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Learning Japanese, your experience

Ashley Davis

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28 Aug 2013
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Hi,

I'm sure you get a lot of questions similar to this but I was wondering what your experience with Japanese was/is?

Why did you want to learn?
How did you learn it?
What was the most difficult/frustrating thing about it?
What did you enjoy most about it?
If you could recommend one thing to people wanting to learn it, what would it be?

I am really interested in your opinions as someone wanting to learn Japanese, but I feel I should get to know some of your experiences with it before I dive into it!

Ashley
 
First off, welcome Ashley! Second, I think your question was very thoughtful and detailed so kudos for that. As I am currently learning Japanese I can offer some basic insight, but don't take what I say as an expert opinion.

1. I wanted to learn Japanese because at first I thought it was the most beautiful language I've ever heard. Then I fell in love with the culture and people and decided to try to learn.
2. I'm using a combo of genki 1, Japanese demystified, and remembering the kana. (see the Japanese language learning resource list thread under "learning Japanese" for some great resources for learning).
3. I'd say having to remember two sets of kana, plus having to memorize a few at deal of kanji to become proficient. Also, knowing ehen a word ends and begins because of the lack of space between words is extremely annoying.
4. It's a beautiful language-- not much else to say.
5. I don't have the hindsight to answer this question as I'm still a fairly new student of Japanese.
 
1. Always been interested in the culture. Partly for the challenge, mostly because of the intrigue. And I'm not going to deny that I'm not a fan of anime or manga.
2. I first used "Knuckles in Chinaland" to learn my kana. When it came to kanji, it was dispiriting. At this point I began watching a lot of media, reading anything I could, and studying using Anki daily. I took a class but knew most of the material, unfortunately. I now translate visual novels for practice.
3. The most difficult thing for me (as I'm still a beginner) is trying to understand things that just seem odd in English and conversely, expressing what I want to in Japanese. Big words are my enemy as well.
4. The most enjoyable thing and yet frustrating is talking to a native Japanese or reading/watching media. I still don't understand everything, but in a way it only drives me to study even more.
5. Learn kana immediately. Furthermore, study daily and don't get cocky. The less you know about a subject, the more you believe you do.

Good luck in your endeavors.

(EDIT) I should mention I do everything I can in Japanese. If I play a game, it's in Japanese. My computer is entirely Japanese, etc. Just surround yourself with it.
 
I agree with iwamineshu. Kana is the first and foremost concern. And total immersion is a great strategy. It doesn't work for me though because I'm trying to learn code. But I do use my android phone to drill myself in kana using an app called hiragana drill.
 
Hi Ashley!
Why did you want to learn?
I love studying languages. After learning a bit of some European languages, I was ready for something different. Also, I live near Japantown in San Francisco, and I got more and more interested in Japanese culture and language from just walking around there a lot.
How did you learn it?
I'm still very much a beginner. I'm using LOTS of material from my library, includng audio lessons (Michel Thomas and Pimsleur) and various books, including a children's book called "I'm Learning Japanese!" that introduces the katakana and a handful of kanji along with basic sentence structure.

I'm also working through some textbooks ("Japanese for Beginners" is the one I'm using right now).

My favorite practice, though, is taking a children's book and thoroughly analyzing a sentence at a time. Combined with the other materials, it's given me a great introduction to a lot of very specific language lessons (like the use of "-kun", turning verbs into nouns using "no", and when to use contination words like "shoshite" and "keredomo"). Once I've spent the time to really understand all the components of a sentence, I nearly have it memorized - then I can recite it to myself while I'm walking down the street and write it out for writing practice.

I also use Anki for flashcard practice - it's great. I do both English/Japanese type cards ("kuma" on one side and "bear" on the other) and also cloze deletion cards from the sentences I've analyzed - it gives me good practice in filling in the correct form and correct spelling of words I've learned without any English prompts.
What was the most difficult/frustrating thing about it?
Kanji. It makes me crazy that it takes so many strokes to write a simple sound, and that there are so MANY of them, and they have different readings! Augh!

But they're also really cool and interesting.

I decided at first that I just wasn't going to learn any kanji until I really wanted to. Now I'm ready, so I'm learning a few, but with no hurry. In the meantime, I know the kana, and the library has a lot of children's books written almost entirely in kana, so I can just take it one or two at a time. This approach works well for me.
What did you enjoy most about it?
I love learning about the big and small differences between the Japanese way of expressing something and the English way. I love finding out that "unaru" - the sound a bear might make - can mean "to growl" or "to hum" (because Winnie the Pooh hums, so I think that's delightful). I like learning that you say "animal garden" to say "zoo" and that you can just stick "-mono" onto the ends of things to make a word that means "a thing you ___" (a thing you eat, a thing you drink). I especially love it when I figure something like that out for myself and then see it explained (and confirmed) in a book.
If you could recommend one thing to people wanting to learn it, what would it be?
Use whatever approach works for you. If you like manga, read manga. If you like flashcards, use flashcards. It's great to make use of as many options as you can (language exchange partner, classes if you like them, audio courses, "teach yourself" books), but pay attention to what works for you and do a lot of that.


What about you? What are your reasons for wanting to learn Japanese?
 
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