/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

OK PEOPLE
Does this actually work?
If not, then what website should i check?
inb4 take lessons

[Anonymous No.]

Take lessons.

[Anonymous No.]

take lessons

[Anonymous No.]

DO NOT take lessons unless you want to bore yourself to death. Watch an anime, read a manga, just do stuff in Japanese and you'll pick it up.

[Anonymous No.]

It's a good supplement but really it's not like it will get you to fluency. Also from what i heard it teaches some stroke orders for kanji wrong.

Copied from /lang/

"How to start learning Japanese:
Method 1:
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about
Just do it. It's a bit hardcore but it will get you to fluency no doubt about it. But going against what he says learn the Kana first it helps alot. Kana= Hiragana/Katakana. You can take Hiragana/Katakana courses here: http://www.iknow.co.jp/courses

Method 2:
Grab a torrent of a Japanese textbook or actually buy the book. Work through the book. Now your done with the book congrats your at the level of a first year Japanese student. Now start reading Native materials and trying to figure out what you don't understand. Learn what you don't know. Now grab another book this time intermediate (might actually have to buy this) work through this and you should be pretty knowledgeable in Japanese. From then on its all just reading/writing/speaking practice get as much as you can. Also with this method use http://www.ichi2.net/anki/ a spaced retention flashcard program. Input vocabulary, grammar examples etc etc. What ever you want to learn. Go here to pick up some vocab or learn the hiragana/katakana: http://www.iknow.co.jp/courses
Its 100% free.
(I recommend Genki, and there are torrents for it. The intermediate level your going to actually have to buy)

Method 3:

[Anonymous No.]

>Watch an anime, read a manga, just do stuff in Japanese and you'll pick it up.
silly baka
its impossible to learn japanese by just watching anime

[Conan O'Briebers No.]

If you do decide to get into Kanji, this dictionary can help.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Dictionary/dp/4770023359

One of the rare moments where I listened to someone on /jp/ to buy something and not regretted it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857619
How did you learn your native language? By going to classes? By hearing language a lot you naturally pick out patterns.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857611
thanks

[Anonymous No.]

so is that rossetta stone any good?

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857622

But you grow up with english constantly for year and years, using this method would suggest having someone surrounded with a foreign language for years until they just "picked it up" that could take a long time.

Oh and OP, if you can try to get one-on-one lessons, that's what I'm doing right now and I find it going pretty well, I've memorized hiragana and most of katakana, (Unlike some people I find Katakana harder, the shapes are too simple. Example: シツンソ) Anyway, as far as I can tell once you pick up the grammar it's basically substituting in the words. Just expand your Kanji vocabulary, expand expand expand.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857642
I torrented it and its basically a memory game. I didnt go that far, but i only learned some basic vocabulary

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857642
nah its pretty much crap for Japanese

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857642
Apparently Tell Me More is better.

Dunno for sure though.

[Conan O'Briebers No.]

>>1857653
>>シツンソ

OH GOD NOT THEM AGAIN. Why the hell is there something like a TINY difference between them anyways?

Also, to the OP, I tried that game. It uses the same templates as the French and Spanish ones where it uses simple mini games and constant repetition to get the words into your head. Unfortunately at the beginning, it gives you a tiny test to see what grade you are. I remembered answering what manga, tsunami and sushi was and it placed me at level 5. If you have a DS Flashcart, it's probably going to end up sitting in there wasting space.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857653
>シツソン
Learn the correct stroke order and direction and you will never confuse them with each other again.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857653
Lessons and "studying" takes even longer because it's boring and no one wants to do it a lot. Reading some manga is fun and takes little effort once you get used to it.

[Anonymous No.]

You can't just start reading manga, you need some basic knowledge of the language for it.

It's the basics that's hard to learn as you can't really do anything interesting until you studied the language for a year or so.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857611
>it teaches some stroke orders for kanji wrong.

no one in Japan actually pays attention to that shit unless they're into hardcore calligraphe.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857724
eh but aren't there kanji dictionaries that are based off stroke order?

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857722
lolno

I learned the kana and kanji from 2008 Feb-March or so (Heisig)
Read Tae Kim's Guide To Japanese Grammar and All About Particles (good book for just after finishing Tae Kim and can't read manga get) in about a month. (so april?) in between all this watching lots of unsubbed anime
Then from april to now, I read a lot of manga, and a lot of VNs. So you were off by a good few months there. Now off I go back to reading untranslated F/SN

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857741
If you learned the kanjis in 2 months even with Heisig you don't have a life.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857757

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857757
Well, I didn't do it "properly". As in, I only learned to recognise them but I didn't learn to write them, so my writing is weak but most writing is done on computers nowadays anyway so I'll pick up writing later if I ever need to

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857597
Why would you want to learn kanji? Compounds FTW

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857741
What is Heisig anyway? I've taken a Japanese class as an elective but we haven't done kanji yet - is Heisig just an easier method of remembering the characters or does it actually teach you some? I'm only taking a single class this semester so i'll have a lot of spare time for this stuff.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857886
Torrent "Remembering The Kanji", it teaches the kanji + meaning. Then you learn the readings by reading manga with furigana and such.

[Teruyo !GLPLA.M.6I No.]

First off, you have to take classes/lessons, whether they be actual classes or just stuff you find on the internet. I recommend actual classes, though: having a fluent/native speaker helps tremendously, because you have someone to correct you when you're wrong. "My Japanese Coach" works best as a supplement to these lessons, and really shouldn't be used otherwise (which is why it's "My Japanese Coach," as opposed to "My Japanese Teacher" or something of the sort).

Once you've got a bit of study under your belt (with classes, this should be around the time you master all Hiragana and Katakana, and have a good idea of how sentence structure and particles work, plus any vocabulary you've learned up until then), start getting untranslated manga. Now, not all manga works for this: you're going to want manga with Furigana (Hiragana/Katakana next to the Kanji to tell you how it's pronounced), so manga aimed at a younger audience works best. Note that, though not aimed at a young audience, "Crayon Shin-chan" works extremely well for this step: in addition to having Furigana, it'll also help you learn various colloquialisms in the language as well.

You should also, from the beginning of your study, watch subbed anime like crazy, but pay attention to the characters' speech. Though you won't understand it at first (hence, the subs), it'll help you get a grasp on how fluent Japanese sounds, and generally help supplement your learning. Also, get your hands on a good Japanese-English dictionary and a good Kanji dictionary (for the latter, I recommend "Kanji & Kana" from the Tuttle Language Library, which was standard issue to all Japanese students at my high school).

[Teruyo !GLPLA.M.6I No.]

>>1857922

Once you've learned enough to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 4 (the lowest level), you can then study in a more freeform style: you can continue taking classes if you like, but it's not entirely necessary at this point (recommended, though); if you're taking self-directed lessons, continue until you run out of lessons to take.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857886
It cuts down the time and effort needed to learn kanjis by at least a factor of 5.
Instead of mindless repetitions it associates each radical (the building blocks of kanjis) with an object or concept and lets you form a mental image or story with them.
Your mind is far better at remembering things like this instead of abstract shapes, so you will have an easier time remembering them.
However, it only works properly if you're not afraid of going down to a bit of a childish way of thinking.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857694

Then you obviously aren't motivated enough to want to learn the language, anyone who really does want to learn it will man up and take the lessons.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857954
Lol? So boredom is the best way to learn a language? You'll just start associating that language with boredom and start hating it. I learned the language fine without lessons (not saying I'm fluent, but I'm at a satisfactory level seeing as I can read VNs)

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857975
It is the fastest way. Lessons lead you through the grammar in a well-structured way and makes sure you understand and remember it.

I'm not saying that reading mangas is a bad way to do it, but it will take more time and is generally a lot less effective.

So basically it's efficiency <-> fun. Everyone can decide which way to go.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857612
>DO NOT take lessons unless you want to bore yourself to death

Haha wow. If you think taking lessons will bore you to do death then you're learning the language for the wrong reasons.

[Anonymous No.]

I like it, but it's a little too anal about writing. It's OK, but really...

TAKE LESSONS.

[Anonymous No.]

It does work.
Kore wa honto ni sugeeeeeee, aniki.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1857975

If you're bored learning the language then you're doing it for the wrong reasons! I'm learning it with a teacher right now and it is not boring at all, I find it fun and rewarding. Although, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or not when I found out "Melon" and "Lemon" were "メロン" and "レモン"

(Meron and Remon if you can't read that)

[Anonymous No.]

>>1858085
Well yeah, it's rewarding, but not rewarding enough to spend a bunch of money doing something you can do faster on your own, for free. The feeling of rewarding after reading a volume of manga is much better. But whatever works for you, I'm just sayin', you're suckers for doing it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>1858085
Oh and I wouldn't be preaching about classes sucking if I couldn't even read katakana.

馬鹿にするつもり？

[Anonymous No.]

>>1858085
Many languages have been influenced by English over the years. In some cases people start using english words while speaking their language instead of their original word. It's kind of weird.