Current Events > ITT: Japanese Studies

(+) Yeah! (+)

This seems to be working really well for my drawing progress topic. Its keeping me on track daily which I'm happy with. So I might as well start a Japanese one too so I can keep my studies up for my class. Hopefully my sensei will see the change I make by using this topic to track my progress. From tonight I'll dedicate 30-60 mins or more every night studying Japanese along side my art drawings.

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Youre almost evolved into your final form, this gonna be good

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R1masher posted...

Youre almost evolved into your final form, this gonna be good

Lol. Hopefully I can improve more. I've learnt quite a bit of Japanese at a basic conversation level. When I went to Japan it was fun conversing in Japanese. Especially talking to certain idols I've become close to.

But still I could tell they slowed the speed of their speech down noticeably. So yeah, I still have a long way to go.

I can read, write and speak Japanese. But Kanji, dammit that is a pretty huge hurdle for me.

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Going through the old chapters to revise but they are incredibly easy. Feels like i'll just be wasting time so I'm going to skip ahead to the more recent stuff we've done in class.

Edit: I should really write down words I don't know though. That's the biggest issue.

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Quickly going over potential and volitional wording.







Of course I knew all this, just haven't done it in a while. I've actually been using the longer form lately such as:



Also Particle is automatically changed from to but I always make a mistake of forgetting when using the shorter versions.

All other particles stay the same such as:



practice sentence:

and are of course, non-volitional. They denote something naturally occuring and do not mean someone is deliberately paying attention using hearing or sight. The sight or sound naturally occurs to your eyes and ears. Example:

- You can see Mount Fuji from the Shinkansen.

I can hear the car outside.

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Have you incorporated Anki in your immersion? I've been using it for the paste 3 months or so and I feel like I'm able to read it a lot better. However, I still can't really speak it.

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Slaya4 posted...

Have you incorporated Anki in your immersion? I've been using it for the paste 3 months or so and I feel like I'm able to read it a lot better. However, I still can't really speak it.

No. But I'll try anything to get better, so I'll take a look at that, thanks. Speaking is actually the easiest for me, strangely. I have trouble remembering Kanji and certain words. But remember sentence structure and pronounciation are my strong points.

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Have you ever taken the JLPT? I took N1 in December 2019 and failed by literally 1 point. I probably could've passed with room to spare if I didn't get absolutely slaughtered by the listening section. I barely avoided failing from just not hitting the minimum threshold for that section.

I've been practicing listening a lot since and feel like I've really improved. My speaking skills are nonexistent though.

Itachi157 posted...

Have you ever taken the JLPT? I took N1 in December 2019 and failed by literally 1 point. I probably could've passed with room to spare if I didn't get absolutely slaughtered by the listening section. I barely avoided failing from just not hitting the minimum threshold for that section.

I've been practicing listening a lot since and feel like I've really improved. My speaking skills are nonexistent though.

Not yet. I'm hoping to take it soon. My teacher told me to skip the N5 and go straight to N4. My girlfriend says I can pass the N4 and start working towards N3.

You did the N1? Geez that's awesome. Hopefully you get to pass next time. How long did it take you to get there?

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SpiritSephiroth posted...

Not yet. I'm hoping to take it soon. My teacher told me to skip the N5 and go straight to N4. My girlfriend says I can pass the N4 and start working towards N3.

You did the N1? Geez that's awesome. Hopefully you get to pass next time. How long did it take you to get there?

Yeah, I hope I can pass next time or even just be able to take it again, lol. I only failed by one point but looking at the total points possible it was kind of a shitty score. I was all ready to take it twice if necessary in 2020 but we all know what happened last year....

Anyway I started studying in I think summer of 2014. The very first thing I did was watch this guy named Nama-sensei's videos to learn hiragana and katakana. After that I ditched his videos because they weren't that great, but it was kind of a fun introduction.

After that I learned some basic grammar from a book called "Japanese the Manga Way" (sounds like a really gimmicky dumb book but it was an excellent grammar guide) as well as Tae Kim's guide. I supplemented it with some basic vocabulary using Anki then just jumped in and started trying to read stuff.

I started with easy manga with furigana and then eventually got up to visual novels in Japanese. I used a text hooking program to look up words I didn't know. Reading VNs in Japanese is my current method of continuing to improve, along with watching anime in Japanese.

I think consistency is key so it's good you're wanting to set aside a certain amount of time every day. I was very inconsistent with my studies, some days I'd read for 4 hours and then the next day 10 minutes or something. I only finished two VNs in 2020 so I'm trying to do more this year.

Itachi157 posted...

Yeah, I hope I can pass next time or even just be able to take it again, lol. I only failed by one point but looking at the total points possible it was kind of a shitty score. I was all ready to take it twice if necessary in 2020 but we all know what happened last year....

Anyway I started studying in I think summer of 2014. The very first thing I did was watch this guy named Nama-sensei's videos to learn hiragana and katakana. After that I ditched his videos because they weren't that great, but it was kind of a fun introduction.

After that I learned some basic grammar from a book called "Japanese the Manga Way" (sounds like a really gimmicky dumb book but it was an excellent grammar guide) as well as Tae Kim's guide. I supplemented it with some basic vocabulary using Anki then just jumped in and started trying to read stuff.

I started with easy manga with furigana and then eventually got up to visual novels in Japanese. I used a text hooking program to look up words I didn't know. Reading VNs in Japanese is my current method of continuing to improve, along with watching anime in Japanese.

I think consistency is key so it's good you're wanting to set aside a certain amount of time every day. I was very inconsistent with my studies, some days I'd read for 4 hours and then the next day 10 minutes or something. I only finished two VNs in 2020 so I'm trying to do more this year.

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep all this in mind. You're pretty much self-taught then aren't you? Makes me feel as though your achievements are a result of much more hard work than mine lol. Good job dude.

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Been pretty busy today but i forced myself to go over something at least.

I totally forgot that is another way of saying "completed" or to "be made" and not just "can" or "is able.


The station in front of my house was completed.

Also went over the words, and in terms of being able to "only do something". For example:

Or
I can only eat Fish. I can eat fish and nothing else.

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Really wanted to do more, but its getting late and

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Edit:

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Is it ok, if I hijack this topic to write japanese? I don't really have anybody I can write it with. HelloTalk makes me nervous.

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Slaya4 posted...

Is it ok, if I hijack this topic to write japanese? I don't really have anybody I can write it with. HelloTalk makes me nervous.

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1970



Can someone look this over if possible?

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I've only been studying in WaniKani so far (and learning kana too)... planning to branch out into other aspects of the language soon

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I've found Takobato on Android to be a good dictionary resource. Supports English, romaji and JP input for look up.
I've been trying to message different to my in Japan he has his citizenship test coming up but I'd really like to get better at sentence structure and particles so I can have an actual conversation with him.

My biggest advice would be to consume native material- read manga, visual novels, watch anime, etc. Easier manga are doable pretty early on. It's not a big deal if you don't understand everything.

If you want to get corrections on your written Japanese there are sites where natives will do that for you and you can correct their English in turn. Lang-8 was really popular with Japanese people but they closed down registration due to security issues or something.

There's also this site https://langcorrect.com but don't know how active it is. It was supposed to be a replacement Lang-8 but not sure if it ever took off.

Thanks for the info guys. Im actually part of a Japanese course so my teacher will correct it over the weekend after I submit it to her. Just wanted to make sure right now what the correct grammar used is. I can ask my girlfriend tomorrow or my Japanese friends when they're off work in Japan.

But I will also check out those recommendations too! Also good to expand my learning materials.

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https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/

This is the best resource for easy reading material. Articles update daily and there's audio + hiragana for Kanji.

I'm not really sure I'd consider anki a part of immersion... immersion is about just getting a lot of natural input while anki is very unnatural, it's mostly just used for vocab totally cut out of any context. It's great for helping memorize things that really won't stick in your head but if you're at the level where you can just read / listen / etc instead I'd recommend dialing back the anki some in favour of that

Itachi157 posted...

My biggest advice would be to consume native material- read manga, visual novels, watch anime, etc. Easier manga are doable pretty early on. It's not a big deal if you don't understand everything.

gonna add onto this with things like streamers, podcasts, radio shows, etc etc. like, non-scripted stuff. There's a big difference in how people talk when talking compared to how people talk when they get multiple takes to record a word-for-word script

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fohstick posted...

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/

This is the best resource for easy reading material. Articles update daily and there's audio + hiragana for Kanji.

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Small update on my little essay for class.

1970






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kirbymuncher posted...

gonna add onto this with things like streamers, podcasts, radio shows, etc etc. like, non-scripted stuff. There's a big difference in how people talk when talking compared to how people talk when they get multiple takes to record a word-for-word script

Really good point. Non-scripted/regular speech is indeed way different.

TC, are you talking about San Diego Comic Con? That was the "original" one founded in 1970. I went every year from like 2002-2012 but tickets got too hard to find and I haven't gone since. Also, there started to barely be any anime stuff and it was mostly mainstream Hollywood movies.

Itachi157 posted...

Really good point. Non-scripted/regular speech is indeed way different.

TC, are you talking about San Diego Comic Con? That was the "original" one founded in 1970. I went every year from like 2002-2012 but tickets got too hard to find and I haven't gone since. Also, there started to barely be any anime stuff and it was mostly mainstream Hollywood movies.

Hmm I only have experience at the Londom comic con. There are tons of anime stuff, maybe even more than everything else. But I'll add "since then it grew into including things like ect ect".

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Jisho.org

Also




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form - /

To complete something. Using -form with a verb it can be used in sentences to explain that an action has been completed.

The verb itself should never be past form, always present form as the part of the sentence instead signifies it.





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KYOJIROKAGENUMA posted...

Jisho.org

Also

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What do you do with participles?

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SpiritSephiroth posted...

(Jeez I may need to study more, I don't know if I used correctly...)

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SpiritSephiroth posted...

I can read, write and speak Japanese. But Kanji, dammit that is a pretty huge hurdle for me.

How does reading and writing work without kanji? Honestly I find the kanji relatively easy compared to grammar. I can parse a Chinese sentence faster than Japanese a lot of the time and I live and work in Japan. Sometimes me and my wife both get lost conjugating when arguing which just ends up de-escalating things because we are correcting each other's grammar and laughing about it.

I should mention my speaking skills were basically non-existent before moving to Japan but I have been playing games in Japanese and watching anime in Japanese since the PSX era. So that might also be why I find kanji relatively easy. Lot of exposure due to playing a ton of RPGs.

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KYOJIROKAGENUMA posted...

(Jeez I may need to study more, I don't know if I used correctly...)

I think the bigger issue there is the way you are using . The difference between or verb form and or or is covered in a lot of guides, but in day to day life is the default for sure. But anyway I recommend learning the nuance of here. If I learn Japanese, what do I intend to do sounds strange. You probably mean something like If I understood Japanese I wonder what I would do?

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ssjevot posted...

I think the bigger issue there is the way you are using . The difference between or verb form and or or is covered in a lot of guides, but in day to day life is the default for sure. But anyway I recommend learning the nuance of here. If I learn Japanese, what do I intend to do sounds strange. You probably mean something like If I understood Japanese I wonder what I would do?

Wow exactly

Excellent explanation. I have actually never been to Japan, and I've been told the same thing by many people. Studying books by yourself can only get you so far (lol I have a minor in Japanese too, so embarrassing)

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KYOJIROKAGENUMA posted...

Wow exactly

Excellent explanation. I have actually never been to Japan, and I've been told the same thing by many people. Studying books by yourself can only get you so far (lol I have a minor in Japanese too, so embarrassing)

A huge thing in Japanese is that words do not map onto English words very well. Not even loanwords from English (here is a fun video on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIgJR5ZQe94 ). I recommend using words you understand the nuance of well rather than trying to use more words. It is very easy to make a nuance mistake even if you have seen a word many times. Lived here for four years now. Been reading Japanese in games/manga for almost two decades and I still make mistakes every day. Don't ever expect to be perfect. It's never going to happen. These people chasing no accent, perfect Japanese, sound like a Native or whatever are just ruining their experience. You learn a language to talk to people in that language, for work, and/or to consume media in that language, not to trick people into thinking you're a native speaker. Who cares about that, they will know you are foreign no matter how hard you try, so just accept it and enjoy yourself instead.

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@ssjevot My last question to you and I don't want to hijack this topic so I will make it about studying.

ssjevot do you still study Japanese while living in Japan? While I am not looking for perfection, I feel like I always find discover some nuance about a grammer point after reviewing the material.

Do you still study or do you feel like you have reached a level where you would prefer just speaking to people?

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KYOJIROKAGENUMA posted...

@ssjevot My last question to you and I don't want to hijack this topic so I will make it about studying.

ssjevot do you still study Japanese while living in Japan? While I am not looking for perfection, I feel like I always find discover some nuance about a grammer point after reviewing the material.

Do you still study or do you feel like you have reached a level where you would prefer just speaking to people?

I do Anki flash cards for very rare things I don't see normally. Otherwise it's just games, manga, anime, and life for studying. My wife and I normally speak Japanese. English and Chinese are too one-sided in terms of our skill levels.

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Also I will randomly add this video here because it's hilarious and you can use it for listening practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtDiG1Snr2M

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wtf. i hate america now

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10012869981000/k10012869981000.html

Just finished my homework for my morning class. Hope my sensei is happy with it.

Also thanks everyone for their recommendations. Really helps looking at new materials and ways to learn. I really want to learn Japanese and go there to work soon.

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Had my class today. We went over some old material for revision.

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Went over a bit of revision. Will put more into this tomorrow.

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Did my homework. Was actually pretty easy but theres a second part which i'll do tomorrow.

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Finished second homework. Sending off to sensei.

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s a particle.

This is primarily used when mentioning 2 or more things that are similar, consecutively.



and can also be used, the latter making the reason even clearer.

can be used at the end to signify a reason. But it can be also replaced by another to explain a reason.






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SpiritSephiroth posted...

is this an actual example sentence from somewhere or did you write it yourself? because it seems off in a way I can't quite put my finger on

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kirbymuncher posted...

is this an actual example sentence from somewhere or did you write it yourself? because it seems off in a way I can't quite put my finger on

I wrote it myself. What part seems off?

Edit: I did follow a sentence structure so its not totally mine.

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kirbymuncher posted...

is this an actual example sentence from somewhere or did you write it yourself? because it seems off in a way I can't quite put my finger on

Probably that you rarely encounter used that way, and instead is used as yet another way to say "and" at the end of a sentence, and is more popular in Wikipedia article style writing than day to day communication.

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Speaking of Wikipedia articles I have taken brief glances at random Japanese Wikipedia articles here and there and they seem extremely hard to read. I guess it heavily depends on the article though.