Learning Japanese

Ruby
1

Thanks to Ruby I’ve learned a lot recently about programming languages
and it has widen my universe of things I want to learn. These things
include Japanese.

I’ve compiled a set of URLs to sites of Japanese tutorials.
Pronunciation seems easy, from my Spanish background, and even though
I’m confident I can teach myself Japanese, I also think that learning
it with the help of another human would be nicer, especially if she is
a nice Japanese girl :wink:

The questions are, what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did
it work? What would you recommend?

Thanks.

2

I don’t know Japanese, only a couple of expressions that I learned when
I
was traveling to Japan for work, but I’d maybe recommend trying Rosetta
Stone http://www.rosettastone.com/en/individuals/languages/japanese
If you’re OK, with the online version check your local library. I am
going
through the Turkish lessons, albeit slowly, online for free with my
library
card. I went to the library website, did a search for rosetta stone and
then was able to log in and have access to all the languages offered.
Greg

On 1/19/07, Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido [email protected]
wrote:

The questions are, what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did
it work? What would you recommend?

Thanks.

–
Gerardo S.

–
“Politicians are like diapers, both need to be changed frequently and
for
the same reasons.”

Greg P.
[email protected]

3

What would you recommend?

Thanks.

–
Gerardo S.

Maybe you have seen this. But if not, take a look. There is alot of
information here.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html

Harry

–
http://www.kakueki.com/ruby/list.html

Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice doggie” until you can find a rock.
Will R.

4

One more thing to add, find a native Japanese speaker. My wife is
Turkish
and has been helping me while I go through the Rosetta Stone…this has
been a huge help explaining what means what, and why something is the
way it
is…also a native speaker can help you learn the real(more common) way
to
say something as all class approaches tend to be a bit dated.

On 1/19/07, James Edward G. II [email protected] wrote:

James Edward G. II

–
“Politicians are like diapers, both need to be changed frequently and
for
the same reasons.”

Greg P.
[email protected]

5

On Jan 19, 2007, at 6:43 PM, Greg P. wrote:

I don’t know Japanese, only a couple of expressions that I learned
when I
was traveling to Japan for work, but I’d maybe recommend trying
Rosetta
Stone http://www.rosettastone.com/en/individuals/languages/japanese

I use the Rosetta Stone, for Japanese, and love it.

James Edward G. II

6

Some good resources are podcasts. Here are some of the things I use.

Most of the sites also have a membership fee if you want to go in
deeper. I
haven’t applied for any, but I think it would be worth it.

7

Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido wrote:

what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did it work?
What would you recommend?

I just watched lots and lots of Japanese anime with English subtitles.
:wink:

It is a good approach in addition to your usual study of the language
because it helps you learn the culture through immersion… I cannot
afford to visit Japan, so anime is the next best thing.

8

On 1/20/07, Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido [email protected]
wrote:

The questions are, what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did
it work? What would you recommend?

It’s not total beginner level (you should at least know kana), but if
you
get kanji skills in a quick and fun way, check jrpg [
http://zabor.org/jrpg/ ].

And yeah, it’s coded in Python :-p

9

Thank you everybody for your help. Hope to be able to thank you again
some day in Japanese.

10

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:03:25 +0900, Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido
[email protected] wrote:

Thanks to Ruby I’ve learned a lot recently about programming languages
and it has widen my universe of things I want to learn. These things
include Japanese.

< Snip >

The questions are, what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did
it work? What would you recommend?

It all depends upon how you learn, although there are a few techniques
I can highly recommend:

*) Learn Hiragana and Katakana, do not spend much time on Romanji.
Doing this will really help you pronunciation, plus it will help
you out a bit if you go to Japan.

*) Take a course at your local university / community college.

*) Go to Japan.

I took Japanese at university as my language requirement. I found the
beginning grammar so much easier and different than the other
languages I studied that I really enjoyed studying it. From that I
decided that I did not want to what I learned to go to waste so I
managed to find a way to work in Japan.

Good luck!
Zev

11

Suraj K. wrote:

Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido wrote:

what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did it work?
What would you recommend?

I just watched lots and lots of Japanese anime with English subtitles.
:wink:

It is a good approach in addition to your usual study of the language
because it helps you learn the culture through immersion… I cannot
afford to visit Japan, so anime is the next best thing.

I did that too but now all my Japanese friends tell me I speak like an
anime character.

Can’t win 'em all…

Daniel

12

Good day!

On Jan 20, 2007, at 03:03, Gerardo S. Gómez Garrido wrote:

The questions are, what was your approach for learning Japanese? Did
it work? What would you recommend?

After learning kana I recommend to learn kanji with “Remembering Kanji”
by JW Heisig or maybe you have a Spanish book that uses a similar
approach (I’ve done well with Russian book “The Way of a Bird Without
Tail” — the idea is to use imagination for mnemonics of kanji).
I’ve been learning Japanese by myself for two years but considering my
laziness I ended with poor vocabulary and about 400 kanji (I didn’t
have Heisig’s book then) though good grammar. Now I somewhat stopped
but I think I’m going to continue my study if I have an opportunity to
find a native Japanese speaker. It’s hard to master colloquial speech
without that.

Your sincerely,
Damian/Three-eyed Fish