Starting to Learn the Way of the Japanese

[NeoKING]

You propose playing with corpses instead of reading "Gray's anatomy". From some reason universities prefer students to play with flesh after reading a book. (Besides: why can't everyone learn that freakin' textbook by heart? It's so easy )

You realize that that has nothing to do with learning languages, right? Completely different deal, pal.

You think that going to class exclude using every possible way of improving language? Sittin in class and thinking that money you paid give you knowledge is stupid, but I don't know anyone who learn language like this. It seems you have very little knowledge about modern ways of teaching.

Okay, you can believe that if you want, even though I'm a student. I can say something just as disrespectful but I'll keep my mouth shut.

How many real polyglots do you know to say how they learn?

I know a few polyglots but not a lot of them say that they take classes to learn languages. A lot of them go to Barnes and Nobles to pick up books on languages whenever they decide to start learning a new one.

I personally hate halfway. If I had learnt as you propose I would have been here. Self-learning is constantly loosing way, coming back to change bad habits. After 4 years of self learning German I'm still not proud of myself: I can read nad understand practically everything, but that's not still the level that I could get if I got chance.

Having a teacher doesn't magically make you learn. They'll hopefully teach and you'll hopefully learn, and that's all there is to it. The material is still the same. All I know is, self-learning is not a "constantly losing way," and I think it's downright asinine for someone to think that they are above learning something on their own, considering all the success that it has had with others.

[Choice195]

Thanks for the Advice guys! I'll hopefully get through my Spanish pretty quickly and, maybe in a while I'll start taking Japanese lessons.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Thanks for the Advice guys! I'll hopefully get through my Spanish pretty quickly and, maybe in a while I'll start taking Japanese lessons.

Great. There's no need to rush. I think it's safe to assume that you're fairly young (like myself), so you've got plenty of language learning years ahead of you.




Also, learning languages through classes vs. learning them by yourself, is by no means black and white. It all depends on the individual. Some would say the former is more effective, and others the latter.

[Vision]

Japanese is extremely simple, once you get the mental language aspect down. In fact, it is structurally more simple than english, the only problem comes in the way that Japanese people combine concepts and grammar that would sound extremely awkward if translated directly into English. The more you learn to let go of direct translation, and learn the way that grammar fits together from a Japanese perspective, the faster you will grab ahold of Japanese, or any language in my opinion.

Chinese is actually far far more simple than Japanese, with the exception of the endless Kanji you need to learn. In fact, there is no actual grammar in Chinese, yet most people give up far before getting into grammar due to the difficulty of kanji.

[Godo]

You propose playing with corpses instead of reading "Gray's anatomy". From some reason universities prefer students to play with flesh after reading a book. (Besides: why can't everyone learn that freakin' textbook by heart? It's so easy )

You think that going to class exclude using every possible way of improving language? Sittin in class and thinking that money you paid give you knowledge is stupid, but I don't know anyone who learn language like this. It seems you have very little knowledge about modern ways of teaching. How many real polyglots do you know to say how they learn?


I personally hate halfway. If I had learnt English as you propose I wouldn't have been here. Self-learning is constantly loosing way, coming back to change bad habits. After 4 years of self learning German I'm still not proud of myself: I can read nad understand practically everything, but that's not still the level that I could get if I got chance.

I'd say that all the languages I know are 50% self-learned. My opinion is that it works best to get grammar and the foundation from classes, and then further improving your knowledge about the language on your own, with vocabulary and verbs.
I mean, those "listening comprehension" tapes and videos used in language classes are utter crap. They are over pronounced and too simple. If one wants to learn to understand a language by listening, I would say going out on the street and listening to regular people would do it. Those "listening comprehension" tapes only take you one third of the way to understand a language.

There are, of course, exceptions. If the language you study doesn't stem from the same family of the languages you know, then I'd say that you'd need lots of classes in said language.
Polish, as an example, is very difficult for me, since it's a clusterfuck of lack of rules and such. Heck, even my teacher in Polish said the same. It's hard to master (and it's even said that it's among the hardest languages to master for a newbie), but when you know it, you understand some other Slavic languages too.

[Eire]

I'd say that all the languages I know are 50% self-learned. My opinion is that it works best to get grammar and the foundation from classes, and then further improving your knowledge about the language on your own, with vocabulary and verbs.

That's what I'm trying to say. Class gives us a base, that we must extend on our own.

You have family here, that you try to learn Polish? It's hardly to find someone who even try it. I must warn you baout understanding other Slavic languages when you know one of them. The number of false friends is enormous- especially if we take Polish and Czech (searching for--->f***ing), but Russian seems to be dangerous for me too( "beautiful rose" in Polish can be understood as "red mug"). Congrats, visit me in The Promised Land one day:)

[Ringworm128]

If you want to learn about Japanese culture I suggest watching this guys videos. www.youtube.com/user/TheJapanChannelDcom‬‏

[Godo]

You have family here, that you try to learn Polish? It's hardly to find someone who even try it. I must warn you baout understanding other Slavic languages when you know one of them. The number of false friends is enormous- especially if we take Polish and Czech (searching for--->f***ing), but Russian seems to be dangerous for me too( "beautiful rose" in Polish can be understood as "red mug"). Congrats, visit me in The Promised Land one day:)

I actually study in Poland right now, so I have to more or less to learn the language. It's been 5 years now and I don't know enough that I should, I mean, I'm still in the basics. That's why I think that it's one of the hardest languages out there.

[kinggiddra]

Just get yourself a girl that speaks Japanese and live with her for awhile. Pay attention to little details.

[Choice195]

Just get yourself a girl that speaks Japanese and live with her for awhile. Pay attention to little details.

Exactly what i'm going to do.

[obiwan23s]

Obiwan-san is right (I'm using -san here, since then I don't have to worry about using the wrong gender, Mr or Ms).

Funny story, my first Japanese teacher Yabe-sensei gave these two girls a failing grade on an oral presentation because they used -chan after each other's names. He was mad that they were using terms he hadn't taught yet. I thought it was funny but later that semester I did the same thing. We had a vocabulary quiz and the words were at the front of every chapter, and the quiz asked to how to say "food" in Japanese. The front of the chapter used shokuji but I hadn't studied for that particular quiz. I fell back on good ol' Goku and used kuimono but sensei marked it wrong. That guy was a great teacher though. He would always draw pictures on the chalkboard when someone didn't fully understand something. When he was teaching verbs, he drew the White Base and Gundam on the board to illustrate ikimasu. Good times.