Learning another language

A

Akira

So I've been teaching myself Japanese for about 6 months now and while I am making steady progress I would like to see if you guys had any tips for learning another language. Here's what I currently do:

Make word lists
Make flash cards
Watch anime with subs then watch the same episode again raw with no subs
And I know this may sound strange, but I'll talk to myself in Japanese whenever possible. Like when I see a cat I'll say neko
 
Whoa good luck with that. I hear Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn.


I'm self-taught in Spanish, btw.
 
jr_mcg said:
Whoa good luck with that. I hear Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn.


I'm self-taught in Spanish, btw.
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It's not that it's "hard" it's just different. The sentence structure is quite different from English. The best way I heard it described is that it's like talking like Yoda. Instead of saying "You must go in" You would say "In you must go" The actual words themselves are very easy to pick up and once you get the alphabet down the spelling is probably the easiest of any language. In case you're curious as to why I want to learn I am part Japanese and have family in Japan. I'm hoping to visit them in about a year or so.
 
My friend and I are huge Japanese fans and have been trying to learn it. It sure is different. We use giant translation books and grammar textbooks. I've found that writing characters over and over while saying them helps. I already know Korean and it was pretty easy and fun.
 
I took two years of Japanese when I was in university, and I've forgotten most of it by now. :lol

Repetition is key. The best way I learned to do flashcards was by making a game out of it. Try to set goals and then see if you can beat them, that sort of thing. I also liked trying to read children's books in Japanese and translating them. This is tough though - you'd be surprised how little you know about the language until you realize how much more kids in grade 1 know than you.

In the end though, there is no substitute for talking to other people in Japanese. Reading and writing the language are different than speaking it and listening to it (listening was the hardest for me). If you have family members here who are Japanese then talk with them in Japanese as often as possible. I would also advise looking online for groups who get together to do just that.

I don't know where you live, but if there are YMCAs or Open Door Societies where you live, those would be good places to find out if any Japanese immigrants need English tutoring, and instead of them paying you you could spend one hour teaching them and they could spend one hour teaching you. You could also check out local universities or schools where Japanese is taught - there were always anime clubs and stuff like that where people would go watch movies and practice their Japanese.

In any event, I really encourage you to stick with it! It can be really tough at times but being able to think and speak in another language is a really good way to keep your mind sharp.
 
I work for a Japanese business and have often thought of trying to learn the language. It would help me a lot of times when communicating.
 
retro junkie said:
I work for a Japanese business and have often thought of trying to learn the language. It would help me a lot of times when communicating.
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Yeah. Repetition is key. I found classes helped me. I had 4 years of German in hs... And then 2nd year German in college. Lol... Then duration of class from the moment you entered the room was was speaking German. It was difficult. Annnddd I've forgotten most of what I've learned now :(

@retro - do it :) our company is big in German. I'm thinking about taking a class or something to relearn or refresh my skills.

BV :hat
 
I taught myself Spanish so I could communicate with the cooks at McDonalds when I worked there.
 
I'm learning English right now - I'm from Chech Republic :D I wanted to improve my language skills, so instead of registering on forum in my language, i registered here :D
 
I was going to try and learn swedish for a while.
Something that helped me was, since I am a huge steam user, I changed my language on steam to Swedish.

Mostly due to knowing where things are in steam, I started to be able to read little bits here and there. I understood small bits of what I was reading in my game subtitles.
I was just throwing it out there as something you could do if your learning.
 
I'm trying to teach myself Japanese. I did take a semester in college but since I didn't practice it enough, I've forgotten some of what I learned. I really want to take more classes in it.
 
Tried to get into the Japanese class this semester at my college but it was wait listed and I was at the end XD Oh well, maybe next semester.
 
a way that has helped me learn different languages (i know English, French, and Spanish) is by association...so like basically by trying to associate the new words with something that would trigger the meaning in another word that i already know...it's harder to do when the different languages don't use the same alphabet, but it's still possible, you just have to be creative
 
I want to learn how to speak Korean and Japanese,
cuz i love to watch anime :)
But I think I need some guidelines! and tips from you guys :)
or website, so I can start readings.
thank you in advance.
 
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