Japanese Learners - Language Discussion

[ave]

I thought maybe this could be a good idea, or maybe it is not. If this remains a thread with 0 posts after 4 weeks, feel free to take out the trash and close it LOL.

Anyway, MAYBE there are some people on this board who are currently learning Japanese and would like to discuss their experiences, ask questions that go beyond the translations from the "Translation Thread".

I am currently in my 2nd term and enjoying the ride. I've been learning Japanese on my own essentially for the past 5 years, but I forgot almost all the grammar and lots of vocab. Now I'm at about 700 words & 220 Kanji. The course is lvl. 151 which is a combination of 103 and 104 (2nd year), so I am looking forward to take 200 or 250 level in September. Any course after 251/204 is already eligible for native speakers, so I guess things go pretty fast, hahah.

There must be people other than those who are either on a very high level or haven't learnt it at all but always wanted to. Anyone else who's in the process and would like to discuss stuff? And our

"Tsuyokute kakkoyoku otoko no hito no nihon ni sunde iru dounenpai gaijin kurabu"

is of course encouraged to give advice. :P

[cypherpunk]

どこで日本語を勉強していますか。
どんな教科書をお作っていますか。
ありがとう。

[Mystery]

Great thread.

Right now I'm trying the AJATT method. After a couple of short Japanese classes and the usual books, I'm giving it a shot.

Currently I'm rushing through Heisig's RTK Vol.1 and have finished about 600 Kanji. Hopefully I'll be done with the Kanji in 2-3 months and then I'll start SRS-ing sentences.

Whenever I'm not learning, I'm listening to some random japanese podcasts to get comfortable with the language.

Let's see where this takes me :)


Would be interesting to see other peoples progress or read about their general learning experience and method.

[cyberguile]

I've always wanted to learn japanese and finally play sega gaga but... never found the time to do so T_T (and a trully efficient method, not the standard "ii otenki des ne ?" crap ;) )

Have you noticed most of the languages methods start by teaching you how to say this:
"Hello, what is your name ?
-My name is blablabla"
As far as I can remember, I'm almost certain I NEVER had the opportunity to say this in my native language ;)

"My name is blablabla", c'mon, anybody would say "blablabla" only

[ave]

$B$I$3$GF|K\8l$rJY6/$7$F$$$^$9$+!#(B
$B$I$s$J652J=q$r$*:n$C$F$$$^$9$+!#(B
$B$"$j$,$H$&!#(B

$BBg3X$GJY6/$7$K9T$-$^$9!#0l=54V$K;M2s$8$e$&$.$g$&$,$"$j$^$9$N$G!"Aa$/$J$i$C$F$$$k!#652J=q$NL>A0$O$2$s$-#2$G$9$1$I!#!#!#$$$$652J=q$@$H;W$&!#3($O3Z$7$$$@$7 !"2qOC$b$D$^$i$J$$$@$H;W$&!#@h@8$O?F@Z$G$o$+$$=w$N ?M$G$9$+$i!"26$,KhF|9T$+$J$-$c$$$1$^$;$s!#(B^_^

[ave]

Just a quick question, am I the only one who sees the Japanese text I wrote in my last post as scrambled sign garbage or is this a general problem?

[cypherpunk]

Just a quick question, am I the only one who sees the Japanese text I wrote in my last post as scrambled sign garbage or is this a general problem?

Looks like garbage here too, both the quote of my post and your reply. But based on the fact that you replied, I guess you could read my questions, right?

[ave]

Yeah, and I replied by simply changing the language settings (mac). Not sure why it doesn't work. I even tried to copy it to the address bar first, copy it again and paste it because sometimes this made it work. Weird.

[cypherpunk]

Weird.

So, to confirm. On MacOS, in System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Input Sources you added Kotoeri and then Hiragana, enabled the input menu in menu bar, and when typing selected Hiragana input, and that's what came out?

Let me test.

どこで日本語を勉強していますか。
どんな教科書をお作っていますか。
ありがとう。

テスト、テスト、テスト。一、二、三。

Weird, quoting seems to work.

To me this looks like your browser is not doing proper Unicode escaping.
Safari, Firefox or Chrome? Firefox tends to work.

[Yakumo]

ave, it seems your langage input is messed up. Just looks like a mess here too.

[Tatsujin]

Yeah all the scrambled eggs mess here too.

[ave]

Weird.

So, to confirm. On MacOS, in System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Input Sources you added Kotoeri and then Hiragana, enabled the input menu in menu bar, and when typing selected Hiragana input, and that's what came out?

To me this looks like your browser is not doing proper Unicode escaping.
Safari, Firefox or Chrome? Firefox tends to work.

I use Firefox and I changed the language exactly how you described.
Not sure why it doesn't work. I never encountered this problem in any of the the other forums I'm active in. I just tried it in a forum that's vB 4.1.2 and there are no problems.
It shows correctly while I'm typing, but it's always messed up once I post it. I have no idea why, all Japanese characters show up correctly on webpages and so on.


@cypherpunk

I forgot a 'ha' after your name, just noticed that.

[Giel]

So yeah, I major in Japanese as well. I finished my first two years, so I could've graduated this year (a bachelor is 3 years in Holland) but I took a break for a year and am now studying Chinese in China. I was supposed to go on exchange this year but due to Fukushima that got cancelled.. Still rather pissed off about that, but I guess that's the way it goes.

Feel free to ask me any questions you might have :) .

[Shakey_Jake33]

Type using Unicode, guys!

Anyway, another Japanese language learner here. In my forth year of my Japanese Language undergraduate degree at University of Sheffield - bang in the middle of exam period this week, my Japanese exam is on Thursday - bricking it. Been studying Japanese for about 6 years, took the JLPT N2 in December, and can read about 2000 kanji (writing is another matter, however). Spent a year in Japan last year as a 留学生 at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, absolutely cracking year. Applying to do my master's degree in Japan, we'll see how that goes.

[Tatsujin]

本は何ですか？

[Shakey_Jake33]

(Wonders if you're seriously asking what a book is, hah).

[Decapicitated]

Wish i could learn, i'm too dumb though good luck to all very interesting to read ;)

[cez]

本は何ですか？

LOL

[Mystery]

i'm too dumb though

There are probably tens of thousands of people living in Japan right now, that are WAY dumber than you and are still able to speak and write Japanese.
If they can do it, so can you ;)

[andoba]

三年前に、日本語の勉強は一人で始めた。教科書が無しと授業も行かない、でもこの時に僕は少しを話す・・・ 実は僕の読者理解は同じに悪いだから・・・