The Big Ass Superior Thread of Learning Japanese

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Great thread! Read the whole thread now at work, and I'm wondering about these electronic dictionaries... I don't know where to get one and which one to get. I'm thinking that 200$ USD should be enough for a decent one, right?

I'm thinking of getting the Heisig book, need to order from amazon.com or something... where I live they sell it for like 210$ USD. Insane.
 
I'm a fucking failure. :(
I have considered learning Japanese for 3 years now. I tried to begin with Katakana and Hiragana but nothing sticks in my fucking head.
I don't know if this thread has the answer to what I'm looking for, but are there any certain "steps" you can take and begin with so I don't rush into something too hard or something?

And people consider ME smart. Bah. >_>
 
King Endymion said:
I'm a fucking failure. :(
I have considered learning Japanese for 3 years now. I tried to begin with Katakana and Hiragana but nothing sticks in my fucking head.
I don't know if this thread has the answer to what I'm looking for, but are there any certain "steps" you can take and begin with so I don't rush into something too hard or something?

And people consider ME smart. Bah. >_>
Click to expand...

I learned hiragana and katakana before ever taking any classes by trying to read the Sailor Moon manga and figuring out the attack phrases. Try finding something easy like that (furigana's a must) that you're interested in.

I think it's much easier to learn them when trying to actually read words than to just learn them character by character.

Otherwise, writing it down (CORRECTLY) helps a ton.
 
Zoe said:
I learned hiragana and katakana before ever taking any classes by trying to read the Sailor Moon manga and figuring out the attack phrases. Try finding something easy like that (furigana's a must) that you're interested in.

I think it's much easier to learn them when trying to actually read words than to just learn them character by character.

Otherwise, writing it down (CORRECTLY) helps a ton.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I have printed all the Katakana/Hiragana out on little cards but it's just impossible. >_>
Damn, and I don't have the SM-manga in Japanese, too bad cause I love it. I don't feel like driving 250 miles to get it either. :P

I do have the "Kana the Manga"-book though, there are the Katakana/Hiragana, Romanji underneath and the meaning of the letter. I hope that's a good idea, and a good start. :)
 
GMB said:
Great thread! Read the whole thread now at work, and I'm wondering about these electronic dictionaries... I don't know where to get one and which one to get. I'm thinking that 200$ USD should be enough for a decent one, right?

I'm thinking of getting the Heisig book, need to order from amazon.com or something... where I live they sell it for like 210$ USD. Insane.
Click to expand...

I'm also curious on the electric dictionary thing. What's the point of getting the most expensive one? And what's the best one to get?
 
They seriously sped up everything starting at Pimsleur Japanese 2. Pimsleur 1 seemed somewhat easy, with me only having to listen to each lesson 2 times max. I'm on lesson 4 of Pimsleur 2 and I have to listen to each lesson 3-4 times a day to reach 80% proficiency. The intro conversations on each lesson alone are 4x as long and 2x as fast.

How much harder could Pimsleur 3 possibly be?
 
guys, i just learned about anki via this thread. i have been following heisig's book but i am only up to like card 303. the heisig deck that comes with anki has like 3000 all in there all ready. is there a way i can like disable those other 2700 characters i don't know and enable them as i learn them?
 
King Endymion said:
Thanks, I have printed all the Katakana/Hiragana out on little cards but it's just impossible. >_>
Damn, and I don't have the SM-manga in Japanese, too bad cause I love it. I don't feel like driving 250 miles to get it either. :P

I do have the "Kana the Manga"-book though, there are the Katakana/Hiragana, Romanji underneath and the meaning of the letter. I hope that's a good idea, and a good start. :)
Click to expand...
You need to do it every day. I did it with flash cards when I first learned. Kana, unlike kanji, are thankfully few, so brute forcing it isn't that bad in this case.
Now, I try to fill at least one A4 sized piece of paper each day with Japanese writing. I've got a lot to catch up with having not lived in Japan most of my life.

ucdawg12 said:
guys, i just learned about anki via this thread. i have been following heisig's book but i am only up to like card 303. the heisig deck that comes with anki has like 3000 all in there all ready. is there a way i can like disable those other 2700 characters i don't know and enable them as i learn them?
Click to expand...
Suspend the cards that you haven't gotten to yet.
Do this by selecting all the cards you want to suspend, click on the "Cards" button under the "Actions on selected..." section. "Add Tag" and add "Suspended" (No quotes.)
To deleted, do the same just select "Delete Tag".
 
King Endymion said:
I tried to begin with Katakana and Hiragana but nothing sticks in my fucking head.
Click to expand...

I strongly encourage you to get a copy of 'Remembering the Kana' by James Heisig.
 
How much success are you guys having learning on your own?

I've taken 2 semesters worth of JPN and I'm learning at a nice pace, but I'm starting upper division course work in the fall and i don't need to take anymore JPN, since I've fulfilled my language other than English requirement.

I just think it would be a shame to stop now, since i already put this much time into it, but if i can continue learning on my own, then not taking more classes wouldn't be such a bummer.
 
If you really want to learn it on your own, you can. It's just a matter of putting a lot of effort into it and having a natural interest will go a long way. While I've had a lot of Japanese classes over the years, most have been below my level at the time but they served as a means of keeping refreshed while I studied on my own.
 
Carton said:
I strongly encourage you to get a copy of 'Remembering the Kana' by James Heisig.
Click to expand...
Thanks! :)
I have "Remembering the Kanji" for further studies, but not Kana. o_O
I thought about ordering the flashcards from whitetabbitpress, they seem to have gotten some good reviews, I've noticed.

But I'll check out Remembering the Kana as well. :)
 
Shouta said:
If you really want to learn it on your own, you can. It's just a matter of putting a lot of effort into it and having a natural interest will go a long way. While I've had a lot of Japanese classes over the years, most have been below my level at the time but they served as a means of keeping refreshed while I studied on my own.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The best thing about the classes was getting to converse in the language, so I'll definitely miss that.
 
RevenantKioku said:
You need to do it every day. I did it with flash cards when I first learned. Kana, unlike kanji, are thankfully few, so brute forcing it isn't that bad in this case.
Now, I try to fill at least one A4 sized piece of paper each day with Japanese writing. I've got a lot to catch up with having not lived in Japan most of my life.


Suspend the cards that you haven't gotten to yet.
Do this by selecting all the cards you want to suspend, click on the "Cards" button under the "Actions on selected..." section. "Add Tag" and add "Suspended" (No quotes.)
To deleted, do the same just select "Delete Tag".
Click to expand...

Dude you are a freakin genius. I've been trying to figure out how to do that forever. Looks like I have a reason to use anki again. Thanks :)
 
velvet_nitemare said:
How much success are you guys having learning on your own?

I've taken 2 semesters worth of JPN and I'm learning at a nice pace, but I'm starting upper division course work in the fall and i don't need to take anymore JPN, since I've fulfilled my language other than English requirement.

I just think it would be a shame to stop now, since i already put this much time into it, but if i can continue learning on my own, then not taking more classes wouldn't be such a bummer.
Click to expand...

I never took a Japanese class and I have learned the language to a point where it is as good as my English and even better in some situations.

It is really all about dedication and environment. If you can find an environment that allows you to immerse yourself in the language and you have dedication then you are golden. I assume it would be rather difficult without such a situation, though.
 
You know, I never really noticed this thread before but I started teaching my 'friend' Japanese and it's pretty hard. It's hard to judge the best order to teach things in and how to keep retention. I do weekly tests before each new lesson that reviews everything learned until now, and I throw in like 5-10 new kanji per week. But I'm not sure about how things will work out in the long term. She'd already taken a year of Japanese, so she has enough of a background that we were able to jump into things, but dunno!

The order I've tried teaching it is:
1. Verbs (all 3 groups)
-Plain positive/negative
-Polite positive/negative
-Past (plain/polite; positive/negative)
-Te/~naide form
-Teiru form
-Te Kudasai/Kure

2. Adjectives
-Past tense conjugation

3. Numbers/Time/de/e/wo/ga/ni particles

4. To omou / To iu

That's sorta what we've covered so far. I'm planning on doing the:
-Potential ~eru, ~rareru
-If/Then ~ba / ~nara
-~kutemo
-Passive

Basically one way I've tried to figure out what to teach is after the basics are covered, we translate a j-rock song each time and any new grammar points that are in it I teach.

The approach I'm going for is purely to master all the grammar points ASAP and pick up a bunch of kanji, because once you have the grammar down you can just pop words into a dictionary if you don't know them and be able to translate the sentence. Grammar first, vocab later.

Hope it works! I'd like to help her be semi-fluent to at least make it around Japan fine, read easy manga, watch anime raw, listen to j-rock and be able to understand the lyrics, etc...by the end of the year. It took me about 3 years to get to that level, but I'm hoping with a 1 on 1 private lesson tailored to just the one person it'll go much faster.
 
As Rev already mentioned, don't skip a day with your repetitions for the kanji. To stress this, I just skipped 2 days, and as a result spent about 5 hours today with a backlog of almost 200 kanji I had to review. It wasn't pretty. But all caught up now, it's getting close to 6am and time to get some sleep.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Well, there's the lingering feeling while doing Heisig's method that you're not learning anything, but you are. It just took a while to realize and it did stick very well for me.
I'm not saying it's perfect, but hell, it worked for me.
Click to expand...

I've said it in this thread before - but feel the urge to say it again, Heisig works. I agree that you don't feel like you are learning, because the method don't make you hit the ground running, but over time, the brain-tricks the method teaches you, force your mind to create the bulding blocks that will make you able to learn all Kanji you need. (I am fully fluent in speech and write/read business level Japanese daily, and haven't bought a Kanji book since I got the Heisig book (actually I only got Book 1, then I sort of figured out the system in my head). I also got a Canon wordtank, and that's it.

I must admit that beyond the keyboard my handwriting of Kanji is poor (lack of motivation beyond using Kanji addresses and basic notes to ppl).
 
Cheesemeister said:
Yeah, except you add the dakuten marks on the first character of the 2nd Kanji's reading.

時々 [ときどき] (adv,n) sometimes
様々 [さまざま] (adj-na,n) varied; various
Click to expand...

This made me recall this strange writing of Isuzu: いすゞ　　　what is the root of this?
 
winston_pr said:
This made me recall this strange writing of Isuzu: いすゞ　　　what is the root of this?
Click to expand...
That little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy.

It's the kana repetition mark as 々 is for kanji.
 
winston_pr said:
This made me recall this strange writing of Isuzu: いすゞ　　　what is the root of this?
Click to expand...

I see that all the time in this pre-WW2 textbook of mine. I guess they used to use it whenever they repeated a hiragana, but now they just write the whole thing out except for certain names and things. There's one for katakana too: バナヽ Secretly, I still use them in notes to myself because I'm that lazy and know no real Japanese person is going to see it and think I'm weird.
 
Anybody know if it's possible to find the Windows install files for Japanese text online? I have a CD at home, but I keep forgetting to bring it to work :(
 
Apparently Google ads are insensitive to the vast cultural differences within Asia.

4sgnx1.png
 
Hey guys. I got a quick question for you guys in the know.

What is the difference between:

やめていて

と

やめていろ

This is, of course, just a example of the verb ending. If I had to guess, it's probably a subtle difference. But, I'd appreciate some help for a lower level student such as myself.
 
Zoe said:
Anybody know if it's possible to find the Windows install files for Japanese text online? I have a CD at home, but I keep forgetting to bring it to work :(
Click to expand...

Should be able to find it at microsoft.com somewhere and do an install from a download...atleast, that's how i did it for my work computer while the IT guy was gone...
 
vas_a_morir said:
Hey guys. I got a quick question for you guys in the know.

What is the difference between:

やめていて

と

やめていろ

This is, of course, just a example of the verb ending. If I had to guess, it's probably a subtle difference. But, I'd appreciate some help for a lower level student such as myself.
Click to expand...

Do you mean

やめて

vs

やめろ

?

If so, the main difference is that "ろ" is a lot stronger in this case.
 
Big time. I let 3 days slip and now I have 1,000 kanji total, 180 to make up, and 400 I need to review for my daily reps. Is there any ways I can deal with it?
 
I know about 1755 Kanji now. Almost done

I review the first 1000 kanji I learned once a week. It takes about 7 hours. I missed 34 last week.

Should be done in a couple weeks, then I got everything else to learn. :lol
 
Mikazuki said:
I know about 1755 Kanji now. Almost done

I review the first 1000 kanji I learned once a week. It takes about 7 hours. I missed 34 last week.

Should be done in a couple weeks, then I got everything else to learn. :lol
Click to expand...

sounds like my review sessions when i skip a lot of days. painful stuff isn't it?
 
jacf29 said:
Big time. I let 3 days slip and now I have 1,000 kanji total, 180 to make up, and 400 I need to review for my daily reps. Is there any ways I can deal with it?
Click to expand...

3 days shouldn't be messing you up that much. If you know the kanji well you shouldn't really be forgetting them so fast. I haven't studied a minute of Japanese since I passed JLPT 1 and if I took it right now I'd probably still pass it. Then again I do live in Japan which helps.
 
I need help with the anki program.

So it comes with the Heisig deck which is basically all the kanji from RTK. How do I randomly review all the kanji I've "learned" (read in the book) so far instead of having anki do all of them in order of frame number?


Thanks for any help.
 
I just went with it straight the first time, since the first interval you pick will be a random one between fields, they will eventually get more than randomized enough.
 
if anyone has a spare minute to translate this i'd appreciate it. i have no idea what it says and i suck at kanji/translating in general:

気が向いたらね！たかはし次第かな！笑!

something about takahashi. :lol
 
Well, it won't know "slang" to speak, such that 笑 means lol and all that, but it is nifty.

And now sports a picture of Mr. Breen himself. Howaboutthat.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Well, it won't know "slang" to speak, such that 笑 means lol and all that, but it is nifty.
Click to expand...

That's when you switch to the "edict" option or go to "Kanji Lookup."

I've actually been using Rikaichan a lot lately though.
 
How do you type out ∀?
I know さんかく　can get you a lot ▽▲△▼
ハート　♡♥
おめが　ω
But ∀ is a mystery to me.
 
You could just register it to whatever you want. I had to do that for hearts and stars.

Having said that, how do you get the 々 without typing a preceeding kanji?

Jake. said:
all that website came up with was:

"Possible inflected verb or adjective: (plain, past)"

?
Click to expand...

?

WWWJDic said:
気が向いたらね！たかはし次第かな！笑!。

Possible inflected verb or adjective: (plain, past)
気が向く 【きがむく】 (exp) to feel like; to feel inclined to do
次第 【しだい】 (n-adv,n) (1) dependent upon; (2) as soon as; immediately (upon); (n) (3) circumstances; (n) (4) order; precedence; program; programme; agenda; (P)
Click to expand...
 
（〜∀〜）ｾｲﾔﾅ｡｡｡

Register who to what now?
 
zoe: weird, my browser didn't come up with that at all. so basically the sentence is saying 'as soon as possible, they feel like doing ______ with takahashi?'. what is the ____? am i getting it right? sorry for being vague.
 
Jake. said:
zoe: weird, my browser didn't come up with that at all. so basically the sentence is saying 'as soon as possible, they feel like doing ______ with takahashi?'. what is the ____? am i getting it right? sorry for being vague.
Click to expand...

Well... I never responded with my translation cause I wasn't sure about the second sentence.

Cause I feel like it!
You think it depends on Takahashi? / Or maybe it depends on Takahashi?
<laugh>

The &#12363;&#12394; is throwing me off. It's hard for me to say without the context.
 
I'm just going to steal reply 1000 because I am that awesome.

And to say that man, I still cannot get a lick of drunken Japanese.
 
Zefah said:
Do you mean

&#12420;&#12417;&#12390;

vs

&#12420;&#12417;&#12429;

?

If so, the main difference is that "&#12429;" is a lot stronger in this case.
Click to expand...

Well, I mean something like:

&#30693;&#12387;&#12390;&#12356;&#12390;

VS

&#30693;&#12387;&#12390;&#12356;&#12429;

I think there is a subtle difference, but it actually changes the meaning a bit. I just have no idea what that is, and nobody can explain it to me. But, Gaf is full of people who are skilled at the language. So, Halp.&#12288;Perhaps one is present perfect, and the other is present perfect continuous? Like, the first example is "I have known" and the second is "I have been knowing" or more likely "Having known" (which is really akward, but you get the drift)
 
Are there any good sites for Kansai-ben? I'm trying to translate something, and it has 3 lines in Kansai-ben, and I don't know what to do with them.
 
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