I need to redo my exams in August/September. I hope i can impress my native professor in my oral exams.
Yeah I have to really brush up my formal Japanese, I dont really use them that much. Got a midterm presentation this September, I was never good at this stuff lol… Last time all I did was wrote up a script and memorize it. Engineering presentations are really boring… I took a class last semester but it was for english presentation and I did pretty well, except that its somehow hard to apply what I learned in that class to the Eng. presentation in Japanese, its like when I do presentation in Japanese, I feel like I sound too monotonous and not as energetic. I’m not 100% sure whats my problem, maybe its as simple as I just lack practice.
Watch and listen to a lot of Japanese stuff, like the news, TV shows, dramas, so on and so forth. Pay attention to how they sound and talk according to expression. A lot of foreigners tend to sound a bit robotic or in monotone when they speak Japanese(or any language beside their own), so listening to native speakers will help give you an idea on how to sound more natural in your tone. Listen, and practice speaking. You’re living in Japan, right? Watch TV, listen to the radio, just drown yourself in Japanese. :V
Sorry if this is something you’ve been told before, but yeah.
yeah, the thing is i only have that problem speaking formal Japanese, maybe its just the way it is for Science/Eng. presentations… I dont think watchin dramas/tv shows can help much in this matter because im not using the kind of japanese like in those. Maybe i can learn something from the news, but yeah thats my point, sounding like the news presenter during presentations = pretty boring imo… I havent seen one exciting Eng. presentation yet so far lol
when it comes to everyday japanese with friends and all, most of the times i dont sound like a foreigner at all(minus maybe the limited vocab i have), ive been mistaken as a japanese a lot of times too (though i dont think i look japanese at all, maybe chinese :shrug: )
as for dramas, i can never get into Japanese Dramas… Im more of a movie person, but most of the movies i watch, they dont teach me much “practical”/“polite”/“formal” Japanese anyway lol
hey winter, your advice was to learn in context. This makes sense, but do you think it’s worth learning how to write the radicals first even without any real practical knowledge of meaning?
I was thinking of just doing it that way, learning the radicals until I’ve at least somewhat memorized them, and then just learn in context afterward.
i used this book back when i started
http://bookclub.japantimes.co.jp/en/title/Kanji%20in%20Context%20%20[%20Reference%20Book%20]
really good. though i got the book for free… and the book is still useful now.
No, I suggest you should pay attention to the radicals and remember them as you encounter them but don’t just straight memorize them from a list. Study the complete characters. Learn kanji in context and you will learn which reading to use and you can use your knowledge of the radicals from the kanji that you know to help you more easily learn new kanji as you progress.
Assuming English is your first language – Consider how you learned English, you were most likely taught root words and these helped you learn the meanings of tons of other words that had that same Latin/Greek element (prefix, root, and suffix). For example, from anthropos (Greek for mankind) comes: anthropology, misanthropy, anthropoid, anthropocentric, anthropomorphic, philanthropy, and anthropophobia. Basically speaking, treat radicals as the root words of Kanji characters and learn the Kanji in context so when you see a character next to a different character you know the meaning of that character is exactly ＿＿＿＿ and is read as ＿＿＿＿.
If you study kanji and their radicals this way, you will understand the difference between 侘寂 (wabisabi) and 侘錆 (wabisabi) where Google Translate fails.
I see, thanks for the advice once again
Can someone explain the difference between radicals, and the primitives that Heisig and etc teach? They’re very similar. Is it a waste of time to learn primitives, since radicals are the indexing standard for dictionaries and other resources? Personally they both help me break down the characters into something I can recognize and remember, instead of looking at kanji as random scribbles.
Radicals = What Kanji are actually categorized by, and how Kanji is taught (established in the 字彙 (or 字汇) in 1615.)
Primitives = Heisig creation that occasionally but not consistently matches up with the accepted radicals. More like combined radicals.
yeah primitives, while close to radicals, aren’t always radicals and are just a learning device used for Heisig’s method.
Gasaraki: you should be able to find most of Heisig’s work free online if you search well enough…
So, I’m 17, and in about a year I will be leaving to join the Navy. I talked to my recruiter, and he said I have a high chance, if not 100% that I can be stationed in Japan. This is cool for me because it’s been my lifes dream for a long time. So before you dismiss me as one of those weird weeaboo kids, I actually have a good reason. If I’m going to be living there for 4+ years of my life, I’d like to be able to speak the language!
So, assuming I have about a year, what would you say are my best options? I’m willing to really dedicate myself to this, as it is very important to me. I would like to save money though.
Links to websites are very helpful!
Torrenting is against the law! But it’s free…
I’m currently doing Michel Thomas Japanese foundation, it’s pretty good. I think if you wanted to pay for it it’s under $100. There is a learning Japanese and chinese thread, you should search for it it’s not that old.
How has your progress been? Do you think maybe like an hour a day for a year I could get to at least a basic speech?
http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-speak-japanese (there’s a link to Nihongo Resources on that page that I think is very useful)
There’s also a helpful ‘learn Japanese’ thread already Lets learn Japanese and Chinese
I swear to god, the search engine is only unable to find topics I want to make a thread about 
Thanks.
The foundation course is 8 x 1 hour audio cd’s (Michel Thomas) . I’ve really been impressed with the way it teaches you sentence structure and relates it to english grammar so that you can make sense of how to speak. I’m learning to create sentences rather than search for a phrase I learnt and regurgitate it. I’m halfway through the last cd, and then I have the advanced course which I think is another 4 or 6 cd’s.
For example, I can say things like “Yesterday, I had work, but today I’m playing tennis with my friend. I want to eat sushi tonight. Do you want to eat sushi with me?” Not because I learnt that phrase but because I have the tools necessary to come up with the words.
“Kinou, watashi wa shigotto de arimasu ga, kyoo wa tomodachi to tennisu o shimasu. Konban, sushi o tabetai desu. Anata wa watashi to sushi o tabemashoka?”
Anyway I think it’s good, and I’ve basically put in less than 10 hours work. Next thing for me is to bulk up my vocab.
Wow, that’s impressive. I might need to find a way to get a hold of these videos. I really appreciate it!
How about understanding speech, how do you do with that?
They’re not videos, just audio.
Um I’ve not yet tried to understand speech, I’m going to wait until I finish the whole course. But I’d imagine I’d still be completely lost. It’s going to take a lot of time watching japanese videos and such. I’m planning to move to Japan in a few months so I’m just trying to do the best I can until I get there and learn naturally.