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Learning Japanese with only books | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6565 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes  Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 8 09 June 2007 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm spending an average of one to three hours a day studying Japanese at the library from a number of different books. I would probably fall under the category of low intermediate or high beginner.
I remember how the admin once said that if you're focusing too much on books alone, you're learning the language passively and you might have trouble with the spoken portion of the language. Has anyone ever successfully learned Japanese from mostly books ? Usually, I will dictate the lines so I have a rough idea of how it sounds like since Japanese is somewhat a monotone language. I can read all hiragana and katagana characters so pronounciation shouldn't be a problem. I have 90 days of free time and I plan to spend three hours a day reading textbooks - I have about 10 books handed down to me from friends who studied Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nissimb Tetraglot Groupie India tenjikuyamato.blogsp Joined 6405 days ago 79 posts - 102 votes Speaks: Marathi*, Hindi, English, Japanese Studies: Korean, Esperanto, Indonesian | Message 2 of 8 09 June 2007 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Aritaurus
It depends on your reason for learning Japanese language. If your goal is to be able to read Japanese books and magazines, then the method you are using is very good. But if you want to communicate using Japanese, then I think you need to learn spoken language as well. Listening to Japanese radio and TV would be a good idea. Hope this helps you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6881 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 3 of 8 10 June 2007 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I think nissimb raises a few good points.
If you just want to learn how to read in Japanese, then using books is definately the best way to go. I use a lot of books in my Japanese studies because I'm more likely to use my skills for reading than anything else (I don't have the time or money to visit Japan for the time being). Having said that, I have a little bit of a headstart with written Japanese thanks to my Mandarin studies. If you want to learn to speak Japanese, then I think it's essential to listen to the language and practice speaking it yourself. Reading sentences from your books out loud is a good start but books don't usually give you an idea of how the language sounds when spoken. Japanese is quite a phonetic language but things like intonation and pitch accent (Japanese is not as monotone as you think!) can only be learned through listening to native speakers and mimicking the way they speak. When I learnt some basic Japanese for a holiday to Kyoto some time ago, I used a combination of study books, phrasebooks, podcasts and even anime to help me get a feel for the language. I really felt proud of myself when I could recognise certain words and phrases in the anime series I was watching at the time (Azumanga Daioh, for anyone who's interested). While I'm not a big fan of anime, I saw it as good listening practice and it helped me consolidate some of the grammar points I had covered earlier. Learning Japanese through anime alone is not recommended but it sure can be a fun way to improve your listening comprehension skills! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| japkorengchi Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6671 days ago 334 posts - 355 votes | Message 4 of 8 10 June 2007 at 3:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese is different from Mandarin and English in the way that the written and the spoken language can be drastically different in grammar as well as vocabulary. If you learn Japanese through reading books only, half of the language- the spoken language and the sentence patterns of the spoken language – will be forgone. May I know the reasons that you come up with this idea?
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| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6565 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 8 10 June 2007 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't say it's a good idea to read off books if you're a fresh beginner but I actually learned quite a bit of Japanese from locals and other foreigners lending me a hand while I was in Japan. I was there three times in the past two years staying there anywhere from two weeks to a month. Right now, I may be mostly reading and dictating off a textbook but I wouldn't say it's that bad since I have some friends from Japan who are here on working holidays and we hang out once in a while. They mostly converse in Japanese and I'm starting to understand a lot more surprisingly from these books alone. I do agree that if you are a fresh beginner and only learning from books, it will be difficult for you to speak the language. With a little media and some friends to help you out on the side, I hope it's possible. Edited by Aritaurus on 11 June 2007 at 9:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6565 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 8 10 June 2007 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
There's not much reasoning to this idea. I just simply want to learn as much as I can in 90 days because I plan to visit Japan for a longer period in January or so. I do watch JET and TV Japan quite often for the dramas the offer so I guess that helps a bit. These are two 24 hour Japanese channels they offer on satellite in North America. So I am exposed to the spoken language daily. I have a few Japanese friends here to learn English while on working holidays and when we hang out, they'll usually talk in Japanese and I can endulge them with the little Japanese I know. I still think I need to improve a lot more before they take me seriously. Edited by Aritaurus on 10 June 2007 at 12:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| CaoMei513 Senior Member United States Joined 6836 days ago 110 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean | Message 7 of 8 14 June 2007 at 9:12am | IP Logged | ||
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www.alljapaneseallthetime.com
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| sergiu Diglot Senior Member Romania freewebs.com/invata_ Joined 6430 days ago 105 posts - 108 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 8 14 June 2007 at 9:38am | IP Logged | ||
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So you ARE watching Japanese TV,and not just reading it from books, then you'll be learning how to speak it in no time.
I don't know why some people set up to learn languages only with books and are satisfied with just being able to read them. Why not learn the language fully? So what if for now you don't have an opportunity to go to Japan,there will be a time when that possibility will come, and all your books wouldn't have helped you much with the communication that you will need desperately in that country. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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