Japanese study group

[Hydroblade]

6 minutes ago, guitarist said:

Is there a difference in meaning between 死にそうと思った and 死ぬかと思った? I've only ever heard the second one, but I'm guessing I heard it in some random anime, so I can never be sure if it's accurate...

i am the worst person to answer that because i haven't gotten to that part yet, i just got excited and started speaking but i think it just means "i felt like dying"? i am not sure i try not to use anything i haven't actually learned in school yet but my happiness got the best of me this time, i wasn't corrected so i guess it was fine?

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, Hydroblade said:

i try not to use anything i haven't actually learned in school yet

 

I think this is the worst part of following a language course when you've already been studying on your own. I actually get scolded if I use anything we haven't done in uni class. Demotivating, really! 

[Hydroblade]

Just now, Murieleirum said:

 

I think this is the worst part of following a language course when you've already been studying on your own. I actually get scolded if I use anything we haven't done in uni class. Demotivating, really! 

Well, i didn't get scolded here or when i write kanji that we haven't learned in class but when i was forced to take english lessons at school... Let's say i always had a hard time with my classmates and teachers so that's why i try not to do it.

But since nothing bad happened i might start to do it, will help me a lot i think.

[Murieleirum]

10 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

Well, i didn't get scolded here or when i write kanji that we haven't learned in class but when i was forced to take english lessons at school... Let's say i always had a hard time with my classmates and teachers so that's why i try not to do it.

But since nothing bad happened i might start to do it, will help me a lot i think.

 

Oh how I feel that, almost all English teachers I've had at school hated me... I was lucky I came to high school already traumatized by past teachers so I never raised my hand, never spoke when not asked for, never made myself noticeable in any way and so on.

 

I'm super behind with Kanji writing lol, I guess I have to start studying some... I recognize them fine, but writing... requires time! Ugh! xD Lazy me. 

[Hydroblade]

Just now, Murieleirum said:

 

Oh how I feel that, almost all English teachers I've had at school hated me... I was lucky I came to high school already traumatized by past teachers so I never raised my hand, never spoke when not asked for, never made myself noticeable in any way and so on.

 

I'm super behind with Kanji writing lol, I guess I have to start studying some... I recognize them fine, but writing... requires time! Ugh! xD Lazy me. 

I rarely speak english so the first time i pushed myself to actually speak i was surprised that i was fluent i think i practice speaking japanese a lot more than speaking english

 

Lol i force myself to study a lot, i got actual physical flashcards to memorize how certain words are written so i can recognize them in text, will focus on writing them later. In writing, I study like 15 individual kanji a week and i go over the stroke order over and over again i need to do more writing practice where i use my recently learned kanji tho

[guitarist]

54 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

I think this is the worst part of following a language course when you've already been studying on your own. I actually get scolded if I use anything we haven't done in uni class. Demotivating, really! 

Hahaha my Japanese teacher used to laugh when I accidentally used shounen protagonist speech...

[guitarist]

Sorry for the double post, but on the note about English teachers, yeeeaaaah, I get that. In high school one of them forced me to drop the class because she was annoyed I got a perfect grade on her placement test. Admittedly, I was just wasting my time in such a class, but she was quite nasty about it. And I was forced to take French, which I really didn't want to take, for several reasons, the main one that I was trying to learn Japanese on my own at the time.

 

Hydro, how did you learn English? Up until high school all my schools taught for half the day in English and half the day in Spanish. So I actually took most of my science classes, plus an extra literature, in English. High school was all Spanish except for two periods a week, which was useless for anyone who wasn't already fluent. Though in any case, apparently nothing can be worse than Spanish classes in the US because I know people who took them for 7+ years and they can't even introduce themselves without making 10 grammar mistakes.

 

And Murieleirum, that sucks, how are you expected to remember where you learned  everything anyway? 

 

The best system for learning languages I've experienced was my Italian teacher's. Whenever we didn't know a vocab word he made us find a different way to explain it, even if it wasn't a completely literal translation. It worked quite well. Except when I made up words based on Spanish, that was pretty hit-or-miss 

[Hydroblade]

Just now, guitarist said:

Hydro, how did you learn English?

OT bc it's not japanese lol:

Spoiler

That's a question i still don't know the exact answer to. Maybe living in the border had some influence on it. I got english classes since i was in kindergarten, like three hours a week but i was way more advanced even at that age, i don't think i ever learned anything from school. I suspect it was the music that my family listened to, otherwise i really don't know. It's a complete mystery to me

 

[guitarist]

Wow, Hydro, that's really impressive. 

 

Murieleirum, if I were you I'd ignore your teacher, learn stuff on your own, or you won't progress as fast. Your grammar or vocab choices might turn out to be awkward, but the goal of a language is, after all, communication, so speaking slightly awkwardly is better than not speaking at all. Though if it's for kanji and it's group activities, I'd be more mindful of that because the other students might not know them.

[Hydroblade]

1 minute ago, guitarist said:

Wow, Hydro, that's really impressive. 

 

Murieleirum, if I were you I'd ignore your teacher, learn stuff on your own, or you won't progress as fast. Your grammar or vocab choices might turn out to be awkward, but the goal of a language is, after all, communication, so speaking slightly awkwardly is better than not speaking at all. Though if it's for kanji and it's group activities, I'd be more mindful of that because the other students might not know them.

That's how i stopped feeling self conscious about my accent when i spoke in english. As long as people can understand you, it's fine. People shouldn't expect you to speak 100% correct anylanguage because it's not the one you grew up with. And natives sometimes make mistakes too language isn't perfect.

 

But true to the other thing, if the others can't understand at all you then you have to be more careful with that, otherwise it's really fine, it can be practice or motivation for them too.

[Murieleirum]

11 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

In writing, I study like 15 individual kanji a week and i go over the stroke order over and over again i need to do more writing practice where i use my recently learned kanji tho

 

Yep, I have to start doing this, same way I did way back with the Kana... I am kinda demotivated the few times I write because my writing is soooo ugly hahahah! I wish I could practice spoken Japanese more than I do written Japanese (written on the internet btw) but I can't really speak to myself in Japanese all the time, like I used to do when I was little with English...

 

10 hours ago, guitarist said:

The best system for learning languages I've experienced was my Italian teacher's. Whenever we didn't know a vocab word he made us find a different way to explain it, even if it wasn't a completely literal translation. It worked quite well. Except when I made up words based on Spanish, that was pretty hit-or-miss 

 

Yes, I do this so many times! (your Italian teacher's method) And lol that was the hard part of studying Spanish in middle school for us too, couldn't really guess the Spanish word based on Italian... 

 

10 hours ago, guitarist said:

Murieleirum, if I were you I'd ignore your teacher, learn stuff on your own, or you won't progress as fast. Your grammar or vocab choices might turn out to be awkward, but the goal of a language is, after all, communication, so speaking slightly awkwardly is better than not speaking at all. Though if it's for kanji and it's group activities, I'd be more mindful of that because the other students might not know them.

 

I agree 100%, there is no learning a language without some years of awkward speaking 

 

[kaeryth]

Hey guys! I'm doing a thing where I try to compile Yuzu's documentaries/news fluff/interviews.

I've been using the power of google to translate the title of the program but some word structures don't make sense......

Can anyone translate this for me?

1. 銀盤の王子争い・ライバル対決！

2. 期待の天才スケーター　”大技”を訓練中！

3. 世界ではばたけ！ミラクルティーン

4. 世界ジュニアチャンピオンを直撃

[surimi]

On 24. 2. 2018 at 1:20 AM, guitarist said:

The best system for learning languages I've experienced was my Italian teacher's. Whenever we didn't know a vocab word he made us find a different way to explain it, even if it wasn't a completely literal translation. It worked quite well.

 

My favorite method as well, sans the 'wherever' because that would make it quite time-demanding and unsuitable for exhausted folk or people who only learn, say, 60 mins a week. I use the 'guess the word' game when I teach, every single lesson.

Okay, back on topic as I'm hopelessly out of touch with what's being discussed: Is there anyone lurking about, except myself, who's only just started Genki II?

Minority input: being a taciturn and technology-challenged person, who doesn't listen to music much and watches movies only ocassionally, what worked best for me to improve my Japanese are skating articles, interviews and videos. Hard for me with my current state of knowledge, but loving it. But it doesn't do much for one's speaking abilities, that's true.

[guitarist]

5 hours ago, surimi said:

 

My favorite method as well, sans the 'wherever' because that would make it quite time-demanding and unsuitable for exhausted folk or people who only learn, say, 60 mins a week. I use the 'guess the word' game when I teach, every single lesson.

Okay, back on topic as I'm hopelessly out of touch with what's being discussed: Is there anyone lurking about, except myself, who's only just started Genki II?

Minority input: being a taciturn and technology-challenged person, who doesn't listen to music much and watches movies only ocassionally, what worked best for me to improve my Japanese are skating articles, interviews and videos. Hard for me with my current state of knowledge, but loving it. But it doesn't do much for one's speaking abilities, that's true.

I used Genki II when I was taking Japanese, but that was 3 years ago, I've no idea what was on it anymore. I do remember the silly love story between Takeshi and whatsherface that started in Genki I, though 

[Hanmgse]

Hi guys! thought I may joing this thread since I just started my japanese classes about almost three weeks ago, so far I have just learned hiragana and katakana but I'm still struggling since there are a lot  (can't imagine when I start with kanji), anyway, looking forward to learning more!!.