Learning Japanese

Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
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Nottingham
Just a bit of a question out there to the GD masses.

I'm planning a holiday in 2018 to Japan and I'm quite keen to learn Japanese mainly conversational/spoken to get by in a social setting but it would be handy to be able to read a little Kanji/Kana as well. While I know speaking and writing/reading are two completely different ballparks when it comes to Japanese I would still like to give it a go.

So really my question is has any GD'ers learnt Japanese and if so how did you go about it? Did you do a language course/class or did you teach yourself via x, y and z aides. If anyone can steer me in the right direction or offer any advice I would be grateful.

(Could have Necro'd a 2006 thread but think that would be a bit too much)
 
Caporegime
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Auckland
Please confirm/deny the following:
  1. This is somehow related to anime.
  2. On a scale of 1 to neckbeard, where do you stand?
  3. The phrase 'my waifu' is something you use unironically and without shame.
  4. You did not buy those pillows from John Lewis, did you?
  5. You're going to Japan because vending machines.
We can then offer support.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,589
Location
Nottingham
Please confirm/deny the following:
  1. This is somehow related to anime.
  2. On a scale of 1 to neckbeard, where do you stand?
  3. The phrase 'my waifu' is something you use unironically and without shame.
  4. You did not buy those pillows from John Lewis, did you?
  5. You're going to Japan because vending machines.
We can then offer support.

lol Classic Magnolia

1. I do have an appreciation for Anime but that is not why im going
2. Neckbeardless
3. Term is not used
4. I don't own a body pillow and didn't even know John Lewis sold them
5. Vending machines will be used in the Japan visit but the non panty variety
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Apr 2006
Posts
17,955
Location
London
Please confirm/deny the following:
  1. This is somehow related to anime.
  2. On a scale of 1 to neckbeard, where do you stand?
  3. The phrase 'my waifu' is something you use unironically and without shame.
  4. You did not buy those pillows from John Lewis, did you?
  5. You're going to Japan because vending machines.
We can then offer support.

Comedy isn't as easy as you think mags
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Nov 2005
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2,946
Location
London
I learnt it, but as a module in second year. Tough going, but doable. Forgotten most of it sadly. Went to Japan last year (about 7 or 8 years after learning it) and could order a drink, but that was about it. The hiragana is easy enough and katakana too. The kanji is difficult and at least learning it for a year, you do learn a bit of kanji but focus is on hiragana.

I was able to 'read' a lot of the signs/words etc, but given how much time has passed, had no idea what they actually meant, lol. Not the most useful of skills.
 
Associate
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26 Feb 2012
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Hokkaido
Tae Kim's guide is a pretty good free resource and can be used to get a grasp of basic grammar. You may as well learn Hiragana and Katakana as this can be done in a few days. Not sure how helpful it will inevitably be for you, as I am not sure of your end goal.

Definitely do lots of listening and speaking exercises though, otherwise you'll probably find yourself next to useless when you get there.
 
Associate
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6 Oct 2004
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London
Kanji is hard, I haven't used it in quite a while, and have forgotten a lot of it.

Hiragana / Katakana and grammer (bunpou) are easy.

Other people i know have picked it up from Anime, comic books and the like.

Though some people can speak Engrish ;) well, once out of major cities the chances diminish significantly.

As to a holiday, it is massively expensive at the moment (135 odd yen to the pount, it was 150 pre-brexit, and around 170 a couple of years ago), but there are plenty of things to do for almost any budget range.

There are plenty of people who can give you pointers for the holiday, I would highly recommend Kyoto, there is a lot to do / see there. Summer is very hot and humid. Best times are spring / autumn.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Oct 2005
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8,706
Location
Nottingham
wait - John Lewis sells those weird paedo pillows? :eek:

There is nothing weird about the pillows (I know several people who have them for various medical reasons which means they need support when sleeping) ... it's the cover that can change their "use" and make them weird.

OP, how much Japanese you'll need to know for your trip depends on where you are going and what you are doing. If you are just going to be around Tokyo then you are not going to need that much. If you are going away from the touristy areas of the country then you might want to know more. Remember you are in their country so if you don't understand their language it's your problem not theirs ...a smile and a self deprecating shrug can go a long way. In general eating and travel don't really don't need much.

- Do learn normal polite words; hello, yes, no, please, thank you, etc. The use of a polite form of these at the right time can really help. Also read up on Japanese polite etiquette.
- Do not attempt to learn Japanese using anything which uses Romanji (English characters) as it will mean you make assumptions about pronunciation based on English usage. You want to start learning using Hiragana and move on from there. It's more important to know Hiragana and Katakana ... don't get bogged down in trying to remember loads of Kanji for a short trip.
- Look and see if there any short courses at local language schools. You might be able to get a 8 or 10 week introduction course which is fairly cheap or even cheap one-to-one lessons. Udemy has an offer on their Japanese video courses at the moment but I don't know how good they are.
- Listening is important to get how things sound. If you haven't got anyone you can speak to then video is your friend. Not necessarily Magnolia's favourite Anime (you can have issues that a character may not be talking modern Japanese as part of their character) but things like variety shows etc can be found on places like Youtube.

Japanese people tend to understand more English than they admit to in my experience and as long as you are friendly will try and communicate. I have had random people ask to practice their English on me. They don't really expect you to know much, if any, of their language so even a little goes a long way.
 
Soldato
OP
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17 Mar 2009
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6,589
Location
Nottingham
Thanks for the serious replies guys. At the moment the plan is to go to Tokyo, Sendai, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Kure during March/April. We will be essentially dumping our stuff in pod hotels for the entire trip to keep the costs down. After doing a rough costing for flights, pod hotel accommodation, and internal travel with about £15 a day for food it's been roughed up as £1300 each for the 3 weeks, ignoring spending money

I have looked at a local language school which does evening classes over 15 weeks but I'm a bit put off by the £350 price but I guess you get what you pay for. I'm ok with the very basics as memyselfandI suggested and basic greetings but aside from it being a language im genuinely interested in, it would be nice to be able to engage in the language a little more especially on holiday.
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
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Leafy outskirts of London
I've certainly picked up a bunch of words and phrases from Anime, but like the true baka I am, all the different styles of writing mean nothing to me, beyond know what they are called.

My gf is ok with them though (she has been purposely learning though), was able to read the stuff on the notebook in A Silent Voice before the subs came up.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2005
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4,046
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UK
I've wanted to learn for a while but not dedicated the time to bother.

I work very closely with counterparts in Japan on a daily basis.

Advice I was given is to learn as a school child would, get the introduction books. As you want to read Kanji that's good as it's what I was advices to do before moving on to speaking it as it apparently helps a lot.

I'll try to find the books I was recommended too.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2013
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12,299
I learned an unimpressive, but still notable amount and a couple of useful tips just from reading/watching James Clavell's Shogun.
I like to think it stood me in good stead for later lessons, but I never got the chance to practice any of it so it got dropped in favour of German.
 
Associate
Joined
1 Jul 2012
Posts
892
I tried to get to grips with it before I went a few years ago and bought a Michel Thomas CD, the most basic one from Amazon was about £7, they have two students learning it and a native Japanese speaker as well as the tutor saying the phrases and and giving useful tips on how to remember phrases they use. I learned a couple of bits but found that nearly everyone spoke English or could pretty much understand pointing to maps etc, even in more rural areas (no excuse not to give it a go though :)
I asked for an ice cream at a train station in I think Matsumoto and the student aged person serving said (in almost perfect English) "Yes, which flavour?" didn't really try much after that.
 
Caporegime
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Chestershire
The best resource I've found so far is an iOS/Android app called MIRAI JAPANESE. It covers a helluva lot of stuff that wasn't mentioned in other resources I've used and explained things a lot better too.

http://www.miraijapanese.com/download/

Problem is you have to subscribe monthly (something like £8 or £4 if you're in education) to access the whole package. But you can try the first 10 or so lessons for free. It'll teach you grammar and how to write kana and some kanji. Also, the company stopped updating it now. Which in a way is good because if you subscribe for just 1 month, you can screenshot as much as you can for future reference. :p
 
Caporegime
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31,840
Location
Chestershire
Plus - if you have access to Periscope (the live streaming app from Twitter) you can easily find Japanese people on there. Join a room that's pretty full so you can lurk in the background and just listen. You'll get a feel for the rhythm of the language.
 
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