My friend said I might need to “pre-learn” japanese before I go into basics in post secondary (unsure if its college or university). Should I do it? Because I’m pretty sure the basic Japanese course is for people with no Japanese backround (language as well).

I was expecting “Eh?” at the end considering it was Canada Dry or whatever that’s called. haha. I need to practice more… I haven’t seriously since summer. Time to crack open those Japanese textbooks that I never gave back to my school during the break.

I’m presently taking Nihongo lessons with a private tutor, she’s really nice and have been here for about 6 months now I think…She’s, no duuh, from Japan…But yeah…the way I do it…it that I got myself this goofy manual with lame instructions…it’s rather confusing, because it was made for native English speakers…but nevertheless it kind of helps…it had some stickers that i put on all over my house and i walk around and reapeat the words…when I work or wait in line or walk to some place I try to remember them…I made myself some pretty umm…tables I guess with hiragana and katakana…so it’s all neat and clear…well basically, I try to do the “remembering” part on my own at home when I can…and the “understanding” part with my tutor about twice a week…

said all that, I don’t feel like I’m progressing XD

oooo and hooray for typos (slap me)

The real secret to learning Japanese…

I’d have to say being born into a Japanese family in Japan. 6 years of intensive language study have convinced me.

The only thing that kept me learning Japanese in uni was that I knew that when I pasted by the grade school on the way to my campus I could stop anyone of those yellow-hatted little rugrats, challenge them to a kanji showdown, and send them crying to their mommies.

The ego-trip always ended when I remembered that they at least could speak fluent Japanese :(

My kanji is at a high school level now but my speaking still stinks.

I’m presently taking Nihongo lessons with a private tutor, she’s really nice and have been here for about 6 months now I think…She’s, no duuh, from Japan…But yeah…the way I do it…it that I got myself this goofy manual with lame instructions…it’s rather confusing, because it was made for native English speakers…but nevertheless it kind of helps…it had some stickers that i put on all over my house and i walk around and reapeat the words…when I work or wait in line or walk to some place I try to remember them…I made myself some pretty umm…tables I guess with hiragana and katakana…so it’s all neat and clear…well basically, I try to do the “remembering” part on my own at home when I can…and the “understanding” part with my tutor about twice a week…

said all that, I don’t feel like I’m progressing XD

oooo and hooray for typos (slap me)

Umm, what I want to know is where you got that spiffy hat.

I guess it can’t be emphasized enough how important hard work is, eh?

Regarding “pre-learning” for university, I’d agree with Koichi. Also at my university it’s a prerequisite for the Japanese course being able to read and write both, Hiragana and Katakana! (I’m studying in Berlin, Germany) So it’s probably a good idea to learn them, which is not very difficult in my opinion, it just takes time and regular repetition.

As for learning Japanese by watching Anime (apart from the fact that the language used in Anime is supposed to be different from normal Japanese language (I can’t tell, but was told)), it might work if you are young enough, at least to some extent. I have a friend in denmark, where on TV they often show simply English shows and movies with subtitles. And my friend stated that he could speak and understand English even before having the subject in school, just by watching TV as a child, so to say. Same thing for his friends. Of course I can’t know whether this is true or not, but there might be a chance, since as a child (around 3 years of age I think) you have to greatest potential for learning new languages. Also his English is excellent in every aspect, especially pronounciation.

However, that shouldn’t encourage you to try learning Japanese by watching Anime for some reasons that Koichi already mentioned in some post I can’t find right now, especially since most of the readers of this blog are already older than 6 years. ^^ So, i suppose it will take almost everyone simply plain hard work to achieve their Japanese learning goals.

Good article. :)

Umm, what I want to know is where you got that spiffy hat.

I guess it can’t be emphasized enough how important hard work is, eh?

Regarding “pre-learning” for university, I’d agree with Koichi. Also at my university it’s a prerequisite for the Japanese course being able to read and write both, Hiragana and Katakana! (I’m studying in Berlin, Germany) So it’s probably a good idea to learn them, which is not very difficult in my opinion, it just takes time and regular repetition.

As for learning Japanese by watching Anime (apart from the fact that the language used in Anime is supposed to be different from normal Japanese language (I can’t tell, but was told)), it might work if you are young enough, at least to some extent. I have a friend in denmark, where on TV they often show simply English shows and movies with subtitles. And my friend stated that he could speak and understand English even before having the subject in school, just by watching TV as a child, so to say. Same thing for his friends. Of course I can’t know whether this is true or not, but there might be a chance, since as a child (around 3 years of age I think) you have to greatest potential for learning new languages. Also his English is excellent in every aspect, especially pronounciation.

However, that shouldn’t encourage you to try learning Japanese by watching Anime for some reasons that Koichi already mentioned in some post I can’t find right now, especially since most of the readers of this blog are already older than 6 years. ^^ So, i suppose it will take almost everyone simply plain hard work to achieve their Japanese learning goals.

Good article. :)

Unless you’re extremely motivated, I recommend taking lessons or classes at college/university or whatever else is around.

Second, is to get the audio CD for whatever book you have. It’s essential to help your listening ability, and if you have a good ear, for imitating the tone as close as possible. I realize it’s not a tonal language, but that doesn’t mean you speak it w/an English accent!

I just take it slow, one chapter at a time, making sure I master all grammar points before moving on. Whenever I have a question, I make sure to ask the sensei to clarify.

It’s also a good idea to do all of your homework. Practice listening, reading, and writing.

Another thing that helps is to come up w/sentences on your own, making use of the current chapter’s grammar points, w/your classmates, and/or native speakers, if you know of any.

I need some help with this, I know that I am not getting anywhere with what I am doing now. I ADMIT IT! But I don’t know where to start. I’m not sure where to buy books or lessons, or if I should do lessons at all. I’m a person who needs graphics and interacting, so looking at a black and white textbook would be my worst nightmare. I tried learning Hirigana at one point, but my trial ran out and I lost my study card. :(

So, what should I do where should I start. I would someday like to speak and write Japanese fluently, so I understand that I need to make a commitment.

Thanks,

Koichi,

What articles do you read every day to practice Japanese? I find newspapers a bit too difficult, but as a third-year student I probably should push myself for that.

Ideas?

Hey Dan,

I usually get my articles from Asahi.com (sometimes it will redirect you to the English version, but you can just click on “japanese” somewhere and it will take you back). Granted, it is a newspaper, but it’s not so bad in terms of difficulty (I think). Careful not to copy the grammar points too much though, it’s all really stiff, like a newspaper should be :)

カナダ。。。。。ブル

I started with a website called YesJapan (http://www.yesjapan.com) really good website. And then I got a private teacher. He was really helpful until he had to go back to Japan. Now I’m back to YesJapan and I really need to practice everyday.

Having taken two years of Japanese at my university, I found that the course moved too slowly and I spent more time complaining about how bad my teacher was than actually learning (Read: studying). Before that, I had actually done quite well at studying every day. Now it’s all gone and I miss it terribly!

Lesson: If you’re paying for something, make sure you get the most out of it instead of burning out on it.

I’ve been studying this for like 4 months and I know SOME stuff. I’m hoping that in like 4 more more months I can go to the public library, pick up one of those Japanese childrens’ books and read it with no problems, but that probably ain’t gonna happen ’cause I got issues. I do study by myself. And prettymuch the only thing I do is listen to people talk Japanese on CDs and stuff(and, duh, it doesn’t work). So I look through coursebooks and stuff and on the internet, and I end up making stupid songs about Japanese words. and i say it for like a day or two. and i end up memorizing a lot of words in books ’cause it seems interesting.

I’ve been studying this for like 4 months and I know SOME stuff. I’m hoping that in like 4 more more months I can go to the public library, pick up one of those Japanese childrens’ books and read it with no problems, but that probably ain’t gonna happen ’cause I got issues. I do study by myself. And prettymuch the only thing I do is listen to people talk Japanese on CDs and stuff(and, duh, it doesn’t work). So I look through coursebooks and stuff and on the internet, and I end up making stupid songs about Japanese words. and i say it for like a day or two. and i end up memorizing a lot of words in books ’cause it seems interesting.

So, I dont know how easy this is for everyone, but I would recommend trying to find childrens’ books and reading them. Also, if you want to watch the TV to learn SOME Japanese I would say try the children shows. This will not only teach you a few words, but also some culture as well. Think about to when you were learning English in elementary school. They made us read a certain number of books a week with your parents. When you didnt understand a word you would ask what it was and you moved on. Also, one of my professors said that keeping a journal/diary in Japanese is another good way of learning. But remember to start slow. They say that reading outloud takes the most amount of brain work, but what if you had to read out loud hiragana, katakana, and kanji? More brain work! I dont know how easy anyone can get a hold of Japanese kids books, but I found a Japanese store that sold books, so I picked a few up and read them to my TAs and the Japanese exchange students. My professor actually commented on how well my reading got! I was pretty proud. Best of luck everyone!

So, I dont know how easy this is for everyone, but I would recommend trying to find childrens’ books and reading them. Also, if you want to watch the TV to learn SOME Japanese I would say try the children shows. This will not only teach you a few words, but also some culture as well. Think about to when you were learning English in elementary school. They made us read a certain number of books a week with your parents. When you didnt understand a word you would ask what it was and you moved on. Also, one of my professors said that keeping a journal/diary in Japanese is another good way of learning. But remember to start slow. They say that reading outloud takes the most amount of brain work, but what if you had to read out loud hiragana, katakana, and kanji? More brain work! I dont know how easy anyone can get a hold of Japanese kids books, but I found a Japanese store that sold books, so I picked a few up and read them to my TAs and the Japanese exchange students. My professor actually commented on how well my reading got! I was pretty proud. Best of luck everyone!

What I do to learn Japanese is use my ‘Talk Japanese’ CD and textbook as well as looking revising some of the Kodasha Kanji learner’s Dictionary before I go to school each day. By the way if you need to learn Hiragana/katakana there’s this fantastic game you can play at http://www.realkana.com . It’s what I used to learn Hiragana and Katakana and it’s worked a treat. One tip. If you’re concentration isn’t so great(like mine) just try doing whatever you do to learn Japanese for a few minutes each day. Little and often is sometimes the best way foreword.

if you dont know where to start, tae kim’s page is good. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

like the new layout!