The anime thread sequel (it's still not as good as the Manga though),

Raymond Lin said:
Why not anime?

I want to learn but to learn a language you really need to go all in, not dipping my toes. I was actually impressed with myself yesterday when watching Only in Japan Youtube and the guy was in a food festival and the lady in the stall asked him "Shoyu/Tare?"

In my head I thought loudly "I know what she asked!"
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My GF was learning japanese in uni and I can't remember her full explanation for it but her lecturers say you shouldn't really use japanese media like anime, games and even some live TV/films to learn how to vocally speak japanese because a lot of the phrases, used are informal and you don't fully hear the phonetics or vowels clear enough which doesn't entirely help when you're trying to learn the language as a beginner.
Also they tend to use a lot of slang in their dialogue aswell I believe?

Watching videos from Abroad in japan and few others might be okay but japanese media is a big no, you can use games and few books to help with reading though depending on the content.
To be a "professional" Japanese translator/interpreter you need to be at N2 at minimum I believe? But N1 you're pretty much guaranteed to have offers.
 
kurosagi01 said:
My GF was learning japanese in uni and I can't remember her full explanation for it but her lecturers say you shouldn't really use japanese media like anime, games and even some live TV/films to learn how to vocally speak japanese because a lot of the phrases, used are informal and you don't fully hear the phonetics or vowels clear enough which doesn't entirely help when you're trying to learn the language as a beginner.
Also they tend to use a lot of slang in their dialogue aswell I believe?

Watching videos from Abroad in japan and few others might be okay but japanese media is a big no, you can use games and few books to help with reading though depending on the content.
To be a "professional" Japanese translator/interpreter you need to be at N2 at minimum I believe? But N1 you're pretty much guaranteed to have offers.
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I have a slight advantage that i understand some Kanji already as I am Chinese, I know words like Male/Female, Entrance/Exit, word for Meat and all the numbers.

I know that there is a massive hierarchy depending who you are speaking to, whether they are older or younger than you (even more so in Korean), I am not trying to get to that level, just simply understanding and able to answer yes/no would be a big plus.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have a slight advantage that i understand some Kanji already as I am Chinese, I know words like Male/Female, Entrance/Exit, word for Meat and all the numbers.

I know that there is a massive hierarchy depending who you are speaking to, whether they are older or younger than you (even more so in Korean), I am not trying to get to that level, just simply understanding and able to answer yes/no would be a big plus.
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Same here mate but I can't read any kanji to save my life now lol but yeah I think it boils down to the type of conversations used in jap media isn't good enough to learn to hold a conversation in real life. You can probably get away with cantonese media though if you want to learn cantonese how to speak to someone in cantonese.
 
kurosagi01 said:
Same here mate but I can't read any kanji to save my life now lol but yeah I think it boils down to the type of conversations used in jap media isn't good enough to learn to hold a conversation in real life. You can probably get away with cantonese media though if you want to learn cantonese how to speak to someone in cantonese.
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Cantonese speaking is very informal, both in real life and in media, full of slang and ooh, ahh, awwww sounds. Cantonese when written is Chinese which is almost always formal unless you are writing a movie script to make it informal. The written Chinese is pretty much how Mandarin should be spoken at, it is very formal. Although there is no hierarchy in Chinese as such.

I guess with Japanese, unless I am trying to move there, it isn't worthwhile to learn from a practical point of view beyond self learning as a hobby and personal fulfillment. Nowhere else in the world i am going to use it really.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Cantonese speaking is very informal, both in real life and in media, full of slang and ooh, ahh, awwww sounds. Cantonese when written is Chinese which is almost always formal unless you are writing a movie script to make it informal. The written Chinese is pretty much how Mandarin should be spoken at, it is very formal. Although there is no hierarchy in Chinese as such.

I guess with Japanese, unless I am trying to move there, it isn't worthwhile to learn from a practical point of view beyond self learning as a hobby and personal fulfillment. Nowhere else in the world i am going to use it really.
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Oh yeah I agree with that with cantonese..well anyway back on Anime subject alltheanime has Cowboy bebop ultimate collection for £300.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Why not anime?

I want to learn but to learn a language you really need to go all in, not dipping my toes. I was actually impressed with myself yesterday when watching Only in Japan Youtube and the guy was in a food festival and the lady in the stall asked him "Shoyu/Tare?"

In my head I thought loudly "I know what she asked!"
Click to expand...

One of the large issues with Anime is that it can use strange, or old, dialects rather than more standard modern Japanese. There are quite frequently stories of people who have tried to do so and turn up in Japan only to try phrases which were used by Samurai in the Edo period rather than modern Japanese.

With other Japanese media it does depend a lot on what the media is. Some media might be unclear and full of slang but that is not all media, it's like saying that every program on UK TV uses language at the same level as EastEnders. If you've learnt some Japanese formally then you can normally understand enough that you can tell if what you are listening to is following the standard forms or if they are veering off (although I have picked up some Kansai-ben which is fine if you know that those phrase are that and are not standard Japanese ... which as two of the people I was talking to last time I was in Japan were from Osaka they found most amusing). Most of the things I've watched have been pretty normal in the way of formality (and I ran most of them past, and discussed them, with my teacher at the time too as a sanity check (and it gave her an excuse to watch them too)). I can have issues learning vocabulary and hearing words in context helps me remember them (but I can normally pick up the grammar of what is being said pretty easily) and I did find the listening I had done did help a lot in talking to Japanese people out there.

Trouble as well is that you cannot just compare what is said with any English subtitles as if the subtitles have been created properly then they won't be literal so a direct comparison cannot be made. Hence it can be better to turn them off even if they are available. I'm not saying that you can and should learn a language purely from media ... but it definitely can help on top of other more traditional studying as long as you are slightly careful about what you are watching.

The main thing to remember if you do want to learn is any material which wants you to learn using romanji ... just walk away.

I like John on Only in Japan seems like a good guy (I actually support him on Patreon along with a few others). I do watch some Japanese Youtubers .... now that is a quagmire of slang and strange phrases (but can be fun too).
 
I watched episode Episode 24 of Demon Slayer last night and it's the only episode so far I haven't enjoyed much.

It felt like a filler ep, but did have some back story for the awesome butterfly demon slayer (I'm rubbish at remembering names).

I did find the whole segment with the guy with yellow hair lusting after the VERY young girls a bit weird. I mean, I knew going into it that is is part of Japanese culture, but those girls looked to be like 5-6... It put me off his character even more as I already hate how much he shouts and goes bezerk all the time. I read some reviews for the ep and was glad to see I'm not alone on not liking this character as others were saying they had hoped his character would have grown more by now.

I can't wait for the next episode and hope this episode was setting up for something epic. The beginning scene hinted at something very big going down, so we should be in for a good end to the season hopefully.

Edit: also I think the fact the hog head character is depressed and not saying/doing much is also bringing the show down as he was awesome. Hope he snaps out of it soon.
 
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Only realised theres a movie for The saga of tanya the evil and its really good and inline nicely with the series.

Also just watched 10 episodes of the vinland saga and enjoying it.
 
Mark A said:
Whats your guys opinion on dubbed vs subbed? Is the Japanese or English voice acting better usually? I noticed in Demon Slayer even though i couldn't understand a word (apart from Goodbye and Thank you, I'm on my way to becoming fluent in Japanese lol), the voice acting seemed to be very good. Like some of the demons actually sound menacing, especially the ones with a creepy laugh. I watch a lot of foreign language horrors, so am used to reading subtitles, but it's also nice to be able to sit back and relax sometimes as well.
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I PREFER to listen in Japanese, for the simple reason that the actors are more professional, there seems to be a larger pool and they often give a more tonally nuanced performance, even if I cant understand most of what they say you can pickup moods or inflection from the way things are said to a degree.
My wife typically prefers to watch in English, simply because its easier to follow if you arent able to devote your full attention to it :)
 
IIRC there is a Film of Kabaneri :)
Although no second season:(

If anyone is interested Zoom.co.uk have Seraph of the End part 1 collectors edition blu-ray for £8 and part 2 collectors edition for a tenner.
 
Attack on Titan is sooo good! I started it a few weeks back and wasn't sure at first, but once I got into it I couldn't stop binge watching and now i'm near the end of the first season. Thanks to all who recommended it.

I tried the dubbed version just to compare and the American accents just didn't feel like they fit the setting or characters to me, so stuck with the subbed. I couldn't imagine the characters sounding any different now, so glad I did.
 
Mark A said:
Attack on Titan is sooo good! I started it a few weeks back and wasn't sure at first, but once I got into it I couldn't stop binge watching and now i'm near the end of the first season. Thanks to all who recommended it.

I tried the dubbed version just to compare and the American accents just didn't feel like they fit the setting or characters to me, so stuck with the subbed. I couldn't imagine the characters sounding any different now, so glad I did.
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Its a great show. I was originally put off from it for a few years but when i decided i would give it a chance i sat and binge watched the first 2 series then started the 3rd as it was airing
 
Shiki.

It's some random Japanese village in the middle of nowhere, and everything's gone to ****! Sneaky vampires have sneaked into town, and they're sneakily taking over in a way that can only be described as... surreptitious!

The only people with half a clue are the local priest and his friend, the doctor. But can they stop the vampires? Let's find out!

I enjoyed this a lot. It's far darker than I expected, and really ramped up the nihilistic violence towards the end. Definitely goes to some pretty grim places. Great music, too!
 
Argh, I need to stop using Youtube when I am an episode behind. I am too worried about my sick budgie to watch the last episode of Demon Slayer and every time I click Youtube theres a recommended video with a spoiler in the title.
 
Last ever episode of Fairy Tail dropped over weekend, sad to see it go as no other show has a soundtrack that gets the hype going like Fairy Tail did.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Is that a good show? It seems to get a lot of talk.
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I enjoyed it, like most Shounen anime it has arcs that aren't as good as others but even those ones have times were you'll feel hype for the characters. The soundtrack is one of the best for an anime show with what it makes you feel only second I'd say to Naruto, characters are unique enough to be different from other shows.

I chipped away at it last year to catch up after binging One Piece, in total there's around 350 - 360 episodes for all 3 seasons.
 
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