Should i start learning Japanese?

[RinXD]

Honestly the easiest way to learn the writing bit is to jump head first into kanji hiragana and katakana are easy in comparison

[rainsismyfav]

Whatever you do, it just takes repetition. Keep doing it over and over and it will stick on. I never really learned writing, but as for reading, i gradually understood stuff after running into patterns after patterns.

[tundrick]

Honestly the easiest way to learn the writing bit is to jump head first into kanji hiragana and katakana are easy in comparison

[tundrick]

Whatever you do, it just takes repetition. Keep doing it over and over and it will stick on. I never really learned writing, but as for reading, i gradually understood stuff after running into patterns after patterns.

[RinXD]

Writing helps  you learn to read it so it kills two birds with one stone

[tundrick]

Anyone have any recommendations for books or maybe a website that teaches Japanese?, i'm aware of that Rosetta stone thing but i don't really know how good that is. Just something that i can study with by myself.

[Roach]

Anyone have any recommendations for books or maybe a website that teaches Japanese?, i'm aware of that Rosetta stone thing but i don't really know how good that is. Just something that i can study with by myself.

Try this thread.

 

Personally, I use Tae Kim's guide for grammar and Core 2k for vocabulary.

[Bolverk]

Yeah the writing is the thing i'm most worried about, it's the part i feel is the most likely part for me to give up on because of the struggle. Anyhow i am currently on a large holiday (6 weeks) so i feel i should dedicate this vacation to really trying to learn the language and when i return to school see how much i'm enjoying it and see if i want to pursue it further.

You don't really need to learn how to write. If you want to take practical tests and need to write it for hand. Then you have to. Besides the practical value of remembering the kanji radicals and how the kanji's are built up. It's optional imo.

Honestly if someone is just going to read vn's and watch anime. Then writing is a waste of time to learn. That's how I see it. But people learn best in their own ways of course.

[phersu]

You can learn at any age, but an earlier start doesn't hurt.

[tundrick]

You don't really need to learn how to write. If you want to take practical tests and need to write it for hand. Then you have to. Besides the practical value of remembering the kanji radicals and how the kanji's are built up. It's optional imo.

Honestly if someone is just going to read vn's and watch anime. Then writing is a waste of time to learn. That's how I see it. But people learn best in their own ways of course.

Well i do plan to both use the language for recreational and professional purposes so i kinda need to go to college and study the language fully so i can turn it into a profession.

[Bolverk]

Well i do plan to both use the language for recreational and professional purposes so i kinda need to go to college and study the language fully so i can turn it into a profession.

Then you should go for learning the writing as well ofc ^^ You can use writing to learn the kanji's more efficient as well. Because most kanji's are built up with a "few" other kanji's. These are usually written the same way and is called radicals. If you want tot turn your language skills into a profession. I suppose collage is the best as well. I suppose fan translators have become official translators by doing it for free at first. No idea how this process happens and how often though.

[teemoteishampoo]

Then you should go for learning the writing as well ofc ^^ You can use writing to learn the kanji's more efficient as well. Because most kanji's are built up with a "few" other kanji's. These are usually written the same way and is called radicals. If you want tot turn your language skills into a profession. I suppose collage is the best as well. I suppose fan translators have become official translators by doing it for free at first. No idea how this process happens and how often though.

 

Yeah, in my experience, writing the reading in hiragana, the kanji, and a rough English meaning for a word has been really helpful in learning new words. I usually create my own vocabulary list this way using words I encounter when reading VNs and manga and watching anime, and then practice writing down the reading and the kanji just given the English meaning.

 

As for college, I personally don't think taking Japanese classes in college is necessary. It's useful if you need a push to study Japanese, but if you're self-disciplined enough, you can get pretty good by studying on your own and making Japanese friends to practice speaking with.

[Bolverk]

Yeah, in my experience, writing the reading in hiragana, the kanji, and a rough English meaning for a word has been really helpful in learning new words. I usually create my own vocabulary list this way using words I encounter when reading VNs and manga and watching anime, and then practice writing down the reading and the kanji just given the English meaning.

 

As for college, I personally don't think taking Japanese classes in college is necessary. It's useful if you need a push to study Japanese, but if you're self-disciplined enough, you can get pretty good by studying on your own and making Japanese friends to practice speaking with.

The way you practice is a good idea. Can practice writing new words and learning new vocab. If you can put the effort into it, I'd say it's totally worth it.

 

Hmm. As I said earlier I don't know for sure. But I suppose they won't only teach you the language but also some history and culture stuff. Which you might not necessarily come to contact with otherwise. I if someone has any recommendations for Japan introductions to history, Culture, and so on please give us some links~~ I personally would like textbooks. No idea if it should be in english or jp... Honestly jp would be ideal, but it will be a lot harder.

 

I think it's important to be knowledgeable in these areas as well. Because some stuff you will come in contact with will have context in that.

For example some anime with history in their setting. Might mention some old heroes or clans back in that old era. Culture is ofc necessary to know a lot about. Not only stuff that you might get contact with by reading our lovely anime, vn's, LN's ofc.

[teemoteishampoo]

The way you practice is a good idea. Can practice writing new words and learning new vocab. If you can put the effort into it, I'd say it's totally worth it.

 

Hmm. As I said earlier I don't know for sure. But I suppose they won't only teach you the language but also some history and culture stuff. Which you might not necessarily come to contact with otherwise. I if someone has any recommendations for Japan introductions to history, Culture, and so on please give us some links~~ I personally would like textbooks. No idea if it should be in english or jp... Honestly jp would be ideal, but it will be a lot harder.

 

I think it's important to be knowledgeable in these areas as well. Because some stuff you will come in contact with will have context in that.

For example some anime with history in their setting. Might mention some old heroes or clans back in that old era. Culture is ofc necessary to know a lot about. Not only stuff that you might get contact with by reading our lovely anime, vn's, LN's ofc.

 

That's a pretty good point actually. I took a course on modern Japanese literature at my college and although it was taught in English, I learned a lot about the history of Japan beginning from the Meiji restoration to the current day. I think that for history though, there aren't really textbooks per se. Instead, you might get interested in say, the Sengoku period from playing Sengoku Rance and decide you want to learn more. Then I think reading the Wikipedia article usually gives a decent overview, and then you could try reading some of the references listed for more in-depth information.

 

Culture's definitely important, but I'm not so sure you can "learn" a culture. I feel that you gradually absorb Japanese culture over time, but even then, you have your own perspective that will be different from everyone else. Even among Japan, I'm sure people from Osaka and people from Tokyo will have had different experiences that lead them to emphasize different parts of Japanese culture. 

 

Oh, and I do have a recommendation for a book, although it's not strictly about culture or history: http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Japanese-Short-Stories-Books/dp/0199583196. This is a collection of Japanese short stories translated into English and arranged into chronological order.

[RinXD]

You can read all you want about japanese customs and culture but you cant actually understand or learn said culture with out cultural immersion

[Yeah Way]

It's nice to see people so encouraging on this forum, i told some of my friends that i was thinking of taking up Japanese and they told me that i was at fear of becoming a weeaboo.... real helpful XD

Well, their concern's not completely unwarranted. I know of people who "studied Japanese so hard, they would sometimes switch from English to Japanese mid-conversation." v.vb Don't end up like that, yeah?  

 

You should learn it, though. It's really not that hard if you're bothered. Good luck.

[Bolverk]

Well, their concern's not completely unwarranted. I know of people who "studied Japanese so hard, they would sometimes switch from English to Japanese mid-conversation." v.vb Don't end up like that, yeah?

 

You should learn it, though. It's really not that hard if you're bothered. Good luck.

 

This might very well happen if you want it or not xD Albeit in my case with Norwegian, Nynorsk, English, and Japanese. I don't naturally say the words. I just can't come up with a more fitting one. *Creates awkward pauses*

[Zalor]

This might very well happen if you want it or not xD Albeit in my case with Norwegian, Nynorsk, English, and Japanese. I don't naturally say the words. I just can't come up with a more fitting one. *Creates awkward pauses*

 

That's a lot of languages you have under your belt, kudos to you.

[Chifuyu-chan]

The answer for this is always yes.

[Bolverk]

That's a lot of languages you have under your belt, kudos to you.

[Cyrillej1]

It's not a bad idea to learn early.  ^^ Even if you don't study it intensively now but just a little bit, I'm sure it'll help you remember more easily if you ever decide to study it more seriously in the future.  So if you like the language and have the interest to learn it  I'd say go for it and give it a try.

[RinXD]

Really it's just Norwegian, English and jp in order of fluency. Honestly I don't use Nynorsk, even if it's pretty much required to learn in my country...

why the hell do they have you learn it then?

[Bolverk]

why the hell do they have you learn it then?

Haha. Quickly summed up. It's part of our cultural heritage. As we have been occupied by both the Danish and Swedes our language have been affected by theirs. So Nynorsk is a effort to make a original Norwegian language. It's based by our lord as savior Ivar Aasen work, who went to around the country and recorded the dialect word uses there.

 

As for how many uses it... It's quite heavily used in a few of our county's. Around 10% overall in the country. Honestly some of these dialects are so strong I have problems knowing what they are saying. Practically some of the jobs out there you might need to be able to write to someone in Nynorsk. Some of the words that are adapted to nynorsk is so extreme you could say no one really uses them. We also got the reverse were standard Norwegian words get inserted into nynorsk.

If I had a choice back then, I'd choose not learning it maybe. Or I might actually chosen it, because it might have been useful in the future.

 

The way we learn the language is basically memorizing the grammar rules and some of the most used vocab. When we do our exams we use what we have memorized and add our dialect words we know prbly works. Afterwards we check the words with a text editor we are unsure about. Or if we don't have a computer we use a normal book dictionary... Most of the time spent will be checking your writing rather than the actual content, ha ha ha..

This is similar to the approach we use to talk to Swedes and Danes btw.

 

Here is a rather funny sketch on the hilarity of Scandinavians trying to guess each others words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

 

Kinda going back to the topic of learning languages. Even for us Scandinavians. It's actually somewhat fun to read Swedish and Danish books as well. Similarly to reading Japanese and English. You get into another culture another language. It's a new nice experience and you learn new stuff. It's definitively worth it.

Honestly I love that I started to learn Japanese. I can enjoy new sides anime, manga, vn's, LN's, songs etc etc. I don't regret it a single day seriously.

[zoom909]

I think that we should all be learning at least one language other than our native tongue. This is why I'm so infuriated by Americans' monolingualism and laziness to not learn about things like this.

 

It's not so much laziness as lack of interest, I think.  Some people just aren't interested in languages, just like some people aren't interested in math.  I mean, a lot of Americans never bothered to master their native tongue, either.  I guess they just don't care.  There's no point in being infuriated when people don't care about something.  "There's a lot of that going around."

[rainsismyfav]

There's a ton of procrastination going on. It's just not high on people's priority here. Many are just not interested in putting time (because that takes away time for something else). You have to be in a special mindset to seriously pursue a second language outside of College 101/102s. I don't think this phenomenon is special to America.