Immersion--AJATT

[darksyndrem]

Ok, for those who may not know already, I study Japanese with the guidance of All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency.

Recently, I feel that I've been using too many 'tools', I've been over-analyzing everything in and about Japanese. I just got done reading All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. , an entry at AJATT that talks about learning the 'African Way' of 'Just do it'. This brought many things to my attention, but then again it only brought two major things to my attention. 1.) I have been analyzing EVERYTHING, in fact I wouldn't even say I was actually 'doing' anything! So, I really want to take a step back of learning Japanese with 'knowledge' and start learning Japanese with 'action' (I really hope that made sense, cause it sounded really cool in my head)

2.) I need more immersion. (If you haven't read that entry, please do, if you are a student of Japanese, I think it will benefit you alot) I don't think I'm hearing/seeing/smelling/feeling Japanese enough yet. Well, this is the purpose of this thread, I'm asking for help to improve my Japanese environment. So, I'm going to go ahead and tell you what I already have, and hopefully many of you will have suggestions as to what I can do to improve.

Right now, I try to listen to anime or Japanese radio all the time. (These are on my compy, so the only time I can listen to these is about an hour in the morning, and all evening.) Other than that I read in Japanese. And Japanese music, but that's all I have of my Japanese environment.

[Lucas89]

Well, since you didn't mention any kind of film or anything you could look for something that might interest you in the Film/TV series area.

Would could look into Japanese video games if you like to do that aswell, the great thing about games is that if you play an RPG type game it forces you to interact with characters within the game.
Since most RPG's are quite text based in their speech it gives you a good chance to look up any words etc.

As for listening if you have anything you can put podcasts on then take a look at this site:
TBS RADIO podcasting 954
Look down the list for any podcasts that might take your interest, download them (I'm not sure if any of those are pay for, but all of the ones i've used are free), put them onto your iPod, mp3 player, whatever and you can listen to things while you are away from the computer.

Good places to find resources are:
Amazon.co.jp
Yesasia.com
Play-Asia.com (I prefer yesasia over this one, but it's still another place to look for things)
Sasuga Books

You could also get Japanese posters of anything you like to put up in your room.

Thats all I can really think of right now.

Since you say that all of the stuff you listen to is on your computer the podcasts would probably be the most interesting thing for you.

[KyleGoetz]

"Just do it" is African? I thought it was Nike. Their sweatshops are in Asia, not Africa! And Nike is a Greek goddess!

[darksyndrem]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

"Just do it" is African? I thought it was Nike. Their sweatshops are in Asia, not Africa! And Nike is a Greek goddess!

Well thank you very much for your spam.

And thanks Jake, I'm trying to get a few posters atm. As for the podcasts, it'd be great, but I need to find something I can put them on :S
Do you know of any Japanese RPG's?? I mean RPG's are like mah fav but I don't know of any Japanese ones

[Lucas89]

I focus more on Film and Dramas so i don't know too much about games I'm afraid.
It may be worth just looking through either the Play asia or Yesasia site at the games section and seeing if anything interests you.

I say to check those 2 sites because I don't think Amazon can ship games outside of Japan.

The first Japanese game I got was Zelda on the DS, because of its furigana popups when you touch the kanji.... That and I'm a massive Zelda fan anyway.
I think it's Japanese title was ゼルダの伝説 夢幻の砂時計
I found it really fun because you had to use information that you read on signs etc. to solve puzzles.
I was very happy when I solved my first puzzle in Japanese

There are also games like Pokemon which only really use Kana since they are meant for children.
And there are also Japanese versions of games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 although I
wouldn't have though you would get any help with the Kanji in those games.

I personally like games like Metal Gear, but i don't think you can really pause any text in those type of games

Having said that don't worry too much about your ability to read everything in a game.
If it interests you then it's worth a try, there's nothing worse in my opinion than avoiding things just because of your "Level"

[darksyndrem]

Originally Posted by Lucas89

I focus more on Film and Dramas so i don't know too much about games I'm afraid.
It may be worth just looking through either the Play asia or Yesasia site at the games section and seeing if anything interests you.

I say to check those 2 sites because I don't think Amazon can ship games outside of Japan.

The first Japanese game I got was Zelda on the DS, because of its furigana popups when you touch the kanji.... That and I'm a massive Zelda fan anyway.
I think it's Japanese title was ゼルダの伝説 夢幻の砂時計
I found it really fun because you had to use information that you read on signs etc. to solve puzzles.
I was very happy when I solved my first puzzle in Japanese

There are also games like Pokemon which only really use Kana since they are meant for children.
And there are also Japanese versions of games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 although I
wouldn't have though you would get any help with the Kanji in those games.

I personally like games like Metal Gear, but i don't think you can really pause any text in those type of games

Having said that don't worry too much about your ability to read everything in a game.
If it interests you then it's worth a try, there's nothing worse in my opinion than avoiding things just because of your "Level"

Ok, yeah~I'm definately interested in those. I grew up on RPG's Actually I grew up on Zelda lol. But yeah I will look into those two sites and other's further, thank you again

[darksyndrem]

umm Jake, I don't see where to download any of those podcasts? Do you think you could give me a hand with that sometime? Or anyone else really?

And I'm surprised no one else has replied to this, actually

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by darksyndrem

Well thank you very much for your spam.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[darksyndrem]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

You sound offended? Pm me about it, I want to try to keep this thread as on-topic as possible for now, thank you.