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Hello! I want to learn Japanese!

BobCat

先輩
27 Jan 2006
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I've decided that japanese would help me in my future job as a games journalist, so I would like to learn it! Unfortunately, they only teach european languages at my college (German, French, Spanish) and no japanese :(

What would be the most efficient way to teach myself japanese? books? home learning? online lessons?

I have already learnt some phrases, such as "hello", "excuse me","do you speak english?" .etc - but I can only write them phonetically (romanji?), not in japanese writing (kanji?). I don't understand japanese writing at all 😊

Thanks :)
 
BobCat, firstly buy a text book that comes with CDs. I recommend "Genki" or "Minna No Nihongo". Next, if you can afford it find a qualified Japanese teacher. Finally, search this forum for the user "Gold Coin Lover" and do exactly the opposite of what he is doing.
 
BobCat said:
I've decided that japanese would help me in my future job as a games journalist, so I would like to learn it! Unfortunately, they only teach european languages at my college (German, French, Spanish) and no japanese :(

What would be the most efficient way to teach myself japanese? books? home learning? online lessons?

I have already learnt some phrases, such as "hello", "excuse me","do you speak english?" .etc - but I can only write them phonetically (romanji?), not in japanese writing (kanji?). I don't understand japanese writing at all :oops:

Thanks :)

I've been learning japanese for awhile now, and I still got sentences confused up. Like 'Study japanese more' it's Nihongo benkyou suru or something like that.

I also really want to learn japanese for video games as well. However, don't do what I'm doing. Don't go over your head and want to study everything. When it comes to something I really want , I have no patience. Consequently, I annoy and alienate everyone here to death, and then they won't answer my most simple questions because I can' "Sore" and "sono" right. Both mean "that" but sore is used I suppose to ask what stuff is or tell what stuff is. Sore wa emptensu desu. "That is a pencil"

Kore is used when something is near you, and there are different ways to say things are farther away. "Sono" is used before a noun I think (Don't take my word for it) but both have proximities towards the lisener/speaker.

Japanese writing will take YEARS to get down. Probably 10 years to master it, even then you will get confused. Elizabeth-san you could say is fluent, yet she still has trouble sometimes . SHe's been studying japanese vigiroiusly for 10 years. THere's just no subistute to being japanese.

Basiclaly japanese is a SOV. Subject object verb.

This is my pencil

The verb goes always at the end. The subject first, then the object (anything that is an object)

There are also particles.

You can start by going to Learning and Teaching Japanese and looking up japanese. It's a really good site.
 
BobCat said:
I've decided that japanese would help me in my future job as a games journalist, so I would like to learn it! Unfortunately, they only teach european languages at my college (German, French, Spanish) and no japanese :(

What would be the most efficient way to teach myself japanese? books? home learning? online lessons?

I have already learnt some phrases, such as "hello", "excuse me","do you speak english?" .etc - but I can only write them phonetically (romanji?), not in japanese writing (kanji?). I don't understand japanese writing at all :oops:

Thanks :)

Hi BobCat.


What you need to learn Japanese is just dedication to sit down and work at it. The first step is to learn hiragana.

You will need to buy a textbook. find one you like. I found colloquial japanese better than JFBP for self study but I can't speak for the textbooks I haven't seen like genki.

In the meantime here are some online resources to take a look at:
Learn Japanese | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

Good Luck, and feel free to ask for any help.
Katherine.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

Anyway, I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to learn a new word everyday and the dates. Because, I dont know the numbers, days of the week or month names...
 
BobCat said:
Thanks for the replies :)
Anyway, I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to learn a new word everyday and the dates. Because, I dont know the numbers, days of the week or month names...

The numbers are easy.

Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, ku, ju. Sometimes 4 is 'Yon".

To make 11, just add 10 + 1
Ju ichi 11
Ju ni 12
Ju san 13

20 is 2 x 10
NiJu
NijuIcihi
Nijuni
etc
 
Japanese writing will take YEARS to get down.

It shouldnt take more than a month or so to get Hiragana/Katakana down.

I annoy and alienate everyone here to death, and then they won't answer my most simple questions because I can' "Sore" and "sono" right.

kore/sore/are are subjects in and of themselves and dont need to be attached to nouns. kono/sono/ano cannot be used without nouns. -re means "This/That/That (over there)", -no means "This X/That X/That X (over there)". Pretty simple stuff.

Probably 10 years to master it

Doubtful. Unless you NEVER immerse yourself in the language, or are just slow as all get out. Will you know EVERY Kanji, and EVERY dialectical quirk - no. But you would be MORE than capable of shooting the **** with compadres in Japan without looking like a fool.

I've decided that japanese would help me in my future job as a games journalist.

Not to burst any bubbles - but how competitive/lucrative do you think that job market is?
 
BobCat said:
Thanks for the replies :)
Anyway, I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to learn a new word everyday and the dates. Because, I dont know the numbers, days of the week or month names...

Don't worry about numbers quite yet.
What you should do is everytime you see a word you don't know is write it down (in hiragana) and then when there is say 15 on that list take a break and go and learn them. Once you can write them out without looking, try again the next day. if you keep reviewing you wont forget.
 
GoldCoinLover said:
The numbers are easy.
Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, ku, ju. Sometimes 4 is 'Yon".
To make 11, just add 10 + 1
Ju ichi 11
Ju ni 12
Ju san 13
20 is 2 x 10
NiJu
NijuIcihi
Nijuni
etc

7 also has an alternate form: nana. Nine is pronounced kyu except in certain cases. There are certainly more words for hundreds, thousands, etc., but I'd take Kat's advice and learn the hiragana first. No sense in knowing numbers if you can't write them.
 
I would suggest using long vowels when they should be used. "Ten" is juu, not ju, "nine" is kyuu, not kyu (but the other form is ku, not kuu). Rômaji is bad enough, but when it's not done properly it's even more of a headache. There's nothing like spending five minutes going through every possible combination of short and long vowel in a word because it was romanized improperly just to find out what it means. This is how you end up with people saying things like Yumiko no shuujin desu instead of Yumiko no shujin desu (talk about saying more than you thought you had!).
 
This is alot to take in :p

Do you think I should learn hiragana first before I bother with any actual phrases .etc?
 
I think you should learn them concurrently, personally. There's no reason you have to place one above the other. When I looked at Korean I learned the hangul and some phrases at the same time, basically. Well, technically I guess I learned the hangul first, and then used the phrases as reading practice, but I did also have sound files to reinforce and correct my reading. Anyway, I think you can do them at the same time.

Having said that, though, you might want to learn some phrases and then learn the hiragana, and then practice writing those phrases in hiragana. But this is for certain: learn the hiragana as soon as possible, and then learn the katakana as well. It shouldn't take more than two weeks to get them both, if you really work at it, but don't rush yourself, either.
 
GoldCoinLover said:
Consequently, I annoy and alienate everyone here to death, and then they won't answer my most simple questions because I can' "Sore" and "sono" right. .

I'm going to assume that last part meant "because I can't get sore and sono right"

In that case:
Sore is a noun, sono is an adjective. That's the differene between them.

Kore = This
Sore = That
Are = That (waaaaay over there in the distance) :devilish:
 
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