What's Next?

[Tomii515]

So, I know Hiragana, half of Katakana, some Kanji, how to make sentences, particles, verb past, verb past-negitive, verb negitive, verb future, compound sentences, compound words, and other stuff like that.

but what's next? can someone teach/direct me (to) the next thing I should know?

Thanks!

-Tomii

 

[JimmySeal]

Finish learning katakana.

 

[Damicci]

Finish learning katakana.

Then worry about conversations. You will find more things to learn about.
But yeah 100% on the basics then move on to intermediate stuff.

 

[KrazyKat]

Buy a textbook.

 

[kohlrak]

Personally, i would tell you to take my lessons when i'm finished, but that could be a while to go yet... You should have a course book or something as some sort of guide to knowing what you know and don't know and what order to go in. It seems as if you are reading random sections of grammar and are going on that.

 

[The7thSamurai]

1) Finish learning katakana
2) Buy a textbook
3) Subscribe to japanesepod101.com (no I don't work for them)

 

[Tomii515]

i will learn katakana as I go. I have a textbook, but it's not that good and hard to understand. I also dont have money to buy my own textbook like Genki or somethign else. I would rather have a spesific...cause I don't knwo what to learn at all next...Katakana isnt all that important since it's only foriegn words...but ill learn it along the way...

 

[Buntaro]

Tomii-san!

I am sorry to hear that your textbook is difficult to understand. What are some of the difficult-to-understand parts?

 

[Tomii515]

idk, it's weird. it;s called "Japanese Step by Step"...The way they explain things, and hwo they use romaji is hard to understand...

 

[kohlrak]

Avoid romaji... My whole course book is in Romaji, and my students never appriciate how much trouble i go through for them to just avoid romaji completely.

 

[Buntaro]

Tomii-san!

Give me an example.

 

[nhk9]

You are aged 13, so you should just go out there, talk to some Japanese people and forget about the grammar. You still have the ability to learn from such activities.

 

[kohlrak]

You are aged 13, so you should just go out there, talk to some Japanese people and forget about the grammar. You still have the ability to learn from such activities.

Anyone of any age could learn from immersion. It's a rather easy learning method, but rather difficult to actually use. To happen successfully, actions would have to be seen and attributed to words. Basically, 9 times out of 10, it will require the kid to either go to japan, or get a kid from japan to come to him.

 

[Tomii515]

it might help that im haveing a foriegn exchange student coming...although they will be speaking english...

 

[kohlrak]

set hours where he dosn't speak any english. lol

 

[Tomii515]

lol. well, since i speak enough japanese to have a simple conversation.....i guess i can speak to them in japanese if they dont knwo what to say in english...?

 

[kohlrak]

What i mean is, set hours where they don't speak english, and interact with you as normal, but only in japanese. It's called "immersion." It's where you get "immersed" in a language. When some one speaks in only a certain language, and you have to live with them, your mind (subconciously) "puts 2 and 2 together" and you slowly start to understand the language as if you spoke it all your life.

 

[KrazyKat]

Try 'colloquial Japanese'. If you are looking for a cheap textbook its probably the best.

 

[Tomii515]

What i mean is, set hours where they don't speak english, and interact with you as normal, but only in japanese. It's called "immersion." It's where you get "immersed" in a language. When some one speaks in only a certain language, and you have to live with them, your mind (subconciously) "puts 2 and 2 together" and you slowly start to understand the language as if you spoke it all your life.

ohh...so like how babys learn their language??? but like, would they just be speakign to em in japanese, and i talk to them in english, or answer if i can in japanese or something. that's a pretty good idea, but the only bad thing is i wouldnt knwo the grammer part...well, i dont knwo...i would have to try itt..well, since i knwo hwo to wirte and everythign...i guess that's a good idea...how do you knwo it works with peopel who aren't babies?

 

[kohlrak]

how do you think so many exchange students speak with their "families"? There are cases where no one can understand each other. I know a girl who learned french that way.

 

[Tomii515]

ohh...that would be kool... if you dont mind explaining, i dont get ow the people learn...just by listenign...it's not like that point to everything they are talkign about...how would you leanr...and hwo do they learn...like i uyou know nothing in japanese, not even konnichiwa... and you move there and live there for 3 years...but you learn it by doing it this way...how would it be done?

 

[breez]

Learning a language at a young age is especially important for getting the pronunciation right. Adult learners may never get rid of the accent while for younger students it is much easier. My friend is a perfect example; a Russian speaker who came to Finland at around age 9-10 and now speaks very good Finnish with no accent. Usually Russians have a very strong accent.

So I urge you to take advantage of the possibility to speak to and hear from the native Japanese speaker you will be having as a guest.

 

[kohlrak]

Accents are taken so much as a bad thing these days. When learning another language you feel as if you must remove it, but when you hear another accent in your own language you tend to think it's cute... Heck, i love the scottish accent. lol

 

[breez]

Language is still a means of communication and a foreign accent may hinder comprehensibility. Some sorts of grammatical mistakes may too sound funny and cute to a native speaker, but an effort should be made to learn proper and natural language.

 

[kohlrak]

indeed, but a little bit of an accent is healthy... But i do agree, sometimes it can be too strong. Though, accents are not exactly gramatical mistakes. If you're making gramatical mistakes, it's not accent you have problem with. lol