using anime as a complement to learning is good, but I wouldn't use it as the sole source for learning.

The best medium to use as a complement for learning is Visual Novels though. You both learn to read and pronounce the words. But you have to learn at least basic grammar, katakana, Hiragana and like 2000 kanji before you actually start to learn something by reading them.

thanks everyone,

yeah, i was thinking more on the lines of using anime clips to supplement some other main source, like a class or a book/online text.

i just thought that a lot of examples they give in books aren't so obvious how the vocab gets used in real life, and if there were some associated anime clips, that would help reinforce the vocab a lot. and definitely make it more interesting and motivating too

Yeah. Just remember that a lot of what gets said in anime isn't reflective of real life conversations either, and of course, as Vexx pointed out, a lot of it would be considered inappropriate if said to anyone but your close friends.

I don't think you could learn Japanese from anime if you don't know any Japanese but if you have the basics down then maybe.

As many people have pointed out, using Anime as a supplement is a very viable method to learn Japanese. This is my personal story:

I started to watch non-dubbed anime around sophomore year of high school, and watched them feverishly until the end of high school (well, I still do..) When I entered college and started my beginner's Japanese class, I still practically had no prior knowledge of Japanese. The mass anime watching had not helped at all. But, by the time I was in second year Japanese class, I started to catch some words, phrases, grammar points, etc in anime. And by the time I was in third year Japanese class, I was miles ahead of my classmates in terms of my knowledge of vocabulary, fluidity of my sentences, listening ability, etc. This was the point when I was able to understand ~70% of anime Japanese. Again, let me emphasize that I watched alot of anime throughout all this, and I had also listened to a lot of Japanese music since I started college.

So, to sum it up, have a basic knowledge of Japanese first, and then, anime is a great resource to help you learn Japanese.

One thing I want to mention though, is that this method will not help you learn kanji (chinese characters), the most difficult aspect of Japanese in my opinion. Currently I can easily read a raw manga that have furigana (the readings for kanji) because I know the spoken word, but I have a hard time reading light novels as they don't have furigana for most of the kanji's, and thus I can't read them. Now, this is where visual novels come in, but I'll leave it at that., Also, the fact that I already knew Korean beforehand helped me tons in learning Japanese, so I'm not sure exactly how much anime will help for others. I know it really helped for me, though.

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, VN's are good for picking up vocab since you both get to hear someone say it and see it as text.

Though that fact means it is a very good supplement, since from my experience at least, most Japanese courses teach you how to talk more respectfully far earlier than they teach you how to talk casually.

Me and some college mates are about to try if anime and other medias can be used to help teaching japanese language through a mini-course we offered in our college.

We will try the sequence: Movie > Anime > Visual Novel > Manga > Text (Light Novel, Mukashibanashi) > Music, in a progressive sequence of difficulty. We are planning to use RAW medias and/or kana/kanji subs.

The idea is to immerse the students in the japanese language and making them stop relying on others translations.

But there are some points to be noted:
- our students are already japanese language students;
- our focus is on vocabulary rather than grammar.

Our intention is something Vexx already pointed out: using anime and other medias as a supplement to learning japanese. We believe they are useful to make japanese words and structures more familiar and to practice the already learned grammar/vocabulary. It's a complement for the textbooks/teacher's lessons and a way to keep learning through some entertainment. And serves the purpose to make students lose the fear of being confronted by the language.

Do manga before VN's, there is furigana in almost all of them which makes them more easier to read than VN's.

You could use animu to familiarize yourself with the language. Japanese games are a better source though (the ones that are voiced) because you have both text and sound. Memorizing every hiragana is mandatory, though I'd say katakanas aren't as important.

As for kanjis. I find that it's fine even if you don't memorize them. It's better to "recognize"/ "familiarize" kanjis, because believe it or not, sometimes you can know what a Japanese sentence means without actually knowing how to read it.

no way :heh:

sometimes indeed :heh:
without a good foundation in grammar, the meanings can be totally off or opposite, but easy recognition does help speed reading.


my 2 cents is that, anime is not such a good media, unless you already have some foundation in grammar and really pay attention. otherwise you will just end up learning fixed phrases. and others have pointed out the politeness and other stuff. on the other hand, with a decent starter vocab (a few thousand words) and grammar foundation, it can accelerate your learning, by giving you more context examples of words you already learnt, expanding your vocab implicitly, and increasing familiarity of things you already know.

The only thing that the anime helps in learning Japanese is in which situation you use certain words or how often do you use those words provided that you have the basic knowledge of grammar since Japanese language have two different words with same meanings. Also anime can help with familiarising yourself with the language, maybe a bit. What I noticed is that whereas in anime, the characters speak much slower than how the natural speakers are supposed to speak. And I just realised that I pretty much repeated larenthian said.

I think that's fine for people learning Japanese for hobby or non-educational purpose but if you are thinking of living there or being more involved in Japanese culture, it's more than necessary to learn those Kanji. Just by recognising the Kanji, it's mostly impossible to read a Manga without furigana. You need to memorise a few kanji to recognise the pattern.

To learn Japanese have a book, a teacher, and someone to practice it with preferably a Japanese. If your bored talking to them, watch anime then. Just to enjoy.

Like a few others have mentioned, using anime directly as the source of learning Japanese is not a good idea, using it as a supplement however is pretty okay. One way to know that you're making progress on listening is to listen to those drama CDs and see if you have any understanding of what they're saying. I say this because watching anime RAW gives you about 20-50% understanding just from the visuals alone, listening to drama CDs tests your knowledge of tone and context of the situation from the voices. This was how I knew I was making progress on my Japanese after studying it for 6 years in high school when I started testing myself to see if I knew what the characters were saying without any visual aid.

Oh, books and teachers are still the best source if one needs to learn Japanese for educational or business purposes. I only ever use it to read VNs, 2ch, or other Japanese sites I frequent, and I learned my Japanese solely through animu and VNs.

I'm curious but can I ask how long did it take you to recognise kanji by reading VNs? I guess this really depend on people to people. I can surely recognise few hundreds Kanji but most of them are confusing. Yeah, as for people who learns solely from anime and VNs do exist but for most people, teachers are definitely recommended.

About a year or so. Even though I didn't consult a teacher at least I consulted a dictionary program (and AGTH). It helped me a lot in learning kanjis and improve my overall understanding. And I was already familiar enough with Japanese grammar so it made the ride easier. At least Japanese doesn't have 16 or so tenses (not that I know of).

I would say memorizing kanji is very useful. Its critical for reading anything beyond stuff aimed at people just learning the language with any acceptable level of efficiency.

AGTH + Online Dictionary
AGTH + Hover over translations of words

Faster than looking through a dictionary by hand for the words you don't know. I think most manga with furigana tend to be for kids, thus simpler less interesting plots and characters on average. VN's ftw.

It helps building a general understanding of the language, and you can probably recognize some words or even complete sentences after a while. Still, to fully learn Japanese, do a language course (or even several, with increasing difficulty), go to a school where they teach it or read books about it.

And there is another, perhaps more helpful way. I learned English through a combination of watching a lot of cartoons (which weren't subtitled or dubbed) and by having my Dutch aunt send me English-Dutch letters from the USA. I think I could speak and write English fluently when I was around 10 years old this way, and I was virtually unsurpassed in my language skills for a very long time (and still am, as far as my relatives are concerned). If you can find someone in Japan who is willing to correspond with you in both his and your language on a regular basis (my aunt would send me letters at least once a month), you could have a basic understanding of the language relatively quick*.

Still, do not expect to master Japanese (or any language) in a few months or so. I needed 5 or so years to get my English to the point where it is now and you must practice (reading and/or writing) the language on pretty much a daily basis, else you will take even longer, or might not even master it at all.

And as said, start at the basics. No use in trying to translate words if you don't know how to write them in Japanese. Learning hiragana is a must, I'd say learning katakana is also pretty much mandatory, seeing as how Japanese has lots of loan words. Once you know that, move on to kanji. Usually, by that time, you'll have learned to recognize a few and what they mean.



*I forgot to mention that it probably helps if you ask him/her not to write kanji right away, else you won't understand any of it. You could try and ask to have him/her write in romaji or hiragana first and work your way up from there.

[QUOTE=Random32;3791648]Not sure if this has been mentioned before, VN's are good for picking up vocab since you both get to hear someone say it and see it as text.

what's VN?

thanks!!

which college do you teach at? i am thinking of proposing the same type of supplementary material for the japanese course at the college where i teach too.

You'd be surprised. I picked up Welcome to the NHK a few weeks ago and opened it up to find it had furigana. Apparently they got away with printing this in Shounen Ace, despite some very sketchy scenes and adult themes.

Keep in mind that even up through high school, students are still learning kanji. Anything not aimed exclusively at young adults and higher is likely to have full or at least partial furigana.

Ask them to write kanji with readings. Romaji is a crutch that should be discarded as soon as possible, and reading all hiragana is a massive pain.

[QUOTE=takalina;3792803]Visual Novel. Its sorta like a pick your own adventure storybook, but on a computer, with pretty pictures and music, often voice acting.

My fav is CLANNAD. It has an English translation that you can refer to if you get stuck (which if that happens a lot, you probably haven't learned enough of the basics for it to be a useful supplement.)

AGTH is a useful tool that hooks onto the text on the screen so you can ctrlcv unknown words into a dictionary and stuff like that.

There are english translations of Visual Novels (VNs) for fairly cheap at j-list.com if you want to get a feel for them. Be aware the site sells a truckload of adult products from Japan in addition to the Totoro-happy whatnot.

It's a college from Brazil called UNESP (São Paulo State University). It's one of the few Universities that have Japanese Language as a option for foreign language here in Brazil.

Though I must admit the we were surprised our project got accepted as the "Supervised Teaching Practice" we must go through in order to get our teachers licenses. ^^'

[QUOTE=Random32;3792977]Would not reccomend using the english translation as a supplement if anyone decide to use this one. Since the english translation is pretty awful and plain wrong in some cases.

I would not use anime to "learn" japanese before I took formal classes and conversed with native speakers.

It's good for supplement, like songs or movies or any other media. Remember don't just watch anime read the news watch movies too.

However, you wouldn't tell japanese to learn English JUST by watching Pulp Fiction or Looney Tunes would you?

anime did help me to pick up some common words, but if u are serious u should go for language classes

btw i think the most effective method to improve is l using the language daily

I actually "learned" quite a bit of English from watching Cartoon Network as a small kid. Believe it or not. :heh:

Had no idea what the characters were saying at first, of course, but after several years of observation (and a vocabulary in my tiny hands), I got a nice headstart on my fellow kindergarteners and classmates. Obviously, it's just casual talk, nothing formal, which you still need to learn properly along with the general rules. There's no way around that. You DO need a teacher/book to tell you WHY or WHEN.

I'm certain the same can be applied to Japanese, or any other language out there. You get a small vocabulary in your head from anime, along with some pronunciation. Some common sense in source material selection is required though. :)

Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji on the other hand, that's an extra beast to tame.