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Terutoyo Taneda: 20 languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| japkorengchi Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6682 days ago 334 posts - 355 votes  | Message 9 of 16 23 March 2007 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Those materials are designed with the typical Japanese way of delicacy. Beautiful pictures with CDs. They have language magazines for many languages as well. And they are designed with the aim to make the users enjoy the process rather than drilling you.
Surprisingly, Chinese has become a good "mediating" language as well. Perhaps due to the 2008 Olympics, university and schools teaching foreign languages have increased. You can find hundreds of textbooks in Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, etc in Chinese bookstores. Even though I can't practise two languages at the same time by using Chinese sources, many series of them are really recommendable. The most important is that, they are much much cheaper than materials in Japanese or English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6652 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 10 of 16 20 September 2007 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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The one Japanese person I've ever met had very good English, on account of having studied in England for awhile. I still had to stop and explain myself quite a bit, but that's because I speak very colloquial New England-ese. :-)
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 11 of 16 21 September 2007 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Living in Japan, I can say many Japanese are interested in languages, and learning a language is a hobby for many, many people (unlike the general Canadian and American population), but the Japanese don't have many opportunities to use most languages and don't strive for fluency the way Europeans do.
There's also the issue that most of the "popular" and influential languages are European ones (Korean excepted), and thus very, very different from Japanese grammatically and lexically, not to mention culturally. As a result, Japanese tend to think of themselves as poor language learners, even though this is not strictly true. Nevertheless, the country is awash with language schools and wonderful language materials — generally better than what I could find back in Canada. I don't know exactly what second-language grade-school education (usually English, though French, Korean, and Chinese are also taught) is like. However, the teachers are all Japanese with imperfect English, and the teaching assistants (often native speakers from Canada, Australia, etc.) usually don't speak Japanese, so they can't explain anything and they don't understand which concepts present the most difficulty to Japanese. A lot of teaching assistants aren't even native English speakers and merely bluffed their way into their jobs.
That is a very interesting remark and quite true. However, some of the better language series also do have supplemental workbooks. Edited by Captain Haddock on 21 September 2007 at 1:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6806 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 16 24 September 2007 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Living in Japan, I am sure Captain Haddock probably knows more about the "soto"/"ura" (out/in) mentality of the Japanese. If you were to learn, or be able to speak foreign languages fluently while your supposed friends don't, it would just be very difficult to fit in, as you'd be seen as an eccentric. I've heard that fluent halfs or nisei Japanese often being bullied. Simply as a whole the Japanese think that while knowledge of foreign languages is admired, it is virtually impossible for them to obtain any realistic fluency, thus they give up before they start really trying to learn them.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 13 of 16 25 September 2007 at 4:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Hm ... while the uchi-soto dynamic definitely influences all aspects of Japanese society, I can't really imagine anyone being shunned for being able to speak other languages. Foreign languages are more chic in Japan than in Canada, where I'm from; however, I do agree that most language learners in Japan from the outset do not expect to attain any realistic level of fluency.
To the extent that half-Japanese and Japanese born abroad have trouble fitting in, it's probably due to them lacking the nuanced cultural understanding all native Japanese have. Some of them may not even speak very good Japanese. This can also be a problem with Japanese who spend several years abroad during their childhood or early teenage years. Upon returning, they're sometimes in an awkward place where they're expected to function properly in Japanese society, but they can't quite get everything right — or so I've heard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| junjiwater Newbie JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4987 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 14 of 16 04 July 2015 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi. You can get this book. But they are all used.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/B000J97NHU/ref=dp_o lp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4535 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 15 of 16 04 July 2015 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nice story, but I find it hard to believe he picked up Arabic (for instance) to fluency in less than two years.
I am not doubting he learnt many languages, but 20 languages in 18 years implies he was learning a language to fluency every 11 months on average, which I find hard to buy without some further evidence. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4640 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 16 of 16 04 July 2015 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, the 28th year looks really fishy, 5 new languages (Czchech, Indonesian, Romanian, Korean, Arabic), 3 of which are from completely new families.
And he was fluent in all of them two years later? I suppose it all hinges on his definition of fluent (or, more exactly, of "ぺらぺら"). My guess is he started writing the book in his 28th year and thought "Geeze 15 is such a puny number, I should get it to twenty, that'll sell like wildfire!"
I find this interesting. I thought I'd read that the reason Japanese courses tend to be so dry and regimented is that the Japanese themselves tend to use dry and regimented courses for learning foreign languages. Edited by AlexTG on 04 July 2015 at 11:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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