Learning Japanese

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 11:48

Can anyone suggest any resources to use in my study? At the moment I have got the two Michel Thomas courses which will teach the basics of grammar and some vocabulary. I have also found a website that shows Japanese TV. But where do I go from there? There're no night schools or anything like that round here.

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 12:02

wannabedamned said:
If you've got an android phone, there are various apps

I never thought about that. I have an iPad - there seems to be two apps there called Human Japanese which look good but are £10 a pop! :eek:

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 12:02

bigjohnsonrichard said:
Get some japanese friends. Practice a lot.

LOL, do you know any I could borrow?

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 13:59

bigjohnsonrichard said:
What made you choose to learn japanese out of interest? Seems an unusual choice

I just love the culture. Especially the food. Yum.

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 22:58

Turambar said:
Try Earworms. Then let me know if it's a pile of crap or not.

I've tried the demos on the website. I quite like it. It's not expensive either.

ic1male · 9 May 2013 at 23:47

And sumo! How could I forget sumo? I would love to go to a basho. It looks as if there's one starting on Sunday. I hope they show it on NHK or something.

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 17:32

Does anyone know where you can buy proper Japanese Rice Crackers (arare) over here?

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 17:46

memyselfandi said:
Tried the Japan Center or Mount Fuji online shops?

Never heard of them. I've had a ganzee on Amazon though. There are some on there but there are no customer reviews for the particular one I was thinking about.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japan-Assor...204343&sr=8-5&keywords=japanese+rice+crackers

timebomb26 said:
Where do you live?

UK.

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 19:23

timebomb26 said:
Sorry, I meant where in the UK?

Oh, near Crewe.

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 19:24

wannabedamned said:
Im quite lucky. The sushisushi.co.uk warehouse\shop is based literally 5 minutes walk from my door.

I just had a look on there. Barnsley!

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 19:27

Lil old me said:
It is a very alluring language! I just wish it was more useful. If Japanese was mandarin then I'd definitely have kept it up, despite the difficulty. I just can't see the use in it really, aside from fun, unless you like manga/anime or live in Japan

You could say the same about any language, I suppose if you don't need it for a specific purpose. Why would you personally find Mandarin more useful?

ic1male · 10 May 2013 at 20:01

Lil old me said:
having to use hanzi for everything is just terrifying! (though it is meant to be easier than Japanese overall!)

Yeah, I don't like the look of the kanji at all - the way they have multiple pronunciations. How the heck are you supposed to know when to use each one? At least in Chinese, each character is pronounced only one way.