Language

[Anonymous No.]

Do you actually speak/plan to study Japanese?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
Half-assing it like everything else I do.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017
This very much, my inability to accomplish anything meaningful by societal standards has mirrored itself in my hobbies and it's awful. It took me 3 months to learn hirigana and katakana, I'll be long dead before I ever learn enough Japanese to be able to read even the most basic of stories.

[Anonymous No.]

>Japanese
Ran through Tae Kim a few times and did the Core 2k deck for about one year. Can read most stuff with enough time and patience, but I can barely express myself in words. Do not plan to speak it.

>Chinese (Mandarin)
I took two semesters in college, yet I am much more competent in it than my Japanese. Being a super analytical language, you do not have to worry about conjugations, prefixes, suffixes, etc., and at the lower level of complexity it's construction is usually word-for-word to English. Can read, write, and speak at a level below conversational, but adequate for shooting the shit online. I read most non-English doujinshi in Chinese.

It's kind of sad because I literally only use my Chinese to read works which are originally Japanese.

>>15213017
Pretty much this. For the longest time I thought I needed to get off image boards as I was wasting my youth. However, it turns out I inevitably waste my time in non-productive pursuits unless I am doing something to someone else, either through relationships or being indebted to them.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017
>>15213070
Hang in there, Sempai!
if you ever want someone new to talk to, my Skype is "aghrms", profile pic of some weeb (likely me) wearing a Kitsune mask.

Hang in there, /jp/!!

[Anonymous No.]

I'm learning 3D modeling and I hope I can make money with it from home eventually. Just enough to exist on.
Japanese has to come later, unfortunately.
The hiki life is not a good one.

[Anonymous No.]

I can't into fucking moonrunes, man.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
Plan? Of course.
I also plan on running 10 km every day while owning my own multi-million dollar software publishing company.

[Anonymous No.]

Like everyone who considers themselves a true /jp/sie I know hiragana and katakana, and a few common kanji, but not much else.

As I've said many many times before, I'll start studying again soon. I can't tell what will happen sooner, getting my bad end or being able to read manga and novels in Japanese.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213167
>getting my bad end
Not sure if this is inspiring or not, but a bad end is not so much the end as much as everything up to that end.

[Anonymous No.]

I've got vocab, kanji, etc down pat

Grammar is still garbage

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
No, since I need to cram and learn the language of the country I'm moving to in a year from now.

[Anonymous No.]

I'm doing RTK right now. Blew through the first two parts of the book in a few days, but then I stalled for a few weeks after doing my first few mnemonics. But I kept on reviewing, and after seeing a bunch of cards go mature, I started up again and added 72 new cards today. Once some of these cards that I used my own mnemonics for start to mature, I think the rest (of RTK) will be easy.

[Anonymous No.]

I'm a little over a year in to my current effort, and I only wish I tried harder sooner. There's really no point to putting it off, the faster you start, the faster you'll finish.

[Anonymous No.]

Just finished up my third year in college. I've actually learned quite a lot but still feel like I suck. Though at this point I can watch anime and play stuff in Japanese and only have to glance down at the subs once or twice a minute (assuming it's not sci-fi or something), which I'm comfortable with atm.

The trick is to learn how to study/practice even while you feel like you're a piece of shit. It transfers over to other pursuits really well.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I study it off and on. Haven't really learned much because of my overwhelming laziness.

[Anonymous No.]

>speak
And talk with who exactly? Anyone learning how to speak Japanese instead of just listening/reading isn't a trujp

[Anonymous No.]

Yes. I studied it throughout college and privately afterward. I am still actively studying a bit on and off these days, but since moving to Japan and living here for a while, I've managed to hit a plateau. Preferably, I'd like to be able to freely use the local dialect, so I'm working on that now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213846
Which dialect?
Since you've plateaued, will you learn another CJKV language?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213846

Get the fuck off english boards, then. I learned it in a year because pre-cell phones and social media super early days forced me to interact in nothing but moonspeak.
Cut the english cord, force yourself to speak/write no english for a few months (as close as you can manage it) and you will get gud

[Anonymous No.]

Did two semesters of japanese so i guess i can

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213901
Seriously?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213901
How many hiragana do they teach in two semesters of Japanese?

[Anonymous No.]

3 years now
>the feel when diligence pays off

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213916
They don't teach wi, we, yori, koto, or tomo.

[Anonymous No.]

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213908
Yeah

>>15213916
200 kanji or so

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213922
>They don't teach こと in two semesters
Jesus Christ, that necessary in just about 90% of abstract conversation.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213868
大分弁. There are quite a few interesting aspects of it and it sounds very nice.
I've studied Mandarin for a few years and a teeny bit of Korean before. I started mixing up some kanji readings between Japanese and Mandarin, so I opted to give up the latter. I did enjoy it a lot, though. Korean ended up grating on my nerves and I lost the passion for it. I would like to pick up Mandarin again, but I get the feeling that I won't be able to make it stick.

>>15213887
>Cut the english cord, force yourself to speak/write no english for a few months
That is impossible due to my job.
Also, I've yet to find any Japanese hobbies that entertain me as much as English hobbies. I play a few games in Japanese, but they're mostly very simple. I'm reading through some Japanese novels, but I haven't found any authors that I particularly like yet and with keeping track of new vocab, it's very time-consuming; it ends up being less pleasurable and more of a chore.
If you have any suggestions for other possible hobbies, I would be more than happy to hear them.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213993
I just finished my second semester of Japanese and we learned こと, I think it was outside of the book partially though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213993
I dont know what this guy is talking about or where he went but i learned that in first semester

[Anonymous No.]

I'm living it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214125
What does this even mean?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214131
That I live in Japan.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214132
Can you support me? Let me come and live in with you.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214136
No.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214131
It means you dealin' with a real ass nigga.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214138
Rude..

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214132
Where abouts?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214143
Tokyo

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214152
Shinjiku?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I do (woo..). I'm conversational fluent though. I'm also to thank my jp gf for maintaining and improving it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214154
No.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214161
Shibuya?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214167
No.

[Anonymous No.]

I can read, write and speak fluently. The result of hard work and living in Japan. Anybody can learn it. Just stop resigning yourself to the fate of "half-assing" everything and you'll go far.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017
Basically this. I'm kind of getting there. My favorite "learning" hobby is listening to drama CDs and pretending that I understand what's happening.

Currently I'm reading a 漢和 dictionary because I think that if I ever manage to slog through all 1000 pages of it (or even the 200 pages of content that deal with the common kanji) I'll be a true 日本語 master.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214021
>>15214043
I honestly wouldn't know. I took Mandarin in college and just followed DJT for Japanese.

I will admit that I translate Japanese more than read it, and things like には and とは make my head hurt more than they should, but こと just feels like 1st semester items, as similar constructs in Chinese (事 for abstract things and 的时候 for specifying "when doing X...") was halfway through the first semester. On the other hand, I assume you guys learned the basic past tense pretty early in the first semester, while expressing the past actions in Chinese was a second semester concept, since the primary particle involved (了) only signifies a change in an action starting or ending.

Part of the reason I took Mandarin was, having some experience with Japanese, I asked my acquaintance, in his third semester, when they learned こと constructs. He gave me a weird look and said "you don't ever need to use こと unless you are talking about things which are touchy-feely, like with あの. "

Turns out our school has a really shitty Japanese program. The East Asian Language College here apparently tries to recruit linguistics grad students who are native speakers. This works great for Chinese and Korean, but apparently the school has difficulty recruiting native bilingual Japanese speakers who actually have a background in teaching Japanese.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214211
I started a week and a bit ago and that's a trap I keep falling in, half arsing. I really need a schedule to dedicate learning

[Anonymous No.]

Language and teaching general when

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214626
Anki schedules automatically

[Anonymous No.]

my listening ability is far behind my reading, it stinks

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214631
DJT on /a/. Ignore everything except the OP. Materials

And don't give me any shit about it being on /a/, it is quite literally not only the largest amalgamation of Japanese learning resources, but simultaneously tailored to weeks learning the language

[Anonymous No.]

How the hell do you remember all those kanjis, katakana and hirigana shit? That shit are fucking lots and most of them are pretty much arr rook same. And me having some sort of phobia toward weird shaped symbols didn't help either. That is why I failed at math

[Anonymous No.]

A little bit. I fell into the trap of just running my cursor over jparser entries and not actually learning the kanji. But at least I could speak enough to ask directions when in Japan the last time.

I plan on getting another penpal from Japan. That way you really have to think about sentence structure and such when writing replies.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215069
You read 'em all the time and practice writing. That's how I can remember them.

Speaking with japanese people online often helps, too.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215069
You practice every day until they stick. Writing them down helps too. Eventually you don't really have to think about it and know them off the top of your head.

If you struggle with a certain one, try to associate it with something in your head, that helps me a lot.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215069
This is where Anki (spaced repetition system) is so useful. You get stuff down by doing them a little bit each day, rather than studying 5 hours one day and 0 the next, and even if you make mistakes early on you'll likely iron them out over the course of time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213993
I was actually funposting, but I meant the ligature koto: <span class="sjis">ヿ[/spoiler]

[Anonymous No.]

I'm learning because if I continuously fuck my life up and can't get a real job, then I'll try go over there on one of those english teaching shit jobs.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214897
>>15214889

Thanks, I am autsitcally determined but I know it wont happen over might

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213917
Do you have a noryokushiken level?

[Anonymous No.]

Entering 4th year of Japanese in college along with classical, all I know is that I can't Japanese for shit

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215739
Where at?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215739
>classical
You have my most sincere condolences.

[Anonymous No.]

Any recommendations for starting? Sites, books, etc?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15216334
Print some charts out, get a beginners dictorany

[Anonymous No.]

>>15216344
Like the anon said above, check out the /djt/ thread on /a/. Fantastic starting point.

[Anonymous No.]

I keep trying but failing.

But then I have months of free time coming up.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213122
>mandarin

Don't do it anon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15216954
What is Taiwan and Singapore

[Anonymous No.]

I've been living in Japan for almost 4 years now

[Anonymous No.]

>>15216954
>learn Russian
But
-why-
It's such a grotesque looking and sounding language and the people associated with it are pure mostly trash with a little bit of turd.
Not to mention the country is kinda shit too, is there something like business wise I'm missing?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217248
>It's such a grotesque looking and sounding language
I think it's beautiful in songs, especially in choirs (one thing the soviets did well) but learning it for that alone would be foolish.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217248
Mining and petroleum industry

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217248
>grotesque
>russian
You must know nothing about slavic languages at all.
Russian tends to prefer soft consonants and lots of palatalisation.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15216954
China isn't the problem, capitalism is the problem. And China is one of the most capitalist countries in the world right now. Really frightening posts though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15218628
Capitalism runs under the assumption that both parties keep their end of the deal.

A Capitalistic economy and a socialist government are mutually exclusive.

That country is a contradiction.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15218931
Not really, no. That's what fascism assumes.
Libertarianism makes no such assumption, and Chinese business is de facto libertarian right now.
I'd probably call the government of the PRC somewhere in centrist or very mild fascism.

[Anonymous No.]

I always see people bring up Anki, but how does it actually work? Is it just for vocabulary?

When should I start using it?

I tried looking at the guide in /a/'s general but I still don't really get it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221037
It's made by retards for retards. Just forget it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221037
Did you ever go to school? Most people who take (or rather, are forced to take) a language class eventually are introduced to the concept of flash cards. You write question on one side, and the answer to the question on the other side. Afterwards, you just pull card after card, and depending on the correctness of your answer, you delay looking at the card for several or many days. Anki does all of this automagically for you.

If you aren't sure if you should be using it now, the answer is probably yes. Look up the core6k deck to import into Anki, and you're probably good to go for a while.

You can also use it for grammar points, whole sentences, trivia knowledge and pretty much anything else that easily fits into the short question-short answer pattern. Flashcards aren't so great for info dump cards with huge answers, though. The point is that each card can be answered very quickly.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221037
It's very customizable but you can download premade decks that are user submitted on the site. It spaces things out so you learn something one day, then something the next day, 3 days after that, then 1 week and so on, resetting if you forget the word. i highly recommended it, esp if you don't know kanji characters.

use it as soon as you start learning vocabulary and kanji, IMO. you can set the pace so you avoid burning yourself out. also don't make a bunch of decks because then you might start to neglect some

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221096
>>15221104

Oh, I see. So it's just virtual flashcards basically, that automatically sets up a schedule for you. Thanks anons. Since I just started learning kanji I guess I should start using it then.

Probably a stupid question, but what's the stuff like
>again
>good
>easy
mean? I'm guessing it's for how quickly I knew the answer?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221125
Again - You'll see the card again in 10 minutes, and if you can solve it by then, the next day
Hard - You'll see the card again slighly sooner than normal
Good - You'll see the card again some time in the future, on an exponential scale depending on how often you answered with "good" in the past. This is supposed to be the "normal" answer that you can use in most cases.
Easy - You'll see the card again even later.

So, in summary, you can use it as you see fit, but choosing depending on how much trouble you had in answering is a solid choice. Personally I chose "Again" if I completely forgot the meaning of the card or the reading is completely off, "Hard" if I wasn't certain or the reading was slightly off, and "Good" in most other cases.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221143
PS: "Hard" shows up only a day after you initially saw/learned a new card.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221143
Thank you anon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221125
>Oh, I see. So it's just virtual flashcards basically, that automatically sets up a schedule for you.
exactly. don't feel discouraged if you forget most of the words after a few days, that will happen a lot. the brain is suited to learn through repetition. also it helps me a lot if i write the kanji out (try to learn the stroke order for each kanji), because muscle memory is really useful for remembering stuff.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15221200

> because muscle memory is really useful for remembering stuff.

This. I currently am enrolled in 2nd year Japanese and have been using the djt guide from /a/ and I can say without a doubt that I remember the Kanji from class for more than the anki Kanji because I was forced to write them.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
Saving for a class next semester, just a Japanese 101 class. I heard the professor is quite good though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217220
They mostly speak Cantonese in Singapore, same as in Hong Kong. Mandarin is almost exclusively spoken in China, other countries with lots of Chinese immigrants do have some Manadarin, but they most likely speak Cantonese or Hokkien.

[Anonymous No.]

I just graduated with a Japanese degree actually. I know, I know, inapplicable in the job field. My life goal is to be a translator for Japanese-English. The only problem is the expectations for the field, it's so hard for me to jump into it even though I want to do it with all my heart. I'm a fourth year but I feel like I'd need another few years to truly become fluent and creative with my use of the language, and that's the kind of mastery they expect on the first day.

I'm trying to make money by working as an ESL facilitator at school at the same time, but does anyone have any similar experiences? I just want to make a nice living and be happy doing my job, and this is the only thing I've ever thought that would be the slightest bit rewarding as a career.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017
Pretty much this. I'm hoping to go to Japan soon on a trip so I'm stepping up by reviewing flashcards for vocab and learning grammar, but my college work and career advancement have the front seat. I've basically held off on learning to read anything besides kana (which is a fucking week's study at most) because I want to speak so badly and focus purely on that.

I'm considering hiring a tutor over the weekends when I have stable employment to get serious, but I can't right now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223799
You don't sound very half-assed at all, anon. You are the anti-/jp/sie, the one that will bring balance to the jay.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
School has been keeping me busy, so I've just been doing anki as a bare minimum. It's not going so well. I'd probably be more diligent if Japanese had more use to me than just being able to read whatever manga I want and not relying on fan translations.
But thats still pretty important. So here, I am. 3/4 assing it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223815
I'm half-assed in my Japanese studies, not my other ones. Can't even find time to give a smartphone app (Memrise) 10 minutes because of finals.

I wish I could just give up everything and clean the slate to be honest. Doing a bunch of different completely unrelated things at once puts a major damper on any kind of productivity I do have.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223867
>Can't even find time to give a smartphone app (Memrise) 10 minutes because of finals.
But you have time to talk about it on /jp/.
Anon, please.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223835
what's that a screenshot of?

[Anonymous No.]

I've been studying for 2 years, I know hiragana, katakana, some kanji and can understand basic conversations

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223900
I relax in between hours to not burnout on studying, this site being like a drug of sorts.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223728
just do JET or some other standardized English teacher in Japan shit. Use that year or two to learn more and figure something out.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223932
That's called procrastinating

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213931

Only learned 200 kanji in 2 semesters lol? I just finished my second semester of Japanese at the university and I learned maybe 600

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223952
I have heard some bad things about JET. I would absolutely love to give it a shot, as it would deepen my familiarity with the language. But is it as good as they say it is. Or is it as bad as others have made it out to be?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223922

>2 years
>some kanji
>some

what do you consider study? did you study like once a month for half an hour?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223867
>>15223932

You were the chosen one!

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223984
Heard bad things? Like what?

JET is a secure and good chance way to get in to country, assuming you're under 25, have a clean record (ie no criminal, mental (ie antidepressants), financial (ie bad credit) or academic problems) and have a degree (can be any degree, eg. aerospace engineering or gender studies, doesn't matter, just matters you have degree or not) from a recognized school.

Don't expect good pay, good hours, getting a position in Tokyo or Osaka, or getting posted to a city for that matter - most JETs are posted out in the sticks

For a lot of people, it is the only way to get in.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217440
>beautiful in songs, especially in choirs
Good taste.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15224239
That sounds absolutely awful, but of course it's their country and they are free to do whatever they want with it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15224323
What sounds awful about it?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15224323
what? what part is awful?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15224239

The problems I've heard with JET are that its basically a paid vacation even compared to the private eikawa/ALT jobs.
Which is fun for the person, but not the taxpayers or for people looking to actually work.

[Anonymous No.]

Is there any good decks for anki at all? Kanji/vocab on one side, and answer on another. Instead of a mess like at picrelated.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15225911
I use a deck called Core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary.
It has the Kanji on one side and the pronunciation/definition on the other.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15222336
Started 3 days ago, I know hiragana now and ~40 words
I'm gonna learn 30 more words today and learn some more grammar, but for now I'm taking it easy

[Anonymous No.]

I'm at the point where I go for the untranslated manga and doujinshi without thinking twice about it, but I feel like I'm having a hard time progressing naturally any further than this. It's hard to learn grammar just by reading: When I read stuff that has pictures I end up relying more on context than syntax, and yet I can't move over to books without pictures because I can't handle the grammar. At some point I need to find fora for speaking and writing, that's where grammar really matters.

Anyway, core 6000 does what it's supposed to. The trick is going at it hard. 100 new words a day is good, but do as many as you can. It's only too much if you literally don't have the time to finish the reps, 1000 a day is acceptable. It doesn't get harder to remember when you overwhelm yourself, it gets easier. Your brain is designed to find patterns in complex structures, not to memorize strings of information piece by piece. You don't forget things because your brain is broken, you forget things because your brain sorts them out.

Imagine laying a 10000-piece puzzle without pouring the pieces out on the floor, just taking 10 of them out of the box at a time and really trying to memorize them.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226586
I'm completely in the same situation. Graduating from doujinshi is really hard...

That being said, 100 words a day? 1000 reps? That's sick, and will overwhelm anyone who does it for more than a few weeks. I'm at 200 reps a day for now and that's already plenty (I'm not NEET). Also let's not kid ourselves, I can see you do 100 a day for the first 500 words or so, i.e. words that anyone with a bit of previous exposition already knew, but after that? No way. Your failure rate will go through the roof eventually.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226261
Fuck, I didn't mean to quote that

[Anonymous No.]

Was half-assing a bit when I finished the 常用漢字 but I have to beef it up again as a 6 months secondment is coming up and may lend me there permanently if it works out well.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017
lazy and constant >>>>>>>>>> intense and brief

[Anonymous No.]

>>15225911
it takes like 15 minutes to learn how to edit the html so the card looks exactly the way you want. i suggest straight up removing everything that bothers you to look at and putting any vocab on the back side of the card

https://nihongoshark.com/learn-kanji/

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226610
i think that's the point. you are just to get slightly familiar with the vocab.

although, i do think it'd be a bad idea to keep doing it after having been exposed to all the cards.

[Anonymous No.]

>Tfw half okinawan
>learns Korean
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

If this hasn't been mentioned though, Memrise is good for language learning, check it out.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223522
>Not writing kanji when you practice with Anki

Why are you doing that?
Also, no need to remind me how ugly my handwriting is.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226906
Looks better than Japanese handwriting. I guess that's simple though considering that Japs don't give a fuck about it for some stupid reason.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226906
Not that guy, but I used to do this when I started out but honestly it takes so much time I figured it wasn't worth it.

Doing 20 new cards a day and writing them down took me longer than doing 40 takes me now, so I definitely don't regret dropping writing, and I don't think my retention took any significant hit from not writing. If I ever feel the need to learn to handwrite, I'll focus on it after I feel confident in my vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.]

>literally everyone can pick out a few kana and maybe some kanji

fucking nerd NEETs I know none of you do anything anyway so apply your oodles of free time to something of value, like learning a language, even if it is jap

[Anonymous No.]

>>15227226
>literally everyone

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226866
memrise only has hiragana and baby vocab, but it's a decent place to start i guess

[Anonymous No.]

I can't resist the urge to go straight for compelling materials so my grammar and vocab have been shit forever

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226906
Are you not using proper stroke order for some of these?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15227639
I do for all of them. Why?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15227300
As I said, took Korean there, not Japanese, sorry ㅠ ㅠ

[Anonymous No.]

I can comprehend it (written and spoken) but I can't really speak or write it too well. Anyone else experience this?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15227226
This was basically my motivation to study. I do nothing with my free time (not even watch anime or games) so might as well do something useful with it. Glad I did.

I mean it might take years, but no matter what those years will come and go, might as well look back and be glad you did something of worth.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223908
Anki.

[Anonymous No.]

Anon here who started in 2000 by learning Japanese all by myself, then went to language school and spent some time in Japan.

after that went on to stury Business Adminstration and Japanese studies at my university and spent a year in Japan.

Quite fluent in reading and writing - thanks to my wife.

Still have trouble when reading stuff like Nikkei Shinbun though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15227712
Some of your boxes just looked a little odd, is all.

[Anonymous No.]

I am starting. my memory is so bad so i'll probably end forgetting it. I am leaching what syllable each hiragana represents.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228127

learning*

[Anonymous No.]

>>15215069
The above replies are good advice. Also, try to learn radicals and their meanings (the individual kanji/symbol inside the overall kanji). It'll go a long way to figure stuff out and dissect the language.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226906
It's legible and very clear. You're doing alright, tomod8.

[Anonymous No.]

>Japanese grammar
This is a fucking nightmare.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228208
You get used to it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228208
Read a lot. It'll become second nature.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223665
Plus Singapore speaks English....sorta

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217248
Сука блят

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213017

being an actual salaryman is hard
no time to study

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228208

Japanese grammar is fantastic because it isn't rigid at all.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228208
Japanese particles remind me of Latin word endings. It's really not that bad.

[Anonymous No.]

How can I learn japanese for the sole purpose of reading manga and watching anime? Any good materia or yt video series?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15229231
What >>15214897 said. The resources in OP are good, but the threads themselves are full of misinformation, so just save the resources and study on your own. Once you build a solid foundation of basic grammar and kanji/vocab, you start reading and listening a bunch.

[Anonymous No.]

If you don't know how to write every Touhou character's name, and what the individual characters mean, then what are you doing? How can you accept this, and let it go on for so long?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226610
Well you don't have to keep adding 100 words every day, but you add A LOT.

Here are the stats of my old deck. Did like 90% of it in the first 3 months then the rest in the next 3months.

[Anonymous No.]

I've been studying for 10 years (since I was 15)

I know hiragana and katakana. Only occasionally do I make errors. I am starting Kanji and conversationals next.

[Anonymous No.]

>taking more than two days to learn kana
How? Do you people just study for 5 minutes a month or something?
It should take you a week, max.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213070
It has been a long road for me too, but with time it gets better. Don't give up.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232243
Sometimes I still mix up ツ and シ also ソ and ン and I've been on it for years. I know "all" (as in jouyou) kanji and am pretty fluent in speaking but those little fuckers just never stick.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232309
>Sometimes I still mix up ツ and シ also ソ and ン and I've been on it for years
Hah, same here.

[Anonymous No.]

I'm more interested in computers than japanese culture, so I study computer languages instead of japanese.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232397
Japanese = moe
Computer languages = not moe
You didn'tthink this through at all

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232309
Just wait until you have to start picking out shit like 攵夂夊又 or 土士 or 水永示犬矢大夫夭穴 at a glance in some of these clusterfuck kanji 懲 騒

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232423
I'm ok with kanjis so long they do not merge to simple blots due to being too small. Even then you can most often find them out from context or jukugo.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232436
>kanjis

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232440
Epicly meme'd arrows, senpaitachi

[Anonymous No.]

honestly all this かける　付く　込む stuff still confuses the hell out of me

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232309
I did that too, then i made up the word shinzotsu, which rolls of the tongue and has the two slanty kana first and the vertical things second.

... I think, sure hope it's not the other way around

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214597
what school do you go to, anon? mine luckily doesn't do that, and it's a pretty decent program despite being a little small.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214271
if it doesn't work you could still hang to the title of autist master.

[Anonymous No.]

Are there any android apps you would recommend for a beginner?

My job doesn't allow me much time to use an actual computer but I have access to my phone.

I've already downloaded Dr.Moku, WaniKani, Tae Kim Japanese, and Memrise.

I haven't used the apps yet, but are there anymore that would be helpful?

[カナダの人 No.]

>>15233496
Anki and Obenkyou

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233502
I'm assuming you mean AnkiDroid Flashcards?

Thank you for the suggestions!

[Anonymous No.]

わたしは日本語のはなしません。

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228739

Anyone who does anything involving business or government speaks english just fine, but some of the normal Singaporeans speak a thing salled Singlish. I could not explain how it makes sense as a language if I tried, fucking Louisiana Creole makes more sense.

[Anonymous No.]

I studied for a year back in high school and self-studied after that. I know lots of native students from the Japanese societ at uni though, so I always have chances to practice. That and I went to Japan recently and got to try it out.

Also studying Korean, which is amazingly similar to Japanese. Actually studying Korean in Japanese because it's easier than studying it in English (grammar is almost identical, so word for word translations are possible).
http://hangulforest.com/particle.htm
Check out this link if you're interested in seeing the similarities between Jap and Korean.

[Anonymous No.]

It's time to play 'what's that kanji?'

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213460
>The trick is to learn how to study/practice even while you feel like you're a piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233701

No clue but it makes me want to get that far so I can make nonsense radical stories to remember it by.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233814
It's Chinese. 56 strokes and considered one of the most complex Chinese characters that actually sees modern use. Only really used in the name of a type of Noodle made in Shaanxi. There's already a poem to remember it for you.

Apex rising up to the sky,
Over Two bends by yellow river's side.
Character "Eight"'s (八) opening wide,
"Speech" (言) enters inside.
You twist, I twist too, (幺 'tiny')
you grow, I grow (長) with you,
Inside, a horse (馬) king will rule.
"Heart" (心) down below,
"Moon" (月) by the side,
Leave a hook (刂 'knife') for Matang (Mahua, Fried Dough Twist) to hang low,
On our carriage, to Xianyang we'll ride (radical: 辶 'walk').

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232423
The only advantage of being a chink.

[Anonymous No.]

Is there some special guide or primer I should take to into literature

I tried reading akutagawa's 短編集s and I got raped

I also read dazai's 葉 and it was ちんぷんかんぷん to me

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232243
It took me a month because the way I learned was "sit in front of a pile of flash cards and try to get 1000 right in a row" and I only did that five times over the course of that month. If I had been studying for an hour or two every day I could have definitely gotten it in a week.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15234654

Writing your あいうえお's out until you can do them by memory is the best way to learn kana imo. Same goes for kanji but that's a lot more work. When you actually trace the lines you get a better sense for them instead of just staring at flashcards.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232243
took me 1.5 years

[Anonymous No.]

>>15219048
As a matter of fact you're wrong, capitalism assumes you are up front with your business deals and not committing fraud, as does libertarianism. You have freedom to buy and sell at whatever price you want, but not to commit fraud.

Libertarians all have different definitions of what libertarianism is tho. But you should be able to do what u want as long as it doesn't hurt others is the main ideology. Committing fraud definitely hurts others.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226261
Damn son I started a few days ago and still don't know all the hiragana. I know a, sa, ka columns and kinda ta and na. How did u learn it so fast?

I'm using realkana and one column at a time. I want to be good at pronouncing, writing, and reading.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15234956
Capitalism doesn't assume enforcement of anything. Therefore, libertarianism and fascism, while both capitalist, are very different, since only in the latter are certain tenets of capitalism enforced.

[Anonymous No.]

Excuse me in advance if its already stated some where but say if i wanted to learn japanese where or what should i do. Is there some online courses or books or something?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235572
>if its already stated some where
Oh, like in this thread? Guess what I'm getting at.

[Anonymous No.]

Is it worth learning Japanese to impress cute, weeab trans girls?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235695
yes

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235695

no - in that case you'd need a mixture of Japenglish mixed with random "kawaii" sounds and noises.

[Anonymous No.]

I know all ひらがな、カタカナ and some 400 or so 漢字. I'm learning it almost everyday, being in Japan until August; and my Japanese gf helps me. Sadly, my writing is still as stiff as that of a textbook and I sometimes do big mistakes when speaking.
I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do to correctly speak and writing like a Japanese person. I sometimes go to futaba and read posts, using translation for unknown vocabulary, but I don't get the rules for an actually "good" Japanese. It's like what they teach you is only good for formal awkward speech.

とにかく、日本語分りたいのなら、ちゃんと習わなきゃいけねーよ。

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235764
get your gf to invite you to some LINE group chats and watch how they talk if you can. That really helped me learn more casual Japanese

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235770
I'm speaking quite a lot with Japanese people and following Japanese-only courses as well. The problem is that I don't get it also because I'm only a C-level student on the Japanese learning scale for 留学生 (from A (lowest) to F or some shit like this) and I lack vocabulary and grammar. I'm not exactly the hard-working type either (though not a slacker by any means) and Japanese is my fourth language so perhaps I doesn't help either.
She doesn't do LINE group chats, she isn't this type of people. Of course, she's in contact with quite a bit of people but she's very えらい and hard-working so she's not really the outgoing/group participating person by definition.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235786


do Twitter or chat with MAINLY male speakers.

else your Japanese will get "feminized" like it happened to me with my Japanese wife.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235790
Yeah, it's also my pitfall. I've been using feminine formulations as well without noticing it (thank you anime, you're helpful in some ways and unhelpful in some other ways) like わ、よ and I'm trying to correct my ways but it's taking a lot of time. Thanks for the advices, it'll help.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235764

I honestly wish I knew 敬語 better. I have a feeling if I ever went there I'd put おs in front of every single noun or add something like いただいておりますでございます to the end of sentences.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235801
You're in luck, clueless gaijins only have to stick です and ます onto everything and people will assume you're being formal to the best of your ability.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235795
I don't think よ is that feminine though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235918
it's not that feminine, I don't think
There might be a slight feminine connotation with overuse, but I didn't think it was feminine

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235741
She's not that kind of weeab though...

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235108
>Capitalism doesn't assume enforcement of anything
Capitalism assumes enforcement of property rights at the very least (and arguably enforcement of contracts for labor and use of property and the like), otherwise capitalists wouldn't be able to own anything or leverage what they own.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214597
It's confusing because there are several different yo's, some feminine, some masculine.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
Why do you guys want to learn Japanese? Is it just to understand your wank material? Or is it business related?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
The business of wank

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Learning a language for the sake of your resume is the saddest thing imaginable.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233671
It's a mashup of three languages so unless you know at least two of them well enough, you won't be getting anywhere fast. It's English, Malay and Cantonese. The hardest language in there for an English speaker would most likely be Cantonese and Malay is actually a very simple language.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233701
Wtf is that? It's got like 5 different words in it already

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Because at some point I want to provide translations. Because shit like CGR's translations are a crime.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240382
You think they're bad because the guy has a poor grasp of English. 99% of people working in the doujin scene right now are just as shitty as him, but they have basic English skill so they can make up lines they don't understand.

Translating is a massive hassle that does absolutely nothing useful for you. Just get a job.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15234978
Write all the kana down and repeat. Remember to say the words in your head or out loud as you write them. Write them all down and look back up if you forget them, took me about a week last week to be exact, I just started taking classes but by doing that 10 times a day every day I've managed to learn all the Hiragana and Katakana. I have trouble with some but if I focus enough I can remember it. Writing it down is better than flash cards in my opinion, though you go through much more paper

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240395
If I cared about doing things that were useful for me I wouldn't have been a worthless neet for the past seven years.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240413
But being a NEET is useful to you, you loser. Learning Japanese to help people who are too lazy to help themselves makes you no better than the guy working at McDonalds for minimum wage.

Well, at least he's getting paid.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Well basically so that I can read more Jap material such as LN's, manga. I could also add it to my resume for work purposes. I believe that when I start getting a more basic understanding of Japanese that I will be able to start reading books and slowly get better.
Also if all else fails in my country as the economy is going down the shitter, I could probably get a job teaching English in Japan.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240452
as long as you don't become one of those obnoxious "expats", which I'm fairly certain only use the word expat because "immigrant" is below them

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240420
Don't be so hard on him, maybe he just wants that feeling of when there are some people out there who depend on him

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240459
Why can't I just become the friendly gaijin English sensei who at the end of the day, wants to sit at the bar with some friends while having a few beers. Laughter and cheer included of course.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240469
Nothing stopping you.

They'll never accept you as one of their own. you will forever be the other.

I'm kidding of course. People like to act like cultural differences between cultures are always massive canyons but for the most part humans are all generally the same no matter where you go. Some will be open and warm and genuinely welcoming. Others will be colder and quicker to shun. Just depends on who you meat.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240483
Well I was in Tokyo a few months ago and went to a random bar, ended up somehow having a relatively good chat with a few Japs with my broken Japanese and their broken English. It was plenty of fun though I just wish that they didn't smoke so much in bars.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240495
Well, it could be worse. Visit Beijing and you'll be wishing they didn't smoke so much in everywhere.

Ever seen a curb caked in cigarette butts? It's disgusting.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15214009
>Other hobbies.
How about dating a Japanese girl?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240501
Well that's China, it's dirty everywhere

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240508
Is saging still a thing?

At anyrate, a good portion of Qingdao is quite pretty and clean. Like a Chinese Vancouver. Or a more Chinese Vancouver I suppose.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240512
>Is saging still a thing?
It is, it just doesn't show up any more.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Because I like it. Also I live in Japan so it's kind of indispensable.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240512
>Is saging still a thing?
Well not exactly, I don't think most user even know how to use it anyway.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240502
I'm married.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240532
Must suck to be you. That being said, being married doesn't prevent you from dating a Japanese girl.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240550
No, I'm pretty darn happy. I'm also not interested in Japanese girls.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15233701
The advantage of being a chink (insofar as that is an advantage at all) is that your first/second language teaches you how to deconstruct this monster accordingly, like so >>15233888 .

Obviously this also applies to less complicated kanji, so you know what the radical(s) mean, and thus are able to derive a sense of meaning from there, even if you don't know how to pronounce the word (onyomi are pretty much just really badly misspoken / dialect variants of standard Chinese; I could go on about Beijing and the language of the officials but this is a Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock board so yeah). On top of that, it also forms the basis for categorising your kanji into some semblance of order (dictionaries etc.). I believe believe Japanese does more or less the same thing with 部首.

>>15233671
Basically what >>15240359 said, although I'd throw Hokkien and standard Chinese in for good measure. Oh, and the occasional Tamil word. Most of the expats seem to get the gist of it after a few years.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240558
>believe believe
Sign that I should go to sleep. Night.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240531
I tried using sage a while back but it seems just posting it in options doesn't work. Quite confusing

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240560
It does work, it just doesn't show up anymore.

I always use sage to show my veteran /jp/ affiliation.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240582
It seemed like it bumped the thread though. Maybe it was just a slow day and it was at the top of that board the whole time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
To understand stuff that covers like 50% of my entertainment in it's original form. Other 40% are in english (internet and translations from japanese), and 10% in my native language.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Because I'm moving to Japan in half year as a company transfer. Expat life is nice with all the benefits.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240558
I think that works if you drill enough with kanji even if it's not your mother tongue.

I'm this guys >>15226906
doing that shit for almost 2 years and whenever I'm presented with a kanji, now I see it as a compositions of radicals instead of lines. That's with "Japanese" kanji though, I'm not familiar with Chinese.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240955
>now I see it as a compositions of radicals instead of lines.
Anyone who studies recognition will reach the same stage in a few months. Good job wasting your time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241097
What exactly is your point? If you can learn and perfectly retain all 常用漢字 in a few months, hats off to you.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I don't care that much about learning a language if I'm just going to go sightseeing in the country. As a tourist I'll probably get by with English.

Maybe if I actually had plans to become a Japanese citizen I would have motivation to learn Japanese, but I'm already 23. It's all too late anyway.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241321
>23
>It's all too late anyway.

Nah. I moved here when I was 29.

[Anonymous No.]

I'm living in Japan for the next year, so i really should.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241509
Why just one year?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241518
I don't have a BA, so my visa only allows one year. Unless I get married that is...

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241525
This is what I want to do too, as I don't have a BA. One year would be enough for me too as I plan on travelling after. How are you getting there/how are you doing it??

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241533
I've been here for a month already. Find out if your country has working holiday visas with japan. Im a piece of garbage, so I'm teaching English. Im up in Toyama, so there isn't really anything to do, but i spend most of my time alone in a dark room, so whatever.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241546
I'm in the UK so thankfully it does. How's the Japanese coming along? Has it helped with you being there? Are you staying in one place the whole year or will you move location?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217440
Man that's the weird thing about russian, when it's sung it's really nice, but then as soon as they start talking it's back to lgoblgblglboglbracyka

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241625
Im supposed to for the visa, but yeah, im staying in Toyama. Nobody cares what you di once you have the visa.

Honestly, you could get by with just pointing and gestures with no issues at all. The little jap i have has been at least somewhat helpful though. The most common Japanese I'd use is just to ask if a train goes to X station. Im going to learn it either way though. I'm avoiding expats as much as possible just so I have to use it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I want to. I just started learning it again for the 3rd or 4th time. It's already been 4 years since I first started. If only I had kept at it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15217248
Some people learn languages out of simple curiosity. It doesn't need to have a practical reason.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241706
>you could get by with just pointing and gestures with no issues at all.
I'm literally too autistic to get by with pointing and gestures. If I can't use spoken or written language, I'm fucked

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
My girlfriend is Japanese, speaks it better than me. If I'm to marry her, I'd better learn.

[Anonymous No.]

Here's a blog. It'll be 18 months this June, got a 215 on JCAT last time (been taking it once every 6-7 months).

The big difficulty so far has been that the way Japanese express themselves is fundamentally different. I find that it's hard to correctly understand sentences even if I know every word.

I've found that reading books has dramatically improved my comprehension speed, but it's a mentally tiring process, even if I'm reading on the computer with a mouse-over dictionary, or even when using readers which have translations on the facing page. Hard to stay motivated and consistent at this point.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240483
>Just depends on who you meat.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15241374
How's that been? I'll be moving out there when I'm 25 and will be about 1/3rd of the way between N3 and N2. Is it too late to become good friends with people? I'm just worried I'll regret actively not pursuing any new friendships while I'm in university because I want to stay holed up and work on me.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15242108
>My girlfriend is Japanese
Lucky. Mine is American.
I made a terrible mistake.
(European here btw)

[Anonymous No.]

>>15242305
why is your gf american
what annoying american things does she do
are you sure shes not a dude

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240591
Sage still works.Put sage in the options field of a post in a thread on page 10.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15242383
>why is your gf american
Because she was born there.
>what annoying american things does she do
A lot. For example she gets upset over people who like lolis and calls them pedophiles (she doesn't know I like lolis), she is shit at handling money like most white trash, she eats too much, etc.
>are you sure shes not a dude
Yeah.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15242738
>For example she gets upset over people who like lolis
How does this even come up?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15240333
Cause I have low self-esteem and I need to master complicated obscure shit to feel better about myself.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245276
>natural human language
>complicated
Pick one.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15223665
IIRC there're more Hokkien than Cantonese in Singapore but all of them learned Mandarin due to their national policy

>>15216954
In China, if you call an ambulance for someone unrelated, you could be charged if the patient can't pay and they find out who you are. It won't be a problem if you are not giving out your contact information but if it is police then they would probably be responsible for the fee by calling the ambulance

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245343
It definitely is not "natural", unless you were referring to like the deep structure of language shared by all human beings (like in a Wittgenstein sense). It is complicated because it is a cultural (thus artificial) product extremely different to what I was taught as a child and it requires constant and dilligent practice.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245416
Do you actually believe in UG? It's much more likely that humans learn language using probabilities, rather than through innate capability.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245427
Well, not really but that is what an expression like "natural language" was implying. I'm not sure about probabilities being the real answer to the problem of language learning, though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15226717
To an extent

Going over 20 words in anki a day will get you nowhere

[Anonymous No.]

>>15229194
Ajectival Clauses in front of a single noun can be super overdone, though

[Anonymous No.]

>>15228208
頭が赤い魚を食べた猫

[Anonymous No.]

>>15229281
>Once you build a solid foundation of basic grammar
>and kanji/vocab

How far in the Core 6k is this? I am at 3k seen so far, and even baby sentences just seem like
>somethingでsomethingがsomethingをsomethingした。

It's so fucking infuriating. Even if it's "good" in my deck, changing the context slightly wipes it from my mind. And yeah I know radicals.

One year in and I still can't read anything. It makes me want to punch the wall.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245513
The cat who ate the head of the red fish.

Any other reading is contrived

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245520

I would have said the cat who ate the red headed fish.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245513
Even though I'm not studying Japanese, I know three of those kanji already, simply from mahjong, working with fish-related material, and reading silica packets which say "do not eat".

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245515

Is that the only thing you're doing? Flash cards aren't bad, but at best they should be a supplement to language learning.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245520
頭がいい面倒を見る先輩

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235108
>>15236448
Seems like Darwinism would be a better term

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245520
But that's wrong.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15245589
How am I supposed to read without looking up every word?

Am I actually supposed to look up every word?

I have always been told not to rely on a dictionary, but I don't know how else I am supposed to pick up words besides Anki.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15246877
Well, you can either read on, and hope to get the meaning of the word from context (this really works best for manga/VNs), or look it up. Encountering/looking up words again and again in different context will improve retention and recognition eventually. It's not exactly rocket science. I've been told that getting through your first major text outside of Anki can be frustrating and time consuming due to the problems you mentioned, but things will generally look up afterwards.

[Anonymous No.]

I've been studying for about a year. Took me 6 months to get through 1800-ish recognition & production recall cards in Anki.

Currently working on learning lots of Jukugo, and reading lots of random Japanese stuff in context. Although I should defnitely listen to more audio content.

Or maybe I should watch animu or read mangos or something, since I haven't seen any in a decade. But I'd rather study and listen to authentic content, since I don't want to model my speech after how fictional people talk.

Also, some advice: context, context, context. Learning in a vacuum (such as learning single) kanji or vocab from flash cards) *is* useful, because you need some kind of initial building-blocks to help understand the language. But you have to make sure you put yourself out of your element and read lots of real stuff, even if it doesn't all make sense, or may be intimidating.

Also, anyone got any advice on going on bootstrapping into Japanese-Japanese dictionary/vocab definitions? I do try to banish "thinking in English" as much as possible, but I think I'm reaching a point where I'm sabotaging myself by mostly relying on English definitions now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15235790
>else your Japanese will get "feminized" like it happened to me with my Japanese wife.

That's easy to fix. Just add ぞ to the end of all your sentences.

This also makes me glad I don't watch animu and model my own Japanese after it, like I see some people do.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15246877

You shouldn't have to look up every word if you have context. What worked for me was watching videos of things I'm already familiar with in Japanese. Say there's a movie you've watched so many times you know every line. Go find that bad boy in Japanese and you won't need to look up every word since you already know what they're saying. Do this enough and your brain will automatically start stitching together syntax and vocab because that's what it does, it doesn't need to be drilled into submission. But if you want to take it to the next step you can make flash cards out of words/sentences you see in the movie as well. Learning is about connecting new information to information you already know. When you only do flashcards you're connecting Japanese words to English words instead of connecting Japanese words to their actual meanings. You don't want your brain to have to go through the process of [太陽->sun->that hot yellow thing in the sky] for every word you encounter.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15248013
> it doesn't need to be drilled into submission.

To add to this, I can't stress this enough. Enjoyment of the process of learning the language is pretty much THE most important aspect of learning it.

If you hate your process, then it's game over as far as learning a language is concerned.

[Anonymous No.]

Thank you all for giving me the motivation to do my reps today.

[Anonymous No.]

Looking at my statistics, I've done about 4400 words from Core6k in 10 months. If I continue at my current pace, I might be able to finish the whole deck within the next three months. The other day, I was playing ノラと王女と野良猫ハート and could follow along with the basic plot, even somethings understanding several sentences. It's kind of a good feeling.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15248042
I'm all for flash-cards, which I use very, very extensively. But I could never get into Core2/6/10K. I just find them to be a grind, and rather boring. And way, way too much work for what it's worth.

How do you do it without getting driven mad by all the reviews?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I have tried for a few years, but I am too dumb an lazy.

Going to be homeless at the end of the month, might just though all my shit out next week.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15247724
>authentic content
Anime and manga are authentic content. The best contnt is whatever you find the most compelling.
Excellent video with stupid clickbait title related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5IPArDxO40

[Anonymous No.]

>>15248964

Agree as long as it's not your only source. If you want to do the anime/manga route I would suggest something like listening to the associated radio programs so you get exposed to more casual speech patterns.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15247770
これ何てhotgooゾ？

[Anonymous No.]

I want to learn japanese but i'm just looking into what the different writing systems are.
So Hiragana is like a system of syllables (ke, re, ka, ra, etc.). In a way, it's like an alphabet.
Katakana is like that too, but used for different purposes like foreign words.

And kanji is what is actually used in like words and sentences.

How much of this did i get right?
Also, is kanji composed of hiragana or something? Like, if i know hiragana, am i able to read kanji? Or what's the point of hiragana then.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249589
Oh, wow, fuck. I just lost *everything* I typed out for you. Not gonna bother rewriting it.

Sad day.

Anyhow, these two sites are great IMO. Especially the first one. Second is for when you want to begin learning Kanji, although the FAQs on the site are good resources:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/

http://www.kanjidamage.com

[Anonymous No.]

I'm not particularly planning to study it but I may end up in the future.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249691
>end up

One doesn't end-up learning a language. It's something you make happen, and something you do because you find it, or found a way, to make it enjoyable activity.

For me, I'm addicted to learning Jalapenyo. I don't view it as work at all, and it's how I relax these days.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249589
You're wrong. Go to Wikipedia or google and simply read up.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249679
thanks senpai

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249705
I don't see what's wrong with asking about it, and admitting that one doesn't have a complete understanding of those systems.

Plus it's not like people here ever talk about the Japanese language anyway. Most are probably just weebs who like looking at pictures and are too lazy to do something like learn a language, because it actually takes effort and is a long-term commitment.

[Anonymous No.]

Do any of you have any experience using Japanesepod101 or Michel Thomas Japanese?

thoughts on either?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249775
I've listened to Japanese pod101. I think it's a great resource, but for me personally it has too much English, and I don't find the topics interesting.

I also recall one of the podcasters being a *little* bit too enthusiastic-sounding.

As far as audio goes, I prefer to just listen to what I find interesting, even if it's all a mad jumbly mess and I lose track of what's going on.

Though, I am considering buying a membership just for the sake of downloading Japanese audio with transcripts.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249589

Hiragana is mostly used to modify kanji or for filler words. You can take the kanji for food (食) and add some hiragana to it to get a word that means eat (食べる or 食える) or you could throw the kanji for feel on it and get (食感) which means food texture. That much is pretty intuitive but the problem a lot of people have is that the pronunciation of 食 is different in each one of those examples and the only clue you have are the characters surrounding it.

>captcha is select all the food

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249805
Thanks anon, i haven't seen it mentioned, was curious if it was shunned for any particular reason or just not brought up.
I've heard similar reviews of it too but i'll give it a go

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213070
It has been several years since I "learned" the kanas. That's how far I got.
Just kill me now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249589
Hiragana is usually only used for grammatical stuff such as particles and what not. Technically every sound possible in Japanese can be written as kana, including kanji. In fact, there are these small kana called furigana which is placed on top of kanji (placed to the side if the text is veritcal) so that people unfamiliar with the kanji but know the meaning of the word (ex: children) can read it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15249104
Anime radio programs are pretty enjoyable. Right now I'm currently making my way through several hundred episodes of ゆりゆららららゆるゆり放送室.

Kind of an odd feeling when you realize that things they're looking forwards to happened years ago. Time truly is mysterious.

[Anonymous No.]

I know Japanese and am moving on to Mandarin.

Are there any chinks here that can recommend good websites for reading practice?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15250263
Where do you listen?

[Anonymous No.]

>>15250596
They're available on Nicovideo. I think they were uploaded independently and nobody has yet seen fit to take them down. Definitely worth a listen if you liked the show.

It's usually just the four main VAs every week but every now and then one of the other VAs drops in as a guest. It's really a lot of fun.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15250634
nice thanks

[Anonymous No.]

its been 3 years since i came to japan and started studying like 2 months before that, but im not consistent with my studying so i know grammar upto N4 and 2500 vocab but everyone at the welfare center i go to tells me that my japanese is good enough for the 3 years or so ive been studying, also it might help that im half japanese because i have no accent whatsoever

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232356
>>15232423

Why? Why did such a nonsensical language have to belong to a people that produce such great things? There are thousands upon thousands of languages in hundreds of countries and THIS had to happen.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15250896
>i have no accent whatsoever
Ok.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15212987
I'm conversationally fluent at least. i only know about 400 kanji though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213122
Oh man, you gotta tell me more about your Chinese endeavors, Anon.

I've been learning Japanese for a year and making good progress, and enjoy doing it daily. And I was encouraged to learn Chinese when I realized a damn lot of the Hanzi mean the exact same thing, and I could already make-out bits and pieces of written Chinese. And it also helped that Onyomi, even though it's often a bastardized version of the original Chinese pronunciation, made things a bit easier to remember. Having a simple grammar structure similar to English also helped.

But fuck me, I'm not sure how to get into the language. And I'm not sure where to find interesting media or content. If there were mangos and shit I could read in the language, that may motivate me to learn it.

Also, what's your process for learning Chinese? Are you learning pronunciation? Can you understand spoken Chinese? Do you pronounce stuff in your head as your read your Chinese mangos? Right now, I'm working on getting Pinyin down, but I fucked-up and made myself hate doing it, which has killed my motivation to learn the language.

I'm mad that I attacked the language in a way that wasn't fun, and now my brain wants to stay away from it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232356
God damn it, the strip on the left is exactly how I feel when I read katakana loanwords 100% of the time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15232356

レル and ケク are the banes of my existence. I've mostly sonquered ソンシツ, but those 2 pairs always confuse me for some reason.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15251748
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhua

[Anonymous No.]

>>15251748
Also, remember to learn both pinyin and zhuyin (bopomofo) as the latter is actually a closer fit to how Mandarin actually works.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15253445
I've been learning Pinyin, yes. I've been made a script to transform regular Pinyin into colorized TOP Pinyin (Tonally Orthographic Pinyin) to make thing stick better.

I've also considered Bopomofo, but I think I'll pass on it, because Pinyin is only a temporary tool for learning (I think). And my friend who learned Chinese and is quite fluent in it now doesn't rely on Pinyin at all.

I just gotta find a way to make the language fun for me. I think I fucked up by going the flashcard route and drilling on differentiating between tone2 and tone4, and should try some other methods.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15253496
You'll always need to learn the pronunciations of new characters, though. And unless you use antique methods like "use the onset of character one and rime of character two" you'll have to use pinyin (or zhuyin)
I wish you the best of luck, though. I want to learn zhuyin, since I generally can pronounce written sentences in Japanese and Korean, so I thought "hey, may as well learn zhuyin and then pinyin"
But I'm lazy and tones are tough.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15253556
Would you happen to know of any good sites that have good audio and transcripts, and which are free?

One of the tools I'm using to learn is LWT (http://lwt.sourceforge.net), and it came with a Mandarin story-sample from Japaneseclass.com or something like that. It's been super useful to have the audio to go along with the text, but I got bored of the story though, and have no idea where to find content similar to it.

Do you also know of any places where I can download a list of Hanzi (and compound Hanzi) that has both the meaning, and Pinyin pronounciation? Right now I'm manually adding new Hanzi as I go along, but it's a frustrating and slow process, and it's tedious to copy/paste definitions pronunciation all the time.

Thanks, and sorry for asking pleb-tier questions.

[Anonymous No.]

Does anyone here read physical manga/light novels?

Can anyone tell me what the hell I'm suppose to be doing with the dust jacket? It it made to be used while I'm reading the book because the actual cover feels really flimsy, or do I take it off like I would an English printed hardcover?

I've got legit perspiration problems when I hold things too long and I don't really wanna damage my books.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15253584
I'm not that intelligent or knowledgeable, but if you read a lot of wikipedia articles, you'll find a lot of external sources which are helpful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_General_Standard_Chinese_Characters
For example, if you look around with some of the keywords in this article, you might find one of the three hanzi lists mentioned. Sorry man, I don't actually know any east asian languages.

[Anonymous No.]

* Keep 'u' unrounded.
* Mandarin speakers have a tendency to over-palatalize the 'sh' (like the 'x' in pinyin). The Japanese one is quite close to the one in all the major dialects of English.
* Remember that Japanese is mora-timed, and that ん and っ each take one mora on their own.
* Pitch is lexical and actually important. Figure out the rules for how pitch changes under inflection.

[Anonymous No.]

>>15213070
Its probably because you dont have the pressure.
I learning it in college , all those test..
1 week for kana and hira .
Now im 2 years in and just got my JLPT n3.
Pretty slow cause some of my friend got n2

[Anonymous No.]

>>15257358

Is there any reason to get a JLPT other than n1? I feel like I could probably do n2 already but n1 would take some work.

[Anonymous No.]

obligatory

[Anonymous No.]

>>15258980
Some employers will accept an N2 or N1. You could also just take it to gauge your abilities.