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[Kilrogg]

I'll admit I'm not used to doing readings and recordings like this at all. First time I've ever really recorded and listened back to my voice. Because of that, it probably sounds a bit more unnatural than my normal speech. Some of the weird accent quirks you identified may have come from my first learning Japanese in Kansai, speaking with people native to that region. Later, when I lived in Tokyo, I tried to conform to the 標準語 style, but I'm often told that my accent/intonation is more Kansai-sounding on certain words. I could totally hear it popping up again with "おんな" in my reading.

Could be it! Though frankly I have no idea, I only know that the pitch accent is different in Kansai.

Did you take speech classes at all? Also, what NHK pronunciation dictionary are you referring to? That might be interesting to look at (although I don't know if I necessarily want to sound like a news caster).

We had speech classes of sorts in my curriculum. That's how I was first acquainted with the notion of pitch accent and realized how horrible my accent was. My teacher would make us repeat our replies over and over so that we would properly rise and fall correctly when speaking. Being a sucker for this kind of things I paid special attention during those exercises when others just couldn't wrap their minds around it (which is fine, if anything you don't need it to make yourself clear in Japanese).

The NHK publishes this dictionary where all the hyoujungo pitch accents for all the words are indicated. On their own, they won't make you speak like a newscaster. They'll just help you having a more natural hyoujungo word intonation. My denshijisho comes with it, that's how I got it. I don't know if there are more complete versions (teaching how to actually speak like a news caster), but the one I have is only comprised of pitch accents. No definitions, no sentence intonation, just word-by-word pitch accents.

The rest is just me trying to listen and practice. It's still far from perfect, and the text I read is a best case scenario. My 'spontaneous' Japanese doesn't sound nearly as natural (though I'm trying) as that thing I read.

Anyway, it might be fun to do another take with some completely different material. Any suggestions? Something more casual/colloquial (like text from a manga, for example) might be cool.

I was thinking that too. Anime/manga/drama, or just casual conversation stuff. There's nothing that comes to mind right now, but if you think of something just suggest away (or better yet, do a take and challenge me and other people here to do better ). If I have an idea I'll share.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

The rest is just me trying to listen and practice. It's still far from perfect, and the text I read is a best case scenario. My 'spontaneous' Japanese doesn't sound nearly as natural (though I'm trying) as that thing I read.

Weird, I think it might be the opposite for me. I'm really not used to reading things out loud like that, and feel that I'd probably sound a lot better just talking. I may try that a bit later and upload it again for comparison.

 

[John Rabbit]

question about RTK:

so having just started with it, i learned the first kanji for "i", which i then looked up online because it did not resemble the kanji "watashi" which i am familiar with. and apparently the one in RTK is considered outdated? how important is this and how many more kanji in RTK would be considered outdated by now? the edition i'm working from has a copyright from 2001 so i don't think much has changed since then.

 

[Shimesaba]

question about RTK:

so having just started with it, i learned the first kanji for "i", which i then looked up online because it did not resemble the kanji "watashi" which i am familiar with. and apparently the one in RTK is considered outdated? how important is this and how many more kanji in RTK would be considered outdated by now? the edition i'm working from has a copyright from 2001 so i don't think much has changed since then.

Hard to know what kind of/how much of an issue this is without knowing what kanji it was using, can you type it?

But generally I would say that a 2001 copyright book is not going to have any real issues with modernity; Kanji are not evolving that quickly. The issue might just be with it giving you a sort of "I" used in formal contexts, or a gender-specific one (e.g. 僕 or 俺, for guys).

 

[John Rabbit]

Hard to know what kind of/how much of an issue this is without knowing what kanji it was using, can you type it?

But generally I would say that a 2001 copyright book is not going to have any real issues with modernity; Kanji are not evolving that quickly. The issue might just be with it giving you a sort of "I" used in formal contexts, or a gender-specific one (e.g. 僕 or 俺, for guys).

the kanji was 吾


edit: having seen a few people wonder at how you can get the kana quickly, i used realkana.com and basically brute forced them all into my memory. start with small groups and use the practice mode. guess if you have to but be sure to remember the right answer when you reveal it to yourself. as others have said, making up little stories for some of the harder to remember characters is a great way to keep them in your head. also, subjecting myself to reading things in hiragana/katakana really solidified them in my head. take a trip to your local asian market and practice reading labels. many food and household products feature the kanas heavily. plus it's great fun being able to read them!

わたしはにほんごがすこしわかりますでもがんばりま!

 

[AnathemicOne]

So I'm currently enrolled into Japanese 102 (the second level of three available at my college) and after attending class I realized I really needed to work harder or I'll be subjected to a similar situation of French class during high school.

So tonight after some vocab and excersise I got down and began doing hiragana charts. Lo and behold in 2 hours I've finally mastered knowing every single hiragana sign (I never achieved this in my previous japanese class though I memorized a good amount).

Now its time to master katakana and some basic kanji.

わたしのひらがな

 

[Tenck]

So I'm currently enrolled into Japanese 102 (the second level of three available at my college) and after attending class I realized I really needed to work harder or I'll be subjected to a similar situation of French class during high school.

So tonight after some vocab and excersise I got down and began doing hiragana charts. Lo and behold in 2 hours I've finally mastered knowing every single hiragana sign (I never achieved this in my previous japanese class though I memorized a good amount).

Now its time to master katakana and some basic kanji.

わたしのひらがな

That's the wonder of Japanese. Characters are relatively easy to learn if you focus on your study. Good luck with your class ^^

 

[Shimesaba]

the kanji was 吾

It's strange that they would give that one first over 私. It's sort of elevated/formal, ostensibly used in writing but even then it's not one you'd need to know right away... But I have trouble believing it's because the book is dated, it's not like that character was the popular way to refer to oneself 10 years ago and has since been replaced. It's been elevated for a long time. Maybe it's just a weird book...? Or pitching itself to foreigners who need to learn keigo for a business setting.

Now its time to master katakana and some basic kanji.

Flashcards. Lots of them. And make yourself write.

 

[shanshan310]

question about RTK:

so having just started with it, i learned the first kanji for "i", which i then looked up online because it did not resemble the kanji "watashi" which i am familiar with. and apparently the one in RTK is considered outdated? how important is this and how many more kanji in RTK would be considered outdated by now? the edition i'm working from has a copyright from 2001 so i don't think much has changed since then.

Have you read the intro to the book etc? That character is used as a primitive in the 'stories' (that's why it was introduced so early), and so its meaning makes sense in that context. Kanji generally has a huge overlap of characters that have similar or even the same meaning though. This book is not structured with practicality in mind, remember that. Its structured to give you meanings of all the kanji, so that then you'll only have to learn the readings.

 

[PKrockin]

It's strange that they would give that one first over 私. It's sort of elevated/formal, ostensibly used in writing but even then it's not one you'd need to know right away... But I have trouble believing it's because the book is dated, it's not like that character was the popular way to refer to oneself 10 years ago and has since been replaced. It's been elevated for a long time. Maybe it's just a weird book...? Or pitching itself to foreigners who need to learn keigo for a business setting.

The reason it teaches you that one first is because at that point in RTK (the first lesson, I think) you don't know the elements that make up 私 but you do know 口 and 五.

The first Kanji RTK teaches you aren't necessarily the most common/useful, but ones that are just a combination of the radicals you've been taught so far, so you can construct stories to help you remember their general meaning and how to write them. And to make them less pants-wettingly frightening to look at.

There are actually a number of kanji for the word I, but the others tend to be more specific than this one. The key word here should be taken in the general psychological sense of the “perceiving subject.” Now the one place in our bodies that all five senses are concentrated in is the head, which has no less than five mouths: 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and 1 mouth. Hence, five mouths = I.

 

[midonnay]

the kanji was 吾

the kanji for watashi is also used to mean private ....

eg: shiritsu 私立, shiseikatsu etc

thats why he probably allocated that keyword for it.... (there are alot of kanji with similar meanings)

In any case 吾 is more important to learn as part of other kanji so don't get too hanged up over it.


you don't have to stick with his choice of keyword.. there are some strange ones.. although most of them are appropiate (to correspond with common vocabulary)

but it might be better to look through the comments section of the RTK website if your vocabulary isn't very high yet and you'll often find suggestions for more appropiate keywords if needed.

http://kanji.koohii.com/

 

[shanshan310]

but it might be better to look through the comments section of the RTK website if your vocabulary isn't very high yet and you'll often find suggestions for more appropiate keywords if needed.

Thanks for telling me about that website mid, the bit where people can submit their own stories has been a godsend.

Sadly I've had to put it on hold for uni though

 

[midonnay]

Sadly I've had to put it on hold for uni though

no big deal.... you're still young

but yeah, the rtk website is a huge time saver.

 

[shanshan310]

Oh hey, that reminds me. Anyone know any good N2/N1 study books? I want to start preparations for the test but I have no idea now. My plan was to go through heisig and get all the general use kanji down, and look over grammar points in this, but I'm not sure it'll be enough :s

Next summer will be the summer of Kanji.

 

[Mandoric]

Flashcards. Lots of them. And make yourself write.

Writing. More writing. EVEN MORE WRITING. This is what works.

 

[AC!D]

Guys, can anyone help with a quick translation.

I'm trying to translate a couple of pages from a Doraemon comic. Got stuck on the following sentence (the mother of the family is trying to clean the house).

お母さん： ちらかしっばなしの、家の中で、うえ死にするかもしれないわ。

All I can make out is 'inside the home' and something about 'perhaps everyone would starve' ?!

Cheers

 

[Gacha-pin]

Sorry for the delay! Got really busy. Unfortunately, it's late and other people are sleeping, so I had to talk in a quieter voice and couldn't read it like that professional reader you linked.

Anyway, here is my reading. Damn it sounds weird to hear my own voice like this:

http://soundcloud.com/zefah/japanese-reading-gaf

No worries, and thanks for posting .

I... do think you're talking from your throat, ha. Regardless of your accent and whatnot, there's something in your voice that makes me go "yep, not Japanese". I wish I could be more specific though. I guess it sounds... deeper (?) than a Japanese voice. Maybe Gacha-pin will chime in and tell us what he thinks.

確かに発声が少し違う気もするけど、外国人と日本人の発声の違いというより単に人それぞれの声の特徴なだけの気もする。
でもZefahのもすごく自然に聞こえる。うっすらとなまりがあるけど、外国人が話す日本語のアクセントというよりは、地方出身者が東京で暮らし始めて10年経ったみたいな感じの自然ななまり。

Guys, can anyone help with a quick translation.

I'm trying to translate a couple of pages from a Doraemon comic. Got stuck on the following sentence (the mother of the family is trying to clean the house).

お母さん： ちらかしっばなしの、家の中で、うえ死にするかもしれないわ。

All I can make out is 'inside the home' and something about 'perhaps everyone would starve' ?!

Cheers

ちらかしっばなしの → ちらかしっぱなし

I don't know what to translate ちらかしっぱなし. Nobody cleans or being kept messy?

I (we) might starve to death in the house being kept messy.

I think you should wait for a better translation.

 

[John Rabbit]

Have you read the intro to the book etc? That character is used as a primitive in the 'stories' (that's why it was introduced so early), and so its meaning makes sense in that context. Kanji generally has a huge overlap of characters that have similar or even the same meaning though. This book is not structured with practicality in mind, remember that. Its structured to give you meanings of all the kanji, so that then you'll only have to learn the readings.

oh yes, you're right. i sort of caught up in the "hey wait this doesn't match" and forgot about the teaching primitives part first. thanks.

but it might be better to look through the comments section of the RTK website if your vocabulary isn't very high yet and you'll often find suggestions for more appropiate keywords if needed.

http://kanji.koohii.com/

very cool thanks!

 

[Rayis]

woot, Japanese learning GAF, I've taken 2 semesters of Japanese and I've learned some, but I still struggle with trying to form a coherent sentence, I've got hiragana and katakana down,kanji still a problem I think my pronunciation is rather good as I'm always practicing it by singing in Japanese, (probably not much since talking is quite different from singing) also, vocab is quite rusty, I still need to actually sit down and study it more than I do, but what I'm reading so far here is very useful!

 

[AranhaHunter]

Is Rosetta Stone a good learning tool for a complete newb? I can get that through work but I want to know before going through the trouble.

 

[injurai]

Man, all the Japanese classes got filled up. It's depressing that all the Japanese I classes were filled, II was half filled, III had a few people in it, beyond that there was like 1 or 0 enrolled.

Dude start using textfugu, I started this summer and its create. Its learning the hard and right way, plus it promotes dedication and self learning. If you know the material going into the class, you will be much better off.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

確かに発声が少し違う気もするけど、外国人と日本人の発声の違いというより単に人それぞれの声の特徴なだけの気もする。
でもZefahのもすごく自然に聞こえる。うっすらとなまりがあるけど、外国人が話す日本語のアクセントというよりは、地方出身者が東京で暮らし始めて10年経ったみたいな感じの自然ななまり。

聞いてくれてありがとう！

日本語を習い始めたのがもう10年くらい前になるけど、その時は関西の田舎の町に滞在していて、最初に覚えた発音や言い回しが関西弁だったと後から分かった。その後も数年間、基本的に関西出身の人としか日本語で話す機会がなかったので、それが原因で関西のなまりが身についてしまったと思う。（別に悪いことではないと思っているけども・・・）

あと、朗読の経験が殆どないので、今回アップした音声はいつもよりちょっと不自然に聞こえるかもしれない。

 

[Adamm]

Is Rosetta Stone a good learning tool for a complete newb? I can get that through work but I want to know before going through the trouble.

Same question was asked a page or so ago, i think the general consensus is that its not very good.

I've tried it, but not for very long, so maybe im missing something.

My problem with it is that it offers no explanation for anything, it offers a vague (and generic) picture of something & gives a Japanese word or sentence below. So you're supposed to associate the word/sentence with whats shown in the picture rather than learning the English.
It says it teaches you like a child would learn with 'Total immersion' - but the fact is you aren't a a child (So you could benefit from an explanation) & you wont being using Rosetta stone 24 hours a day (so it isn't really total immersion)

Im not saying its Bad, because Maybe after using it for months it will start to work. But I just think there are much better alternatives out there.

But if you can get it free through work, maybe its worth a try? The price always seemed ridiculous to me.

 

[scottnak]

Guys, can anyone help with a quick translation.

I'm trying to translate a couple of pages from a Doraemon comic. Got stuck on the following sentence (the mother of the family is trying to clean the house).

お母さん： ちらかしっばなしの、家の中で、うえ死にするかもしれないわ。

All I can make out is 'inside the home' and something about 'perhaps everyone would starve' ?!

Cheers

Here's my stab at it:

"Everything is all scattered about... someone might die of hunger in this house"

Hmm... if it's about cleaning the house then I think the mom is implying that it would take forever to get from one place to another because of the mess everywhere and you could get lost and die of hunger because of that?

 

[John Rabbit]

Is Rosetta Stone a good learning tool for a complete newb? I can get that through work but I want to know before going through the trouble.

Same question was asked a page or so ago, i think the general consensus is that its not very good.

I've tried it, but not for very long, so maybe im missing something.
[...]

it's overpriced.

i use it, but it's overpriced. its been great for building vocabulary, introducing basic sentence structure, and helping you build and hear pronunciation (i cannot attest to the program's accuracy, but i use it on the highest setting possible and i'm probably passing 95% of the speaking bits) of words. i've recently been attending a weekly meeting of japanese language enthusiasts taught/led by a native speaker from fukuoka. she has commented positively many times on my pronunciation and reading ability for having just started, so there's that. as said above, it's total immersion and zero explanation, so when you get to things like the counters:

-ko
-mai
-satsu
-biki/hiki
-etc.

you're completely stuck unless you're a wiz at inferring meaning, or you use google. same is true when particles (wa, ga, ni, de, etc) start changing. sometimes its obvious, many times it is not.

i have found that using rosetta stone in conjunction with other sources for leaning kanas/kanji and googling a lot of grammar questions has been remarkably effective. if anything new content in rosetta is made easier because i've learned the kanas and studied some stuff outside the program. the goal is not necessarily to make it "easy', but rather that sometimes rosetta stone becomes more of a test/refresher than a learning tool.

i would say at the very least, using solely rosetta stone, you'll pick up some small phrases and words. but it's very "typical" in that you learn things like dog, cat, chair, car, members of the family, basic greetings and questions. so while you may know how to say:

ねこはてれびのしたにいます。
neko wa terebi no shita ni imasu.
the cat is under the television.

it doesn't really do you any good in terms of preparing you to visit japan or converse with japanese speakers.

but again, overpriced.

Spoiler

the internet's a big place though.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Guys, can anyone help with a quick translation.

I'm trying to translate a couple of pages from a Doraemon comic. Got stuck on the following sentence (the mother of the family is trying to clean the house).

お母さん： ちらかしっばなしの、家の中で、うえ死にするかもしれないわ。

All I can make out is 'inside the home' and something about 'perhaps everyone would starve' ?!

Cheers

Remember, when you're asking for help on a translation, it's important to include the full context. This sentence by itself is nonsense. I was able to Google your sentence and find the rest of the exchange:

おかあさん：「また　こんなにちらかしてお掃除するから退いてくださいな。お洗濯物がたまっちゃって。」

のび太：「ご飯まだあ。腹減ったよお。」

おかあさん：「お洗濯が済むまで、待ってよ。もし、私がいなかったら、この家はどうなるのかしら。ちらかしっぱなしの、家の中で、飢えじにするかもしれないわ」

So Nobita's mom is telling him to get out of the room so she can clean up. Nobita replies by asking when (I assume dinner) meal time is. She replies by telling him to wait until she's done with the laundry. She then mutters about what would happen to the house if she weren't there, saying that they (the family) would probably end up starving in a messy house without her.

 

[Cranzor]

I am going to get Remembering the Kanji in order to cover the kanji front. I still don't know good resources for other parts of the language though. Anybody have recommendations for good books on vocabulary and grammar?

 

[Nerdy Fergy]

In addition to several others, I could use some help as well. I am a frequent starter of Japanese and I feel like part of my problem has been that I haven't set any firm goals, and I get overwhelmed by the number of resources available. I tend to start out with one method, then I find another method, and so on, starting over each time. I just finished school and I am unemployed, so I have at least three months of free time on my hands, so I want to start this off right and see it through.

The goal I have for myself is that I would like to be able to read Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランドin the original Japanese text. It is my favorite book and I think it will be agood challenge.

I know hiragana and katakana, and probably 100 vocabulary words, so I will need to pick up kanji and vocabulary with a focus on reading.

I have tried tons of different methods. I disliked RTK, because I did not feel as though I was actually learning the kanji as opposed to memorizing english meanings of individual kanji. I reached 800 kanji in RTK before giving up. Could someone please recommend me something that will focus on being able to read and a good method for learning the readings of the kanji? Also, what pace should I be going at (how many kanji per day should the average person be able to handle learning?)

Thanks

 

[shanshan310]

I have tried tons of different methods. I disliked RTK, because I did not feel as though I was actually learning the kanji as opposed to memorizing english meanings of individual kanji. I reached 800 kanji in RTK before giving up. Could someone please recommend me something that will focus on being able to read and a good method for learning the readings of the kanji? Also, what pace should I be going at (how many kanji per day should the average person be able to handle learning?)

Thanks

It really depends on the individual. Do as many as you feel you can handle and remember. If you're after a decent kanji book, I really liked Kanji: look and learn. Lots of kanji compounds to learn. While I did get quite far going this way (learn a kanji's writing, meaning and pronunciation, then some compounds, then moving onto the next one - which seems to be the most common way for people to learn), eventually I found that I was only remembering the meaning, pronunciation OR the writing - which is why I turned to heisig. I already have a fairly solid grounding in kanji though, so I'm not relying completely on heisig for my kanji while getting frustrated I can't read basic sentences. This is actually what I suggest. Go through those first 500 or so kanji. Learn the compounds and the readings and all that, then go back and try heisig again. Its much easier to swallow after you already know some kanji. Remember though, learning the writing and the English meaning is a huge part of kanji study anyway.

I really think the OP should be updated to be a bit more comprehensive. Heisig is great for intermediate students IMO, but so many people have decided they want to learn Japanese, jumped into the thread and purchased heisig straight off the bat, only to find themselves frustrated with the slow pace. Learning a language can be frustrating enough as it is because of the initial slow pace. Keep at it though, it gets easier!

 

[0405]

Did anyone else take the JLPT in July? Not sure about the rest of the world, but for Japan, if you applied online, the results are out. I guess they're mailing the notifications on the 4th.

I passed level 1! Just barely, but I passed it! I never have to take that stupid test again.

 

[Kilrogg]

I passed level 1! Just barely, but I passed it! I never have to take that stupid test again.

I barely passed last year too. Congrats!

 

[Arctic Feather]

Did anyone else take the JLPT in July?D

I took the N2, but failed by 7 marks (Although I didn't expect to pass anyway)

This is mainly because I hate studying kanji. So I'm planning on focusing on kanji and vocab more and taking it again in December

 

[morch]

Hi there, im a pretty new poster to neogaf even though i was a solid lurker

I'm studying Japanese for evening classes, when they run that is. About 2hours a week whilst it's on and i've been doing them since last year as it helps with grammar

I've been japan twice since i started and i just carry a J-E dictionary and try to use japanese where possible when i'm there which i find helped me a lot

For kanji i've started RTK using anki to reinforce it, i'm doing about 10-15 a day on average which i can manage and onto about 300ish

My problem is that i'm having difficulties picking up actual vocabulary and i find it difficult because i don't really enjoy anime or japanese music where you can comfortably hear lyrics. I get japanese ps3 games where possible but it's an expensive hobby compared to the bomba uk prices. Can anyone suggest any other ways of picking it up, especially through listening/watching in some form, like a good tv streaming site for standard tv over there?

(sorry for the long post)

 

[shanshan310]

Go download keyhole tv, it streams all the Japanese channels.

 

[midonnay]

My problem is that i'm having difficulties picking up actual vocabulary and i find it difficult because i don't really enjoy anime or japanese music where you can comfortably hear lyrics. I get japanese ps3 games where possible but it's an expensive hobby compared to the bomba uk prices. Can anyone suggest any other ways of picking it up, especially through listening/watching in some form, like a good tv streaming site for standard tv over there?

I'd concentrate on sources that at least have japanese transcriptions.

You'll often hear suggestions to listen to hundreds and hundreds of hours of audio even if you don't understand the content but imo that is very inefficient.

I know people who've lived in Oz for over 30 years and still can't speak english....at all. Your brain has a good gibberish filter to blank out unfamiliar noises.

anyways some suggestions...

Legal

http://www.japanesepod101.com/

Japanesepod101 - tonnes and tonnes of audio targeted mainly at beginners to intermediate level with transcripts and translations of dialogs.

its a paid site but a sneaky (and possibly unethical) way to get a discount is to input a coupon code "HALFPRICE"

to get 50 percent off.


Illegal-ish

You can find japanese subtitles (as well as english) for drama torrents at

http://d-addicts.com/forum/subtitles.php#Japanese


For a challenge you could try variety shows which may have more natural sounding japanese.

search for "j-tv" at the site.

There are japanese subtitles for old episodes of London Hearts as well as new episodes of Smap x Smap.

However asian live tv shows already have alot of subtitles built in (perhaps because of homophones and regional dialects)


if your internet connection isn't good enough for torrents search for

"jp-ddl" on google.

you'll find filelocker links for the same content. (variety shows are in the tv show section)

I have tried tons of different methods. I disliked RTK, because I did not feel as though I was actually learning the kanji as opposed to memorizing english meanings of individual kanji. I reached 800 kanji in RTK before giving up. Could someone please recommend me something that will focus on being able to read and a good method for learning the readings of the kanji? Also, what pace should I be going at (how many kanji per day should the average person be able to handle learning?)

Thanks

first of all

did you go english keyword to kanji

or kanji to english keyword?

because memorising english meanings is like the opposite of the aim of the method. (although there is no reason why you couldn't go both ways at the same time)

Its predominately aimed at teaching writing and using that as a foundation to build on your skills later on.


anyways each to their own....


It really sounds like you're trying to climb mountains before you can climb hills but here are some tools that may help in your challenge to read that book (one day)


First of all you have to find a pirated version of the novel....ideally in .txt form. If you already own the hardcopy, then you'll be fine with God/Zeus.

where to get it? dunno... google? japanese p2p like Winny/Perfect dark? good luck.


1) cb's Japanese Text Analysis Tool

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=9815

Japanese Text Analysis Tool allows users to generate 3 kinds of reports:
1) Word Frequency Report
2) Kanji Frequency Report
3) Readability Report

basically it'll help focus your task to concentrate on vocabulary that are most common in the book.


2) Antconc

http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html

This is abit more tricky to use and you may have to fiddle around with the settings abit.

some instructions can be found in

http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Nest0r's_methods

under "Extracting collocations from electronic texts with AntConc"

Its similar to the previous tool except that it focuses on frequency analysis of Collocations which are combinations of words that are often found together.

english examples of collocations could be "Turn a blind eye to", "Look down on someone", "catch a bus"

This may be of more use to language learners than simply learning words on their own.


3) Also with a txt version of the novel you can use the firefox plugin Rikai-chan as a handicap which is a tool that offers a reading/definition when you put your mouse over a word.

A modded version of that called Rikai-sama has support for epwing so there are alternatives for dictionaries other than Edict.

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=5562



saying all that these tools are really more useful once your japanese is at a reasonable level.

Maybe try out japanesepod101 as a cheaper alternative if you can't attend a class or have someone to really critique your skills.

 

[AC!D]

Got my result this morning, passed the N5! I know a lot of people say it's easy, but damn if you don't live in Japan or have a way to listen to Japanese conversations regularly, the listening part is tough.

 

[Grokbu]

I've got a quick question for you guys.

If I were to ask: これはどこですか。

If you would answer and choose not to omit the "that", which one of these would you answer with: それ/あれはふじさんです。

Or would you simply answer with これ?

 

[Synth_floyd]

あれは富士山です。is correct but people will usually just say 富士山です。since it's a bit redundant to say あれ again and it's clear what you are talking about.

 

[Necrovex]

I started to take Japanese I at my University. One of the few classes that I actually enjoy taking out my book and studying the language. I have a fairly solid grasp on ten Hiragana characters, going to do my best to retain five more characters today. The SA, SO, SE, SU, and SI are giving me some problems in memorizing them. Though, I will preserve and remember them!

I might get Rosetta Stone to use as a supplementary feature as I learn the greetings and such. Does it ever actually go into the writing?

Also, Japanese III is filled to the brim at USF. I've only seen a few spots open, so I have to say that the professors' qualities play a major role in the retention rate at an university.

 

[Grokbu]

あれは富士山です。is correct but people will usually just say 富士山です。since it's a bit redundant to say あれ again and it's clear what you are talking about.

Ah ok, thanks.

I started this distance class last week, and while it might be too early to tell, I really like how the course is laid up so far. We have one lesson each week and two every second week. During these, we plug in webcams and microphones and use Adobe connect. So during these lessons, our teacher goes through some new stuff and a bit of the things we've learned and we get to practice either in the group of eleven, or in small divided groups of two or three people. Outside of these lessons, we have a list of what should be done before the next week, which include reading Genki, writing down kana (we haven't gotten to kanji yet, but I assume we're going to have the same homework with them) and scan them to upload to the school platform, which will then be graded, and other similar stuff. We also have these tests that we do each week.
My sister and I both attend the same class, so it is really great to have eachother as support and being able to practise with eachother.

 

[Ledsen]

moved

 

[Gaspode_T]

Japanese classes don't get soul crushingly hard until about year 3...the attrition comment is pretty real and consistent across universities I have seen. I think my own was like 500->150->35->10 or something (year 4 was just 10 students, half of them were like half-Japanese or something too). There is no shortcut to fluency, just lots of hard work and elbow grease.

 

[tomakasatnav]

Legal

http://www.japanesepod101.com/

Japanesepod101 - tonnes and tonnes of audio targeted mainly at beginners to intermediate level with transcripts and translations of dialogs.

its a paid site but a sneaky (and possibly unethical) way to get a discount is to input a coupon code "HALFPRICE"

to get 50 percent off.

When I signed up for the free membership previously, I got bombarded with various offers. I ended up taking it up at 65% off, and canceled my subscription just before the year was over. Waiting for another good offer now!

 

[Ledsen]

Posting for new page and GAF-advice:

So I went to Tokyo and studied japanese for 6 months in 2009 and managed to clear JLPT3 as one of the few people in my class, but have since kind of fallen of the wagon... any tips for what I might study at my level of profiency to get going again and find the enthusiasm? I think I'd like to do it more organically, like reading very easy books, watching shows, maybe playing games (although I tried this and the going was very slow through some Dragon Quest games, had to use my dictionary for multiple words in each word "box", drawing kanji etc which took forever) etc, instead of reading text books (which I can't find the motivation for outside of a classroom environment). I don't like japanese music, used to like anime when I was younger and also enjoy some japanese movies. I love games but like I said, getting through them translating every other word took so long that I gave up. My vocabulary is pretty bad and I tried to use Anki for the Core 7000 word list, but haven't been keeping up (btw, do you guys find that Anki is a good way to learn vocabulary in general, and if so what word lists do you use). I do have a great electronic dictionary that cost me a fortune in Tokyo, so I'm well equipped in that area at least. I own Heisig's RTK but don't really want to learn how to write kanji, only read them, so I haven't invested in his method yet. Basically I'm unsure how to proceed, and whether to try focusing on vocabulary, grammar, kanji, or simply immersion... help me GAF

 

[Necrovex]

Japanese classes don't get soul crushingly hard until about year 3...the attrition comment is pretty real and consistent across universities I have seen. I think my own was like 500->150->35->10 or something (year 4 was just 10 students, half of them were like half-Japanese or something too). There is no shortcut to fluency, just lots of hard work and elbow grease.

Even though I'm in my final year at my university, I'm going to attempt to continue taking a Japanese class on the side, so I can properly learn the language. This is assuming that I do not get into the Jet Programme next year.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

あれは富士山です。is correct but people will usually just say 富士山です。since it's a bit redundant to say あれ again and it's clear what you are talking about.

If the speaker used これ then you should use それ in reply.

これ is close to the speaker, but not necessarily close to the listener.
それ is close to the listener, but not necessarily close to the speaker.
あれ is close to neither the speaker nor the listener.

 

[Nerdy Fergy]

I think that I disliked Heisig because I was completely relying on it for kanji and getting frustrated that I could not read. I was completely focused on RTK1. I learned the writing and the english meaning, but that was all. Should I have combined RTK1 and RTK2 and done them both at the same time? I guess I would not mind giving RTK another go, as I did make it rather far. Can I do some combined method of focusing on readings as well? I still recall the writing and meaning for at least 200 kanji, so I suppose it did work. Am I just being impatient? Should I just complete RTK1, even though it frustrates me ?

 

[KtSlime]

Japanese classes don't get soul crushingly hard until about year 3...the attrition comment is pretty real and consistent across universities I have seen. I think my own was like 500->150->35->10 or something (year 4 was just 10 students, half of them were like half-Japanese or something too). There is no shortcut to fluency, just lots of hard work and elbow grease.

This will depend on the program and the people running it. At my university it started out really rough, the head of the department loved failing students. She'd say she wasn't doing her job unless over half failed. On average 2 people per class per term were awarded As. It was brutal. The attrition was similar to yours, starting out there were 5 classes of about 30, and by the time we got to 4th year there was only the 8 of us and 3 grad students.

Heisig requires lots of patience, and is unrewarding, I recommend just using flashcards, learning characters in their natural form, as words and jyukugo (multi kanji character words and phrases).

 

[Necrovex]

This will depend on the program and the people running it. At my university it started out really rough, the head of the department loved failing students. She'd say she wasn't doing her job unless over half failed. On average 2 people per class per term were awarded As. It was brutal. The attrition was similar to yours, starting out there were 5 classes of about 30, and by the time we got to 4th year there was only the 8 of us and 3 grad students.

A teacher like that would deter me from even attempting to learn the language in a classroom setting.

 

[bigmit3737]

リングに上がった男の覚悟に
泥塗る気か！


I need help with the bold part specifically

Context: Two guys (boxers) are about to fight and a girl wants to stop them. Someone prevents her, saying the above statement.