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Asiaglot - Starting with Japanese! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| vavarazzi Newbie United States Joined 5937 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Vietnamese | Message 1 of 4 01 June 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all,
I've been studying Japanese for about 5 years as a perfect example of Why Language Classes Suck. My Japanese Linguistics BA does not make me fluent in Japanese. Well, now that I've been accepted into the JET Program, I want to REALLY make mastering Japanese a priority. Not just what I think is a priority, where I read ABOUT learning Japanese but not actually learn Japanese....y'know? I'm sure we're all guilty of that sometimes. The thing is, I'd like to become an Asian language polyglot at some point. Despite studying German and Spanish a little bit, I always go back to Asian languages....I know they're "difficult", but somehow, their grammar (whether it be agglutinative with Japanese/Korean or that simple style I don't know the name of, like Vietnamese) always really works for me well. (Seriously what the heck is with European languages and WORD GENDER?) So I started the blog Asiaglot in an attempt to document my journey into REALLY mastering Japanese (and then other Asian languages later). One language at a time, yo. My writing style is probably obnoxious but I figure that as long as I have a few readers, I'll have the burning desire to NOT LET THEM DOWN, and that'll act as a bit more motivation for me to really get stuff done. On Asiaglot (not to be confused with The Asian Polyglot :P) I'm going to try to make interesting posts about language and fun Japanese cultural stuff, whereas my language log (this thread) is going to be my place for writing down the more boring stuff, like "Read a Japanese book for 3 hours today. Learned 20 kanji." etc. Wish me luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4686 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes  Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 2 of 4 02 June 2012 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Vavarazzi!
I would like to wish you good luck for your "asiaglottery" quest! Which languages do you plan to tackle apart from Japanese? I would also like to react to:
Considering you're dealing with a language that mixes three different scripts and a complex system of politness (and that a BA was not enough to teach you), I'm not sure "word gender" is such a big issue. It's certainly less an issue that remembering the kanji associated with words! Then you're probably going to face tones later if you go out of the Japanese/Korean couple, so genders really are a piece of cake compared to those. Anyway, I initially really wanted to wish you good luck, and keep us updated! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vavarazzi Newbie United States Joined 5937 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Vietnamese | Message 3 of 4 03 June 2012 at 7:06am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for wishing me luck! And yeah, haha, I guess the fact that I started learning Japanese back in high school by paying attention to what they say in anime got me pretty used to a lot of the aspects of Japanese that people consider difficult...so I guess I've kind of forgotten how hard Japanese actually is. Like, I'm at the point now where I honestly don't find Japanese that difficult since I'm so used to it, I just haven't dedicated enough time necessary to pick up all the vocabulary and kanji I need. THE TIME TO CHANGE IS NOW! But yes, I'm sure that if you're used to gender then it would totally be a piece of cake too. :P I guess I'm just used to being able to write whatever the heck I want in Vietnamese (I've been taking a Vietnamese class all year) with relatively little trouble because the grammar's so easy, whereas in my German class (which I also took this year) I had to spend a lot of time thinking about which case or adjective endings to use....but you're definitely right about the tones. I still have trouble being understood in Vietnamese because of my poor pronunciation. Moral of the story: LANGUAGES ARE HARD IN DIFFERENT WAYS, EH? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vavarazzi Newbie United States Joined 5937 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Vietnamese | Message 4 of 4 03 June 2012 at 7:49am | IP Logged | ||
Oh right, forgot to answer this. I'd really like to master Vietnamese since I've been enjoying the language a lot in the university course I've taken of it. I don't know any non-American-born Vietnamese people my age, but I volunteer teaching ESL to older Vietnamese immigrants and they've always been such wonderful, friendly, down-to-earth people. So...Vietnamese is--at the moment--next on my list! I want to maintain what I have, but it's going to be tough not having any contact with Vietnamese after this once I move to Japan. I need to learn the ways of all you badass polyglots who maintain languages without a strong media presence. (That's often the problem with Vietnamese...it's easy to find entertaining Japanese media to learn from, but with Vietnamese it's a little trickier.) Languages I am definitely going for: -Japanese -Vietnamese -Mandarin Others I will try my best to get to at some point: -Indonesian -Thai -Korean (I honestly don't really care for the sound of the Korean language nor the pop culture, but from what I've dabbled in it seems like Korean is definitely a logical language choice if I finish Japanese, and Korean food is tasty as heck, so...I'll probably just go for it eventually.) Others I have a weird interest in but will probably only get around to if I really have no life: -Burmese -Mongolian I also am really interested in Turkish but I don't know if that really counts as Asian or not. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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