What is the best way to learn Japanese? - Page 2

alanX · (#11 (**permalink**))

As much as I dislike shadow (sorry bud) ...he's right. The Japanese sentence structure is far different from that of English. (Exp: "The boy ate an apple." would change to "Boy apple ate" in Japanese. And usually the subtitles are changed even more by leaving out words to make it sound more natural.

So...shadow is right.

This time.

As for workbooks, I wouldn't do it. Even if you ARE going to buy a workbook, you should just torrent one for free to save a few bucks. And they're still pretty useless (at least in my opinion) unless you're an absolute beginner. There's lots of online junk that let's you practice your verb conjugations and things of that nature.

I think the base of learning Japanese is revolved around memorization. So buy/download yourself a Japanese-English dictionary, and expose yourself to as much Japanese as possible. If you have a myspace/facebook/xbox/playstation/etc/whatever change your language to Japanese. Watch tons of Jdramas. Listen to tons of Jmusic. Download a program called Keyhole TV that let's you watch Japanese tv. And memorize memorize memorize.

But don't rely on subtitles, they're only good if they're in all Hiragana (assuming you can't read kanji yet) for practice reading Hiragana/Katakana, other than that, they're pretty useless.

Hope this helped.

SHAD0W · (#12 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starairi

get the book called Genki 1 Text, and perhaps the Workbook as well.

Instant fail, WAY over priced, WAY over rated. They use that text in some japanese language classes, and we know everyone who goes to a class comes out fluent..

oh wait..

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanX

As much as I dislike shadow (sorry bud) ...he's right.

Bawwww! Thanks for the backup, I'll remember that next time

No need to appologise, if i cared about what people thought about me, I wouldn't be this way.

alanX · (#13 (**permalink**))

What would you suggest, Shadow? Learning Japanese, that is.

SHAD0W · (#14 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanX

What would you suggest, Shadow? Learning Japanese, that is.

oh I so wish you'd of left that last sentence out, could have rolled right off that one!

Your asking how I learn? AJATT. Its the only way.

Yes I am in a class, but its for the lols, I've not written anything down for yonks.. I'm just there to be with my mates and to get some 1:1 with the Sensei, asking more difficult questions during break time.

MissMisa/Krisichi will back me up here, since theyre the friends I go to class with.

KyleGoetz · (#15 (**permalink**))

alanX has pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I'd like to clarify. He said the key to Japanese is memorization. I think this should read "the key to any language is memorization. I've learned more than my share of languages over the years. It's always this way. To me, grammar comes easy and vocabulary comes hard because I don't like rote memorization; it's the necessary thing, though!

As for shad0w, my beef with him has shown up before on the board. I try to remain civil, but I'd like to point out that if shad0w didn't care about his rep or ego on the board, he wouldn't quote people in his sig in an attempt to poke fun at them. It's not just me he's done it to. He's done it to people who ask n00b questions (apparently forgetting he was once as unskilled as they).

Everyone, of course, cares what others think of them. We are all entities with egos.

kurezi · (#16 (**permalink**))

Try Lang-8. You have a journal where you post in the language you want to learn and native speakers correct it for you. It's really fun.

SHAD0W · (#17 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

alanX has pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I'd like to clarify. He said the key to Japanese is memorization. I think this should read "the key to any language is memorization.

Yup, he also said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanX

As much as I dislike shadow (sorry bud) ...he's right.

blah blah blah

So...shadow is right.

So hush

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

As for shad0w, my beef with him has shown up before on the board. I try to remain civil, but I'd like to point out that if shad0w didn't care about his rep or ego on the board, he wouldn't quote people in his sig in an attempt to poke fun at them. It's not just me he's done it to.

Aww is someone a sore loser? I love having you as my sig, makes me lol hard every time. You obviously care however, otherwise you wouldn't still be going emo about it. Thanks for that, I was about to change it earlier, but now I think I'll keep it a while!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

He's done it to people who ask n00b questions (apparently forgetting he was once as unskilled as they)

No.. not nessessarily noob questions.. more, "that question is on a million websites and has been asked more than that many times on JF already" type posts.

Oh, and you mean things like this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gackt21

I don't need the translater as much anymore. I know enough to get around it. Plus my computer can finally type in Japanese.

べんきょおしますにほんごです。　さんせいしますか？

LOL i was never that bad

Indeed I was once a noob who could only write it "konichiwa" in romaji, but I never use a translator pretending I'm fluent or anything rubbish like that.

The sig thing is very recent, and it was only to poke fun at pretenders that make people who study hard look like their wasting their time.

You're just a special case. Congratulations.

Jimbot · (#18 (**permalink**))

I would try this if you don't have access to native speakers.
Good steady content and , if you want to go for the paid option, reasonably priced.
No affiliation with the site or the owners, just like their product.

KyleGoetz · (#19 (**permalink**))

Shad0w, you of course missed the part of my post where I said that "[e]veryone, of course, cares what others think of them. We are all entities with egos." And I wouldn't consider myself a loser either, since there never was a competition. You gave wrong advice, you were corrected by a native speaker (so it's not just me being wrong or something), and I criticized you for being a jerk about it—perhaps I took it a bit too far.

I didn't exclude myself from the statement about having an ego and caring about what other people think.

But peace, brother, I'm putting this behind me.

SmMo · (#20 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnimeBaby112

Hey, hey! No arguing!..please. I just want my question answered.
What worked for you guys?

hangin out with japanese friends is always a plus, if you have any ofc... helps you catch the more natural way of speaking the language instead of textbook correct xD

i drive my teachers crazy :3