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Destination 日本語 (TAC 2012 Team 龍) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6622 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 9 of 16 11 January 2012 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Or, when you flop down in front of the TV, make it a Japanese drama :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sundance Newbie United States Joined 4716 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 10 of 16 15 January 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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My post-holiday blues have been banished, and I think I discovered another source for my depressed attitude last week: I was coming down with the flu. In fact, I missed two days of work last week, and I am not fully recovered yet, but I'm pleased to report that I still managed to study for 20 minutes 6 out of the last 7 days. The only day I missed was Friday, the day I pushed myself to go back to work, and I was just too exhausted. I should have stayed home and studied Japanese instead. (*evil grin*)
I have now worked my way through the entire pronunciation/introduction chapter of Barron's Mastering Japanese. It's not the ideal textbook (weird romaji and some outdated vocab), but I can tell that my listening comprehension has improved. I can hear the pitch variations in the examples they recorded, as well as the difference in sound for double consonants versus a single consonant. I'm not sure that I'll hear these distinctions in everyday speech, or that I can reproduce them myself. Maybe that comes with time. I still plan on reviewing the pronunciation chapter for the rest of this month, even as I move on in my other textbooks, which I have been neglecting. I like the idea of splitting up my study time, so that 20 minutes might be pronunciation, another 20 could be vocabulary and still another 20 could be grammar. This week my goal is to continue pronunciation while working in time for additional types of study. Thanks Takato and Brun Ugle! I will try your suggestions, and I really like the idea of incorporating more Japanese media (dramas and anime) into my day. I have to say that when the alarm clock goes off in the morning and it's cold and still dark, one of the things that cheers me up is thinking that I'm going to get to study Japanese that day. Even when I was sick, I felt better just listening to the sounds of Japanese! I'm enjoying the anime Darker than Black and have other anime titles I want to watch, but I don't know too many Japanese dramas. Any suggestions are welcome! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6622 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 11 of 16 15 January 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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This site has lots of streamed dramas and movies from various Asian countries. They have subtitles, but I'm guessing you probably still need them. I don't know what you might like. I don't even know so much what I like myself yet as I'm completely new to dramas. I just try anything that looks like it might be interesting.
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| sundance Newbie United States Joined 4716 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 16 24 January 2012 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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While my neighbors were playing in or digging out from the snow this past weekend, I stayed inside and listened to some Japanese podcasts, specifically several from the Enjoy Hawaii series. Hawaii and snow, perfect combination!
I'm only on lesson 4 of Japanese for Business People, Lesson 7 of LLCJ, and the introductory lesson of Barron's Mastering Japanese, so as you can imagine I don't understand much, but I do understand some and that's exciting. I get the feeling I can learn Japanese. If I understand correctly, the purpose of this podcast is to teach Japanese tourists helpful English phrases for their trip to Hawaii. The "sensei" seems to be relatively local to Hawaii and his two female "students" are native Japanese speakers. Each episode revolves around a theme and there seems to be some discussion of American/Hawaiian customs. Some English words are used (which is really helpful at my level). Then, we hear a model dialogue in Japanese, which is later recited in English. Then the sensei explains some key words or phrases. I think in one episode one of the females was flubbing her lines and they gently made fun of her and mentioned more practice. Thank you once again, Brun Ugle. I will check out that site for J-dramas. I have also been watching some of the cultural shows on NHK World, and I enjoy when the host speaks Japanese with shopkeepers or experts, even if the host is narrating the report in English. It's cool to recognize words I'm studying in a book and hear them in the context of, say, ordering food or discussing the construction of a house. How many Kanji learned so far… 0! I guess I decided to spend January focusing on listening comprehension… 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5050 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese | Message 13 of 16 02 February 2012 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, what about Vietnamese? You wrote you like to learn languages by listening to them. Now, Vietnamese is a tonal language, so why not try it? There are some persons learning multiple languages at the same time. Maybe you'd be tempted to learn Japanese after seeing what Vietnamese is like. Or maybe you'd stay at Vietnamese and be willing to learn more Japanese as well, just to be able to compare them.
I'm just guessing, but unless you learn some Vietnamese, nobody will be able to answer it. So what do you think? Does my writing make any sense? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lasciel Groupie United States Joined 5375 days ago 55 posts - 81 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 14 of 16 02 February 2012 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not sure if you're still learning kana, but if so one site I recommend is www.realkana.com/. Not saying it's the best but it helped my study the kana. Good luck on your journey :)
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| sundance Newbie United States Joined 4716 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 15 of 16 07 February 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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My apologies for not updating my log for a while. I admit that my Japanese studies have stalled, mostly because of work-related issues. I have not only not progressed; I haven't done any studying except for a couple of three mini sessions.
Despite this, I think I have now found renewed motivation. I mentioned previously that I have been using Living Language's Complete Course Japanese: The Basics. I really like it because vocabulary and patterns are introduced at a good pace for me and, most importantly, they are recycled. The drawback is that everything is in romaji only. The book has helped me understand spoken Japanese, but I do understand the need to use kana and kanji. Where does renewed motivation come in? On a whim, I pre-ordered the brand spanking new Living Language Japanese: Complete Edition. My hope was that it would include the material I had been using, only with kana. And guess what? It does! And from the intermediate book on, it uses kana and kanji! I literally just got the package with the book, so I have only done a cursory examination of the material, but I think I am going to like it! Thanks, Lasciel, for the kana site. I am still learning so I will check it out. On a wanderlust note, instead of using my gift card to buy Remembering the Kanji, I bought Vietnamese for Beginners… So, Takato, I may indeed take up the challenge of Vietnamese and Japanese at the same time! I certainly have more opportunities to practice Vietnamese where I live. And I realized that I do, in fact, know at least 10 kanji by heart despite not studying any. I'll explain more in my next post… Happy belated Year of the Dragon! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sundance Newbie United States Joined 4716 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 16 of 16 08 February 2012 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just a quick update on my new language tool: Living Language Japanese: Complete Edition. It's not 100% identical in content to Living Language's Complete Course Japanese: The Basics, but it's a similar format with more exercises and with kana (and eventually kanji). It does, however, still include romaji as well.
When I've worked with it more, I'll give a more detailed report. I just didn't want to leave a false impression that the two courses were identical, with only kana/kanji added! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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