Japanese study group

[Murieleirum]

10 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

Is just that i've seen so many people get discouraged from learning a new language because everyone says "you need to immerse yourself!" "you need to speak with natives!". Sadly that's not always possible, but they talk about it like there is no other way. If you are motivated enough, that is not going to stop you.

 

100% agree.

During New Year's Eve, I met an italian girl who has a degree in Japanese. She said she went to Japan for her last year of university, and blabla. She talked about her terrible experience there, and how she doesn't know what to do with Japanese, and she's not really sure she'll use it.

 

Then she went on to tell me that if you don't study Japanese 12 hours a day, every day, you'll never learn it. Because that's what she did. I politely listened and didn't say anything, but I felt terrible. People like this make you feel insecure, and actually make you lose motivation, because they make it sound like it's impossible to make it, if you're not doing exactly what they did. At least, that's how I felt. But I know I'm very touchy and vulnerable about these things, so it's actually my own problem that I have to solve, LOL! 

 

I think the only two things necessary to learn a language are 1) motivation and 2) whatever means are available to you. 

[Hydroblade]

5 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

100% agree.

During New Year's Eve, I met an italian girl who has a degree in Japanese. She said she went to Japan for her last year of university, and blabla. She talked about her terrible experience there, and how she doesn't know what to do with Japanese, and she's not really sure she'll use it.

 

Then she went on to tell me that if you don't study Japanese 12 hours a day, every day, you'll never learn it. Because that's what she did. I politely listened and didn't say anything, but I felt terrible. People like this make you feel insecure, and actually make you lose motivation, because they make it sound like it's impossible to make it, if you're not doing exactly what they did. At least, that's how I felt. But I know I'm very touchy and vulnerable about these things, so it's actually my own problem that I have to solve, LOL! 

 

I think the only two things necessary to learn a language are 1) motivation and 2) whatever means are available to you. 

A lot of times i saw on the internet, when i began to study, that it was almost impossible to teach yourself japanese because it was too hard, that you needed lessons because of all the cultural influences attached and such. If you need to learn it fast, then yes, there is no other way (which is why i signed up for classes. I want to get to another level as fast as i can), but it is definitely doable on your own. 

[surimi]

21 hours ago, Emzie said:

@surimi How to install Japanese characters

 

Crap, I linked it in Polish sorry

 

! I'll try to get it to work.

 

 

[surimi]

10 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

100% agree.

During New Year's Eve, I met an italian girl who has a degree in Japanese. She said she went to Japan for her last year of university, and blabla. She talked about her terrible experience there, and how she doesn't know what to do with Japanese, and she's not really sure she'll use it.

 

Then she went on to tell me that if you don't study Japanese 12 hours a day, every day, you'll never learn it. Because that's what she did. I politely listened and didn't say anything, but I felt terrible. People like this make you feel insecure, and actually make you lose motivation, because they make it sound like it's impossible to make it, if you're not doing exactly what they did. At least, that's how I felt. But I know I'm very touchy and vulnerable about these things, so it's actually my own problem that I have to solve, LOL! 

 

I think the only two things necessary to learn a language are 1) motivation and 2) whatever means are available to you. 

 

You're absolutely right about this. It's also important to be gifted language-wise to string together correct sentences, but just for basic communication purposes, all you need is determination, motivation and good memory. I've just been going through a large book I borrowed from the library, and I am pleased to see my reading skills are improving fast, eventhough I was originally dismayed  to find only hiragana and katakana texts from page 1 on, and no transcriptions. The person who'd borrowed the book before me got intimidated alright I guess - a few pencil-written transcriptions in lesson 1 vocab (1 of them wrong), and just one in lesson 2, and afterwards nothing more. They can't have improved enough not to need the book anymore, since the only word they transcribed in lesson 2 was 'watashi'.

 

I have to say I am trying my best not to be intimidated here though. Compared to what's being discussed in the last few pages, my level is positively neanderthal. I am spending the time till my course begins building some basic vocabulary - months, weather, food, buildings, means of transport and the like. The verbs need to come later as they're considerably more difficult. But where there's a will...

[五十嵐 美幸]

28 minutes ago, surimi said:

 

! I'll try to get it to work.

 

 

 

This may help:

 

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-install-japanese-keyboard/

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, surimi said:

I have to say I am trying my best not to be intimidated here though. Compared to what's being discussed in the last few pages, my level is positively neanderthal. I am spending the time till my course begins building some basic vocabulary - months, weather, food, buildings, means of transport and the like. The verbs need to come later as they're considerably more difficult. But where there's a will...

 

Yeah, what I've found for me is that keeping calm and going at your own pace works best. I mean, If you're taking lessons, then the teacher is setting the pace for you, but usually lessons aren't too fast-paced anyways. Keeping calm and saying "Well, I'm going to study this language for the rest of my life, basically, so why rush?"  And don't compare yourself to others, you definitely have your own path ahead of you. 

[surimi]

2 hours ago, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

 

This may help:

 

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-install-japanese-keyboard/

 

Thanks for trying to help me out! I needed it for Win XP which is not in the list, unfortunately. Anyway, @Emzie , I understood the Polish instructions alright and it progressed successfully until the moment it asked me to insert a CD or some such. I don't have any such thing for my old PC, sadly, and the CD/DVD mechanism is not working anyway, so I guess I'm doomed. Thanks for your help though, good to know I almost got it right.

[五十嵐 美幸]

14 minutes ago, surimi said:

 

Thanks for trying to help me out! I needed it for Win XP which is not in the list, unfortunately. Anyway, @Emzie , I understood the Polish instructions alright and it progressed successfully until the moment it asked me to insert a CD or some such. I don't have any such thing for my old PC, sadly, and the CD/DVD mechanism is not working anyway, so I guess I'm doomed. Thanks for your help though, good to know I almost got it right.

 

One more try suggestion:

 

http://www.yesjapan.com/video/pages/install-japanese-windows-xp.html

 

The page doesn't have a video as far as I can see but many pictures that make the process easy to understand.

 

I'm not sure if m$ still supports xp; you might be screwed if you need things from their servers that isn't there anymore. Might still be worth a try.

 

It also explicitly says you won't need an xp disc or so.

[surimi]

13 minutes ago, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

 

One more try suggestion:

 

http://www.yesjapan.com/video/pages/install-japanese-windows-xp.html

 

The page doesn't have a video as far as I can see but many pictures that make the process easy to understand.

 

I'm not sure if m$ still supports xp; you might be screwed if you need things from their servers that isn't there anymore. Might still be worth a try.

 

It also explicitly says you won't need an xp disc or so.

 

Tried and froze on step 2, it still wanted a disc or another source. -_- Anyway: thanks a bunch for your efforts, I appreciate it.

[Emzie]

53 minutes ago, surimi said:

 

Tried and froze on step 2, it still wanted a disc or another source. -_- Anyway: thanks a bunch for your efforts, I appreciate it.

Okay, watch me be tech savvy for once

the file you need is cplexe.exe, it may already be there just in hidden folder in c:\windows\system32\dllcache so check that.

If it's not there I have it in 3 versions:

Win XP Home x32 service pack 3

Win XP Professional x32 service pack 3

Win XP Professional x64 service pack 2

Download the one you need, unzip and place in c:\windows\system32\dllcache and then try installing again

(How to see the hidden folder)

[surimi]

7 hours ago, Emzie said:

Okay, watch me be tech savvy for once

the file you need is cplexe.exe, it may already be there just in hidden folder in c:\windows\system32\dllcache so check that.

If it's not there I have it in 3 versions:

Win XP Home x32 service pack 3

Win XP Professional x32 service pack 3

Win XP Professional x64 service pack 2

Download the one you need, unzip and place in c:\windows\system32\dllcache and then try installing again

(How to see the hidden folder)

 

You're a treasure. I'll try that as soon as I can. Thank you, dziekuje, arigatou.

[yuzuangel]

On 5/29/2017 at 13:37, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

 

がんばってください。

ありがとうございます

[五十嵐 美幸]

16 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

ありがとうございます

 

どういたしまして。

 

なにか、ご質問がありましたら。。。

 

(Just helping with studying... :P)

[五十嵐 美幸]

To come briefly back to the immersion discussion from yesterday, the continuing, wear, wash, repeat "you can't master a language without immersion" on the net I think is pretty pointless. Because of the simple fact that most people studying a foreign language simply don't have the pocket change to hop over to the country the language of which they are trying to learn.

 

It helps of course if one can, but prerequisite, definitely not.

 

Actually it's also an argument out of tune with the times, sinnce the net itself makes it easier to study new languages, because unlike 25 or even 10 years ago, now you actually can go online and seek contact with native speakers, on lots of ventures, if you want to do that,.

 

Like for example, the son of a friend of mine, who absolutely, and I mean: ABSOLUTELY, hated English at school became fluent very quickly after his parents allowed him to join one international multiplayer game of his choice. (From a bunch I reviewed for them.) The only problem later was that one time he got summoned to the principal's office in high school for telling his English teacher, "real people don't talk like in your stupid books!"

 

The parents were shocked first, of course - later they were proud and in fact the school eventually made changes to language teaching - but my first reaction was unapologetic glee, like, you rock, kid!

 

 

[Hydroblade]

1 hour ago, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

To come briefly back to the immersion discussion from yesterday, the continuing, wear, wash, repeat "you can't master a language without immersion" on the net I think is pretty pointless. Because of the simple fact that most people studying a foreign language simply don't have the pocket change to hop over to the country the language of which they are trying to learn.

 

It helps of course if one can, but prerequisite, definitely not.

 

Actually it's also an argument out of tune with the times, sinnce the net itself makes it easier to study new languages, because unlike 25 or even 10 years ago, now you actually can go online and seek contact with native speakers, on lots of ventures, if you want to do that,.

 

Like for example, the son of a friend of mine, who absolutely, and I mean: ABSOLUTELY, hated English at school became fluent very quickly after his parents allowed him to join one international multiplayer game of his choice. (From a bunch I reviewed for them.) The only problem later was that one time he got summoned to the principal's office in high school for telling his English teacher, "real people don't talk like in your stupid books!"

 

The parents were shocked first, of course - later they were proud and in fact the school eventually made changes to language teaching - but my first reaction was unapologetic glee, like, you rock, kid!

 

 

I've been talking to a lot of japanese on twitter (and recently here, trying to post on the japanese thread... which i am monitoring but not moderating  ), i don't think i've ever spoke to natives before august last year. Still, i find it easier for me to speak than writing, even though i probably make a ton of mistakes  

Immersion helps but yeah, it is too expensive (and that's why i haven't been able to travel to japan )