sutekinanijinoiro

I think it's my turn to ask then. Where are you from?

Ah, yes, I knew about that movement. Lol because of that I totally understood WHY they needed Kanji in the first place. But hey, I think studying Kanji is such a beauty, because you associate meaning to pictures, and I find it really interesting, and sometimes I consider deciphering word meanings like a puzzle, so it excites me all the time. :3

Plus I love keeping secrets, so being able to write in Japanese is a major BWAHAHAHAHAHA! >:)

Thanks for the friend request! Nice to meet you :D

Haha! Well I only saw those other dramas/movies because I was just watching everything in the past. Maybe now I decided to narrow down my list so I could see more of stuff? :P

Well, I know some greetings and all that, but without mastering the Hangul it's like trying to walk without legs :|

I think I might, although I have started watching Kdramas without learning the basics first, so even though I could catch a word here and there, I can't pick up things like a sponge like how I do with Jdramas yet :|

I saw that site, too, and they say it's totally good, but I don't think it'd work for me just yet. ;____;

Hmm... so now you can still recognize Kanji, can you? Well that's better than nothing! :D (or forgetting everything, which is really bad considering you've spent money on formal lessons! :O)

Oddly enough, I didn't find the article sexist as what the OP wrote in the disclaimer. Or maybe that was the disclaimer that led me to think that way. lol

Haha, you could cut your comment like what I did, maybe? XD

6. Not really, I totally base it on their performance. I don't care how they look, as long as they act decent.
7. Yes, I think. I like mystery and suspense more than any other genre, although it doesn't hurt to take a dab at other genres every now and then.
8. I hate stereotypes, so I don't think so. Naturally I tend to love dramas who attempt to go outside the box and offer a fresh perspective on things. That might just be me being so inexperienced in life, though.

1. Female
2. Of course there has to be that, or it wouldn't be called 'drama' in the first place :P
3. Yes, because maybe females are more on the emotional side and are more forgiving and patient than most males are? (lol what a sexist comment orz)
4. 2:3, favoring the women. I tend to look up to actresses more, so this is what I could refute in your article. Sure, looks attract me, but it's how they carry the acting weight that counts.
5. I'm more biased towards performance capabilities, because I totally hate pokerface, and on the extreme side, over-the-top acting. :| But I let my idols guide me to dramas I wanna watch. Makes me have an instant 'filter' every time, so that even though the drama itself fails big time I can still enjoy because they're there (unless the drama is toooootally crappy).

I agree with the Korean romanization, what a pain in the ass. :| Well, I guess I just need to know how the phonemes should be pronounced, then the rules (i.e. voicing, etc.), then I should stick to the characters from then on.

I've actually learned Hangul last month, but meh, I used Teach Yourself Korean which is a highly Westernized book, I can only guess about the pronunciation. Sigh.

Well, about Kanji, I don't think it's a matter of liking or hating it, like your own subjects at school. It's more like, you NEED it. Gah, just how could the Japanese understand each other without it? It has become indispensable like that. :)

Yeah, using American sounds to teach Korean. I'm not a native American speaker either, but I can say I am very fluent in English. Yet I don't like it at all when language book writers do it 'the Western way' and think like every single language learner comes from the West. SRSLY.

It's just maybe that my native language is so straightforward: you read what you see (and not add in extra vowels here and there like how English is), and I want to learn other languages as straightforward as that, too.

Wow, that's great for you. I wonder how I could acquire Korean vocabulary though, since I've been learning Nihongo only for so long that I've forgotten how to live without Kanji ;____;

Yeah, true! Dramaland is such a wonderful place, I wish I could stay forever. :P

If you paid attention to my profile, you'd know where I come from. XD

True, although what sometimes annoys me is how my fellow countrymen pronounces Japanese syllables totally wrong, especially if encountered for the first time. I remember one of my friend committing the 'tsu' blunder every single time. She pronounces it 'chu' instead, which is quite... laughable if you're familiar with the language orz

Haha, that was so cute, too! Although I was totally blown away by Takei Emi's performance there. Such a witch! But I loved the acting so much I would always say yes to an opportunity of seeing her drama work again!

Pleased to meet you, too! I'm an MDL newbie, yoroshiku ne? :D

What's irking me about Korean is how inconvenient it is to learn their sounds. My native language and Japanese have so many similar phonemes that I felt like I was just fine-tuning my speech to include SOME of the sounds we don't usually use, but it feels very comfortable and familiar so I loved learning it in the long run.

The number of characters is a good thing, though.

Well I was contemplating on seriously studying Korean but I would like to start off with a book that's NOT Western-centric (I hate it when I have to apply American accent just to learn the sounds... very NOT effective :|). More like, Asian-centric perhaps?

I'm not really good at learning from Internet sources. They may be helpful after I learn the basics, but not when I'm still building up. >_<

Thanks a lot in advance!

But when you study grammar THEN watch dramas, it's great that you hear how they use those grammar points you've just learned, especially the verb and adjective conjugations.

Quite the opposite is true with me. Kanji is my guilty pleasure, so I try to sneak them out and study them even though I have better (and more important) things to do orz orz orz Hence, the persecution from now on. ;_____;

That's true! Although you already said what I wanted to point out. That time you were such in a puzzle, "Why do I want/need to learn Japanese in the first place?". There has to be some kind of STRONG motivation for you to continue seriously doing it. Mine was the dream of meeting my idols someday, but now I've come to love and appreciate even just the language itself, that initial reason doesn't even matter much now (eh, sooner or later they'll start learning English. let them :P).

Anyway, because of the persecution I face nowadays towards learning Nihongo, even though I've bought language books for it what I could only do is to keep them hidden until I can learn it freely again ;___; Then nowadays mostly I only make progress with vocabulary, but not so much with grammar, because of... tada, JDRAMAS! But I totally agree with the theory that continuous exposure with the language keeps you more polished with it. :)

Wow, such an amazing mom you have! I've liked anime ever since primary school but only got around to actually starting learning the language on the last year of high school. I had felt some bitter sentiment towards Japan and the Japanese because of our tragic history with them. Sigh.

Hmm, maybe the idols kept me passionate enough to learn? Even when I was totally gaga over anime I didn't imagine myself to be this interested in Nihongo as well. If I compare myself to friends who have learned it way before than I did, I've come much a longer way ahead just because of the 'long-term interest' I have with the language, I think.

Maybe the key is to not start learning the language until you've decided you're going to learn it seriously and stick through the end? Idk, but that's how I feel right now for the past 4 years, and hopefully the feeling won't disappear in the future.

Thanks for accepting my friend request! ^0^