Learning Japanese

[Risaa]

...The meanings, anyways. You still have to learn the Japanese pronunciation. (Now this is where I suck - I can look at a character and know the meaning, but it takes me next to forever to learn to pronounce them correctly.)

[FatPianoBoy]

Originally Posted by Risaa

...The meanings, anyways. You still have to learn the Japanese pronunciation. (Now this is where I suck - I can look at a character and know the meaning, but it takes me next to forever to learn to pronounce them correctly.)

This can be remedied somewhat by learning a character as a whole: meaning, character, and pronunciation[s] as a single hunk rather than separately. It's more work initially, but it saves time and effort in the long run.

[Vexx]

Flash cards are your friends... love them and play with them every day

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

This can be remedied somewhat by learning a character as a whole: meaning, character, and pronunciation[s] as a single hunk rather than separately. It's more work initially, but it saves time and effort in the long run.

That's the way I usually study them - I definitely don't want to learn only a part of a character and come back later and study more of it; I'd rather just get it all done in one piece. I tend to remember the characters' meanings right away and have to work, work, work on the pronunciation. (It's the same with any aspect of RL for me as well - if you describe to me what color and size buildings are down a street, I'll know what street you're talking about. But if you tell me the name of the street... ehh, if I can't remember what the street looks like, I'm lost. )

Really, I just need to keep practicing. Eventually I'll get it.

[FatPianoBoy]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Flash cards are your friends... love them and play with them every day

Speaking of flashcards...

I've been using this for a few days, and it's definitely working. Of course, real results will take a while to gauge, but my initial impression is promising.

[WanderingKnight]

For kanji, I usually do better, when approaching a combination I don't know, remembering different combinations that involve the kanji in question, instead of learning the pronunciation by heart. I do that all the time when I'm reading heavy Japanese text (I hate resorting to a dictionary).

[Mueti]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

This can be remedied somewhat by learning a character as a whole: meaning, character, and pronunciation[s] as a single hunk rather than separately. It's more work initially, but it saves time and effort in the long run.

The pronounciation will still be harder than the meaning. Similiar to Risaa, most of the time I'll just have to learn the meaning once and I won't forget it again. But the pronounciation will still be an issue sometimes.

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

Speaking of flashcards...

I've been using this for a few days, and it's definitely working. Of course, real results will take a while to gauge, but my initial impression is promising.

I've had the experience that I won't get very far with digital cards or learning programs. I can memorize the stuff I learn much better when I don't just see it on the monitor.

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

For kanji, I usually do better, when approaching a combination I don't know, remembering different combinations that involve the kanji in question, instead of learning the pronunciation by heart.

That's good advice, I also find it easier to keep the readings in mind when I got a sample word for each one on my flashcards. In case of some kanji with lots and lots of readings there's not enough space though. ^^

[Harry McKenzie]

I just watched Hayate no gotoku eps16, and a reference to tatsumaki senpukyaku(hurricane kick) and the arrows got me wondering. Using the japanese IME, is there a way to get diagonal arrows the way you get up/down/left/right arrows.

For instance: うえ＝↑、　した＝↓　みぎ＝→　ヒダリ＝←

[holybell84]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Flash cards are your friends... love them and play with them every day

But u must take note of the slight variations of the jap kanji from the chinese characters; My jap teacher pointed that out as a common error

[Vexx]

I'm not sure what that had to do with my post since I was just saying that using flashcards was a helpful way to memorize kanji, but I'd like to let you know "jap" is considered a derogatory racial slur in some parts of the world in the same way that "chink", "wop", or "dago" is meant to dehumanize.
Since this is a global internet, you might take that into consideration before using it online.

[Risaa]

Random tiny story:

I've been e-mailing my future Japanese tutor *in* Japanese and accidently sent an e-mail with a huge mistake. I e-mailed her again with the correct way to say it and I apologized for having poor Japanese skillz....

Of course, her immediate response is that I'm very skilled in Japanese. I should've known she'd say that! That's really the universal thing to say to foreigners who're mangling your language, isn't it.

[Vexx]

Aye... I think that is genetically lasered into all japanese language teachers and the general population for that matter.
1) They seem incapable of correcting a verbal disaster. The closest my instructor comes is to say, "that's very interesting. You can also say it this way"
2) And of course, it isn't that the bear dances well, it is that it dances at all.

[FatPianoBoy]

It's kind of endearing at first, but after a while it gets annoying. After the bear has been dancing a little while, it's a good idea to start showing it how to keep a beat...

Fortunately I have two Japanese friends who will give it to me straight and one who will first say something indirect like "it's, uh... very much like you" when I ask what I did wrong and then proceed to correct me upon further prodding.
Strangers, however, will toss a 'jouzu' my way no matter how much i stutter and omit key particles.

[raikage]

If it weren't for this forum, my Japanese skills would go completely unused.

I figure they've deteriorated quite a bit at this point, which would make me the perfect recipient of the "Wow...you're really good!" reaction.

The only time I got the "That's an...interesting...expression" was during a skit when I apparently invented a phrase: すみません、今頭が遅い
(すみません、いま　あたま　が　おそい　です for those who can't read kan'ji)

at which point the teacher said, "Your head is...slow? Never heard that before, but I guess it makes sense."

I figure that once you're fairly decent at Japanese, you won't be hearing anymore about how skilled you must be at it.

[aki/kaze/shi]

I watched all my movies I had in the Japanese, anime that was subbed,(even some of my FUNimation DVDs worked when I switched to a certain subtitles..) and manga. Me and my friends often speak little words of it at school. Me and my cuz mix French into it. I also use my cuz's Japanese dictionary, which also gives you the kanji and romaji.(That is what it's called, right?) I have to help my cuz with her sentences so she can write to Kaoru to show she's improving, except, I helped. XD

I used a little kids online dictionary...he he..and pronunciation isn't really that hard for me. But now all my L's in English come out as W's. o_O I sound really messed up when I speak English now..

[Mueti]

Ah damn, I didn't do anything the last few weeks. Ok, I read about two chapters of Aria vol. 2 but that's about it. Really should try fighting my no-school-laziness and learn some new Kanji again.

[WanderingKnight]

Ah damn, I didn't do anything the last few weeks. Ok, I read about two chapters of Aria vol. 2 but that's about it. Really should try fighting my no-school-laziness and learn some new Kanji again.

Funnily enough, lately I've been playing Super Robot Wars, and my kanji repertoire has been dramatically improved. I still struggle a lot with those military-themed phrases that almost seem like Chinese (no kana, only kanji all the way till the end ).

[Cheezy]

I found a few japanese video tutorials called Basic Japanese on stage6.com. Each episode is half an hour long. I dunno if it is accurate but it's pretty good and detailed.

Here's the link:
http://stage6.divx.com/videos/search:Basic+Japanese

[Syaoran]

Makes me think about the Yan San episodes ^^'

[Kyodai]

My computer cant show kanjis instead of the kanjis there are some ???. Can someone tell me why that is and how I can solve this problem?