- 24 May 2004
- 1,033
- 12
- 48
Hey, a member here just gave me a CD program on japanese. I'm on lesson 6. Each lesson is 30 minutes long. The time sems to go by so fast.
However, its extremely dated. The date on it is 1984. I hope the language hasn't changed drasitically since then.
So far, of the 3 hours of watching it, ive learned a little bit. Its made by the "Japan foundation". There's a few quirks I can't stand on it:
1) So far, it has NOT explained how the particles are used. For "ni" it simply said it was for location, not all the other uses for it. For no, it didn't say anything; just that "anata no" meant "Your". This bugs me: Particles are crutial to know in japanese!
2) There's around a 4 to 5 minute 'skit' with a chubby man named Yan-san. (I think that's his name?). What's annoying is that they make you watch it twice. In the beginning, and then, "To pick out the words you can hear" in the end.
3) It's extremely frusterates me (most of all) is taht they don't explain everything in the skit. On the very first skit, when they said "Kanpai!" which means cheers, with the beer, they did not mention to explain it. Among MANY other things. I want to know all they said. Instead, they go to the next skit, and only explain bits and pieces.
4) Sometimes, they don't explain the directions very clearly. For example, with "right around the corner", they used one word/term that started with an m. I Totally forgot it. They only mentinoed it once, thus, I forgot it.
Wht I like:
1) All the japanese
2) They teach the stroke order on kana so far
3) the japanese speech, emphasis of different ways to count things, promixity to the speaker (kono, koko, sore, are, ano, etc)
But I'm a bit confused about the proximity. I understand sore, but there is another one called sono which confuses me. They now use sono alot more than sore. Also, theres kono in place of kore. Again, I understand kore but not kono. There's also koko for "right here". Are, which is far away (Not near the speakr or the listener) and this one is ano. Again, confused with the "ano" one.
They also seem to speak too fast. I can't understand most the words. For some reason, "Ga" ALWAYS sounds like "na". I hear no "g" sound.
Although I hear them speak fast, they are actually speaking at normal speed.
"There's a cat!" Neko ga imasu yo!
"Where?" Neko ni?
"Over there! (Farther away) Are !
"Is there a cat?" Neko ga imasu ka?
"Yes, there is a cat." Hai, imasu. (The cat is understood)
"No, there's no cat." Iie, dewa arimasen." (There's more to it, but I forgot. The dewa part confuses me)
You can also say, "Iie, imasen." (No, it doesn't exist. which is factual)
Or,
"Iie, neko wa imasen." (No, there is no cat. But it's something else. [related])
However, its extremely dated. The date on it is 1984. I hope the language hasn't changed drasitically since then.
So far, of the 3 hours of watching it, ive learned a little bit. Its made by the "Japan foundation". There's a few quirks I can't stand on it:
1) So far, it has NOT explained how the particles are used. For "ni" it simply said it was for location, not all the other uses for it. For no, it didn't say anything; just that "anata no" meant "Your". This bugs me: Particles are crutial to know in japanese!
2) There's around a 4 to 5 minute 'skit' with a chubby man named Yan-san. (I think that's his name?). What's annoying is that they make you watch it twice. In the beginning, and then, "To pick out the words you can hear" in the end.
3) It's extremely frusterates me (most of all) is taht they don't explain everything in the skit. On the very first skit, when they said "Kanpai!" which means cheers, with the beer, they did not mention to explain it. Among MANY other things. I want to know all they said. Instead, they go to the next skit, and only explain bits and pieces.
4) Sometimes, they don't explain the directions very clearly. For example, with "right around the corner", they used one word/term that started with an m. I Totally forgot it. They only mentinoed it once, thus, I forgot it.
Wht I like:
1) All the japanese
2) They teach the stroke order on kana so far
3) the japanese speech, emphasis of different ways to count things, promixity to the speaker (kono, koko, sore, are, ano, etc)
But I'm a bit confused about the proximity. I understand sore, but there is another one called sono which confuses me. They now use sono alot more than sore. Also, theres kono in place of kore. Again, I understand kore but not kono. There's also koko for "right here". Are, which is far away (Not near the speakr or the listener) and this one is ano. Again, confused with the "ano" one.
They also seem to speak too fast. I can't understand most the words. For some reason, "Ga" ALWAYS sounds like "na". I hear no "g" sound.
Although I hear them speak fast, they are actually speaking at normal speed.
"There's a cat!" Neko ga imasu yo!
"Where?" Neko ni?
"Over there! (Farther away) Are !
"Is there a cat?" Neko ga imasu ka?
"Yes, there is a cat." Hai, imasu. (The cat is understood)
"No, there's no cat." Iie, dewa arimasen." (There's more to it, but I forgot. The dewa part confuses me)
You can also say, "Iie, imasen." (No, it doesn't exist. which is factual)
Or,
"Iie, neko wa imasen." (No, there is no cat. But it's something else. [related])