Japanese study group

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, LeadenMyr said:

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. 

 

It's good that you joined us! Join the Japanese learning hell club! 

 

You know I totally get you, I wanted to start studying Katakana and Hiragana when I was 12 and kept stopping and restarting until 2 years ago. I really had to finish all my other studies to concentrate on Japanese. There is a dedication necessary to learn a language that's not really optional... but it's also about self-motivation and just working a little bit of creativity c: 

[yoloaxel]

Hi everyone! What a lovely thread!

I really want to learn Japanese - I just graduated from Uni with a degree in languages (English, Portuguese and French) and I am used to not having a lot of difficulties when picking up a new one... but I really don't know where to start with Japanese!! What do you all recommend? Apps, textbooks? Any suggestion is super welcome!

[Sayu93]

1 hour ago, yoloaxel said:

Hi everyone! What a lovely thread!

I really want to learn Japanese - I just graduated from Uni with a degree in languages (English, Portuguese and French) and I am used to not having a lot of difficulties when picking up a new one... but I really don't know where to start with Japanese!! What do you all recommend? Apps, textbooks? Any suggestion is super welcome!

well ..I  find apps are just good for rote training. For textbooks...I quite liked the genki textbooks...

[Murieleirum]

Re: Yuzuru's Japanese.

I think I've realized that I can almost entirely read his written interviews, and the flow of the speech is actually so familiar to me at this point that my reading speed is above my average Japanese reading (from other sources). BUT! His sentencs seem never-ending. His syntax is quite complicated, so I end up losing all of the shades, and the nuances in his words, which is pretty important in Japanese since it's such a circumstantial language. 

It made me notice most of all that every Japanese speaking person has a different preferred structure to their sentences, and that the way Yuzuru talks, at least as far as my foreigner ears can notice, is very unique to him and almost rigid in its formulations. 

In the future, I will try to absorb his speech form and his sentences' structure, and implement some of them into my own spoken Japanese, since it's so elaborate and elegant. 

[Xen]

10 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

Re: Yuzuru's Japanese.

I think I've realized that I can almost entirely read his written interviews, and the flow of the speech is actually so familiar to me at this point that my reading speed is above my average Japanese reading (from other sources). BUT! His sentencs seem never-ending. His syntax is quite complicated, so I end up losing all of the shades, and the nuances in his words, which is pretty important in Japanese since it's such a circumstantial language. 

It made me notice most of all that every Japanese speaking person has a different preferred structure to their sentences, and that the way Yuzuru talks, at least as far as my foreigner ears can notice, is very unique to him and almost rigid in its formulations. 

In the future, I will try to absorb his speech form and his sentences' structure, and implement some of them into my own spoken Japanese, since it's so elaborate and elegant. 

Does Yuzu do the japanese equivalent of Diplo-speech?

Diplo-speech meaning "diplomatic" or almost the type of speaking you'd expect from someone used to doing diplomacy or managing foreign relations and PR. Very elegant, round-about, indirect, almost vague, and able to cuss someone out without appearing rude or that you are cussing someone out? XD

[Murieleirum]

7 hours ago, Xen said:

Does Yuzu do the japanese equivalent of Diplo-speech?

Diplo-speech meaning "diplomatic" or almost the type of speaking you'd expect from someone used to doing diplomacy or managing foreign relations and PR. Very elegant, round-about, indirect, almost vague, and able to cuss someone out without appearing rude or that you are cussing someone out? XD

 

Yeah, exactly! 

For example a sentence ending that I love and I think I will use as much as possible while practicing is というふうに思っています。 In Japanese is common to end sentences with "I think that...", which is not to be translated quite literally, but more like a polite way to share your opinions and your views. But he goes even beyond that and says "というふうに" which literally means "in such a way that", so he ends all his phrases with "these are the kind of things that I think/believe". I love how it sounds, and I do have a problem with formal japanese (problem being, I forget to use it), so I want to use Yuzu speech as much as I can. 

[Xen]

13 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Yeah, exactly! 

For example a sentence ending that I love and I think I will use as much as possible while practicing is というふうに思っています。 In Japanese is common to end sentences with "I think that...", which is not to be translated quite literally, but more like a polite way to share your opinions and your views. But he goes even beyond that and says "というふうに" which literally means "in such a way that", so he ends all his phrases with "these are the kind of things that I think/believe". I love how it sounds, and I do have a problem with formal japanese (problem being, I forget to use it), so I want to use Yuzu speech as much as I can. 

Thanks. I'm going to start supplementing my japanese study with Yuzu's stuff as well. If he's considered super polite in Japan, I can't go wrong mimicking his style now, can I?

[Hydroblade]

So it finally caught up with me...

My last semester of basic japanese and the last two lessons are Keigo. After avoiding it for ten years

 

Also i love my teacher this semester! He does this fun game at the end of the class where we get small whiteboards and he asks us to write a word in kanji. I am surprised because i got right some kanji that i thought i didn't remember correctly He also specializes in technical japanese and he happily answers questions i get from self study (like some stuff i didn't understand in a book i was reading)

He's also making us speak a lot and working on vocabulary with long games of shiritori lol

[Murieleirum]

12 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

So it finally caught up with me...

My last semester of basic japanese and the last two lessons are Keigo. After avoiding it for ten years

 

Also i love my teacher this semester! He does this fun game at the end of the class where we get small whiteboards and he asks us to write a word in kanji. I am surprised because i got right some kanji that i thought i didn't remember correctly He also specializes in technical japanese and he happily answers questions i get from self study (like some stuff i didn't understand in a book i was reading)

He's also making us speak a lot and working on vocabulary with long games of shiritori lol

 

Sounds like heaven!

Those few times I go to lesson in University with my main teacher, she always reprimands me for whispering in my friend's ear while she's playing dictator doing her lesson, whie actually me and my friend are just taking in Japanese to practice lol. 

[Hydroblade]

3 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

playing dictator doing her lesson

My japanese (as in, she is japanese,  lol) teacher was a bit like that. The rest of the teachers used 厳しい to describe her to us before we became her students. Most of the people who quit the classes do it in the middle of her course. She was nice but yeah, if you did anything like that you would get reprimanded hahahaha.

 

And it is very nice! He also takes time to explain us jpn twitter memes and somehow he finds a way to use them to teach stuff

[Murieleirum]

2 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

And it is very nice! He also takes time to explain us jpn twitter memes and somehow he finds a way to use them to teach stuff

 

Omg. Does he want kids? Cause I'm up for adoption. 

[Hydroblade]

Just now, Murieleirum said:

 

Omg. Does he want kids? Cause I'm up for adoption. 

Idk, he's pretty young, probably two or three years older than me It's his second year teaching and at first i thought he would be really awkward but he's really into his role of teacher  (he has one of these for the class hahaha) and his methods are fun and efficient .

[LeadenMyr]

9 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

Idk, he's pretty young, probably two or three years older than me It's his second year teaching and at first i thought he would be really awkward but he's really into his role of teacher  (he has one of these for the class hahaha) and his methods are fun and efficient .

Ah. Maybe a wife then? 

Sounds like a great teacher!

I want to take IRL japanese lessons. And a teacher like that sounds like he's worth his weight in gold 

[Hydroblade]

9 hours ago, LeadenMyr said:

Ah. Maybe a wife then? 

Sounds like a great teacher!

I want to take IRL japanese lessons. And a teacher like that sounds like he's worth his weight in gold 

He is a great teacher he teaches japanese all week! (including sundays).

A teacher really helps a lot, it's the only way i was able to get over the wall in my learning. I'm sure you can find good teachers in your city i am taking classes at the Japanese Association (and we're having our 文化祭 this sunday! So excited), maybe that's a good choice

[axelnojutsu]

I told my 先生 today that I can't hand in the kanji assignment this week because I'm going to see 羽生選手 and she just told me "I hope you don't get sick for the rest of the semester then"