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Is Japanese ridiculously hard? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| vexx Groupie Australia Joined 5219 days ago 81 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 1 of 60 31 August 2010 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese has been my dream to learn forever but it just seems impossible, so i will perhaps give it a go anyway in
a few months. The spoken doesn't seem that bad (where i'll start), i quite like it so i could learn it over time... But the written? I did a bit of research and it appears its purely done by memorisation? I could barely understand what the easiest letters were about and don't know where i would even get with Kanji. As a pure beginner, I actually have no idea where I am meant to begin, it seems overwhelming to just suddenly jump into memorising all sorts of bizarre characters. How do people learn written Japanese then? Is it really about just memorising some characters everyday and what they mean. This seems really tedious, are there any resources that actually have some method of learning that is not this? I don't know if I want to be doing memorising everyday ,this could take years and years to get to even a basic level of reading. So will i just have to deal with never learning written and just learn spoken? Thanks Vexx. Edited by vexx on 31 August 2010 at 2:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Keith Diglot Moderator JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6778 days ago 526 posts - 536 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 60 31 August 2010 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah! Japanese is ridiculously hard! Especially the ridiculous writing system. It (the writing system) takes a lot of time so you'll need to put in a lot of time. Now, you could do this a little everyday or you could do a lot each day and you'll get somewhere sooner. Of course, you could put off the reading and stuff until after you understand the language. Then you would have the benefit of understanding things you read instead of being able to read things you don't understand. So it's not like you have to make a choice and then live with not being able to read for the rest of your life.
Oh, by the way, it's not impossible! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vexx Groupie Australia Joined 5219 days ago 81 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 4 of 60 31 August 2010 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for replies.
So how do i begin learning Japanese? Should I learn to speak/understand it first? If so, what methods? If i should learn to read/write, how do i begin? Some things i've seen seem a bit a overwhelming with just a table to memorise, or is that usual? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 60 31 August 2010 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can safely assume that it will take you 3 or 4 times as long as it would take to learn Spanish or French, for instance, but like everything, with time and dedication, you will succeed. Many others on this site have done it. I've been doing it for 2 years and I'm quite happy with the progress I've made.
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| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5223 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 60 31 August 2010 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't say Japanese is "ridiculously hard" at all. I would say it is a challenge. Perhaps, depending on your language acquisition aptitude, an incredible challenge. But it can be learned. After all, millions upon millions of people speak Japanese and they can't all be geniuses, right?
I'm studying Japanese and, for me, it is an incredible challenge, but one I welcome. It's sometimes confusing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes mind-bogglingly overwhelming but always fun. Since it's a hobby for me (in other words I have no real need to learn), I can quit whenever I want. Right now, I definitely don't want to! Every milestone I hit feels like a true accomplishment. So, where to start, you ask? There are a multitude of websites that can get you started. When I started, I began immediately tackling hiragana (one segment of the writing system) in conjunction with really elementary vocabulary. From my research, I learned that starting with hiragana would have two distinct benefits: 1) I'd learn Japanese pronunciation and 2) I'd be exposed to reading and writing. There are many ways to start learning hiragana (for free!). Here are a few to get you going. I like them because they show and tell. They show you how to write the characters and they pronounce them for you. Additionally, they provide audio examples of each character in vocab words. Hey, now you're learning vocab, too! Win! ~ The Japanese Page (thejapanesepage dot com, look for the tab Learn > Beginner > Hiragana) ~ Coscom dot com dot jp ~ YesJapan dot com ~ and one I was just referred to today (so I haven't given it a good going-over) japanese-language dot aiyori dot org. Of course, there are also dozens of IPod apps (some free, many paid) to help you learn. Despite being on the IPod, be aware that not all of the apps contain audio (I found out the hard way). Also, check out your bookstores and libraries. Lots of good info there. Don't feel you must "master" hiragana before you can move on. Just get familiar with it (and with katakana). You'll be encountering them all throughout your studies (unless you decide to go speaking only), and you'll find them becoming more and more natural for you. I've not "mastered" them yet; they do not come to me as easily as my English alphabet, but I'm much better than I used to be. It may take me a few moments but I can sound out just about any word I see in hiragana or katakana. I may not know what it means, but I can (sort of) pronounce it. Kanji, well, that's a different story. As for speaking and conversation, again, there are loads of options, many free. One I just found out about is Mango. See if your library offers the course. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure many of the more experienced folks on these boards can give you more, and probably better, guidance. I just wanted to chime in to let you know, from my experience, it's not "ridiculously" hard. And I'm not particularly linguistically gifted. If I can do it, you can do it :). Good luck! Please post back and let us know if you've decided to give it a go! 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5783 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 7 of 60 31 August 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Its a language. All languages are ridiculously hard.
Compared to others though Japanese isn't much harder. Yes, the writing system takes a lot to remember with the kanji....but this isn't really a chore to learn in the way drilling vocabulary is, its pretty cool stuff. As for the rest of the language its very logical and straight forward with simple pronounciation. I found Japanese much much easier than French. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 60 01 September 2010 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
I've put about 4 times as many hours into Japanese as French. I can converse pretty well in both languages. But although I understand French movies and novels at about 90%, I'm still hovering around 70% in Japanese. I think my experience is far more common than yours. Must be nice to be you. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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