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Kuji’s Krazy Log II

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 385 of 706
17 January 2014 at 1:27pm | IP Logged 
Sizen wrote:
I'm flirting with European Portuguese a bit this year, actually. :P I'm using Eurom5 to teach myself to read,
and my family and I are thinking of doing a trip to Portugal and Spain in 5 years or so, if we can make it work.
Either way, I'll be interested to read about your progress in Portuguese as well as your Japanese.

Also, I thought I'd give you another website that's good for example sentences/uses of words as thanks for
the tatoeba website tip! I hadn't ever heard of that website up until now. It's a bit less user friendly as the
website is entirely in Japanese (good chance to practice browsing in Japanese!) and there's no furigana or
romaji, but here it is. Using a browser plugin like rikai-kun fixes the latter problem,
however. This is usually where I go when my J-J and J-E dictionaries fail me.

Anyway, good luck this year.


Thank you very much! Ah, ALC! I love that site. I actually use either tatoeba.org, ALC or Weblio (which is also all Japanese) for my Japanese example sentences. I tend to trust ALC or Weblio more nowadays for Japanese, but tatoeba.org is the best database of example sentences for Portuguese that I've found. And rikaikun is great as well. I use the Firefox version, Rikaichan.

Eurom5! Sounds interesting! What is that?
1 person has voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 386 of 706
17 January 2014 at 1:49pm | IP Logged 
TRAIN PAIN
This is a recurring theme. I'm still having trouble with my afternoon train commute. I just can't study Japanese during that time like I used to.   

For the past two months I've attempted to read a volume of Crayon Shinchan during the commute, and it's nice. The comic book is funny, all the kanji have furigana listed above them, so it's easy to look up words, it is very conversational, and it is not that difficult.

So what's the problem? It's kind of embarrassing reading that comic book in front of other people. It's sort of a kids' comic. Plus, the language can be crude sometimes. The 5-year-old main character dreams of beautiful ladies in bikinis and makes fun of his mother's, uh, chest. If I can get one of the single seats on the train, or if I'm otherwise by myself, it's no problem. But lately I've had to sit next to other people, or the train has been crowded.

I need to think about what to do when that happens. I could do Anki reviews, but I do those during lunch breaks. I have a listening playlist; maybe I could practice some silent chorusing or shadowing. Maybe I could record some radio, and just listen to some Japanese pop during that time.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6587 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 387 of 706
17 January 2014 at 6:11pm | IP Logged 
You don't look Japanese though? (which could be one issue with practising :S)
Also, the people might look at the cover at the book but I think actually reading the pages is more uncommon than we tend to worry. Most people have something more interesting to do on their commute than reading what you are reading.

But yeah, sometimes I even worry that someone who speaks English will understand what I'm reading in a Romance language. Although not many Russians speak English to begin with.

You can get a fake book cover maybe? Although IDK, would you say you attract attention by your very presence?
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1e4e6
Octoglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4280 days ago

1013 posts - 1588 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 388 of 706
17 January 2014 at 10:59pm | IP Logged 
There seem to be a few Portuguese in Japan:

Portugueses em Osaka, Japão

Portugueses em Tokio, Japão

I have never been to Macão, but since it is a national language, I would guess that
people would know basic conversation at least, from compulsory education.
2 persons have voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 389 of 706
17 January 2014 at 11:44pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
You don't look Japanese though? (which could be one issue with practising :S)
Also, the people might look at the cover at the book but I think actually reading the pages is more uncommon than we tend to worry. Most people have something more interesting to do on their commute than reading what you are reading.

But yeah, sometimes I even worry that someone who speaks English will understand what I'm reading in a Romance language. Although not many Russians speak English to begin with.

You can get a fake book cover maybe? Although IDK, would you say you attract attention by your very presence?

Not usually. I get stares from kids and men over 65 years old, but that's about all the attention I get on the train.   

I have a fake book cover, so nobody can see the outside of the book. Maybe you are right: people are probably not looking at the pages I'm reading. I guess I'm paranoid, though, because one time I was practicing writing some kanji, and an elderly man in the seat across from me told me that I was writing one of them with the wrong stroke order.
1 person has voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5156 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 390 of 706
17 January 2014 at 11:45pm | IP Logged 
kuji, it's paulista. It doesn't change according to changer, so you say 'um paulista'
or 'uma paulista' likewise.

Paulistano is someone from the city of São Paulo. Paulista is someone from anywhere in
the state of São Paulo (including the city, therefore). We usually call people from
other states, no need to be so specific that someone is a 'paulistano' when they are
out of São Paulo, so, it's to just say 'Ele á paulista' (no article, notice it).

Good luck with speaking Portuguese in person! Brazilians are usually receptive towards
foreigners trying to speak the language, at least as far as I've noticed. Reminds me
that I should try speaking Chinese for real, but, it is always somewha risky, as
Chinese people here are normally shop owners and don't always speak Mandarin.

As for the commutes, I agree with the disguise cover, and you could also try shifting
Anki reviews and podcast listening, for a test. I have a fixed schedule but I am
sometimes surprised when I have to shift something and it ends up smoother and more
efficient (I just decided not to do 3 Chinese activities in a row, and it is hasv
proved to be better).
2 persons have voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4837 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 391 of 706
17 January 2014 at 11:49pm | IP Logged 
1e4e6 wrote:
There seem to be a few Portuguese in Japan:

Portugueses em Osaka, Japão

Portugueses em Tokio, Japão

I have never been to Macão, but since it is a national language, I would guess that
people would know basic conversation at least, from compulsory education.

Whoa, 1e4e6, you just gave me some interesting videos to watch! Osaka - that's my city! Hmmm... maybe I have hope to meet some people from Portugal in Osaka after all.   All of this does nothing but add to my motivation to learn Portuguese.
1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4655 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 392 of 706
17 January 2014 at 11:52pm | IP Logged 
kujichagulia wrote:
It's kind of embarrassing reading that comic book in front of other
people. It's sort of a kids' comic. Plus, the language can be crude sometimes.


Can't you keep that book for when you can read in private and just read something else in
public?

As for me, I'd probably be boring and read a newspaper on a train anyway.



2 persons have voted this message useful



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