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Learning only spoken Japanese | ||
Tags: Audio-lingual | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 4012 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 1 of 8 29 May 2014 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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My main goal with Japanese is being able to watch the dramas and movies without having
to rely on subtitles. I was wondering since my focus will mainly be on listening and speaking, could I forgo the whole Kana and Kanji thing? I don't really see how it relates to learning spoken Japanese and I don't plan on reading or writing anything in it. Also, I don't really have the patience to sit and study Kana, much less Kanji. I've tried it before and it was a pain. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5771 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 8 30 May 2014 at 1:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Kana are a pretty close representation of actual spoken Japanese. Learn kana, and learn the different kinds of romanization, so that you can actually look up words when you need them. There are many ressources with kana only or kana as ruby characters out there, but few using romaji only.
If you only want to learn to understand drama and movies, the best way to go is to work with drama scripts, and those are in Japanese with proper kanji. (You can easily display them in your browser with a dictionary tool that'll also display pronunciation.) Learning kanji is indeed optional, though many people find that it helps when with the many homophonous syllables. Oh, and there seem to be a host of people who are willing to exchange messages even with beginning learners, even kana or romaji only. But I've also heard people complain a lot about learners who didn't want to learn about the actual life of Japanese but only about one small fandom field, and also about learners who didn't even try to learn kanji. (Not being any good at it seems to be alright, but not even trying ... not so much?) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4643 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 8 30 May 2014 at 5:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I read in the introduction of a book from the 60s which focused on written Japanese that the standard
approach of the time was to teach spoken Japanese with romaji. The course maker wasn't just trying to talk up his own approach, he spoke very nicley about some of these other courses. So there's stuff out there you could use, though you might have to buy second hand. Edited by AlexTG on 30 May 2014 at 5:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4894 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 4 of 8 30 May 2014 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I know a lot of people in Hawai`i who speak decent Japanese and can't write or read
much at all. But between the tourists, heritage speakers, and new arrivals there are a lot of opportunities to speak here, so we might have a leg up on others who don't have that same exposure. However, in other languages I've noticed a huge gap between 1) being able to hold basic conversations and 2) being able to follow movies and shows. The only way I've been able to bridge the gap is through immersion, or through tons of reading. I think it might be possible to reach higher levels without kana, but I also think it would be really hard. Edited by kanewai on 30 May 2014 at 12:39pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| betelgeuzah Diglot Groupie Finland Joined 4406 days ago 51 posts - 82 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Japanese, Italian | Message 5 of 8 30 May 2014 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Like the previous posters have stated, learning to write and read Japanese is completely optional (the former more so than the latter). However my personal opinion on the matter based on a few years of studies is that in Japanese the kanji form a crucial part of the language. The sounds the words consist of are not as important as the meanings behind them (the kanji). There are significantly less sounds in Japanese than for example English, and as the result there are a lot of words with similar spelling.
However even with similar spelling the words may not have anything (else) in common as they use completely different kanji. In my opinion learning new words through the written language becomes quite a bit easier compared to the spoken language once you've gotten used to the writing system. You will also miss important information by only knowing the vocabulary in a spoken form. You could compare this to the alphabet symbols which only hold information regarding the spelling of the word. In Japanese much more information is conveyed through the written language. So in a nutshell, as far as I am concerned the written Japanese is a much better representation of the language than the spoken Japanese. There are so few sounds in Japanese and only a few additional quirks (pitch accent comes to mind) that, at least to me, the language would be quite boring if it wasn't for the writing system. However, to reiterate, the written language is completely optional if that is not what you want to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 4012 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 6 of 8 30 May 2014 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for everyone's input. It looks like I wouldnt be able to get very far without
some knowledge of the written language. I think that I may be able to learn the scripts faster if I focus my time on recognition rather than writing and stroke order. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 4012 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 7 of 8 30 May 2014 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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A small fandom field is how it starts out. it was like that for me with German. At
fircould st I only cared about it so I enjoy Rammstein without having to look up translations, then it became German music in general, then it snowballed into movies and TV shows, and after that it became about the people and the culture and when I went and got to experience it for myself I was completely sold on this country the size of Montana, lol. Sometimes fandoms are a gateway drug.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5771 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 8 30 May 2014 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know that for many, a small fandom field is what sparks the interest. What I meant to say is that there are some people who *stay* with that single interest, and that it can be tiring for native speakers who try to help those learners. And help is needed, especially when you want to learn only the spoken language.
There are a number of sites that can teach you kana recognition. I use kanjibox for kanji, but they also have kana. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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