Japanese study group

[Deliverpooh]

On 8/22/2018 at 12:37 PM, Lunna said:

I passed N5 though my scores are far from the best... not Yuzu level more like falling all over the place Kolyada

Will try N4 next, not sure about December though... to many FS events in November

Congratulations!!

[Xen]

I'm thinking that Genki+ self study + a good dose of Yuzu's japanese might help me reach fluency faster than normal classes at work. A bit sick of reading multiple emails without a basic understanding of grammar.

 

For those studying: I am curious, currently my class is just shoving vocab left and right, but I kind of prefer to learn a language via its grammar rules. Is this still viable with Japanese? I think if I can figure out the grammar, the vocab can build itself up.

[Murieleirum]

31 minutes ago, Xen said:

I'm thinking that Genki+ self study + a good dose of Yuzu's japanese might help me reach fluency faster than normal classes at work. A bit sick of reading multiple emails without a basic understanding of grammar.

 

For those studying: I am curious, currently my class is just shoving vocab left and right, but I kind of prefer to learn a language via its grammar rules. Is this still viable with Japanese? I think if I can figure out the grammar, the vocab can build itself up.

 

Genki + self study + Yuzu interviews was my method before entering uni - and actualy stayed the same until present LOL uni doesn't help much. Yes, it can help you get more fluent especially if you search for Japanese people to talk to! 

[axelnojutsu]

I don’t know whether it’s going to help you become fluent faster or not but if it suits your learning style better why not? As long as you have a basic vocabulary to build on I think it could work fine.

[Deliverpooh]

A favourite Japanese word:

 

I like 鐘 (bell: kane)

[Deliverpooh]

Sometimes I notice that my Japanese skills are quite uneven. I would say I'm somewhere in the middle of intermediate. I know some words that are quite obscure and advanced, but at other times I notice that I don't know quite basic words.

I did a test online and realized that I didn't even know the word for beside. It's 横 (yoko). A while back I had the same with 床 (yuka), which means floor

 

Does anyone else have the same thing, or is it just me?

[dheu]

On 8/22/2018 at 4:08 AM, Xen said:

Work place is providing japanese lessons at lunch break, twice a week, so I'm now enrolled in that class.

If my workplace offered something like that, I would sign up in a heartbeat.  

 

I've been "studying" off and on for years, but nothing consistently.  I took a few years in high school (I was lucky enough that my high school offered it), and later took a few more classes in college, but it's been too easy for my skills to lapse in the interim.  Then a few months ago, I visited Okinawa and was shocked that I could manage to make my way a little bit over there, reading signs and talking with the locals.  Speaking has always been my weakest point, so I had no idea I'd retained as much as I did.  I just wish I knew a lot more.  I only know enough to have very rudimentary conversations and ask basic questions.  It is hard to practice conversation skills on your own and I don't have the money to take classes right now, so I watch a lot of Japanese videos and hope that I remember it all......

 

Taking any kind of JLPT level exams is way beyond me right now, so I'm jealous of you all!   But seriously, good luck to all of you studying for and taking those tests!  Someday I'll be at that point too!

[Xen]

On 9/13/2018 at 5:47 AM, Deliverpooh said:

Sometimes I notice that my Japanese skills are quite uneven. I would say I'm somewhere in the middle of intermediate. I know some words that are quite obscure and advanced, but at other times I notice that I don't know quite basic words.

I did a test online and realized that I didn't even know the word for beside. It's 横 (yoko). A while back I had the same with 床 (yuka), which means floor

 

Does anyone else have the same thing, or is it just me?

Not just you. It's really annoying when you normally read kanji in your native language (Chinese) and have to read Kanji in Japanese.

Often enough the meaning is very different.

 

For example: 大丈夫- means don't worry in Japanese right?

In Chinese? We normally say this in the context "男子汉大丈夫“- which usually means "be a man/be reliable/be trustworthy"

Or 机- which means small table or something in Japanese, but means machine in Chinese. Or 部屋- which in modern chinese usually means a room, and not a house. The list can go on and on...

[axelnojutsu]

59 minutes ago, Xen said:

Or 部屋- which in modern chinese usually means a room, and not a house. The list can go on and on...

部屋 does mean room in Japanese as well though, 家 is house 

 

 

When I was learning french in school our teacher told us that the words that are seemingly similar but not quite the same (in pronunciation or meaning) are the hardest to learn because our brain automatically goes “oh yeah I know that” and then makes the wrong connection 

So I’d imagine going from Chinese to Japanese can be very tough in that sense

[Xen]

20 minutes ago, axelnojutsu said:

部屋 does mean room in Japanese as well though, 家 is house 

 

 

When I was learning french in school our teacher told us that the words that are seemingly similar but not quite the same (in pronunciation or meaning) are the hardest to learn because our brain automatically goes “oh yeah I know that” and then makes the wrong connection 

So I’d imagine going from Chinese to Japanese can be very tough in that sense

Yeah, screwed that up. The weirdest is 手纸-letter in Japanese, but in chinese, if you write that to us, we'd hand you kleenex tissues！

Sometimes, Japanese to modern Chinese is a bit like...shakespearean english or even high english is to modern english. Your brain needs to work overtime, even though you kind of know what is going on.

[Murieleirum]

3 hours ago, Xen said:

Yeah, screwed that up. The weirdest is 手纸-letter in Japanese, but in chinese, if you write that to us, we'd hand you kleenex tissues！

Sometimes, Japanese to modern Chinese is a bit like...shakespearean english or even high english is to modern english. Your brain needs to work overtime, even though you kind of know what is going on.

 

Although I guess it's a killer for a foreigner to study both Japanese and Chinese. I mean, I'll learn my kanji allright! I'll learn ALL the Chinese characters! 

I'm starting to enter that phase of Kanji where you have to start really paying attention to every radical, and not just approximate what you see... because you will have 20-30 kanji looking alike. I envy Chinese for their abilities developed earlier to distinguish and recognize thousands of characters... 

 

 

[Deliverpooh]

On 9/17/2018 at 10:39 AM, Murieleirum said:

 

Although I guess it's a killer for a foreigner to study both Japanese and Chinese. I mean, I'll learn my kanji allright! I'll learn ALL the Chinese characters! 

I'm starting to enter that phase of Kanji where you have to start really paying attention to every radical, and not just approximate what you see... because you will have 20-30 kanji looking alike. I envy Chinese for their abilities developed earlier to distinguish and recognize thousands of characters... 

  

 

Can you give an example of kanji that you find hard to distinguish?

 

I also downloaded a nice app called 'kanji tree', which allows you to practice kanji in all sorts of ways. Even if I have just a minute or two to spare, I play with it.

[Murieleirum]

15 minutes ago, Deliverpooh said:

Can you give an example of kanji that you find hard to distinguish?

 

Just from the top of my head, I've always had trouble with 義 and 議 or 織 and 職. Although these are not recent kanji so I guess at all levels you have to fight to distinguish kanji lol! 

 

Edit: ah, I should specify that by 'hard to distinguish' I don't mean that I cannot see that there is a difference - more like, I switch their meaning/reading very easily. 

[Deliverpooh]

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Just from the top of my head, I've always had trouble with 義 and 議 or 織 and 職. Although these are not recent kanji so I guess at all levels you have to fight to distinguish kanji lol! 

 

Edit: ah, I should specify that by 'hard to distinguish' I don't mean that I cannot see that there is a difference - more like, I switch their meaning/reading very easily. 

Thank you!

Maybe it helps that you wrote them down here. It helped me with some words.

 

I always forget how to write Sweden, so I might as well just put it down here too: スウェーデン

 

[LeadenMyr]

Hi! I only just noticed this thread and want to join in, I always try to learn japanese but something happens and I can't manage any real progress , studied for about six months during high school years (though it was in private classes, no option for japanese at school, would've loved it), then had to move city for uni and stopped, I have been trying to get classes for over 8 years but it's either money or time (or both!). Right now I tried enrolling in an online course at Marugoto site, but I could only get into the most basic one so I'm taking it easy and trying to absorb hiragana and katakana properly, I was never able to read it quickly enough, and never got more than 10 kanjis  most of the kanjis I know are either from subtitles in music videos or anime or games so yeah my knowledge is terribly basic. I will review the 40+ pages of this thread and look at the resources! It's nice sharing this with people from the planet. I love you guys.