I’m going to make another concerted effort at improving my Japanese. Japanese is tough, I was going write a few posts on why it is so hard but this humourous (but strangely accurate) essay seems to cover most of what I was to say.
This time I will tackle the problem in different and simultaneous directions. I’ll be studying from the text book, reading Japanese articles from the net and trying to post some Japanese entries. I’m also considering going to school for a few days a week to cover the gaps that self-study has.
For studying Kanji I have found this site amazingly helpful. You just feed it an url and it will take that page and put the hiragana of the kanji next to the words. This coupled with the Japanese < -> English online dictionary makes improving your vocabulary and Kanji a lot simpler. It probably works best with news articles or reviews where the layout is simple and straight-forward.
Wish me luck!
5 comments
Hey there,
Good to see your still motivated even after reading
Dan’s Homepage. Seems like he needed to blow off
a little steam. If you think learning the language
is hard- can you imagine the foreign students this year
trying to pass １級 so that they can get accepted to
Uni. That is not even mentioning that there the
Entrance exam itself with an additional English
componant too!!
But yah- study (or do not) but at least ENJOY the
language and the puns because thank God we are not
trying to enter Uni, nor are we forced to speak
大阪弁- that would be a fate worse than death.
Andrew
Hi there.
I have thought all these while that you know Japanese well!!Didn’t know you are still grappling with the language.
Just a thought : Try to get this book / series – Japanese For Beginners and Japanese For Today published by GAKKEN Co., Ltd. 40-5, 4-chome, Kami-Ikedai, Ohta-ku, Japan, Tokyo, 145-8502
Tel: 03-720-1111 (Unfortunately, I am not sure whether this phone number is still in use or not.)
I think this company is still there in Tokyo, but I bought the reprints of these 2 books quite a few years ago from Singapore, and they are quite good as they take you step by step through the Japanese language, in good English explanation. It’s the perfect book for people whose use English as one of their main languages – like me (or us?!).
And if you are wondering, no, I am not an expert in Japanese language. I am still learning becoz, as you said, it is a difficult language (and a funny one too!). But if you know Chinese writing (and I assume you do), you would have 50% more advantage than those who do not, because knowing Chinese will make the learning easier.
Hey Andrew,
Yeah I haven’t set my targets so high. I just want to speak the damned language, osaka-ben or no osaka-ben. I’m making progress, slowly but surely like the Tiger’s march to the 2005 CL pennant. Revisiting some old phrase books put things into perspective, although I am not fluent with those phrases I understand most of them now. I’ve also started to email to others using Japanese using my mobile phone. The predictive text functions help a lot. gambaru!
Hi Chee Wai,
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve just started with a textbook from a school (Human Academy) I was thinking of joining. It is pretty good, especially with the explanation guide. Gakken is pretty famous, I’ll check it out in the local bookstore and see. If it is better maybe I’ll switch after I finish the current book.
The main problem I’m facing at the moment is that I am between levels. That’s why I haven’t signed up for school yet. The other problem is that I can’t read or write Chinese so I don’t have that advantage. Some characters are familiar to me so it helps a little (maybe 10% of the 50% you mentioned).
Next time we meet we can speak in Japanese
D
Yes, Japanese is hard to learn. Good luck to all those who try. Kinda makes me think Chinese should be a piece of cake.
アンデさん、日本語能力試験二級はもらった？頑張って！今何をするの？
まだ英語の教師？
（間違うの日本語済みません；））
Hope these stuff can work out…
I think you’ve already used these materials but,
just in case…
It helps more than you’ve expected to use the
media, TV or radio broadcasting program…
If you always pre-read the material and read
and listen the material again and again…
You can make a big progress, no doubt.
Not sure this site has somethint to do with
the Japanese course though.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/
sorry, I’m not very good at communicating in
Japanese… won’t be able to help you.
But, in my experience, these stuff could help
more than you pay.
yeah… Free Stuff
If you get motivated, you can order a cheap
textbook as well.
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