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Japanese from scratch TAC 2015 東亜 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5456 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 17 of 1702 30 May 2011 at 1:08am | IP Logged | ||
To be honest, you don't really need to learn how to write Japanese by hand, especially, as you say, while living and working outside of Japan. It's a nice thing to be able to do, but certainly not essential. I can read pretty much any Japanese text you throw at me, but my handwriting is atrocious - my katakana and hiragana never look right and I can only recall a couple of hundred kanji from memory. So, don't sweat it. Be aware, though, that Japanese people find it quite difficult to read their language in romaji, and for this reason it may be worth learning to write hiragana and katakana. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| galindo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5199 days ago 142 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Portuguese | Message 18 of 1702 30 May 2011 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
You probably need to learn to write it eventually (and at some point you'll want to be able to write it!), but it's much less stressful when you're starting out if you focus on reading. It can help to learn stroke order, and definitely pay close attention to the individual pieces of each character so you don't mix up ones that look similar.
You'll probably like them more when you get a little further in your language study and you're trying to expand your vocabulary. One nice thing is that the kanji provide a link between native Japanese vocabulary and Chinese loanwords; for example, if you've learned that moon is 月(つき) and light is 光(ひかり), then you can read 月光(げっこう), even though you wouldn't have any clue what it was if you only saw it written phonetically. Don't bother trying to learn kanji separately from vocabulary. You'll spend a lot of time on it and still not be able to really read anything. When you learn kanji as parts of words, the different readings will come naturally to you, and it won't seem as weird to have multiple meanings and pronunciations per character. I can't believe I'm recommending this site on here yet again, but from what you've written it sounds like you might like Read the Kanji. Since you're already using flashcards with romaji and audio to learn vocabulary, you could use this quiz to help you painlessly learn to read the words you know and more. I think it works because of the muscle memory you develop from having to type the word each time; that provides much better reinforcement than simply recalling the reading in your head as you look at a flashcard. And the stats and charts that track your progress can be very encouraging! Edit: if you try that site I mentioned, make sure to choose the option to hide the meaning and the English sentence, or else you will become dependent on the definition to tell you which word to type instead of paying full attention to the kanji. Edited by galindo on 30 May 2011 at 4:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 19 of 1702 01 June 2011 at 8:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Edit: if you try that site I mentioned, make sure to choose the option to hide the meaning and the English sentence, or else you will become dependent on the definition to tell you which word to type instead of paying full attention to the kanji.[/QUOTE] I'm using that link right now. It's quite nicely done. I think it's going to help a lot. The only thing it's missing is sound but everything else is done so well I don't think I'll find anything better. ありがとう！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 20 of 1702 01 June 2011 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Rikaichan. This is the ultimate pop up dictionary for Japanese. I stumbled on it on my ipod in the app store and there's a free version for FireFox and man this thing is good. I think it's going get me reading stories online in real Japanese very soon. I want to fully master the katakana alphabet too though 1st (and polish my hiragana which is passable but needs practice). When those are are polished then I can just mouse over text and get the meaning and the pronunciation without any effort. Wonderful tool. This is what I'm used to when reading Spanish/French/German and had taken for granted. It doesn't use romaji though so I want to practice katakana some more 1st.
I've found a couple of sites that people upload their Japanese short stories to. I was really hoping Wattpad would work out and they have a Japanese version but unfortunately you can't copy and paste any of the text from the stories - no mouse over translations either. Some security thing I'm guessing but it ruins what would be a great resource for reading. I'm gonna check for other Japanese language journals. I'm curious how others are doing starting from nothing like me. I am gonna watch Inuyasha (the movie) tonight. I'm still loving the anime but aside from short phrases I've memorized I can't pick a thing out yet. My vocab is small so not a big surprise. Of course I'm wondering when it will improve heh. With the other European languages it took a frustratingly long time to get so I could understand tv/movies enough to really follow the dialogue with much consistency. I would hope that previous experience with other languages would speed this up but I doubt it. I'll just have to hang in there and be very patient I'm sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 21 of 1702 01 June 2011 at 8:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh yeah - I ordered an ipad 2 64 gig to make studying Japanese more fun =D. I can't see this as a must have device if you already have a PC or laptop but if you have some cash damn it looks fun heh. I was surprised that all the stores in Tucson were sold out of it. I looked. ALL OF THEM. So I ordered it online at the apple store and should get it in about two weeks. When you buy direct from them you get an option for an engraving on the back (free of charge). I'm having them put my email address - in the off chance that I leave it somewhere and someone honest finds it... LOL.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 22 of 1702 01 June 2011 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I found some Japanese radio stations online. I can't follow the conversations but I do understand every other word. It's always "Hai!" Seriously what is up with that.
Japanese cartoon characters have more sense. They say "Hai" about as often as you would expect. I am exaggerating a little but not much. Edited by kraemder on 01 June 2011 at 9:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5641 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 23 of 1702 02 June 2011 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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It's cultural. It's like an American nodding their head while someone is talking to them. It's basically to let the other person know that you're still listening.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 24 of 1702 02 June 2011 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
How come they don't do it in the cartoons I watch - is it used more in specific situations like on the radio? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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