Learning Japanese (日本語)

[Nahrallah]

QUOTE (JunMisugi @ Aug 14 2007, 10:28 PM)Ah I already thought that you use primsleur after I read your japanese

, well it's pretty good but I rarely use it. Right now I'm learning japanese with the video course "Let's learn Japanese" it's quite funny and also pretty interesting

Heres the wikipedia page of it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Learn_Japanese.

Oh dear, am I going to end up with a big sign on my forehead saying "Pimsleur user"? As soon as I say or write something in Japanese, will it really be immediately obvious that I use Pimsleur?

JunMisugi: Is it just that the phrase that I used is familiar or is the structure poor? Ok. I just met Yan courtesy of YouTube. Clumsy guy!

Yan is rather ... unique! The presenter, Mary Althaus, is amusingly condescending.

Wow! Tokyo in the 1980s!

I just finished watching the first episode ... Watashi wa Nahrallah desu. Dôzo yoroshiku.

I knew most of what they were saying already but the, out of print, text would be helpful for revision. Let's learn Japanese looks as if it will be very useful. Arigatou gozaimasu JunMisugi-sensei.

 

[JunMisugi]

QUOTE JunMisugi: Is it just that the phrase that I used is familiar or is the structure poor? Hahaha nope the structure was good (I think), this phrase was only very familiar to me, since I also used Primsleur a while ago and so I know this phrase just too well

, I think it was the first phrase which you learn in it.

QUOTE Ok. I just met Yan courtesy of YouTube. Clumsy guy! laugh.gif Yan is rather ... unique! The presenter, Mary Althaus, is amusingly condescending. tongue.gif Wow! Tokyo in the 1980s! blink.gif I just finished watching the first episode ... Watashi wa Nahrallah desu. Dôzo yoroshiku. wink.gif I knew most of what they were saying already but the, out of print, text would be helpful for revision. Let's learn Japanese looks as if it will be very useful. Arigatou gozaimasu JunMisugi-sensei. happy.gifNo problem

, good to hear that you like it

. I think it's a great way to learn japanese since it's pretty funny and also not so difficult.

QUOTE Oh dear, am I going to end up with a big sign on my forehead saying "Pimsleur user"? I would like to see that

.

 

[Soi]

Found some free learning materials from Meguro Learning Center (MLC)...their website isn't all that great, but their material seems ok.
http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm
Scroll down until you find stuff, they really need to remake their site, though there is a lot of stuff on there. I'm thinking about remaking their website for my HTML class project. (well the initial idea wasn't to remake a website, but create my own, though they offer bunch of free stuff, so I'll use their learning material as an aid to its creation)

Anyways, to take from a previous post, about hiragana:
QUOTE I was able to read Hiragana in easily under a week just by having a list [quite large starter list of 18+ pages and then translated some common phrases afterwords] of words in Hiragana and writing them into the english transliterated version (aka something like roman/roma-ji characters) with a hiragana chart. Though, don't just learn the japanese characters and their individual sounds, there are some rules to their mixed usage also, as I found out later when I did not recognize certain words that I thought I knew. (like how a small hiragana character for tsu can create a double consonant sound. ie. school = GA-tsu-KO-U = gakkou)


Sample page from a guide by MLC:

I love having a monitor that can turn 90º

I love using it to read manga and write my papers, websites, etc.
And when I want to watch videos..reverse 90º turn!

I don't remember if I got these sites from here, but either way:

A nice and simple way to test your knowledge or learn through trial and error of clicking until you are right can be found here:
http://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/kanjigame.html

Some Hiragana games can be found here:
http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/hiragana1.htm

Hahaha! Just found these on the above site as well:
the Hiragana song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWR1Ziynt8g
and the ... hip hop ... number song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3won-7W3Js
almost doesn't sound like correct pronunciations for some of the numbers..sounds like a random person attempting to sing the japanese numbers off a page of english.

Haven't tried them yet, but it was in my favorites folder, so:
supposedly japanese - english dictionary
http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/dict
and also
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Most likely already posted, but just making a list here:
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/news.php

Page for verbs:
http://www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/index.htm

Some maps for a change-up?
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/japan/

Another random page of study material:
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/

Mahalo!
http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Speak_Japanese

And I'm still attempting to figure out how they set this site up...so I cut a few steps for you to where I've found something useful. All kinds of information from the looks of it. Colleges can have some useful resources available

though I was expecting something a bit more on the ease of navigation.
Click in the left frame list for the information:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/lal/japa...mmar_frame.html

Welp, I'll stop here with the listing.
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@Pimsleur's audio tracks
I've also tried Pimsleur myself, though it has been a while. It would seem that each method of teaching has their unique signs, Pimsleur may stand out more than other though..dunno. Went through their first 30 lessons... a year ago, but kinda ran through last 10 lessons without paying attention, so I'll have to go back and re-listen to actually determine their effectiveness in an overall sense.

I do like their method of teaching the words though. They say the word and repeat it, syllable at a time, from the end to the beginning. I wouldn't have thought of trying that without hearing it, so I believe they at least have a method of letting you learn many words without having to see them written to attempt to sound it out or make many wierd sounds attempting to match just saying the words, which can provide horrible results if you try just repeating the entire words themselves without someone to verify your accuracy.

@Let's Learn Japanese videos
Man, made back in the 80's. Awesome. It certainly does that that age old look when I was watching the first few episodes also. Though I agree that it does seem like a nice way to learn, especially since you can see live scenes and relate by vision. I also got a feeling similar to Nahrallah on Mary Althaus, though I wasn't sure what I was thinking until I read that.

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Anyways, time to finish this. Best of luck on everyone's learning endeavors!

 

[JunMisugi]

Hey ho mina-san, so today I stumbled onto something pretty interesting, its a kind of learning program, I cannot really say whether its good or not since I only tested it for a few minutes today but it looks promising

. Well heres the link http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html . It already has a japanese vocable deck preinstalled so you can tackle Japanese with it right away

. Ah yeah and of course its free^^.

Edit: Oh and though its already a bit late but thanks for the links Soi-san, they look pretty useful

 

[ImTakes]

QUOTE (JunMisugi @ Sep 01 2008, 08:18 PM) Hey ho mina-san, so today I stumbled onto something pretty interesting, its a kind of learning program, I cannot really say whether its good or not since I only tested it for a few minutes today but it looks promising

. Well heres the link http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html . It already has a japanese vocable deck preinstalled so you can tackle Japanese with it right away

. Ah yeah and of course its free^^.

Edit: Oh and though its already a bit late but thanks for the links Soi-san, they look pretty useful

Jun-san! Arigato, for the information...looked over the link you share with us all...very user friendly....humm, will have to give it a go....then converse with you in Japonese.

What is appealing is the way one is encouraged to learn and memorize a language using a deck of cards....fun and easy way to learn....

 

[JunMisugi]

QUOTE Jun-san! Arigato, for the information...looked over the link you share with us all...very user friendly....humm, will have to give it a go....then converse with you in Japonese. wink.gif What is appealing is the way one is encouraged to learn and memorize a language using a deck of cards....fun and easy way to learn.... wink.gifThough sometimes its getting a bit tiresome to learn all the words slooooooooowly~bit by bit...sigh sometimes I wish there could be a way to directly download all the japanese knowledge from the brain of a native japanese speaker into yours...saaaa but that will never be possible so the only way to learn it is bit by bit, well at least its a good feeling when you realise that you slowly improve

Ah yeah btw I just remembered on another program which chreyzee-san found and posted in the Type Moon thread, well since my old buddy haven't posted the link to it here I'll do it now http://wakan.manga.cz/?page=news&lang=en, though it may look a bit complicated but its a very useful program and helps a lot with japanese

 

[Gustav1976]

Hmmm..I should have a look at some these sites you guys suggest even if it's just to get my brain working again. Oh for the days when people can download languages directly into their minds *wistful sigh*

 

[is_darkness88]

i would like to ask..

can we live in japan if we doesn't know kanji..?
its really dificult for me to learn it... (sigh)

mostly i learn japanese from anime.
very interesting and effective.. (for me)
just for simple word.. lolz

 

[darkdog]

it's quite hard for someone who doesn't know kanji to understand pretty much anything written in Japan.. street signs, warnings, some product's instructions, subway / train station names... it's definitely a major handicap!

it doesn't mean it's impossible: it's just that, when living in japan, kanji's everywhere. but after learning the first couple of hundred kanji, it gets much easier to remember them

 

[is_darkness88]

QUOTE but after learning the first couple of hundred kanji, it gets much easier to remember them

sounds like an easy task for you..
hmm~ but if we don't try, it doesn't going anywhere, right?
gambatte..

 

[darkdog]

i actually find kanji to be interesting, which is definitely an advantage... but i've been through the hardships of studying kanji nonetheless, so i understand what you mean

it's far from an impossible mission, though! anyone can do it, as long as they give it a serious try...

 

[Soi]

One alternative to learning a couple hundred kanji before you visit Japan, if you can at least speak it well enough to ask questions and find a native willing to help you, you can ask them what the sign reads.

As for living there...I can't give any opinion on that yet, still need to see just how much is really required myself. Hoping to go within two years...college study abroad type thing. All in due time and money.

I would say being able to speak has more benefits if you want to go to Japan sooner than later. Though, if your trip is a year or two down the road, try taking on one Kanji a day, twice a day, and after the new Kanji review your previous day's kanji and at end of week review them all. I started but never finished attempting that... though I did save my kanji a day emails so I can review them properly someday...

Sign up for it here:
Kanji-a-day @ TheJapanesePage

Level 4 is the beginners and best place to start with the simplist of kanji, starting with the numerals. Make sure to practice writing them two. Beyond aiding in memory of what the kanji looks like, writing them lets you pay attention to detail and can also help to see the little differences between similar looking characters. The similiarities are the easiest things to look over and forget or confuse.

One example is how I still need to learn the differences between the characters for right, left, and stone...some very basic character sets, but nonetheless, similar enough to confuse if you didn't pay attention.

FYI, Level 4 has 103 kanji and Level 3 has ...possibly something over 284 kanji. My online list stopped there but the last one doesn't have a completed level notification so... probably need to re-sign up for it. In any case, that gives you at least 387 kanji to look over at one-a-day, meaning if you aren't expecting to leave for more than a year, this'll give you plenty to review. Even if you are expecting within half-year, you can still easily cover all their level 4 words in three and half months.

Like everything else for anyone else, it takes patience and practice to learn. Though I love the sounds of the acoustic guitar, it is most certainly giving me trouble trying to start out. Starting on the bass guitar was much easier. (less and larger strings and no chords necessary

) Man those tiny wires feel like they'll cut through my fingers. Was hoping the bass practice would have roughed it up more.

Anyways, hello again peoples! It's been more than a year since my last post if I remember right. Good luck on studies and remember to keep with it! Just a few minutes a day does more than absolutely nothing!

 

[chiisai_hana]

Unusual request perhaps, but if anyone can help ...

I have the first set of Minna no Nihongo textbooks from my Japanese classes, and today I picked up the entire second set (up to lesson 50) at the bookstore. I have found downloads of both 4-volume sets of audio CDs online, but not the txt files that contain the tracklists. Does anyone happen to have those tracklist files? I know they're included in the torrent files (assuming those are even active still) but if I open a torrent file at school, I'll be banned from internet privileges.

I'm not in any rush, so if someone happens to see this months from now ... let me know!

 

[GERBER]

Just a quick question, does any one still have the install program from http ://jls.phreadom.net/, I had to re-start my computer and lost the CD I had it in and was wondering if anyone had it still as the site has been down since way back. Message me the link so I can DDL. Thanx again and if no one has it oh well.

 

[Nahrallah]

I've notice that there are quite a few iPhone and iTouch applications for learning Japanese. Has anyone tried any of them? I'm interested to know what might be useful and effective in that line.

 

[judge lead]

primslurs audio book is what i use