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Studying Japanese Language/Literature/History

boutux
elroypeasel wrote: Hey there, though a little late, I would like to join the Japanese studying "nation" here :)
Have been studying over a year. Started by myself...for 5 months...then found a professor.
I love Japanese language and always study "with love" maybe that's why my sensei always tells me that I master Japanese a little too easily :P
My problem is: RESOURCES, though I can find everything I need in the internet, sometimes I want a real textbook!
I already know more than 330 kanjis...have studied a lot of grammar...If to judge by the levels of Norokushiken, I'm in between (old) 3rd and 2nd levels...(I think)...
I dream about being in Japan.
Lately a center of Japan opened in Yerevan (my hometown, capital of my country), there are more than 1000 books and mangas in Japanese, am going to rob it, as soon as my term ends in the university :)
Lately I have started studying Japanese history...Have read Japanese authors (in English :P)...



wow u're sound way more advanced than the rest of us. welcome. any recommendations for self study?
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ladyfaile
yes I find his worksheets (for kana at least) work the same as the flashcard "games" i've been using. you have to not only convert from alpha to kana but from kana to alpha. i think this really helps with memorizing them. i think i'm fairly solid with recognizing hiragana but just because i can score 100% on the games doesn't mean i can write them from memory. if i was just looking to recognize them say for a trip so i could read road signs etc then i think i'd be all set for hiragana as it is now. but i'd like to be able to write it too, and have it come a little more naturally, to the point that i can read text without having to stop and think about some of the characters. so it all depends on the individual's reason for learning and what they want to get out of it i suppose.
i want to move on to katakana though and i'll just keep popping back to hiragana for review, which is what i wanted the worksheets for :)
katakana i find easier to write but there are too many characters that look alike, i think it will be harder to memorize than hiragana. when we went over it back in college all we had to do was learn to write our names, we didn't spend any more time on it than that. so i'm starting right from the beginning. hiragana i'd learned back then so it was more a matter of a refreshing my memory than anything. =/
i just wonder, is there as much of a need to learn katakana and kanji at the beginning or should i move on to vocab and comprehension type stuff and leave them for later
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Kawaikochan
I learned katakana and hiragana at the same time. I mixed the sets because that is how it would be in real life. I think learning katakana and hirigana are essential if you want to learn Japanese. Learn them as soon as possible. I don't think you can really learn vocab without them because you need to be able to read the hirigana or katakana to get the proper pronunciation.

I think opinions differ regarding how soon you should learn kanji. I think immediately, but I don't think you need to know all 2000 joushu kanji before moving on to learning grammar and stuff. I think it mostly depends on your learning style. If you start doing kanji and it really sticks, then go ahead and learn all 2000. It will make your learning go really fast, because you will be almost literate in Japanese. If you know all of the most common kanji, then you can probably figure out much of the grammar from context.

I am not one of those people who learned all 2000 in a month, lol. I study bit by bit. But I definitely notice everything falls into place more when I can identify the kanji. Also, I do not study only individual kanji (e.g. Remembering the Kanji method). I study kanji in the context of words and kanji compounds. It really helps it stick (for me) and kinda lets you know what the most common meanings are.
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ladyfaile
gotcha. thanks for the tips.
i'm sure i'm not the only one but i find kanji very intimidating lol. there's just so many of them and they're so complex! but that list i liked on the resources page gives explanations that help for remembering the different parts and how they fit together etc. very interesting and quite beautiful really. it's sort of like puzzle pieces ne?
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Kawaikochan
Yea i actually like studying kanji now. I wasn't ever intimidated by learning kanji because I thought of it like art. Studying gets easier the more kanji you know because you can recognize them in each other. However, retention is an issue once you learn like 400+. I have to practice every day or I'll forget some of them. I added some resources to the list that may help people remember kanji.
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ladyfaile
anki should help with that no? i just finally downloaded it today. made a couple of sets and downloaded a couple. i can see it being very useful. but i haven't figured out how to do different things with it yet so we'll see how it goes once i mess with it more.
i downloaded heisig's kanji list, tae kim's guide to grammar and core 2000 vocab. i'll probably just use tae kim's for now, and my own sets using stuff i've been learning, before i get into the others. i want to master hiragana (almost there!) and katakana before i venture into kanji. i already recognize a couple of simple kanji like person, rain and fire. it's a start :p
so i did that today plus finished up those hiragana practice sheets.. AND ... i think, but don't count on this 100%, i've discovered something with tofugu's textbook (textfugu) which you have to pay for. he posts free pages through his lessons (go to language on the top toolbars and click lessons in the dropdown) now and then, find one of those links and click it and from there you can navigate through the text. i've gone through a few chapters. so unless that whole unit is free i think there's a loophole to get the whole text free. we'll see as i go through it further.
i figured this out by going to his lessons on hiragana, which is very helpful by the way though some of the resources he links are outdated. this is where those practice worksheets are. i'd been ignoring most of the other links because i already had similar resources but somehwere near the end there's a link explaining the small "tsu" and elongated vowels. i think it was these links that brought me into textfugu :D

so anyway thanks to that i also did some hiragana writing practice from the section explaining "desu". stuff i already knew but the writing practice is helpful and i learned a couple of new nouns so yay

ooh! also tofugu is hiring a summer intern, details on the main page of the site or on his facebook or twitter. i applied. why not *shrug*
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boutux
pisaduriuasda wrote: i've discovered something with tofugu's textbook (textfugu) which you have to pay for. he posts free pages through his lessons (go to language on the top toolbars and click lessons in the dropdown) now and then, find one of those links and click it and from there you can navigate through the text. i've gone through a few chapters. so unless that whole unit is free i think there's a loophole to get the whole text free. we'll see as i go through it further.
i figured this out by going to his lessons on hiragana, which is very helpful by the way though some of the resources he links are outdated. this is where those practice worksheets are. i'd been ignoring most of the other links because i already had similar resources but somehwere near the end there's a link explaining the small "tsu" and elongated vowels. i think it was these links that brought me into textfugu :D

so anyway thanks to that i also did some hiragana writing practice from the section explaining "desu". stuff i already knew but the writing practice is helpful and i learned a couple of new nouns so yay

ooh! also tofugu is hiring a summer intern, details on the main page of the site or on his facebook or twitter. i applied. why not *shrug*


can you post the lessons? i checked out the link u provided but the lessons stop at the end of hiragana if u're not paying for them. or maybe i haven't completely figured out how to navigate his site. i still haven't seen where to download anything.
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Brandy G
@Kawaikochan

I think it does help, at least with common phrases when it comes to passive listening. I don't really study much but have been watching dramas for 3-4 years now and have a pretty extensive vocabulary. When I do study I check up grammar and kanji just to confirm I am using words correctly and such..
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Brandy G
Froteonee wrote: Thanks for all the info Violet :)

I was thinking about two things.

1) If any of us come across a drama or movie with Japanese that is easier to understand, we should suggest it here :) For example, I found the Japanese in School and Marumo no Okite easier to understand because children are the main characters.

2) Are there characters in who speak Japanese in a way you would like to imitate? It can be anything (drama, movie, manga, anime, etc.). I can't think of one that I would like to imitate, but I definitely remember wanting to copy the way people spoke English when I was younger.


I was thinking about it and I like the TV Variety shows for this reason. Arashi no shukudai-kun, VS Arashi, Himitsu no-Arashi-chan & Shiyagare no Arashi. Most members speak in a way I can understand what they are saying. Not to fast, not muddled or slang (KAT-TUN is bad about this.) Thats how come I am able to watch these shows without subs usually.
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ladyfaile
oooookay i backtracked and found it again and went to the firstpage and it does look like some of the chapters are free http://www.textfugu.com/season-1/reading-writing-memorizing-hiragana/#top
might still be helpful to someone just starting out though. oh well lol. i'll keep an eye out in case he posts any other freebies with his lessons though. i was at the yoda part so i guess if i'd gone through the rest of the chapter i would have figured out that that's the end of the freebie road lol =P
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ladyfaile
ohmiya: variety shows are probably better for learning since they speak more naturally than in a drama. where do you watch them?
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Kawaikochan
We had this convo in the general chat thread and a bunch of people mentioned some that they like...I think it was somewhere in the 60s pages. I <3 variety shows, interview shows, morning shows. Hanamaru Cafe is kinda like Good Morning America, but better, hehehe. The only Arashi show I liked was the one with the professors. All the rest give me a headache with the red carpet, "crystals," gold leaf, and velvet, especially the one in the van. I have no idea who does their set decoration.
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Kawaikochan
oh and Lady, I usually just do a google video search for either an actor or name of the show. The results usually direct me to the typical streaming video sites.
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ladyfaile
ok i'll have a look for some of those. i've looked for some on youtube and it's tough to find ones subbed (and not subbed in like spanish or something), even thougher to find complete episodes, a lot of the videos on there are just clips of a specific guest or segment that the user likes
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Brandy G
I download them from many subbing teams, mostly on livejournal. I save them on an external hard drive that my boyfriend bought me for my christmas. >_< 3TB of Dramas and Arashi Variety shows just about filled up.
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