Hi. I have been studying for a while now and am really looking for materials that are at an intermediate - advanced level, that are interactive(such as learning in a language lab) or something like that. Particularly something that you could listen to and learn from with a reading on the side.
Does anyone recommend any software or anything like that?
EDIT: I'd like to add that I need something at around an intermediate - advanced level.
Thanks
The site Anatoli introduced to us is a good one:
Japanese audio books | Japan Forum (though probably too easy for intermediate learners.)
Sadly, most of the materials available are directed towards the learners at a primary stage. And even those rare materials that explain the important basis for deeper understanding of Japanese language are not very straight forward: Amongst teachers and learners, there is a pervasive fallacy that overly favours a heuristic approach to language acquisition over a text-book-based approach that emphasise grammar. (While both have virtues and are essential)
So honestly, let alone a software, past primary level, finding any material is hard...
Having that said, I got myself "Total Japanese:Grammar and Conversation Notes" and A Dictionary of "Japanese Particles" for Doing language exchange.
(Both are slightly old now but does not hurt to have them as reference; also they are pretty cheap thought they only cover basic stuff)
Total Japanese : Grammar and Conversation Notes: Okano Kimiko, Anne Matsumoto Stewart: 9784893582881: Amazon.com: Books
Amazon.com: A Dictionary of Japanese Particles (A Kodansha Dictionary) (English and Japanese Edition) (9784770023520): Sue A. Kawashima: Books
Also I have searched on the web for some materials and found these:
東外大言語モジュール｜日本語
emyline.net
If you are teaching yourself, then checking what sort of text books and materials are used at Universities might help:
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/21F-506Spring-2005/CourseHome/index.htm
日本語文型辞典
http://www.amazon.co.jp/日本語文型辞典-グループジャマシイ/dp/4874241549/ref=pd_cp_b_3
どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典
http://www.amazon.co.jp/どんな時どう使う-日本語表現文型辞典-友松-悦子/dp/4757412355/ref=pd_cp_b_3_img
I think past primary level, the sheer number of vocabs and sentence strictures needed to be learnt makes it rather hard to building a software that teaches a language...also maybe even if there is one, it might not be very useful.
Anyway, probably we have to employ different strategies for learning different languages but if I am allowed to express my personal beliefs for learning a language past primary level, then I recommend to do the fallowing things:
1) listen to sounds and pitches rather than to words.
We adults have superior skills when compared to children in many aspects and that is partly because we do not watch or listen to things that we do not need to. This trait, however, hiders us from quickly acquiring a new language phonetically because while we believe ourselves listening to every words and sounds, it is generally only true in our fancy...we can make sense out of speeches only because we can guess way too much things from contexts.
Listening to a nonsensical song and then reading the transcript afterwards often helps to identify our covert listening difficulties that we are not aware of. Try not to regard words as words because for listening to human speeches, we only pick up the sounds that are used in our native language and our brain ignores the rest of sounds that may convey important meanings or tone of voice in another language. So it is generally better to listen to songs trying to regard them as a collection of sounds and train out brain to recognise and pay attention to those sounds, as well as trying to produce those sounds or sing.
The process is maddening and takes months or years, so if you don't like to be a raving mad man or girl, then maybe it is wise to find your favourite singer first.
2) Try to reduce your dependence on context reading
Everyone of us is a genius and make a great deal of sense out of a writing even if we only understand half of the words in there. And generally we are so busy that we cannot check every single word that we are unsure of its meaning, which is fine of cause.
Nevertheless, we'd best be aware that guessing, deducing from context, and understanding, knowing the range of possible meanings of a sentence or word and able to identify and reason the particular meaning for which they are used in context, are two totally different things.
While the power of guesstimate is great, without a doubt, but once we acquire it, our motivation for learning a language tend to weaken as we can perform most of the tasks with ease: The very pitfall some language learners fall after a while including myself. Once we are in this pitfall, our language skills develops only at plodding pace and generally will not flourish: after all, only a fool toils for nothing.
However,at the level of language proficiency where we are barely guessing the meanings of words or sentences, whether we feel it or not, we suffer from something so-called Foreign-Language-Side-Effect:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/外国語副作用 . Or more simply put, we will be less intelligent when we are speaking non-native language yet: which is pretty embarrassing !!
The only way out of the pit is, I think, to be meticulous and analytical about the language that you are studying and find some good books you can rejoice in reading 4 or 5 times repeatedly to learn new vocabularies and grammars, a line by line, a word by word.
The process can be pretty maddening and takes more than a year, so make sure to find books you can bear with...
By the way, it is again my personal opinion but, technical books does not seem to help you much at this because some part of our intelligence somewhat is connected with the vocabularies used to express abstract concepts and imaginative ideas( maybe for binding thoughts like hyper-links ?).
Omg, I am surely rambling..
Anyway, if you face something that you cannot figure out alone, check dictionaries first then ask someone since normally it is very hard to hind any material for advanced learners.
p.s
日本語の単語、会話、発音などの学習ソフト。パソコンで日本語を勉強してすぐ覚える！
日本語の達人の詳細情報 : Vector ソフトを探す！