how dedicated are you to Japanese?

[hydea]

how dedicated i am?...!

well a still collecting money to go to japan...
also to watch larc concert....
still learning japanese...
force myself to read japanese book...

wasted a lot of my money (which i refer to as investment) on jdorama, japanese magazine, jrock artist wallpaper, larc cds, hyde cds, jpop cds,
.......

wasted my time talking bout japanese star with my friend...
and dream of marrying japanese guy...

force my friend that live in japan to buy me japanese stuff...

i dont know either i dedicated to japan or not...

[Andocrates]

Kanji

I study all day, every day. I have for a year now and I am just now to the point I can get around in broken Japanese. It was hard but now it's fun and much more productive. Don't be afraid of kanji, you just need to get familier with all the radicals and the elements (heart�Asword, cliff, rice field etc) once you do the kanji won't be so scary.

like heya �����@The top left element I call a Mr. hat below that is a mouth the right side is a B (I'm sure it has a better name) the right element is a flag and a king under the flag. (there another stroke, but hey your gaijin!)

By far speaking Japanese is the best way to learn, and lose all pride. Even if you get sick of hearing ���{�ꂪ���ł��� there is always an opportunity to practice responses like �؂�؂炶��Ȃ��� (no, i'm not fluent yet)�@or "Your just saying that, I've heard 3 year olds speak better Japanese" - (there are endless ways to reply thus endless opportunities.
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[andorea]

Agatsuma wrote:

do you wake up every day do your work or school or what ever. come home and studdy Japanese or is it just a "when i have the time" kinda thing.... for my New years rez im goin to work on it every weekend for a month becaus i dont know what my time is going to be like with school home work. once i got that down im bumping it up to 15 min. every night. ARE YOU DEDICATED??

Yes, I think I'm dedicated... I'm in Nihongo San (Japanese 3) at school ,... and my sen-sei gives soooo much shukudai!!!! (homework)
... but I've doing all my homework lately

[Namba]

Well, i think i am dedicated in japanese.....
Yesterday , for example , i just played a game for 4 to 5 hours just because it was in japanese....when i am in a train or a bus , i am always reading something in japanese.... and when i am at home i always rent some videos to keep my ears working ....not only dramas , but talk shows, music videos , news ( this one is "interesting") and sometimes , even anime...

Of course sometimes i just forget about any japan realed stuff for some days.....just to relax a little.....it can get you stressed so easy.....


When you are teaching japanese , you have to read all sort of materials, you must read books about a lot of themes , because you need to learn words from every specific area...economy books for example , have some words that you don't see in any other kind of book.

AND you have to know exactly how to use all polite levels.....if you are questioned by your class , well , you just HAVE to answer any question.... when i was just student sometimes my sensei just could not explain some parts of grammar.....

That's a problem when your teacher is a native speaker. They know japanese very well, but when they have to explain a most advanced level of grammar....most of then have problems.....

And because of that i am trying to be a teacher that can answer almost any question , i don't want to make my class feel like i felt before watching a sensei "triyng"to explain me something.....

My main hint is , try to learn using materials that you like. I love games , so i like to read game magazines ( famitsu , v - jump) and i also like j-pop, j-rock and dramas , so i read Miojo ....try to watch comedy too ( smapXsmap) its much better when you are studing and you are "happy"...


Manga and anime are good just in the begining...they are too simple and their language is too far from the reality... after 2 years studing , manga and anime will not help more, so try to read books and magazines that have things that you like , its much more pleasant than "just read any stuff that is in japanese to improve my skills" if you get bored with what you are reading , your chances of "giving up" because its full of kanji are much bigger than when you are reading something that is interesting to you.....well...it works for me.....

Even being a teacher now , it doesn't mean that i can just sit down and relax.....that's always some new word to be learned , so i am always training...always tring to find a better way to "teach".....it never ends....

And i don't give much "shukudai" to my class......they will hate me if i do.....



Edit: I read in some web site the "prepare to be laughed at. nothing is funnier to a japanese person than some gaijin...." and i am tottaly disagree with that.


I think this way of thinking come from otakus that had been 2 years in school , thinked that they already know japanesese enough and " oh yeah!!!i know japanese!! i understand anime , so i know japanese!!!!" and went to japan ( because their parents have a lot of money ) and had "bad impression"when japanese people started to laugh at their way of speaking.


I know by myself some people that talk japanese like in anime and i can say , they will be laughed EVERYWHERE!!!!

Thats because i disagree ....people who think they know japanese because they understand anime will be laugh everywhere , no only in japan , i already laughed at some people several times , since they want to show everyone their "incredible skills in japanese"after studing for 1 or 2 years.......i laughed not because someone have donne a mistake in japanese (since i do a lot of mistakes in english!!!)i can understand that its hard in the begining, but if you know you don't know japanese very well , you know only the basics, you just can't go out and try to show yourself to the world ...some people like to talk like they live in an anime , and they do it in front of real japanese people!!! they think "look at me!!!! i know japanese!!!! i know japanese!!! i am son goku!!!!!"

And believe me guys , i ALREADY see this scene and i can say , its so comic!!

One thing i know is , if you had a good pronunciation of the words in japanese , ( what is seems to be so hard to american people as is hard to japanese people to speak correctly in english, since they have a tottaly different structure of words) you can go to japan without worries , try to pratice the pronunciation of the words , and don't act like an otaku who thinks that japanese people are superior than the others (some otakus really think that japanese are gods!)


And an american will laugh when hear a japanese speaking in english too....so , both sides should pratice more....

[sangmin]

i have a japanese girlfriendbut the bad thing is she don't know any japnese but i still luv her!

[Andocrates]

The guy who wrote "prepare to be laughed at" is a gaijin living in Japan. And I agree 100% I have never spoken Japanese when people didn't bust out laughing. I think it's the "little kid cussing" syndrome. or The trained parrot thing, whichever you prefer.

If you are serious about learning Japanese and plan on living in Japan be warned it will be hard. When you do at last speak perfect Japanese you start getting called �ς̊O�l�istrange foreigner).

Despite all that it's full steam ahead for me.

One more edit: If you are seriously studying english you are less likely to laugh at some poor guy struggling with Japanese because you are in the same boat. Also, if there is blame to be laid lay it, not on anime, but at the feet of lame outdated Japanese books. Thank god for Genki Japanese that actually teaches short forms.
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[marecore]

i wish i had time to learn this so i wouldn't have to read subtitles all the time

college....work...social-life all interfere

[Namba]

I'm not blamming anime , just blamming stupid guys who think that anyone in japan are living their lives just like in anime , and they want to have this kind of life , so they start to talk like in anime all the time and its ridiculous ,and that make japanese people think that EVERY gaijin in world are like that... that's all. I am blamming the guy who is stupid , not anime or anything else...

And another hint , if someone have a pronunciation perfect of the words , know anything about japan , but are still having problems , maybe the problem is not because you are gaijin or you don't have enough skill , maybe you have to think again about the "contents" of your conversation... maybe people will laugh at you even if you are talking in your mother tongue...

[PaulTB]

Andocrates wrote:

When you do at last speak perfect Japanese you start getting called �ς̊O�l�istrange foreigner).

[�ςȊO�l]����Ȃ��āH

[lovelessemotion]

i watch the 'FUJI TEREBI TOKYO KID'S CLUB' every friday morning....and sing along with the songs for little kids......hows that

[ahochaude]

I'm "so-so" dedicated to learning the Japanese language.

[Juice-f]

me too.....me too.....(dedicated to Japanese.....i study every day ^^)

But isn't it like that all over the world? everyone laughs at someone who tries to speak the new language..... ....but maybe its worse in japan....
I wouldn't know....i've never been there

[Andocrates]

WARNING RAMBLING TROLL LIKE MESSAGE AHEAD!

Every country has "something" about it that is just bad. Americans are rude, England is tacky, France is . . . well, you know. Japan has a sort of superiority complex; their food is better, their fashion is better, there schools are better, their language is better. When in fact none of these are true -

Eating raw chicken (torisushi,) raw eggs on rice, eating fermented soybeans - bad.

I think Japanese fashion is cool, but not cooler then other places like L.A. or Seoul, just different. I don't think being a living Barbie doll should occupy every waking moment of a girl's life.

The school system turns out a lot of kids great at taking notes and committing things to short term memory but lousy at thinking for themselves.

And the language, while it's fun and rewarding to study as a language it has a lot of shortcomings. The kanji system is broken and unnecessarily difficult, it occupies a great deal of a student's school life. As you know it was adopted 1500 years ago from China (China' system is also broken, there are so many illiterate people in China because it's so difficult to learn 10,000 symbols) the language has far too many same sounding words and being based on sounds instead of letters it is difficult to learn. In addition because the verb comes at the end, like Latin you must say the sentence perfectly to be understood. In most languages you feed the information to the listener as you go, but in Japanese you have to remember the sentence and figure it out towards the end - no problem for native Japanese, (but I do hear them asking each other to repeat things way more then English speakers)

Because Japanese is so hard and because the Japanese people see an endless parade of Western movie stars on commercials and watch so many English Language movies, it's a novelty to hear a westerner speak Japanese - and so many westerners don't study properly and thus their pronunciation is laughably bad.

Also you must factor in Americans are exposed to accents and broken English on a daily basis while the Japanese are not.
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[ahochaude]

Andocrates wrote:

WARNING RAMBLING TROLL LIKE MESSAGE AHEAD! Every country has "something" about it that is just bad. Americans are rude, England is tacky, France is . . . well, you know. Japan has a sort of superiority complex; their food is better, their fashion is better, there schools are better, their language is better. When in fact none of these are true - Eating raw chicken (torisushi,) raw eggs on rice, eating fermented soybeans - bad. I think Japanese fashion is cool, but not cooler then other places like L.A. or Seoul, just different. I don't think being a living Barbie doll should occupy every waking moment of a girl's life. The school system turns out a lot of kids great at taking notes and committing things to short term memory but lousy at thinking for themselves. And the language, while it's fun and rewarding to study as a language it has a lot of shortcomings. The kanji system is broken and unnecessarily difficult, it occupies a great deal of a student's school life. As you know it was adopted 1500 years ago from China (China' system is also broken, there are so many illiterate people in China because it's so difficult to learn 10,000 symbols) the language has far too many same sounding words and being based on sounds instead of letters it is difficult to learn. In addition because the verb comes at the end, like Latin you must say the sentence perfectly to be understood. In most languages you feed the information to the listener as you go, but in Japanese you have to remember the sentence and figure it out towards the end - no problem for native Japanese, (but I do hear them asking each other to repeat things way more then English speakers) Because Japanese is so hard and because the Japanese people see an endless parade of Western movie stars on commercials and watch so many English Language movies, it's a novelty to hear a westerner speak Japanese - and so many westerners don't study properly and thus their pronunciation is laughably bad. Also you must factor in Americans are exposed to accents and broken English on a daily basis while the Japanese are not.

Nice "Troll" message there!

[Andocrates]

Yes, I did troll a little. If it makes you feel better I just read a message from a Japanese calling for the reinstatement of the Emperor and "he should not renounce his divinity." And a lot of "Doing away with Imperialist imposed democracy and returning to a Monarchy."
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[ahochaude]

Andocrates wrote:

a Japanese calling for the reinstatement of the Emperor and "he should not renounce his divinity." And a lot of "Doing away with Imperialist imposed democracy and returning to a Monarchy."

God. I should just slice him with my "Ken" right now then if that's how he wants it.

[sid]

i have the pimsleur's japanese set .. gonna try it out .. but i find talking to my friend from japan is alot more interactive.

[wsim]

I'm pretty dedicated to the actual Japanese language, I try to study every day and at least read some stuff once in awhile. I haven't increased my rate of learning as much as I did before, since I sometimes have to concentrate on my other subjects but I'm doing a lot better in Japanese, then I had done previously in any other language I've taken beforehand, whether it be Mandarin or French.


But I really like the Japanese language in general and a lot of aspects about it's country and culture.


Though, I totally agree that the Kanji system can be difficult, most of it, unnecessary.

[Andocrates]

Hang in there wsim, Japanese isn't really that difficult once (I'm saying once) you get the basics down (and the basics are a bitch)
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[Duneman]

a web site where you can get little lessons in japanese emailed to you for free. http://japanese.about.com/

pretty neat stuff.

i try to learn one kanji a day. yeah, it's the roughest part of the language. but it seems like the japanese like to use english words, so maybe i could fake it once in a while if i'm in a bind just to get by.