Japanese study group

[Hydroblade]

5 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Find the intruder 

Hey, those are essential for a Yuzu fan! I should include "kuyashii", "victory", "world record", "gold medal"

[Murieleirum]

9 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

Hey, those are essential for a Yuzu fan! I should include "kuyashii", "victory", "world record", "gold medal"

 

"Competition", "Perfect", "Performance", "4A" 

[Sofie]

Thank you a lot!

[surimi]

On 2. 11. 2017 at 8:11 PM, Murieleirum said:

 

I'm not that more experienced, but the things he's telling you to change aren't completely wrong. I use 'kara' all the time speaking with natives (whom are used to correct me) and they are not really bothered by it. BUT, I don't hear them using it that often, so, you know, your teacher is kinda right. Also, in the Genki book, I also have written that for negations, you should always use wa, so that is exactly what they teach you in the book. 

Exams for basic Japanese, I can think of the JLPT N5 or N4. There, it doesn't matter if you use kara or no de, it mostly tests your overall comprehension abilities, your vocabulary and your listening abilities. 

 

Thanks for the feedback! Perhaps the 'wa' advice comes in the later lessons of Genki, but I'm only about to begin lesson 9, and so far they've promoted 'ga' with negations of verbs such as 'suki desu', 'arimasu/imasu' and negative expressions such as 'kirai desu', from lesson 5 on (the only 'wa' in relation to 'suki desu' is in a footnote saying one uses it when contrasting two items).

Oh, so it's not grammar-based? There's still a long long road ahead of me, especially regarding the listening.

 

Question, do you guys use 'jouzu desu' and 'heta desu' in class like Genki suggests, or do your teachers push 'tokui desu' and 'nigate desu' as more universal, like mine does?

 

On 3. 11. 2017 at 7:32 PM, Sofie said:

Hi! I really want to learn Japanse, but I have to learn it myself because we don't have lessons at school and I don't know any Japanese person😞 I don't know where to begin Do you have a tips? That would be very helpful .

 

How is it going with your study, Sofie? Murieleirum and Hydro gave you really good tips, I hope they helped. I'd also add the right approach for you has a lot to do with your personality and hobbies - myself, I am not chatty and rarely watch movies/TV, so online chat sites and Japanese series are lost on me. Find stuff that relates to your hobbies, it will make learning easier for you. Memorizing the kana before you buy a textbook is a great idea, as someone here said. Use memory aids a lot if you struggle, and if you don't find the 'official' ones helpful, make your own. I did that for a good part of the katakana. And find yourself some lessons to practice what you learned; if there are none in your area, consider Skype lessons. I had both a non-native and a native teacher, and I was lucky as both were/are outstanding. And private lessons are so much fun! Not the cheapest but where else would a teacher nudge a student to say 'he jumped a 3A'? (really! not the other way round!) Certainly not in public lessons, haha.

[Danibellerika]

I don't know if you guys know of Yuta Aoki but he is actually a really helpful resource who teaches people Japanese closer to what everyday people speak.  He offers lessons intermittently of which you'd have lifetime access. I haven't signed up because the modules are more elementary for me and I plan to wait until he has more advanced material, but he does give some interesting insights I don't always consider. I think he's worth a listen.  He recently did one on why Japanese people don't really speak English and he makes some interesting points:

 

[Danibellerika]

5 hours ago, surimi said:

Question, do you guys use 'jouzu desu' and 'heta desu' in class like Genki suggests, or do your teachers push 'tokui desu' and 'nigate desu' as more universal, like mine does?

 

 

When I speak with Japanese people, even those that don't know english at all will tell me my Japanese is "jouzu desu".  I think I remember that they are sometimes used interchangeably but there are some differences.  And you don't say jouzu desu when you are referring to yourself. You'd use tokui desu.  heta and nigate you can use to refer to yourself though.  I tend to use heta as a response to jouzu more than nigate.  I also feel like heta to me is worse than nigate. Heta is more declarative that I'm bad at something while nigate is more like saying I'm not very good at it. I could be wrong though.

[surimi]

6 hours ago, Danibellerika said:

 

When I speak with Japanese people, even those that don't know english at all will tell me my Japanese is "jouzu desu".  I think I remember that they are sometimes used interchangeably but there are some differences.  And you don't say jouzu desu when you are referring to yourself. You'd use tokui desu.  heta and nigate you can use to refer to yourself though.  I tend to use heta as a response to jouzu more than nigate.  I also feel like heta to me is worse than nigate. Heta is more declarative that I'm bad at something while nigate is more like saying I'm not very good at it. I could be wrong though.

 

Yes, that's exactly what my teacher said, all of it!  I also think the NHK annoncer used 'jouzu' to refer to Jason learning Japanese in the gala (when introducing him)? I could be wrong, I only heard it once, and when it comes to listenings, well... shall we say, heta desu.  

 

Hmm, I have only ever heard of Aoki Yuna. Anyway, it tells me the video is unavailable. -_-  Could you sum up some of the points he makes on the English issue, or would that take too long?

[Danibellerika]

43 minutes ago, surimi said:

 

Yes, that's exactly what my teacher said, all of it!  I also think the NHK annoncer used 'jouzu' to refer to Jason learning Japanese in the gala (when introducing him)? I could be wrong, I only heard it once, and when it comes to listenings, well... shall we say, heta desu.  

 

Hmm, I have only ever heard of Aoki Yuna. Anyway, it tells me the video is unavailable. -_-  Could you sum up some of the points he makes on the English issue, or would that take too long?

Basically he points out that Japan isn't really different from a lot of other Asian countries where there isn't much english.  And he also points out how much colonization went on in the past for areas that do have English, like Hong Kong, Philippines, etc.  But more important, because Japan has such a large economy, that goes a lot way too.  He pointed out how K-pop has to have more global appeal because South Korea is a smaller country, therefore a smaller market. That's one of the reasons why K-Pop's a bigger deal than J-Pop.  But you know, as my own personal thought, even though Japan wasn't really colonized by westerners, the Japanese language does have a TON of loan words which I think is interesting.  

[Deliverpooh]

Nice thread!

Am an intermediate learner of Japanese. I can get by in most situations, but like many people learning a language it's hard not to plateau at that level and make the push to get to advanced level. I'll be posting some things I learned that I might think are funny or helpful.

 

I guess some of you must have heard of the term 'barcode hair'? I looked it up and found this:

 

http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/10-japanese-words-you-need-to-know

Explains it better than I can

[Danibellerika]

Welcome to the thread!  Yeah I am like you and sort of at a plateau. Really I think I'd need to move there to get significantly better.  

[katonice]

Japanese learning goals, courtesy of Kevin Reynolds

 

[Danibellerika]

Good for Kevin! I know how he feels when you notice marked progress. I noticed it at ACI especially when I was more talkative and I could understand better. It was a weird feeling!  He passed Japanese N2! Good for him!  I noticed my dictionary actually has a study section for all the N levels. Based on vocab I understand into the N3s so I gotta keep pressing on!  頑張ります!! 

[Hydroblade]

29 minutes ago, Danibellerika said:

He passed Japanese N2!

holy shit

[SparkleSalad]

 

12 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

this is prbably suited to the japanese study group but yeah, i hear sugoi more often than sugoku and i find myself using it too

 

I really tried to use sugoku every time but I've given up. I wanted to be as proper as can be when I started out but sometimes it's just useless (and I've found Japanese people on language exchange sites often complaining that foreigners are too stiff with their Japanese.)

 

I'd also like to take this opportunity to complain about 雰囲気 I was so shocked when I found out ふいんき is actually ふんいき! What the actual hell? I've never heard it pronounced that way but that's how it's listed in the dictionary and to type it you have to spell it ふんいき. Just update the dictionary, you guys!

[SparkleSalad]

On 17/11/2017 at 9:19 AM, Danibellerika said:

But you know, as my own personal thought, even though Japan wasn't really colonized by westerners, the Japanese language does have a TON of loan words which I think is interesting.  

 

It's like a hidden history lesson on Japan's relationships and interactions with other cultures. Very interesting indeed.