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Japanese proficency?
posted in Off Topic
1
#1
0 Frags +

I Know you guys love anime, but who here actually can understand, read and speak Japanese? Are you actually legitmately trying to learn the language just for the fuck sake of it? Kanji, hirgana, katakans shit like that.

I Know you guys love anime, but who here actually can understand, read and speak Japanese? Are you actually legitmately trying to learn the language just for the fuck sake of it? Kanji, hirgana, katakans shit like that.
2
#2
refresh.tf
20 Frags +

sorry, for my character i picked gnomish and elven

sorry, for my character i picked gnomish and elven
3
#3
22 Frags +

I tried learning, then stopped. I quickly found that learning a language that you aren't around all the time makes it very exhausting and time consuming.

Unless I move to Japan or something, I don't have the mindset to learn it.

I tried learning, then stopped. I quickly found that learning a language that you aren't around all the time makes it very exhausting and time consuming.

Unless I move to Japan or something, I don't have the mindset to learn it.
4
#4
4 Frags +

Doesn't help the fact Japanese is completely unrelated to English in terms of vocabulary, and the word ordering. Like if you did like a 1:1 translation from Japanese to english it sound's weird as fuck.

Doesn't help the fact Japanese is completely unrelated to English in terms of vocabulary, and the word ordering. Like if you did like a 1:1 translation from Japanese to english it sound's weird as fuck.
5
#5
13 Frags +

i would say i am at pretty decent level of understanding japanese atm, been at it for almost 3 years. can't speak for shit really as i haven't really tried since no need to but at some point i will. ringo learned a lot before me and he helped me a lot(still does lol)

for anyone who wants like in depth help with how to go about learning can hit me up on discord kev#9214 but the short version is

learning kana(hiragana+katakana) from either writing it a bunch or using an online drill tool(https://realkana.com/), the latter is easier and preferred since you don't need to write if u don't live in japan. do this for around a week or shorter, you want to be sure on about 70-80% of them you'll fill in the rest when you start the next step which is...

grammar. there's a bunch of choices for this but i would rec either reading tae kim(http://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar) or japanese the manga way. there's also textbooks like genki if you want something more hands-on. while u do this you should also..

do a pre-made vocab deck using anki or if u wanna spend money, wanikani. https://anacreondjt.gitlab.io/docs/coredeck/ core2k is the most popular free one but it really doesn't matter do w/e. this part is debatable but you're gonna want to prepare yourself to consume native material and learning some words before will make this easier. i don't reccommend trying to learn kanji divorced from words, people have done it before and had success but it's really a placebo at the end of the day, just learn words this will actually help you get in the game faster. last step is..

read/watch/listen japanese. you're gonna suck for a long time, don't stress. there are easy options like news articles for elementary school students, kid anime, manga with furigana(doesn't guarantee ease), visual novels with a texthooker, light text video games but it's really that just simple, the more time you spend in actually trying to comprehend japanese the better you'll get.

and that's basically it, learning a language is a life long journey no one has ever fully conquered a language even natives so just take it easy and enjoy the ride.

i would say i am at pretty decent level of understanding japanese atm, been at it for almost 3 years. can't speak for shit really as i haven't really tried since no need to but at some point i will. ringo learned a lot before me and he helped me a lot(still does lol)

for anyone who wants like in depth help with how to go about learning can hit me up on discord kev#9214 but the short version is

learning kana(hiragana+katakana) from either writing it a bunch or using an online drill tool(https://realkana.com/), the latter is easier and preferred since you don't need to write if u don't live in japan. do this for around a week or shorter, you want to be sure on about 70-80% of them you'll fill in the rest when you start the next step which is...

grammar. there's a bunch of choices for this but i would rec either reading tae kim(http://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar) or japanese the manga way. there's also textbooks like genki if you want something more hands-on. while u do this you should also..

do a pre-made vocab deck using anki or if u wanna spend money, wanikani. https://anacreondjt.gitlab.io/docs/coredeck/ core2k is the most popular free one but it really doesn't matter do w/e. this part is debatable but you're gonna want to prepare yourself to consume native material and learning some words before will make this easier. i don't reccommend trying to learn kanji divorced from words, people have done it before and had success but it's really a placebo at the end of the day, just learn words this will actually help you get in the game faster. last step is..

read/watch/listen japanese. you're gonna suck for a long time, don't stress. there are easy options like news articles for elementary school students, kid anime, manga with furigana(doesn't guarantee ease), visual novels with a texthooker, light text video games but it's really that just simple, the more time you spend in actually trying to comprehend japanese the better you'll get.

and that's basically it, learning a language is a life long journey no one has ever fully conquered a language even natives so just take it easy and enjoy the ride.
6
#6
0 Frags +

Seconding wanikani. It’s really good and there are a bunch of add-ons the community has made that give great customization options.

Seconding wanikani. It’s really good and there are a bunch of add-ons the community has made that give great customization options.
7
#7
3 Frags +

I took Japanese for four years in high school and I think I’m alright at it ig. Yeah for kana you just straight up memorize it however you can, it’s basically equivalent to the alphabet, no excuses or bs. You should not be getting stuck on this step.

For grammar, like kev said, there’s a bunch of resources out there that will straight up tell you how all the common structures work, but I’d also add that putting an effort into learning the ins and outs of each particle will really help with your general understanding of grammar.

Vocab is something that I never really bothered to grind because I didn’t feel the need to, so I’ll defer to others on this, but I personally never found flashcards and the like very engaging. Obviously it’s important to build up a base vocab before you can start to learn by consuming content, so you should look into basic vocab list for stuff like this/that, food/drink, etc. Beyond that, I think it’s way better to read level-appropriate material and learning words as they show up. But again, it really depends on the type of learner you are.

Extra-ish thing I like to do:
Sometimes I just pick a random webnovel on https://syosetu.com/ and translate the first chap for funsies. It’s kinda funny how whack some of the plots are.

I took Japanese for four years in high school and I think I’m alright at it ig. Yeah for kana you just straight up memorize it however you can, it’s basically equivalent to the alphabet, no excuses or bs. You should not be getting stuck on this step.

For grammar, like kev said, there’s a bunch of resources out there that will straight up tell you how all the common structures work, but I’d also add that putting an effort into learning the ins and outs of each particle will really help with your general understanding of grammar.

Vocab is something that I never really bothered to grind because I didn’t feel the need to, so I’ll defer to others on this, but I personally never found flashcards and the like very engaging. Obviously it’s important to build up a base vocab before you can start to learn by consuming content, so you should look into basic vocab list for stuff like this/that, food/drink, etc. Beyond that, I think it’s way better to read level-appropriate material and learning words as they show up. But again, it really depends on the type of learner you are.

Extra-ish thing I like to do:
Sometimes I just pick a random webnovel on https://syosetu.com/ and translate the first chap for funsies. It’s kinda funny how whack some of the plots are.
8
#8
4 Frags +

watching random jp youtubers is nice for getting a grisp of non-anime everyday talk. helps me a lot practicing pronunciation and stuff

watching random jp youtubers is nice for getting a grisp of non-anime everyday talk. helps me a lot practicing pronunciation and stuff
9
#9
-1 Frags +

=

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10
#10
4 Frags +

Hey, been studying Japanese for 4 years and 1 month ago I took the N1 level.

Someone once told me that the Japanese that you see in anime is the way Japanese people would like to be, and this is a very true statement in my opinion. While anime is a good way to improve your listening ability and pick up a few random words, sentence patterns and the way the speak in anime is pretty different when you compare it to an actual Japanese person.

In anime, characters speak in a direct way, which is totally the opposite to Japanese people, who prefer to basically imply everything. That's where the expression ''空気を読む'' comes from, which translates to ''read the room'. If you try to imitate anime characters, it would be perceived as rude.

With that out of the way, Japanese language is not as hard as people might think, but the shit that's difficult, is really difficult (looking at you, keigo). To be honest the degree of difficulty depends on your ultimate goal with the language: Want to work in Japan? Want to understand anime without subtitles? Want to just be able to have a basic conversation? Depending on your answer, your study focus would be a bit different.

I think most of the students that I talked to agree that kanji is the hardest part (maybe because there are so many) and get anxious when they start learning because they want to be able to write all of them, but I think this is a mistake. Of course it's cool if you do that but I don't think it is worth the effort, you would be better learning to write the most basic ones and then focus on the multiple readings. Don't learn isolated kanji, rather learn kanji with words they may appear in. Also, learn the proper order to write them since it will help you greatly to remember them.

I recommend using https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/ to a beginner-to-intermediate level and pair it with a extension called rikaikun, which will help you with kanji reading as you read. Of course, don't forget about the good old jisho.org, though most of the sentences examples are garbage.

Hey, been studying Japanese for 4 years and 1 month ago I took the N1 level.

Someone once told me that the Japanese that you see in anime is the way Japanese people would like to be, and this is a very true statement in my opinion. While anime is a good way to improve your listening ability and pick up a few random words, sentence patterns and the way the speak in anime is pretty different when you compare it to an actual Japanese person.

In anime, characters speak in a direct way, which is totally the opposite to Japanese people, who prefer to basically imply everything. That's where the expression ''空気を読む'' comes from, which translates to ''read the room'. If you try to imitate anime characters, it would be perceived as rude.

With that out of the way, Japanese language is not as hard as people might think, but the shit that's difficult, is [b]really[/b] difficult (looking at you, keigo). To be honest the degree of difficulty depends on your ultimate goal with the language: Want to work in Japan? Want to understand anime without subtitles? Want to just be able to have a basic conversation? Depending on your answer, your study focus would be a bit different.

I think most of the students that I talked to agree that kanji is the hardest part (maybe because there are so many) and get anxious when they start learning because they want to be able to write all of them, but I think this is a mistake. Of course it's cool if you do that but I don't think it is worth the effort, you would be better learning to write the most basic ones and then focus on the multiple readings. Don't learn isolated kanji, rather learn kanji with words they may appear in. Also, learn the proper order to write them since it will help you greatly to remember them.

I recommend using https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/ to a beginner-to-intermediate level and pair it with a extension called rikaikun, which will help you with kanji reading as you read. Of course, don't forget about the good old jisho.org, though most of the sentences examples are garbage.
11
#11
RGL.gg
-1 Frags +
CaeliI think most of the students that I talked to agree that kanji is the hardest part

Lifehack is to learn chinese first so you just know all the kanji B)

[quote=Caeli]I think most of the students that I talked to agree that kanji is the hardest part[/quote]
Lifehack is to learn chinese first so you just know all the kanji B)
12
#12
3 Frags +

Honestly it seems like magic that people can learn other languages to me. I've tried on and off a few times to study Japanese, but I think the only way i'd see success would be in a classroom environment. I'm horrible at self study.

Honestly it seems like magic that people can learn other languages to me. I've tried on and off a few times to study Japanese, but I think the only way i'd see success would be in a classroom environment. I'm horrible at self study.
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