kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 497 of 1702 19 August 2012 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
Takato wrote:
I know you find it lame to be able to comprehend but unable to read Japanese texts, but why not do it if it's
easier? Even Japanese people didn't learn the spoken and written language simultaneously, only by the time
they had a solid foundation in the language. Now I don't say that I consider you a Japanese child or anything,
I just mean that if it's difficult to learn both at once then it's not your fault.
I find learning spoken Chinese rather difficult (probably more difficult than it actually is) so I started on the
written language and it's going well so far. I realize that Chinese is not Japanese and that real much words
are written in kana in Japanese, but you could give it a try, if you find it the least appealing. You could always
listen to Japanese subtitled music videos and what not later on, somewhat like how Woodsei did, so I don't
mean to ignore spoken Japanese forever (I didn't ignore spoken Chinese by the way, when reviewing already
known hanzi, I always read the pronunciation so it can stick to my memory if it wants, but I'm not worrying
about it.)
I mainly mean that if a language is hard overall then it would probably be a good idea to learn the easier parts
first. (I guess you know most kanji so you should probably listen to or watch subtitled Japanese.) |
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Well I want to make it as easy on myself as possible. I don't know that this route is necessarily harder yet. If
it turns out to be then I'll give it up. Reading a language to me is a great way to learn because you can hear it
in your head at your own pace and with better comprehension. So if I read a Japanese text, and I don't hear
the language at all in my head, then I'm missing out on why I'm reading it. Assuming I don't know how to
pronounce most of what I'm looking at - if it's only occasional then that's different. If I know common
pronunciations for most of the kanji then it should help jog my memory so I can think of the word I'm looking
at - assuming I've studied it before.
I can't help thinking there's a reason why Japanese teachers teach the pronunciations when they teach kanji.
I'd also really like to get away from the furigana crutch I have at the moment. I use a furigana add on in my
web browser for all of my reading. And there's a student in my class I study with who takes the time to learn
all the pronunciations of the kanji she learns - I don't want to look dumb in comparison heh.
*edit*
Just wanted to comment on what I felt was lame when I was reading. I'm not sure maybe it wasn't clear - it was that I was looking at vocabulary that I had seen before but I could only think of the English when I looked at the word written in kanji. I couldn't think of the Japanese - even though it was a word I'd seen. But I was reading Japanese text so it was staring me in the face...
It's not that I was looking at a word I'd never seen in my life. I think it's kind of neat that I can guess at the meaning of a word without having studied it. But at the same time a little frustrating not knowing how to say it. A bit of a trade off. Not lame per se though. But the above experience I would say felt lame.
Edited by kraemder on 19 August 2012 at 2:53am
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 498 of 1702 19 August 2012 at 2:48am | IP Logged |
g-bod wrote:
ニュ is a different sound though. Hmm, maybe a ニュ equivalent sound is just much more common in English words borrowed into Japanese. I'm ok with remembering ナ, I think because of the similarity to the first two strokes you write in な. But I still struggle to recall ヌ. |
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I can't say I really hear a difference. I guess ニュ has a little bit of a y sound in there somehow maybe.
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6618 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 499 of 1702 19 August 2012 at 7:55am | IP Logged |
Everyone has trouble distinguishing sounds in a new language, and to some extent, even in their own language, but it does get better.
I see you study/have studied Spanish. Think of the ニュ as being a bit like ñ. Maybe that will help.
My worst one is ひょう vs しょう, which is a little funny since we have the same sounds in Norwegian and I don't seem to have so much trouble there. I think those are difficult sounds though since a lot of younger Norwegians use the sh sound for both sh and hy.
Regarding writing the katakana, I suspect that is somewhat difficult for everyone since it is used so much less than hiragana. I know I've had problems with it. I've not been writing enough, especially by hand lately so even my hiragana has deteriorated. But even when I knew hiragana almost as well as the Latin alphabet, I always struggled with katakana. When I write it, I sometimes have to look up how to write the letter and when I read, I have to carefully look at each letter and then slowly sound the word out.
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Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese
| Message 500 of 1702 19 August 2012 at 1:05pm | IP Logged |
kraemder wrote:
And there's a student in my class I study with who takes the time to learn
all the pronunciations of the kanji she learns - I don't want to look dumb in comparison heh. |
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Who knows more kanji, you or she? Also, can she speak German? Dumbness is not based on only one aspect.
Edited by Takato on 19 August 2012 at 1:06pm
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 501 of 1702 20 August 2012 at 1:06am | IP Logged |
Takato wrote:
kraemder wrote:
And there's a student in my class I study with who takes the time to learn
all the pronunciations of the kanji she learns - I don't want to look dumb in comparison heh. |
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Who knows more kanji, you or she? Also, can she speak German? Dumbness is not based on only one aspect. |
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heh it's more my competitive spirit rising up that doesn't want to lose to her ;).
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Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6618 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 502 of 1702 20 August 2012 at 9:02am | IP Logged |
Ah! The good old competitive spirit. It can really take you far, as long as you aren't one of those people who have such difficulty with losing that you give up as soon as you fall behind.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 503 of 1702 21 August 2012 at 12:55am | IP Logged |
Brun Ugle wrote:
Ah! The good old competitive spirit. It can really take you far, as long as you aren't one of those people who have such difficulty with losing that you give up as soon as you fall behind. |
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Losing? Fall behind? Me?
Not likely. I have the advantage ;). I'm able to self study and go beyond the classroom. I've completed RTK1, taught myself the 1st semester of Japanese, have already reviewed all the chapters we'll be covering this fall, and have the added experience of reaching a respectable level of competency in German and Spanish. I don't plan to "lose".
We're really competing per se. But if a competition could be arranged I wouldn't lose XD.
But if I did I'd be thoroughly impressed because I put a lot of time into this. To answer your question it wouldn't discourage me in the least. I'd actually be motivated seeing 1st hand someone else as driven to learn this language as I am.
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kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 504 of 1702 23 August 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged |
Funny my last post is full of confidence and maybe a little boastful. 1st class today this semester coming up.
And I can't help thinking I haven't spoken Japanese since he last called on me in the spring. Damn class
participation. Hate that about language classes!
Edited by kraemder on 23 August 2012 at 1:00am
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