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Methods for Spoken Japanese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| divexo Groupie Australia Joined 5001 days ago 70 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 1 of 12 02 October 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi,
Just wondering what people think are the best methods for learning to basic fluency spoken Japanese? Is it achievable in a few months, or is Japanese still difficult to learn spoken? The methods I know of that appear to be good are Michel Thomas and Assimil (reading the Romanji). What are the ones any of you found were the best? What order should I do them in and any techniques/resources for starting that may help? Thank you, Divexo PS: Sorry to make another thread about languages, but I absolutely adore Japan, and may be going there sometime in the future to study on exchange. So I'd love to be able to get fluent at spoken and then once spoken is mastered focus on getting written down, no need for this anytime soon though. I still want to learn Italian, but Latin is my first priority and perhaps two romantic languages are too much to start with - Italian will come later. Edited by divexo on 02 October 2010 at 4:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6931 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 2 of 12 02 October 2010 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know the Japanese MT, but of it's done by native speakers it could be a great asset. I'm not that big on Assimil either. But here are my Romaji recommendations:
(1) Hugo's 'Japanese In Three Months', formerly 'Japanese Simplified' (2) Living Language Ultimate Japanese - two level course of you want it. And... Get yourself a copy of 'Real Life Japanese' by Unicom. Get audio with all of these and study like there's no tomorrow! Japan is wonderful! I hope you make it here soon. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5032 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 12 02 October 2010 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just purchased a 2-CD set called Listen & Learn Japanese and I love it! It is probably one of the most no-frills, bare-boned study-aids I own but I think it's going to do exactly what it sets out to do. That is, it will help me practice speaking Japanese.
Here's the format: Sentence, phrase or word spoken in English. Exact same sentence, phrase or word spoken in Japanese (slightly slower than normal speed). A little space for you to repeat. That's it. No explanations, no introductions, no grammar instruction, nothing. Just listen and repeat (or shadow, if you can). There are over 50 tracks (examples: Social Conversation, Personal Matters, Making Yourself Understood, Hotel, Cafe, etc.) and none of them build on the others, so you can listen in any order that pleases you. The set claims to contain 700 elements (sentences, phrases, words). It also includes a little booklet with all the elements written in English, Japanese (kanji and kana, handwritten font) and romaji. The book *does* contain a few pages of intro, including pronunciation help. I think the booklet will be helpful for cross-checking to make sure I heard properly. At first, I was skeptical about not having any real "instruction" but once I realized what the goal was, it seemed brilliant. And, at $12USD, it was quite reasonable. Coupled with other texts to learn grammar and increase vocab, I think this is a valuable addition to my study collection. Perhaps it will help you, too! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6740 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 12 02 October 2010 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I began my Japanese studies with "Japanese for Busy People", which I can hardly recommend. I moved on to the "Genki"-Series, which are actually good books but lack in content (not enough texts for me to practice and half of the vocabulary you learn isn't even used in the texts!).
Thanks to this forum I made the decision to use the Assimil books. Within half a year I was able to hold a conversation in Japanese about various topics. It took me a few more years to reach a level where I could comfortably hold a conversation on most topics you could come across. I doubt that I would have reached this level without Assimil (I was seriously considering giving up Japanese altogether!). If you like the FSI method, you should take a look at "Beginning Japanese" by Eleanor Harz Jorden. No kanji, no reading - the whole is focussed on teaching you to speak without having to think. "Japanese - The Spoken Language" seems to be based on the same material. I haven't used that one, so I can't if it's better or worse - or the same. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| divexo Groupie Australia Joined 5001 days ago 70 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 5 of 12 03 October 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you all! So many resources to choose now, not exactly sure which ones to use.. ><
May try and find some snippets from each of them to trial and then select my favourites when I'm ready to start in a couple of months -exciting. Hopefully I will be studying Japanese next year at university, and then doing a huge exchange in the future, Japan is awesome. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5191 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 6 of 12 04 October 2010 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Why can't you start now? That's not a very encouraging comment, to be honest -- if you can't find the time to start now, you will inevitably find it hard to make time later. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5032 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 12 04 October 2010 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
If Divexo is a high school senior, perhaps s/he has a full load right now just finishing up classes and doing all the things necessary to prepare for graduation and the eventual move to college (or university). There could be all sorts of reasons why s/he might not want to/be able to start right now. I can certainly understand wanting to wait until things calm down a bit, or until other projects get cleared/completed, before starting on a new adventure. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| divexo Groupie Australia Joined 5001 days ago 70 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 8 of 12 04 October 2010 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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^ Yes to what Lexii said - I have my final examinations beginning in a month. They are extremely important and we
are expected to be studying quite a lot as well as attending school for the next few weeks.. So not really time to do anything else.. But definitely starting at the end of year when I have time :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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