Japanese study group

[kitsune]

Sorry I appear out of nowhere, just like to share a little bit about me. My Japanese is very weak I can read hiragana, a little katakana and almost nothing kanji. I know very few words in Japanese and my grandmother (baa-chan) always gets angry when I do not understand her. Maybe I should practice more and I think I'm forgetting some things already. Some advice? And a little story: After becoming a Yuzu fan I started to pay more attention to the NHK channel (the only Japanese channel that passes in my country) and one of the first news I remember is him getting all three Guinness certificates.

[Puniyo]

My advice for you @kitsune is to practice (read, write, listen or speak) Japanese a little every day. When it comes to languages, you really can't rush things. I have a thing of listening to a Jpop song every day (even if it always the same one on loop) so that I can stimulate my brain 

[kitsune]

@Puniyo Thanks for your advice . I practice more.

[AmudoBun]

To be honest with aou all I am really ashamed because of my low level after "studying" Japanese for quite a few years.

 

I first got slightly interested in Japan around 4th grade when a channel where they aired Naruto, Inuyasha, etc. got included in our cable TV. In 7th grade I told my mother I will try to learn basic Japanese and a year she actually found for me that one teacher organizes a summer camp where you can learn Japanese and stuff about Japan. I went there and I went there 5 times - it got discontinued after that. It was 2 weeks long and I learned the basics - and forgot them during the school year (I live in small town so no Japanese classes there and I was 13 so I was not allowed to travel to different city.) After 3 summer camps I was finally 15 and my parents alloved me to travel alone to Prague (bout 140 km) for Japanese classes  - they were group lessons every other weekend for 3 hours. In 2013 I took the N5 test (I am really lazy so I didn't really study between classes at all). I then started part time job so I didn't have time during weekend so I found japanese classes during the week in closer city (60 km) where I did tried to go every week from in Oct, Nov and then Feb - June. I then forgot a lots of stuff during a summer and then I did it once more last school year (2015-2016). I finished Genki2 last June. During the summer holidays I was in Japan for a month - the peak of my Japanese knowledge. I started Uni in October and I didn't know how to fit in Japanese classes (there are no at my uni) and since then I slowly forget all I knew - hopefully I'll somehow find a way to start learning again next year^^

[Puniyo]

Well, may this forum and Yuzuru be the stepping stone for all of us to finally improve our Japanese haha! Ganbarimashou minna-san! 

[Emzie]

Oh boy, I'm happy I'm not the only one newbie in Japanese language world.

I started in March, my progress ain't that good bc I'm a self-learner. I do know hiragana, katakana and 10 kanji I'm soooo proud of my 10 kanji ;_; 

Also I do know some basic grammar.

I used tofugu.com for hiragana and katakana, kanshudo.com for kanji (can't recommend yet), kanji-link.com for grammar and Genki.

[Hydroblade]

7 hours ago, surimi said:

Finally, what gave me the last push I needed was a brief conversation about Japanese with Hydro, back in our previous home. It brought home to me that studying the language all the way to top levels was actually doable. So when I say she's an inspiration to me I am not exaggerating. I went to borrow the first self-study book the very next day!

I feel really touched by this. By no means i am in a high level! My level is all over the place...

So, my story! Sit back because it's long!

I started to feel interested in japanese when i was in second-third grade, when i was eight. I've liked anime since i was two years old , so when i was in second grade and i was watching an anime i really liked (an anime adaptation of the secret garden), i wanted to sing the opening song, and i realized that the text on the bottom of the screen were the lyrics. I desperately wanted to read themmmm, and (this clicked recently) i knew it was japanese and not chinese because there's a big chinese population in my city, so i was used to how chinese "looks".

I kept watching anime, until i was in third grade, that they started airing CardCaptor Sakura. I am not sure why that anime impacted my life so hard (especially the third opening song, which is my favorite song ever and... it was composed by Yoko Kanno ) but i wanted to know more about it. I searched all over the internet for information, and the information in spanish was really poor, the info in english was even worse because of a terrible adaptation of the series and i found the name in japanese, so i searched in japanese.

Imagine my surprise when i looked at all the information, merchandise, videos... Everything i wanted was there, but i couldn't understand it. Starting from that day,driven by the pure thirst of knowledge i mastered both hiragana and katakana in two days. After learning that, i started looking for the songs from the anime in japanese. I remember how nervous i was, sitting in my room, singing in japanese for the first time in my life. I found a site with the lyric translations and from there i started building my vocabulary. The relation between hiragana, katakana and kanji clicked in my head by itself, i was reading the lyrics in kanji with the romaji on the side and the translation in the other column, and there i learn my first kanji (夢、恋、星). I copied the lyrics over and over again until i remembered some kanji and practiced my writing.  I started watching other anime genres, getting interested in japanese music that wasn't just anime music (it happened really fast... much like how Planet Hanyu's gravity captured me)...

 

Sadly, i live in a very small city, and there wasn't a place that offered japanese classes, so i was stuck with self study, although i would hardly call it that. I had never touched a japanese textbook before this year, i just "absorbed" japanese, it's like the language began building itself in my brain without any real guide.

I began watching subbed anime in 2005 (and haven't stopped since that year :P) , and i realized i could understand things here and there without the subs. I was very slow at reading, but i could write really fast. I couldn't speak because i felt like i couldn't form sentences (although i could. Short and simple though). I looked at a bit of grammar but i couldn't understand it at all. And because i already knew the very basics+ hiragana, katakana and some kanji, i didn't want to sign up for classes. I felt like i wouldn't be taken seriously, if i went to a school and told them i already knew that, and i had really bad experiences in english class at school because my level was always higher than my classmates. I didn't want to have that with japanese too, because i loved the language so much. 

So i kept passively studying, watching tv shows and dramas. I only began seriously studying kanji like two years ago, and well...

 

This kid came with his beautiful way of speaking, and while i could get a lot of info now from japanese twitter accounts and news, i still wanted more! So it felt like a second wave, again, i was hit by the thirst of knowledge. I wanted to understand more, and get to a higher level as fast as i could. This time, i signed up for classes, but i said that only if they allowed me to take a placement test. Apparently i did very bad on the placement test, so i was placed in second level. However, a month into the course, i asked my teacher if i could take the test again, because my notes were practically blank, i wasn't learning anything. My teacher agreed and he made me take the second level final test and the third level final test. I got 92 points in the second level one and 52 in the third. Him, along with the third level teacher, told me that my conversation level is probably level four or higher, i understand the grammar, but i have trouble applying it. 

So here i am, i understand a lot, probably 60% or 70% of what is being said in videos, but it is SO hard for me to translate. I can only give you a broad picture of what they're talking about, but there are so many little nuances and things in japanese that feel impossible for me to translate, although i understand them. It feels like i want to translate the literal words and what isn't being said but can be gathered from the words they are using. But that's what makes it so interesting to me. I feel like japanese should be spoken with the heart, and i feel so much joy inside when i hear the language being spoken when i'm at japanese school, i can't help but smile. Somehow, it feels like home 

[Hydroblade]

After that wall of text, my tips :P!

I use jisho.org for looking up kanji and sentences. The book we use at school is minna no nihongo (and yes, the video lessons are... interesting ). For kanji i use anki with the all in one kanji deck+ an emulator with this game to practice the stroke order and the writing. At school we're going through the basic kanji book, but so far i haven't found any new kanji  . I often have japanese tv as background noise (especially now, waiting for news on our space kitty!) when i'm working and of course, i listen to A LOT of japanese music haha. Reading, hmm... Well i read manga  (There is a new Cardcaptor sakura serialization going on and it feels SOOO good because i am buying the manga and i can read it without waiting for translations lol) and i am SLOWLY going through Aoi Honoo 2 :D

[freeyafanfan]

Wow thanks for the japanese tool links shared above I'm gonna check em all later!   I myself did self study through anime, j-dramas and j-pop musics, but I took japanese class for about 3 months before (just around completion of N5 lessons ) and I had to stop because I have internships in another city and now my friends already moved up to other levels and I'm too lazy to take classes by myself lol

 

I'd say the most effective method for me is through reading, basically japanese news with japanese subtitle is very handy! as we can hear and pause to search the kanjis that we don't understand! I study faster through listening so yea this is my primary method!

 

Reading yuzu's aoi honoo also helped a lot! even though it takes a lot of time to search the kanjis one by one I find it effective to help me memorize the kanji meanings, and when I hear them later on videos I usually memorize the meaning 

 

1 hour ago, Hydroblade said:

I feel really touched by this. By no means i am in a high level! My level is all over the place...

So, my story! Sit back because it's long!

I started to feel interested in japanese when i was in second-third grade, when i was eight. I've liked anime since i was two years old , so when i was in second grade and i was watching an anime i really liked (an anime adaptation of the secret garden), i wanted to sing the opening song, and i realized that the text on the bottom of the screen were the lyrics. I desperately wanted to read themmmm, and (this clicked recently) i knew it was japanese and not chinese because there's a big chinese population in my city, so i was used to how chinese "looks".

I kept watching anime, until i was in third grade, that they started airing CardCaptor Sakura. I am not sure why that anime impacted my life so hard (especially the third opening song, which is my favorite song ever and... it was composed by Yoko Kanno ) but i wanted to know more about it. I searched all over the internet for information, and the information in spanish was really poor, the info in english was even worse because of a terrible adaptation of the series and i found the name in japanese, so i searched in japanese.

Imagine my surprise when i looked at all the information, merchandise, videos... Everything i wanted was there, but i couldn't understand it. Starting from that day,driven by the pure thirst of knowledge i mastered both hiragana and katakana in two days. After learning that, i started looking for the songs from the anime in japanese. I remember how nervous i was, sitting in my room, singing in japanese for the first time in my life. I found a site with the lyric translations and from there i started building my vocabulary. The relation between hiragana, katakana and kanji clicked in my head by itself, i was reading the lyrics in kanji with the romaji on the side and the translation in the other column, and there i learn my first kanji (夢、恋、星). I copied the lyrics over and over again until i remembered some kanji and practiced my writing.  I started watching other anime genres, getting interested in japanese music that wasn't just anime music (it happened really fast... much like how Planet Hanyu's gravity captured me)...

 

Sadly, i live in a very small city, and there wasn't a place that offered japanese classes, so i was stuck with self study, although i would hardly call it that. I had never touched a japanese textbook before this year, i just "absorbed" japanese, it's like the language began building itself in my brain without any real guide.

I began watching subbed anime in 2005 (and haven't stopped since that year :P) , and i realized i could understand things here and there without the subs. I was very slow at reading, but i could write really fast. I couldn't speak because i felt like i couldn't form sentences (although i could. Short and simple though). I looked at a bit of grammar but i couldn't understand it at all. And because i already knew the very basics+ hiragana, katakana and some kanji, i didn't want to sign up for classes. I felt like i wouldn't be taken seriously, if i went to a school and told them i already knew that, and i had really bad experiences in english class at school because my level was always higher than my classmates. I didn't want to have that with japanese too, because i loved the language so much. 

So i kept passively studying, watching tv shows and dramas. I only began seriously studying kanji like two years ago, and well...

 

This kid came with his beautiful way of speaking, and while i could get a lot of info now from japanese twitter accounts and news, i still wanted more! So it felt like a second wave, again, i was hit by the thirst of knowledge. I wanted to understand more, and get to a higher level as fast as i could. This time, i signed up for classes, but i said that only if they allowed me to take a placement test. Apparently i did very bad on the placement test, so i was placed in second level. However, a month into the course, i asked my teacher if i could take the test again, because my notes were practically blank, i wasn't learning anything. My teacher agreed and he made me take the second level final test and the third level final test. I got 92 points in the second level one and 52 in the third. Him, along with the third level teacher, told me that my conversation level is probably level four or higher, i understand the grammar, but i have trouble applying it. 

So here i am, i understand a lot, probably 60% or 70% of what is being said in videos, but it is SO hard for me to translate. I can only give you a broad picture of what they're talking about, but there are so many little nuances and things in japanese that feel impossible for me to translate, although i understand them. It feels like i want to translate the literal words and what isn't being said but can be gathered from the words they are using. But that's what makes it so interesting to me. I feel like japanese should be spoken with the heart, and i feel so much joy inside when i hear the language being spoken when i'm at japanese school, i can't help but smile. Somehow, it feels like home 

 

And WOW this is a long story hydro, I read them all through tho guess you'll know I'm bored right now lol  

I completely understands! I can also got the general idea and understand when I watched videos and all in Japanese but it is very hard to put them to words and translate them! that's why I am always impressed by the dedicated fans who always translates yuzu related news for us (and quickly at that too!) and while I'm at it, let me take this moment to thank them for all their hard work, THANKS A LOT GUYS 

[SparkleSalad]

7 hours ago, Puniyo said:

Instead of drama, I used to watch a lot of variety shows. I was (I still am, but they ended it after 20+ years ) a huge fan of SMAPxSMAP. They were extremely funny and had wonderful cooking corners so I learnt a lot of Japanese from them. Also, I basically devoured every single drama from Kimura Takuya 

 

Falling for kokumin idols is the best thing for your Japanese because of how many shows you have to watch. I fell for 二宮 in a big way and that's when my pace really picked up, shameful as that sounds. 

 

But I have skating now so no time for him. So loyal.

[Hydroblade]

16 minutes ago, SparkleSalad said:

 

Falling for kokumin idols is the best thing for your Japanese because of how many shows you have to watch. I fell for 二宮 in a big way and that's when my pace really picked up, shameful as that sounds. 

 

But I have skating now so no time for him. So loyal.

Lol. Before Yuzu i was a big Sota Fukushi (loved him on ama chan!) and Miura Haruma fan... (also had/have a tiny crush on Sekai no Owari's vocalist bc he is really cute and i admire him a lot too. I am completely in love with his voice)

Yeah, you can see where this is going  i never had a chance, right?

[SparkleSalad]

29 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

Lol. Before Yuzu i was a big Sota Fukushi (loved him on ama chan!) and Miura Haruma fan... (also had/have a tiny crush on Sekai no Owari's vocalist bc he is really cute and i admire him a lot too. I am completely in love with his voice)

Yeah, you can see where this is going  i never had a chance, right?

 Last Cinderella killed me. I'm typing this from beyond the grave. And I like Sekai no Owari's vocalist too, though just his face an love of factories.

 

[Hydroblade]

11 minutes ago, SparkleSalad said:

 Last Cinderella killed me. I'm typing this from beyond the grave. And I like Sekai no Owari's vocalist too, though just his face an love of factories.

 

Fukase is lovely, i love the thing he does where he keeps biting his lip and looks all adorkable :D Sekaowa played a big part on my descent into planet Hanyu :D (and i love Miura Haruma since 14sai no haha, i have no shame.)

[Murieleirum]

I've searched for SMAPxSMAP episodes with english subtitles, but I guess there aren't a lot, at least on youtube... 

 

Also Jisho.org is definitely my bff. 

[Puniyo]

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

I've searched for SMAPxSMAP episodes with english subtitles, but I guess there aren't a lot, at least on youtube... 

 

Also Jisho.org is definitely my bff. 

There is a fan community on Livejournal with quite a lot of translations if you're interested ^^

 

And idol songs have lyrics that are easy to grasp, so again, a boost for learning (although most of them are not my cup of tea). I still listen to anime songs more than anything. I was so happy when I could understand the lyrics of songs from Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name) with checking translations.