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[Bomber Bob]

ドンマイ！


今はどうか知らないけど、前までは普通に日本で仕事するとき、２級さえあれば、オッケー


てか、面接のときに日本語通じればオッケーw

Thanks!

I don't want to work with Japanese People (I work part-time at a little retail store in Tokyo Station and I'm no good at dealing with them) but I'd kill for an N1 goukaku certificate :'(

Why make it so hard to register?!? Don't they want people using their site?!

yeah, they'r trying to keep it real preventing people from creating fake accounts. (like gaf)

 

[Mik2121]

Thanks!

I don't want to work with Japanese People (I work part-time at a little retail store in Tokyo Station and I'm no good at dealing with them) but I'd kill for an N1 goukaku certificate :'(



yeah, they'r trying to keep it real preventing people from creating fake accounts. (like gaf)

Uhm... from what I've experienced, working with costumers or clients can be a bit tiring, but if it's a work where you're not straight talking to the clients, it's not nearly as bad I found. Still, depends on your work and your coworkers, but hey...

 

[345triangle]

i work at a clothes store here and basically like dealing with customers! i find the experience of working retail in japan is so far removed from the UK - people are polite and i enjoy being polite back, which is like the exact opposite of what i was used to.

i guess it helps that our clientele is pretty much exclusively made up of reasonably cool people under 30, but yeah.

 

[Jintor]

I like the Heisig method, but I'd feel better combining it with something... I wish there were more podcasts around :T

 

[Mik2121]

What's this Heisig method you guys are talking about?

 

[KtSlime]

What's this Heisig method you guys are talking about?

It's a method developed by this guy named Heisig where he further breaks down kanji into sub components and encourages the creation of imaginative reconstructive stories* for explaining the meaning of a particular character. After you have learned all 3006 of them you then go back and learn them by grouping their 音読み or something then their 訓＋送り仮名.

I think he has some useful tips, and I gave it a try for my first 200 or so kanji, but I personally think the traditional brute force method is superior. The biggest problem I see with this method is that sound is more important than meaning for most kanji, and learning the meaning then the sound seems like a silly way of doing it when you'd get a much stronger reinforced memory by remembering both at the same time. Also I think taking such a long time before being able to read them in their natural environment is damaging to moral. But if people want to learn kanji that way and that works for them, then I am glad they found found it.

*typically false etymologies.

 

[angelfly]

I went through RTK and for me it worked better by also doing a lot of reading. Manga, blogs, mixi, etc. Whatever was near my level and filled with kanji. Memorizing the kanji compounds based on the Heisig keywords also helped for some words like 高速道路 (tall,quick,roadway,path). I may forget how to pronounce it from time to time but looking at it I instantly remember what it means because of the keywords. For its purpose the Heisig method works however I'm speaking only on Vol.1 as I don't quite like Vol.2.

 

[shanshan310]

What's this Heisig method you guys are talking about?

You learn to write all the kanji (through learning an English meaning for each individual character) before you learn to read them. Its supposed to give you the advantage that say, a Chinese person would have when learning Japanese.

 

[Mik2121]

ほー・・なかなか変わった勉強法だな・・

でもそうやって、漢字覚えれるんだったら、それでもいいんじゃない？


ほんじゃ、日本語のレスに戻ろうー？w

 

[Jintor]

I think I'll finish up volume 1 and then convert to learning traditional style. I think the main thing I'm getting out of this though is Spaced Repetition Revision though. Oh, and setting aside a couple of minutes every night to do some practice.

 

[Lostconfused]

The way I see it, or at least the way I intend to use the heisig method. Is that you go through a lot of kanji really quickly, 15 or 20 new ones per day. So that you would become familiar with the kanji an develop a foundation from which you can start learning.

Trying to learn by brute force is too hard in my opinion. Children learn to speak first and write later in their lives, they already have a basis from which to form associations to kanji and learn them. Some one who knows chinese would be familiar enough with the kanji that they could start learning japanese readings. Either way is far easier than trying to learn both at the same time.

Since learning the spoken language requires going to class or knowing some one who already speaks the language, I think a structured/simple study of how to write them is the way to go.

I only know languages that a written via alphabet so this is my first experience with pictographs and I could be completely wrong. I just think with a language that has an alphabet base it would be fairly simple to learn speaking and writing at the same time. In case of japanese I need to split it in to two to make learning easier.


Edit: Really though it doesn't matter. It's not important at all as to how you study, just that you study.

 

[louis89]

Got yelled at on the train today by some old guy when I was using my phone near the priority seats.

EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME. BECAUSE MY TROUBLE PHONE OFF PLEASE.

Plenty of people around be started using their phones after that and he said nothing. =/

Edit: J-Gaf help me out. I want to buy a TV. I have this in my room. Is this what I need to have to be able to connect a TV?

If not, what is this thing?

 

[Gacha-pin]

ちなみに、ガチャピンさんって日本人だっけ？わからなくなってきたw　なんか普通に外国人やと思ったけど、さっきのコメント見たらわからなくなってきた・・

関西生まれ、東京育ちだよ。関西弁はまったくしゃべれない。あとはEngrishが少し。Englishは全然ダメだよ

Edit: J-Gaf help me out. I want to buy a TV. I have this in my room. Is this what I need to have to be able to connect a TV?

If not, what is this thing?

Yes, that's what you need. But just in case, you should ask 大家（おおや）さん or 管理人（かんりにん）さん whether the antenna of the building is digitally compatible

この建物のアンテナは地デジ化（ちでじか）されていますか？

 

[shanshan310]

関西生まれ、東京育ちだよ。関西弁はまったくしゃべれない。あとはEngrishが少し。Englishは全然ダメだよ

lol! どこで英語を勉強したの？ガチャピンがこのthreadでpostする前に日本に働いてるアメリカ人と思った。

 

[louis89]

Yes, that's what you need. But just in case, you should ask 大家（おおや）さん or 管理人（かんりにん）さん whether the antenna of the building is digitally compatible

この建物のアンテナは地デジ化（ちでじか）されていますか？

Thanks man, I'll try to get in contact with them. I'm sure I can find a cheap second hand little TV in Akihabara or something.

thread

スレ

post

書き込み

 

[Gacha-pin]

lol! どこで英語を勉強したの？ガチャピンがこのthreadでpostする前に日本に働いてるアメリカ人と思った。

Counter Strikeやってて覚えた......

Thanks man, I'll try to get in contact with them. I'm sure I can find a cheap second hand little TV in Akihabara or something.

No problem. ブラウン管テレビは買っちゃ駄目だよ。

 

[shanshan310]

Thanks man, I'll try to get in contact with them. I'm sure I can find a cheap second hand little TV in Akihabara or something.


スレ


書き込み

Everything makes so much more sense now! I spent so long trying to figure out what "sure" was.

 

[Mik2121]

Counter Strikeやってて覚えた......


No problem. ブラウン管テレビは買っちゃ駄目だよ。

CSやって英語覚えたって？wそれもそれで凄いと思うw

関西の人だって知らなかった。なーんとなく日本人だろなーって思ってたけど・・

それじゃ、何でこの掲示板に登録しようと思ったの？ゲームが好きだから？それか英語の練習になるから？w



BTW Shanshan, "thread" is スレッド, but a lot of people online just shorten it into: スレ. I believe it's mostly used on other boards like 2ch and I wouldn't recommend using it on an actual conversation with someone in real life

 

[Gacha-pin]

Everything makes so much more sense now! I spent so long trying to figure out what "sure" was.

日本人なんでも縮めちゃったり省略しちゃうからね。

CSやって英語覚えたって？wそれもそれで凄いと思うw

関西の人だって知らなかった。なーんとなく日本人だろなーって思ってたけど・・

それじゃ、何でこの掲示板に登録しようと思ったの？ゲームが好きだから？それか英語の練習になるから？w



BTW Shanshan, "thread" is スレッド, but a lot of people online just shorten it into: スレ. I believe it's mostly used on other boards like 2ch and I wouldn't recommend using it on an actual conversation with someone in real life

とりあえずf-ingのありとあらえる用法は学べたｗ
GAFに登録したのは海外のゲーム好きなのでなんとなく登録してみた。

 

[shanshan310]

BTW Shanshan, "thread" is スレッド, but a lot of people online just shorten it into: スレ. I believe it's mostly used on other boards like 2ch and I wouldn't recommend using it on an actual conversation with someone in real life

lol, thanks for the heads up. Though generally I don't talk to people in Japanese about threads so I don't think it would be a problem anyway

日本人なんでも縮めちゃったり省略しちゃうからね。

だね！”キモイ”とか。面白いよ！

あのね、”めんどくさい”というのは本当の言葉でしょう？大学で使うとき先生がいつも？を書くからわからない。多分、話し言葉だと思ったのに、そうだったらそれを書いて説明しない？
I have a feeling that didn't make sense.

Hey, is anyone studying other languages as well? I started Korean a few months ago. Very interesting, lots of similarities with Japanese (図書館 and tosokwan etc). On the other hand the course is much more vocab intensive so I'm having to spend more time studying Korean than Japanese

 

[Mik2121]

日本人なんでも縮めちゃったり省略しちゃうからね。


とりあえずf-ingのありとあらえる用法は学べたｗ
GAFに登録したのは海外のゲーム好きなのでなんとなく登録してみた。

そうなんや！CSじゃ、その言葉ぐらいしか使わないよね、みんなw
GAFで何か英語の勉強になったらいいよねー　僕も母国でスペイン語しか話さないから、ここのスレッド読んだら勉強になることがいっぱい！（今はスペインにいないから、スペイン語も練習しないと忘れちゃいそうだけどw）

あのね、”めんどくさい”というのは本当の言葉でしょう？大学で使うとき先生がいつも？を書くからわからない。多分、話し言葉だと思ったのに、そだったらそれを書いて説明しない？

僕は知ってるかぎり、めんどくさいってのは実際にある言葉だと思う？漢字でかけば「面倒臭い」になる。ただ、「めんどくさい」じゃなくて、「めんどうくさい」になるけど。

どっちにしても、学校で何か書く時はやめたほうがいいかもしれないね。っどちにしても、ガチャピンさんのほうが知ってるから、僕もちゃんと聞いとこうw

 

[Angry Fork]

I want to do the AJATT method of basically immersing yourself in the language all day every day (or at least as much as you can). I live in NYC and my TV/cable provider offers an international thing for 25 a month (the 2nd most expensive one unfortunately, only Russia is higher at 30). Here's the little blurb:

TV Japan offers family entertainment, lifestyle, travel, comedy, science programs and news coverage from NHK, Japan's leading broadcaster.
http://www.optimum.com/io/international/international.jsp

I don't know how many channels I'm assuming it's whatever NHK plays in Japan but they just play it in the states. Anyway I don't know about NHK and am just wondering if anyone here knows whether that broadcasting company important/big in Japan or not and if it's worth it?

 

[Mik2121]

I want to do the AJATT method of basically immersing yourself in the language all day every day (or at least as much as you can). I live in NYC and my TV/cable provider offers an international thing for 25 a month (the 2nd most expensive one unfortunately, only Russia is higher at 30). Here's the little blurb:

TV Japan offers family entertainment, lifestyle, travel, comedy, science programs and news coverage from NHK, Japan's leading broadcaster.
http://www.optimum.com/io/international/international.jsp

I don't know how many channels I'm assuming it's whatever NHK plays in Japan but they just play it in the states. Anyway I don't know about NHK and am just wondering if anyone here knows whether that broadcasting company important/big in Japan or not and if it's worth it?

NHK is probably the worst and most boring channel on Japanese TV. They make us pay for it in Japan (you have to pay if you own a TV at home) because it's a state-owned channel, but in my house we never pay because it's just that crappy, lol.

Anyway, no, I believe there are methods to watch Japanese TV online (I used to do that). It's obviously not the same quality, but you still get to see a lot of channels and it's definitely more fun. Either way, I never watch TV ,but hey..

Worst case scenario, say you pay for it.. you will probably still learn from it, and every once in a very long while, you will catch some interesting programs. And that's the international package which might include different programs so who knows, but see first if you can get access to other channels via any other methods.



(ps. I don't think it's a dick move to go to a restaurant 5 minutes before they close )

 

[Zoe]

TV Japan is booooooring, and it doesn't get broadcast in HD. The only advantage it has over someone's stream is it's catered for US broadcast times.

 

[Physalis]

I have a question for you guys.

A bit of background first: So, I'm in college right now and I managed to complete a Japanese minor about a year ago, but promptly forgot all but the basics.

In the past year, I made the leap into Chinese and finally found out how radicals work, and can now recognize a good amount of hanzi/guess their pronunciation (which helps a great deal with being able to just read).

As a result, I now know the onyomi for nearly all the characters I've seen (roughly 1000), and just the basic kunyomi.

Grammar, I remember, was a pain in the ass, but now that I know how my mind works, I should be able to at least show more progress than before.


My question is, now that I know how my mind works with language, how should I re-approach Japanese? Characters aren't necessarily the problem, it seems to be just grammar/memorization of grammar.


Also, for reference, I speak Chinese a LOT better/more fluently than Japanese. I managed to survive the summer in Beijing without using any English, so my confidence in language use is through the roof.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Angry Fork]

TV Japan is booooooring, and it doesn't get broadcast in HD. The only advantage it has over someone's stream is it's catered for US broadcast times.

NHK is probably the worst and most boring channel on Japanese TV. They make us pay for it in Japan (you have to pay if you own a TV at home) because it's a state-owned channel, but in my house we never pay because it's just that crappy, lol.

Anyway, no, I believe there are methods to watch Japanese TV online (I used to do that). It's obviously not the same quality, but you still get to see a lot of channels and it's definitely more fun. Either way, I never watch TV ,but hey..

Worst case scenario, say you pay for it.. you will probably still learn from it, and every once in a very long while, you will catch some interesting programs. And that's the international package which might include different programs so who knows, but see first if you can get access to other channels via any other methods.



(ps. I don't think it's a dick move to go to a restaurant 5 minutes before they close )

haha yea I remember your avatar from that thread, no hard feelings =P

Thanks for the responses though I guess I'll skip out on that and look for streams online and stuff. Any websites you guys recommend that may do it for free? (or for a fee either way as long as the programming is interesting and worth it)

 

[Furoba]

NHK is probably the worst and most boring channel on Japanese TV. They make us pay for it in Japan (you have to pay if you own a TV at home) because it's a state-owned channel, but in my house we never pay because it's just that crappy, lol.

Anyway, no, I believe there are methods to watch Japanese TV online (I used to do that). It's obviously not the same quality, but you still get to see a lot of channels and it's definitely more fun. Either way, I never watch TV ,but hey..

Worst case scenario, say you pay for it.. you will probably still learn from it, and every once in a very long while, you will catch some interesting programs. And that's the international package which might include different programs so who knows, but see first if you can get access to other channels via any other methods.

(ps. I don't think it's a dick move to go to a restaurant 5 minutes before they close )

I once thought the same thing (but I do like some NHK programs), but then I realized this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrAwvJLKxo

Now I am quite eager to pay honestly.

 

[Zoe]

Thanks for the responses though I guess I'll skip out on that and look for streams online and stuff. Any websites you guys recommend that may do it for free? (or for a fee either way as long as the programming is interesting and worth it)

I used to use Keyhole, but the quality is pretty crappy... I've heard of one that's better (name escapes me), but I never tried it out cause it had to be downloaded from some shady Chinese site.

 

[Gacha-pin]

lol, thanks for the heads up. Though generally I don't talk to people in Japanese about threads so I don't think it would be a problem anyway



だね！”キモイ”とか。面白いよ！

あのね、”めんどくさい”というのは本当の言葉でしょう？大学で使うとき先生がいつも？を書くからわからない。多分、話し言葉だと思ったのに、そうだったらそれを書いて説明しない？
I have a feeling that didn't make sense.

Hey, is anyone studying other languages as well? I started Korean a few months ago. Very interesting, lots of similarities with Japanese (図書館 and tosokwan etc). On the other hand the course is much more vocab intensive so I'm having to spend more time studying Korean than Japanese

面倒くさい。正しくは「めんどうくさい」だよ。日本語は音にあまり厳しくないから「めんどくさい」って読む人が多いかも。あとはそれを短縮して「めんどい」とか。

そういう言葉は他にも結構あるよ。
本当「ほんとう」→「ほんと」
「さようなら」→「さよなら」
東京「とうきょう」→「とーきょー」
大阪「おおさか」→「おーさか」
雰囲気「ふんいき」→「ふいんき」

最後のは完全に読み間違えだけど、使っている人が多いのでいずれ辞書に載るようになるかも。



As for the Japanese TV, if you are okay with Japanese quirky stuffs, ニコニコ動画(nico nico douga) is a good option......ummm
It's more like a video hosting service but they are sort of funny and not boring. You can learn lots of Japanese you shouldn't learn or I want you not to learn.

 

[Bomber Bob]

TV Japan is booooooring, and it doesn't get broadcast in HD.

Japan remained the only country with successful public broadcasting analog HDTV, with seven broadcasters sharing a single channel. Digital HDTV broadcasting started in 2000 in Japan, and the analog service ended in the early hours of 1 October 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television

 

[Zoe]

Japan remained the only country with successful public broadcasting analog HDTV, with seven broadcasters sharing a single channel. Digital HDTV broadcasting started in 2000 in Japan, and the analog service ended in the early hours of 1 October 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television

TV Japan does not get broadcast in HD in the US.

 

[Bomber Bob]

TV Japan does not get broadcast in HD in the US.

sorry bro I misunderstood

 

[shanshan310]

I have a question for you guys.

A bit of background first: So, I'm in college right now and I managed to complete a Japanese minor about a year ago, but promptly forgot all but the basics.

My question is, now that I know how my mind works with language, how should I re-approach Japanese? Characters aren't necessarily the problem, it seems to be just grammar/memorization of grammar.

Thanks for the help!

I'd say go for it! Try it out for a bit. I mean, if you've got it as your minor you must have put a fair bit of time towards learning it. It would really suck to lose it all again. Grammar is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. There isn't really THAT much to know, and in someways its pretty set (like noun/ noun phrase connects to a sentence pattern eg. ～ほうがい&#12356 and in other ways its got flexibility that English doesn't have because of the particles.
Though, I'm doing Korean as well and sort of struggling to give them both the time that they require to flourish. Just see how you go for a bit. If it doesn't work out you have lost nothing.

そうなんや！CSじゃ、その言葉ぐらいしか使わないよね、みんなw
GAFで何か英語の勉強になったらいいよねー　僕も母国でスペイン語しか話さないから、ここのスレッド読んだら勉強になることがいっぱい！（今はスペインにいないから、スペイン語も練習しないと忘れちゃいそうだけどw）


僕は知ってるかぎり、めんどくさいってのは実際にある言葉だと思う？漢字でかけば「面倒臭い」になる。ただ、「めんどくさい」じゃなくて、「めんどうくさい」になるけど。

どっちにしても、学校で何か書く時はやめたほうがいいかもしれないね。っどちにしても、ガチャピンさんのほうが知ってるから、僕もちゃんと聞いとこうw

あーなるほど。でも回想記を書いてるから大丈夫と思ったのに、多分学校ではだめなんだ。

 

[Pachterballs]

Just a bump.

Human Japanese HD for ipad - on sale.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/human-japanese-hd/id419031017?mt=8


I bought it because someone here recommended it. Thought others might be keen.

 

[warthog]

Just a bump.

Human Japanese HD for ipad - on sale.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/human-japanese-hd/id419031017?mt=8


I bought it because someone here recommended it. Thought others might be keen.

Thank you!

 

[Adamm]

Hello J-Gaf, I hope you can offer some advice!

Ive always wanted to learn japanese, but up until now ive always found reasons not to. But ive recently started a new job that gives me alot of free time & instead of sitting around looking at the internet, i figure i could do something more produtive with my time such as learn japanese!

So for the last few weeks i have learnt Hiragana & Katakana using 'Remembering the Kana'. And i cant beleive how easy it was to learn and how great a feeling it is to be able to read a word written in japanese (even if I dont understand it)

So now the plan is to move onto proper learning - but im not sure what step to take next.
I was planning on using RTK to learn the Kanji, but im slightly confused on how it is suppose to work. If im not learning the reading & only getting a very loose meaning for each word then what is the benefit?
As was pointed out a few pages back:
御目出度う = honorable-eye-exit-degree-u?
Is it so when i do start learning sentences that i will be able to recognise them and not just see a bunch of random characters?

And im worried about using RTK along with other methods as it may be counter productive & get confusing.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

tl;dr - I know Hiragana/Katakana - what now?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Hello J-Gaf, I hope you can offer some advice!

Ive always wanted to learn japanese, but up until now ive always found reasons not to. But ive recently started a new job that gives me alot of free time & instead of sitting around looking at the internet, i figure i could do something more produtive with my time such as learn japanese!

So for the last few weeks i have learnt Hiragana & Katakana using 'Remembering the Kana'. And i cant beleive how easy it was to learn and how great a feeling it is to be able to read a word written in japanese (even if I dont understand it)

So now the plan is to move onto proper learning - but im not sure what step to take next.
I was planning on using RTK to learn the Kanji, but im slightly confused on how it is suppose to work. If im not learning the reading & only getting a very loose meaning for each word then what is the benefit?
As was pointed out a few pages back:
御目出度う = honorable-eye-exit-degree-u?
Is it so when i do start learning sentences that i will be able to recognise them and not just see a bunch of random characters?

And im worried about using RTK along with other methods as it may be counter productive & get confusing.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

tl;dr - I know Hiragana/Katakana - what now?

Well, in 御目出度う's case (by the way you'll almost never see this used in earnest), the Kanji were not chosen for their meaning, but their sound when read. There are quite a few words like this where the word would make no sense if you took each Kanji for its individual meaning.

Personally, I think it's far more valuable to learn how to read and write each Kanji, even if you don't really know its individual meaning. Knowing the meaning helps, but knowing the various readings of a character within the context of Japanese will be much more useful, as you can then just look up whatever word the Kanji is in. You're going to need to learn the meanings of words (often comprised of two or more Kanji) anyway, and knowing the individual meaning of Kanji is not always helpful.

 

[shanshan310]

So now the plan is to move onto proper learning - but im not sure what step to take next.
I was planning on using RTK to learn the Kanji, but im slightly confused on how it is suppose to work. If im not learning the reading & only getting a very loose meaning for each word then what is the benefit?
As was pointed out a few pages back:
御目出度う = honorable-eye-exit-degree-u?
Is it so when i do start learning sentences that i will be able to recognise them and not just see a bunch of random characters?

And im worried about using RTK along with other methods as it may be counter productive & get confusing.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

tl;dr - I know Hiragana/Katakana - what now?

I'd say it depends on your learning style. People rave about RTK and how useful it was because now they can write 2000 characters. I myself would get very frustrated at not being about to read anything/ only understand some things despite being able to write. Most of the time I'm typing anyway, so I see greater benefit in being able to pronounce the characters and learning the meanings of words with multiple kanji. I also find it hard to remember arbitrary connections like the ones that heisig gives. But, I'd say try it out. Learn your strengths and weaknesses. If it doesn't work the Basic Kanji books are pretty useful.

EDIT: actually, this kanji book has been my favourite so far.

 

[AngryMoth]

Tried reading some of the Japanese posts without much success.

毎日、日本語を勉強します！

That's all I've got for now. Almost done with the N5 kanji now though.

 

[KtSlime]

Hello J-Gaf, I hope you can offer some advice!

Ive always wanted to learn japanese, but up until now ive always found reasons not to. But ive recently started a new job that gives me alot of free time & instead of sitting around looking at the internet, i figure i could do something more produtive with my time such as learn japanese!

So for the last few weeks i have learnt Hiragana & Katakana using 'Remembering the Kana'. And i cant beleive how easy it was to learn and how great a feeling it is to be able to read a word written in japanese (even if I dont understand it)

So now the plan is to move onto proper learning - but im not sure what step to take next.
I was planning on using RTK to learn the Kanji, but im slightly confused on how it is suppose to work. If im not learning the reading & only getting a very loose meaning for each word then what is the benefit?
As was pointed out a few pages back:
御目出度う = honorable-eye-exit-degree-u?
Is it so when i do start learning sentences that i will be able to recognise them and not just see a bunch of random characters?

And im worried about using RTK along with other methods as it may be counter productive & get confusing.

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

tl;dr - I know Hiragana/Katakana - what now?

You need to remember a very very simple truth.

Japanese, first and foremost, is a spoken language.

Reading and writing is certainly important, but virtually everyone fluent in the language learned to speak it long before they were competent in the written language. Ultimately the problem with RTK is that it is a bizarre and twisted path to proficiency. I'm not trying to disuade you from taking that path, however I would highly recommend you wait for a bit to go down it.

As you pointed out, the word おめでとう using the kanji's meanings doesn't make sense, that's fine, however using RTK you can't even start reading words until the 3rd book which even if you are a very fast learner and practice and remember a minimum of 10 characters a day, it will take you at least a year before you move to being able to even start to produce the sounds of 水曜日 (すいよう&#12403 - Water-Weekday-Day.

At bare minimum I recommend getting a textbook and going through a few chapters of that, or looking at Tae Kim's guide before wasting your time associating English words to Chinese characters. There are some useful aspects of his approach, but at this stage in the game, it will only be a time waster and possibly make you fed up being unable to see an end in sight.

Millions of small, attainable goals is how one learns a language.

PS: Congrats on being able to read ひらがな and カタカナ.

 

[Lostconfused]

before wasting your time associating English words to Chinese characters.

Personal I don't think it's good to get fixated on that idea. Unless you you already know how to speak in Japanese you will still end up associating a lot of what you learn with English. You need to be pretty familiar with the language or phrase to not try and translate it.

 

[Jintor]

I'm still finding it weird that some Japanese words and some Chinese words still sound similar but don't quite. I can't remember which is　音読み　and 訓読み though. > >

Is the single character readings 音読み and the multi-character readings　訓読み, or have I screwed up again?

It's really the brute-force part of my memory that fails me...

/edit for instance, 水　sounds close enough to 'shui' which is the chinese prounounciation that I get confused very easily.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

On- and kun- readings always felt distinctly different to me (with some exceptions).

Is the single character readings 音読み and the multi-character readings　訓読?

Not necessarily. 牧場（まきば） is a full kun-word, and it has less syllables than the on-reading 牧場（ぼくじょう）.

 

[Zoe]

Personal I don't think it's good to get fixated on that idea. Unless you you already know how to speak in Japanese you will still end up associating a lot of what you learn with English. You need to be pretty familiar with the language or phrase to not try and translate it.

I don't really agree with that. When learning any language, you should look at it as expanding your vocabulary--not just learning 1:1 synonyms.

 

[shanshan310]

Plus there are a lot of things that don't translate well, and words that don't really have an English meaning. I generally either think in Japanese when I'm speaking Japanese (or weird hybrid language). Having to translate in your head slows down the response time a ton.

 

[Mik2121]

I don't really agree with that. When learning any language, you should look at it as expanding your vocabulary--not just learning 1:1 synonyms.

Yeah. During my first two years I learnt a lot of words by relating them to whatever they meant in English or Spanish (my mother tongue), but after a while I stopped doing that.
Every now and then I find words that I don't know which are fairly complex or just don't exist in English, and my gf usually defines the word to me in Japanese and that's how I learn it, rather than just translating it (sometimes I might not even know what the translated word in Spanish or English means, lol.. but that's not common anyway...).


And as shanshan said above, I also think in Japanese when I'm in Japan. If I'm in Spain I usually think in some sort of hybrid of English and Japanese, but I barely touch Spanish anymore :/ I guess it's because I almost never use it, that it would be a waste of time to think in that language...

 

[Lostconfused]

Having to translate in your head slows down the response time a ton.

Obviously that's true for any language. I just don't believe you can start thinking in that specific language if you only know ten words or so.

 

[Mik2121]

Obviously that's true for any language. I just don't believe you can start thinking in that specific language if you only know ten words or so.

Oh, definitely. I think I started to think in Japanese when I started to hang out with friends I made in Japan. Because we would speak mostly in Japanese (though at first they would help me talking in English, but still..), I used to spend a lot of time thinking how to make whatever phrase I wanted to say. Then I guess I just got used to that, and before I knew it I would be thinking in Japanese all the time, which also helps when learning the language (you have more words fresh on your memory because you used them for thinking ).


Hopefully I explained myself well...

 

[Lostconfused]

I speak Russian and English my self and primarily think in english because I have lived in Canada long enough. I am at least somewhat familiar with learning a new language or what it's like to know more than one.


In my arguments for Heisig I assume that it is the very first thing the person studies. Where getting a quick familiarity might be more important than learning specifics and being overloaded with information.

To be quiet honest I actually ditched the Heisig method after about a week because his mnemonics broke down for me and I am pretty bad at coming up with my own.

I went back to the brute force method, it's easier and more comfortable with the few words that I do know. Also it seems I am mainly learning kanji by sight. I can usually recognize it when I see it but I would have a lot of trouble writing it out. Maybe it's because I don't practice writing it enough or at all. Which might make things difficult once I try to learn more than a couple of hundred of them.

 

[Garou]

Thanks man, I'll try to get in contact with them. I'm sure I can find a cheap second hand little TV in Akihabara or something.

Before going to Akihabara, better check kakaku.com you will most certainly get a better price, or at least the same as after points-rebate in Akihabara (and cash is better than points anyway )