Help me with my Research Project.

[Suki]

Hello everyone!
I am doing a research project about what you come across when you start learning Japanese, so I will be very grateful if you could answer these questions about your own experience. They are pretty basic questions so it won't take too long.


Age:
Years as a student:
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) :

Why do you study Japanese?

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?

What was the first thing you were taught?

What are the most common mistakes?

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?



Thanks in advance! ^^

[Beki]

Age: 16
Years as a student: 6 months
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) :
teaching myself in spare time

Why do you study Japanese? because one day i would love to live there. i also enjoy leraning languages and felt Japanese was the right one for me

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn? i think some aspects are yes, such as Kanji, but hey! theres worse - chinese!

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why? I'm struggling with stringing sentences together and learning literature - Kanji, hiragana and katakana.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first? I started by learning common and day to day phrases, and then progressed to learning hiragana (which i am currently studying) whilst taking the time to build my vocabulary.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet? If you are referring to pronounciation of Romaji, then it didn't take me personally very long, although obviously it varies from person to person, some people are better at learning languages than others.

What was the first thing you were taught? Greetings

What are the most common mistakes? My most common mistakes are spelling and order of words in sentences.

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future? I'd like to move there one day or maybe get a job in translation

[Hatredcopter]

Age: 21
Years as a student: 3
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.): University

Why do you study Japanese?
Because I'm preparing to work and live in Japan, and I quite like the language itself.

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?
Maybe - Chinese and Korean are either more or less difficult in various ways, but Japanese definitely isn't easy...

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?
Kanji memorization - because there are a couple different readings for each kanji, and some kanji can have more than 18 strokes.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?
Hiragana and Katakana - I learned those first, as should everyone else who wants to study Japanese.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?
About 3 weeks to learn Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is a different story - I know about 800 of them after 3 years of study, and I won't know enough to be fluent for another year at least. It takes several years to learn enough kanji to be fluent.

What was the first thing you were taught?
See above - Hiragana/Katakana, after that we started learning simple vocabulary and verb usage.

What are the most common mistakes?
Placing a word in the wrong order, forgetting a kanji >_<

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?
I plan to work in Japan after I graduate this upcoming year, so I'll need to know the language to live and perform my job properly.

[stekun]

Age: 25
Years as a student: 7-8
Learning Center:

1. I started at an intensive specialized language training center for 3 months
2. Then I continued self-study while living in Japan
3. After returning to America, I began taking university classes

Why do you study Japanese?

Initially, I studied because I was traveling there to work as a volunteer missionary for several years. I continued studying after that to retain what I had learned, but also because I had developed a deep interest in the language and culture. The more I study, the more intense that interest becomes which is what fuels my continued involvement.

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?

For native English speakers, yes. For anyone who's native language is structured as a subject-verb-object language, yes. For native Korean speakers, probably not so much.

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?

Initially it was listening comprehension. The sounds come at you so fast, it takes some getting used to in order to be able to pick out what you studied in a book. Once I was comfortable with conversation, kanji became the bane of my existence. And still is.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?

The sentence pattern: <Noun> ha <Noun> desu. I survived on that for much longer than I should have.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?

Hiragana and Katakana can be mastered in a year without too much difficulty. Quicker if you are dedicated. Kanji... you can learn enough to get on the right trains and buy things in the store with another year of study. Again, quicker if you are dedicated. Learning to read a newspaper... a long time.

What was the first thing you were taught?

Jikou Shoukai ;-)

What are the most common mistakes?

Pronunciation. (That cursed long 'u' sound versus the short one.) Also, particle errors. Particularly confusion with 'wa' and 'ga'

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?

Work, possibly living in Japan for a time, interaction with friends that I still have in Japan.


Great thread. This was fun!

[Suki]

Thank you for taking the time to help. ^^

[animedude3]

wut about u, suki, arent u learning japanese?

[Xuande]

Age: 20

I've been studying for about 2 months now at home by myself.

I study japanese because I would like to visit or live there in the future. Also there are alot of things I like that only come out in japan (namely video games.)

I'm not sure exactly how difficult it is since compared to other languages but so far it doesn't seem like its too hard to learn but it takes time.

So far my biggest difficulty is learning kanji because theres so many of them and they seem so different.

The easiest things to learn were greetings and numbers which is also what I learned first.

For katakana and hiragana, less than 1 month, for kanji, I'm thinking maybe a few months to get used to it and then a couple of years to really be able to use and understand it.

First thing I was taught was discussed earlier.

So far my most common mistakes are leaving out grammar particles or misplacing them.

It will useful for communication. Also, I hope to be able to get a job as some kind of translator.

[samokan]

Age: 28
Years as a student:
1 year prep school
1 year kindergaten
6 years elementary
4 years high school
4 years university
( not sure if what you mean with this, so just take a pick )

Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) :
University

Why do you study Japanese?
Honestly, because I want to watch anime without relying on the subs. But later on I needed it because of work and to be able to live and completely immerse in Japanese Life

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?
yes .

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?
Particles.. i guess you could say grammar.. I could not figure out if I have to use "ni", "de", "he" in sentence construction.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?
Hiragana, Katakana .
Hiragana and Katakana and simple Japanese Greetings

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?
Hiragana and Katakana might be learned in a few weeks or a month but Kanji
is a whole new story. If you go intensive learning you might be able to reach the JLPT Level 2 or 1 after a year or two, meaning you could already read the Japanese news paper

What was the first thing you were taught?
Greetings, simple phrases and Hiragana

What are the most common mistakes?
Use of particles. Wrong use of particles change the whole meaning of the sentence.

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?
Will be able to do some translation work

[Murasaki]

Age:17
Years as a student:11
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) : Highschool/individual studying

Why do you study Japanese? I have been surrounded by Japanese influences my entire life

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn? No-actually it grows on you quickly

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?
using the different verb forms; it's very confusing trying to figure out what forms to use in certain sentence structures

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?
Adjectives like, "Kawaii", "Kakkoi", "Warui", "Atarashi"...etc. ; I learned the basic sentence structure: "(object)-wa (adjective)-desu."

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet? about a month if you practice using them everyday.

What was the first thing you were taught? Greetings like "Konnichi ha" and "Ohaiyou"

What are the most common mistakes? when I accidentally confuse one word with another-like one time I said "eiga" (movie) instead of "eigo" (english).

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future? I hope to be a translator or perhaps a Japanese teacher, teaching English in Japan is also an option.

[NTREEG]

Age: 30
Years as a student: 10 months
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) : 5 months in the USA with a private instructor meeting for 1.5 hours each week. 5 months currently at a Japanese intensive language school in Tokyo studying 20 hours a week.

Why do you study Japanese?
So that my fiancée and I can live and work in her home country.

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?
It's certainly not easy, but you get out what you put in. If you take the language on like it's your full time job and study seriously, you'll start making some progress soon enough.

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?
The variations in people's every day speech is endless. My listening comprehension is dramatically lowered when talking to someone who is using regular casual Japanese because I'm used to hearing and practicing polite (neutral) Japanese in class.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?
I learned some basic verbs and vocabulary at the start of my private lessons. Before I left the U.S.A. to study in Japan, my private teacher made sure I'd learned 50 verbs (using their short dictionary forms). I think having even that small amount of verbs under my belt helped a lot when I first began intensive study.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?
Students in my beginner class learned both hiragana and katakana within the first 3 weeks of class. I'd already learned hiragana and most katakana before I started intensive classes but my reading ability is still very slow compared to others. I recommend any one who's beginning to study Japanese to start learning hiragana and katakana right away. Don't put it off for another moment!

What was the first thing you were taught?
A couple verbs and the Subject-Object-Verb sentence order.

What are the most common mistakes?
Delaying your Kanji study is I think a pretty common mistake. So is leaning on romaji as a crutch.

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?
Getting a job, being able to read and order off of menus, and basically being able to accomplish all the necessary tasks you need to get done on a daily basis living in Japan.