Posted March 22, 2006 I've concluded, after much thought and human sacrifice, that the most suitable way to communicate with a Japanese speaking creature is not to raise your mastery of the language, but to raise your voice in ANY language. Most Japanese people can speak English quite well, at least the ones worth communicating with can. Anyone being yelled at loud enough and threatened will eventually understand. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 22, 2006 Infact, that's not exactly true. rofl Most Japanese can say stuff like "this is a pen" " this is a pencil" "my name is blahblah" as is the same with most people in England who took French/Spanish..... It's the exception to be able to speak English well...... They can read/write pretty well though... Yah that would be pretty funny booker. lol Two people not knowing like any Japanese, but, still talking to each other in the language....... Not sure how far we would get though. lolol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 22, 2006 Infact, that's not exactly true. rofl Most Japanese can say stuff like "this is a pen" " this is a pencil" "my name is blahblah" as is the same with most people in England who took French/Spanish..... It's the exception to be able to speak English well...... They can read/write pretty well though... Yah that would be pretty funny booker. lol Two people not knowing like any Japanese, but, still talking to each other in the language....... Not sure how far we would get though. lolol Well, I don't know about everyone else, but they seem to have a good grasp of everything I usually have conversations about. As far as I'm concerned I CAN talk Japanese. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 What you mean in Japan............. As in random Japanese people on the streat? lol I'm only telling you what a) my girlfriend said and b) what my girlfriends good friend says and she only came from Japan last year. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 (edited) Hmm, I already have Pimsleurs Japanese 1,2 and 3 and I'm enrolled in a Japanese course for the next few years. I've only just finished Hiragana (still reviewing) and am only early into Pimsleurs Japanese 1 but if anyone's around there and would like to learn together feel free to get a hold of me on MSN and we can go over that learn from there together MSN = [email protected] ________ buy vapir one Edited January 29, 2011 by Incomplete Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 I was going to add you to MSN, darkcloud, but can't find your address anywhere.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 (edited) Anyone who wants to add me, my address is removed......... You probably don't need to add me though really.... Although it could end up helping......... *thinks* Anyway, Incomplete, why don't you just start over with us? I've actually gone part of the ways through Pimsleur, but, I'm going to start over with everyone else..... It'll help as a bit of practice until everyone is up to the point I was at then I'll start learning new stuff again. Anyway, I'm thinking that I will start this up tomorrow if that's cool with everyone who wants to take part.....? I will give everyone information on where to get the first lesson a bit later. Edited June 9, 2010 by darkcloud Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 Most Japanese people can't speak English. Maybe the one's that you meet outside of Japan can abit yes, but have you been to Japan? But yes Japanese people can say simple english things like this is pen. eheh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 Sorry, but due to me being pretty busy for a while, I'll be dropping out of this.. Still, I might join later. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 Yeah, i'll join this. I generally have half an hour to spare a day :P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 That's a shame fatnick. ; ; Not all bad news though I guess as Twozzok will join us. Ok so tomorrow morning I'm going to PM everyone details on how to get the first lesson.... Please could atleast one person try to be online between the times of 11:00am and 5:00pm in order to recieve my PM. You'll see why at the time. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 I'm already in the middle of getting the lessons. Does that matter? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 That's a shame fatnick. ; ; Not all bad news though I guess as Twozzok will join us. Ok so tomorrow morning I'm going to PM everyone details on how to get the first lesson.... Please could atleast one person try to be online between the times of 11:00am and 5:00pm in order to recieve my PM. You'll see why at the time. lol I can't make that... I'm at school. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 That doesn't matter super, I only need one person online at that time although more would be better. lol Nope Twoz that doesn't matter, you can a) help us along or b) do what I'm doing and go back to that start to see if you've missed anything out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 23, 2006 Nope Twoz that doesn't matter, you can a) help us along or b) do what I'm doing and go back to that start to see if you've missed anything out. I meant 'acquiring' not 'getting' :P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 24, 2006 EDIT: Feel free to skip this post of mine if you haven't got time. It's admittedly a bit too long ============================================== Let me share my thoughts on learning Japanese. A bit long, but stick with me. I've spent 2 decades perfecting (?) it, so I think I have a wisdom to share. I was lucky to start very young as my brother was a Japan freak (Japan-holic, Japan-philia? something like that). Hell, he even ended up in Japan now and married to a japanese. He must have been one of the first englishman to get into imported 8 bit games in the UK. Thanks to our enthusiastic dad for making it easier. When I first started learning Japanese, I started off with the grammar. I realised it wasn't that hard, but this is a bit misleading. We're used to learning european languages, which tend to be very grammar heavy. So, overcoming grammar is pivotal in learning european languages. Japanese isn't very grammar heavy. It's fairly free style, it doesn't have gender for nouns, and there is no strict order of segments in a sentence to make sense. So in a european sense, Japanese comes across easy. I discovered, however, that the real obstacle lies beyond that point. This is when things get tricky. Japanese has various "modes" of speach. You know how differences of english dialects are "heard"; it's more to do with how a word is pronounced and a sence spoken. In Japanese, this takes a written form. It's not just a matter of changing the accent and tone of your voice, but you have to know the mutation in written Japanese. To start off with I did the standard form. I started off with the so called "Business Japanese", which is a standardized Japanese (like the book "Japanese for Busy People"). It's a good start and it's not as hard as learning German or Latin. I recommend it. You'll get a lot out of it. But don't forget, an every-day Japanese goes way beyond it. "Business Japanese" was introduced to unify the complication of Japanese to allow us foreigners to get an easy access to Japan. If you want to blend into the culture and people, there's an aweful lot beyond it. People there will be considerate enough to default to the standard Japanese when they see foreigners. But if you want to participate in their everyday convesation, it's a lot more complicated. In the end, the only good way to complete your training is to live there. Hard at first, but I don't regret it at all. There is something very special about their culture - maintaining harmony and respect for each other, and their language reflects that by being ambiguous, poetic and sentimental. That's why a direct translation of Japanese comes across Cheesy. Ever noticed Iwata and Miyamoto coming across a bit soft touch and melodramatic? That's the core feature of their language. Something always strange and bizarre about what they do, yet always creative, attractive and friendly. You only need to be open minded to see that. So outlandish and old fashioned in some ways, yet it's not a developing country; it's still the 2nd largest economy in the world after 10 years of recession. 70% of their country is still mountains and trees, yet they are possibly the most technologically advanced. Yet they still have one of the lowest crime rates out there. Everything seems to be extreme in both directions, or "in the middle". Odd contradictions exist everywhere, without disrupting each other, in perfect harmony, blue corner and red corner somehow working together. The city centres are colourful, or trash and messy, then there's the country side which reflects 1000s of years of history still intact. Clear, blue sky on one end, you go through a tunnel on a bullet train for 10 minutes and it's snowing the other end. I could never imagine seasons like that being raised in the middle of nowhere in wiltshire. Flower covered "pink" spring, very dark green summer, which turns yellow and red in the autumn as the temprature suddenly drops, then snow white winter. It depends on where you live though. It's a bit of everything. There are always bad things about every nation and Japan has its share of badness, but overall it's been a very rewarding venture. When I was 9, I could never have imagined learning Japanese would lead me to this present. That's my experience. Oh and Japanese learning software on DS would be fantastic! I hope they'll make one. It would have made my life a lot easier. Learning Japanese must be easier now, with all the study aid out there. Start with the standard form of Japanese. Business Japanese, or whatever it's called. It's not that hard and it gives you a solid stepstone for reading, playing games and watching Anime etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 24, 2006 Yah very good post. XD Pimsleur, what we will be using, teaches buisiness Japanese as you call it.... After that comes stuff like Osaka slang (which my girlfriend being an Osakien can help me with) and other dialects. But that's getting ahead of myself..... For now we stick to the basics...... Nihongo ga scushi wakarimasu! (Complete with crappy romaji maybe.....) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 24, 2006 What does scushi means? (crap, this is of to a great start ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 yo im learing jaanese, have been on/off for a month, ive listend to 6/8 of those pimsler japanese 1 tapes, they are very very helpfull, an ive got a translation book thingy, so far i can introduce myself, start a convo, ask for directions, ask for food or drink, ask for alcahol, an a bit of socalising, its a suprisingly easy language to understand, you jus need to grasp their gramma, ie wa, ne, ka, ect... an the fact that they assume alot of the time, and resect is huge, but id love to join this thing, as i have no one to practice with an if by scushi you pronounce it squishi, then it means little Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu "I understand a bit of Japanese", I gather My @ss long post was such a conversation stopper. Apologies lads. Just ignore it! This might help a bit to start, particularly on the structure of a sentence compared to english. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 Don't be sorry it was a great post, and today the forums had problems again so nobody posted. About the word sukoshi, it's gonna be a lot of trouble if people don't check they're typos. :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 lol. Thanks. Still, darkcloud and everyone here have fantastic ideas in this thread. I don't want to kill it off by being complicated. Carry on lads. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 Seeing as how my previous comment didn't post, I'll type it again (not that it's long or anything). Just asking if it's too late to join this thing, maybe. I'm kind of interested in learning Japanese, cause languages rock. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 OMG! So yesterday sucked....... First I couldn't get onto the site then there were database problems....... Then I had to let my girlfriend online for a bit....... Blah....... Anyway, I promise I will get things started today. /sigh.... Flaight, thanks for correcting me, I've never really been sure how to spell that word. XD I just typed it how I hear it/have said it with people understanding me. lol And to anyone else who wants to ask it won't ever be too late to join in, you will just have to catch up a bit if we've already started, we will of course offer help to you at any stage. Ok, I just sent out PM's to 13 people who seemed interested! Please follow my instructions in the pm. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25, 2006 Darkcloud, iv added you to my msn ([email protected]). I'm very intrested in learning Japanese but I am a complete newbie. I'm not on a Japanese course, so i'll probably have a harder time learning this. Can someone please tell me what I need to do first. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
