# Anyone else learning Japanese?



## megaminxwin (Mar 23, 2010)

Ok, so I'm learning Japanese as a Year 8 Language, and I was wondering if anyone else is learning it on this forum. Anyone?


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## cmasirius (Mar 23, 2010)

Yes!
I actually just finished putting some sound files in my mp3 player so that I can listen to some Japanese words and phrases whenever I have free time. Good luck with your learning!


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## megaminxwin (Mar 23, 2010)

Kewl.

I'm using flash cards. Seems to work pretty well (made easier with the fact that we have the best teacher EVAR), with how to write it on the front and the romaji on the back.

Good luck with YOUR learning.


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## Dene (Mar 23, 2010)

Way back in the day I learnt Japanese. In the first years, the biggest thing is learning the alphabets. If you work hard and master those, the rest will hopefully be a lot easier on you. Personally I didn't put in the effort initially, and it really held me back later on.


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## Litz (Mar 23, 2010)

megaminxwin said:


> I'm using flash cards. Seems to work pretty well (made easier with the fact that we have the best teacher EVAR), with how to write it on the front and the romaji on the back.



Use anki to memorize vocabulary. It works great. You can also use it to learn the alphabet (that's how I did it back in the day). Just master Hiragana for now to drop romaji as soon as possible. It's really helpful. After knowing Hiragana, learning Katakana will be pretty easy. It's a fun language to learn but it's a lot of work! Just keep at it and don't lose motivation when you start learning Kanji


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## JunwenYao (Mar 23, 2010)

何ですか？　日本語？


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## janelle (Mar 23, 2010)

I'm learning Japanese also, but in 10th grade since that's when they start here. We already finish the Hiragana and Katakana but haven't started Kanji. It's not really has hard as people think. Just put in time to learn those and everything else isn't that bad. I really like this class.  Good luck on learning.


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## jms_gears1 (Mar 23, 2010)

janelle said:


> I'm learning Japanese also, but in 10th grade since that's when they start here. We already finish the Hiragana and Katakana but haven't started Kanji. It's not really has hard as people thing. Just put in time to learn those and everything else isn't that bad. I really like this class.  Good luck on learning.


exactly. 

Im not actively learning japanese, because my school doesnt offer it. However my girlfriend is (Zinc252) and she teaches me little by little.

so far i can put really simple sentences together, such as when i tell her i love her a lot or shes really cute! or telling someone that something is mine, as in my demon >: D

its a very fun language and i love listening to japanese people talk in japanese lol. Its kind of like silk, in a really hard to explain way.


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## Hadley4000 (Mar 23, 2010)

I took it last semester and ****ing hated it.


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## Zubon (Mar 23, 2010)

I learned Japanese and now use it more than English.
If you guys have any questions or want to practice go ahead. よろこんで～！　

To tell you the truth, learning Japanese is pretty useless outside of Japan. Chinese would be much more practical if you want to communicate to a large part of the world.

If any cubers are traveling to Tokyo and want to be shown around you would be welcome.

There are also a few Japanese members here although they are not such active posters.


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## blah (Mar 23, 2010)

Litz said:


> Use anki to memorize vocabulary. It works great. You can also use it to learn the alphabet (that's how I did it back in the day). Just master Hiragana for now to drop romaji as soon as possible. It's really helpful. After knowing Hiragana, learning Katakana will be pretty easy. It's a fun language to learn but it's a lot of work! Just keep at it and don't lose motivation when you start learning Kanji



Kanji is the easiest.


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## jms_gears1 (Mar 23, 2010)

blah said:


> Litz said:
> 
> 
> > Use anki to memorize vocabulary. It works great. You can also use it to learn the alphabet (that's how I did it back in the day). Just master Hiragana for now to drop romaji as soon as possible. It's really helpful. After knowing Hiragana, learning Katakana will be pretty easy. It's a fun language to learn but it's a lot of work! Just keep at it and don't lose motivation when you start learning Kanji
> ...


BWAA
how is kanji the easiest....
unless the sarcasm hasnt hit me yet...


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## Toire-Dakku (Mar 23, 2010)

jms_gears1 said:


> blah said:
> 
> 
> > Litz said:
> ...



That's probably because he knows the Chinese language. Most of Kanji's Chinese equivalent mean the same.


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## Caedus (Mar 23, 2010)

I'm taking it next year in school (grade 11), and I'm currently trying to teach myself in the little free time I have.


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## Zarxrax (Mar 23, 2010)

I took it in college, but now just study it on my own. Classes stopped being helpful at all after the beginner level stuff.


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## jms_gears1 (Mar 23, 2010)

Toire-Dakku said:


> jms_gears1 said:
> 
> 
> > blah said:
> ...


Oh... right, i forgot that kanji was derived from chinese.
at least thats what ive been told


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## luke1984 (Mar 23, 2010)

I tought myself a little Japanese a while ago. VERY interesting language. I can read only hiragana, and only know a few formal phrases. I'm going to look into in again sometime.

Now I'm all about learning Na'vi, the language from the movie Avatar. It's fictional, but has a full language structure and the grammer is very interesting. Check out the little phrase in my signature, it means: "I speak a little Na'vi, but still have a lot to learn."


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## Zubon (Mar 23, 2010)

jms_gears1 said:


> Oh... right, i forgot that kanji was derived from chinese.
> at least thats what ive been told



Kanji 漢字 literally means writing of the Han (Hun?). It *is* Chinese but over the years it has evolved to fit the Japanese language. 

Now they are quite different however, when I go to China, I can understand about 50% of all writing and about 90% of menus, simple signs etc. Things that have a lot of nouns.


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## Sa967St (Mar 23, 2010)

It's my first language and I used to speak it fluently. I've forgotten so much of it though


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## Baian Liu (Mar 24, 2010)

僕も日本語を勉強して、去年九月から始めた。現在は、まだ悪いです。

That's probably grammatically incorrect.


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## iSpinz (Mar 24, 2010)

Zubon said:


> jms_gears1 said:
> 
> 
> > Oh... right, i forgot that kanji was derived from chinese.
> ...



I gotta learn Chinese... I can speak it, but I can't write/read that much.


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## Zubon (Mar 24, 2010)

Baian Liu said:


> 僕も日本語を勉強して、去年九月から始めた。現在は、まだ悪いです。
> 
> That's probably grammatically incorrect.



Not bad.  Maybe a little unnatural but pretty good.

For the people worrying about learning Kanji. Once you start, it gets easier. Soon you learn that most Kanji have a phonetic part which often helps with the reading. For example 剣　険　検　and 験 are all common Kanji read as KEN. They all have the same phonetic root.

Don't worry if you can't read them. Half the Japanese people here also have problems reading.


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## Edward (Mar 24, 2010)

On and off yes. I plan to get really serious when I can take a course next year in high school.


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## liljthedude (Mar 24, 2010)

I am! Japanese 1-2. Learned Hirgana+Katakana(of course), tons of vocab. I'm learning new things everyday. Also study Kanji on my own (not much in class yet). Using Anki for vocab. I have the best teacher in the world. He went to Japan as a missionary and taught English and lived there for 14 years! He came back to Amerca to teach Japanese. I am going to be taking Japanese my next two years in high school. 
I have the Japanese calendar cube .
Notice my sig


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## nodranb98 (Mar 24, 2010)

I am!  Japanese rocks


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## Zubon (Mar 24, 2010)

liljthedude said:


> I am! Japanese 1-2. Learned Hirgana+Katakana(of course), tons of vocab. I'm learning new things everyday. Also study Kanji on my own (not much in class yet). Using Anki for vocab. I have the best teacher in the world. He went to Japan as a missionary and taught English and lived there for 14 years! He came back to Amerca to teach Japanese. I am going to be taking Japanese my next two years in high school.
> I have the Japanese calendar cube .
> Notice my sig




Not wanting to Pochmann you or anything but usually Jonathan is written as 「ジョナ*サ*ン」

Good luck with the studying!


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## megaminxwin (Mar 24, 2010)

Hey, I just found a site that can help with learning hiragana, katakana, and kanji! (Not the words though.)

KanjiSite.

In other news, I'm now teaching my friend Japanese and she's teaching me Spanish! Fun challenge, really, learning 2 languages at the same time.


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## Alex DiTuro (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm taking Japanese as my Minor in college. If you're using flash cards use Byki. It's a program that uses digital flash cards. It's very useful and its free.


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## Daryl (Mar 24, 2010)

I have studied Japanese for 4 years, I just studied it for hobby because I love Japanese music and movie.
May be it is useless for speak because I'm not in Japan, but it is interesting to understand japanese song and movie. I still love it even though I don't use it a lot.


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## liljthedude (Mar 24, 2010)

Zubon said:


> liljthedude said:
> 
> 
> > I am! Japanese 1-2. Learned Hirgana+Katakana(of course), tons of vocab. I'm learning new things everyday. Also study Kanji on my own (not much in class yet). Using Anki for vocab. I have the best teacher in the world. He went to Japan as a missionary and taught English and lived there for 14 years! He came back to Amerca to teach Japanese. I am going to be taking Japanese my next two years in high school.
> ...


Oh..ok. I faintly remember my teacher telling me my real name last year(They call me Geppetto). It was said like that.
どおも　ありがとう　ございます


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## coinman (Mar 24, 2010)

Isn't it true that even among young people in japan the average level of english knowledge / speaking is not weary good at al? This is my conclusion after meting several japanese cubers on the last two WC. I tried to speak to them but either there level of english is very low or they are weary shy? A few of them were a little easier to speak with, but most of them seem to speak english in the level of a normal kid of 10-12 years of age in sweden even though they were mush older or adult. 

My english is not perfect, i'm after al swedish, but when i grow up in sweden everyone started to learn english in third grade (at 10 years of age) and now i think kids starts even earlier. How is it in japan? Do they teach english in schools at al? Nowadays it just must be a great disadvantage to speak no or bad english. Most things on the internet are in english and it really helps a lot to be able to communicate with people from al over the world.


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## Zarxrax (Mar 24, 2010)

coinman said:


> Isn't it true that even among young people in japan the average level of english knowledge / speaking is not weary good at al? This is my conclusion after meting several japanese cubers on the last two WC. I tried to speak to them but either there level of english is very low or they are weary shy? A few of them were a little easier to speak with, but most of them seem to speak english in the level of a normal kid of 10-12 years of age in sweden even though they were mush older or adult.
> 
> My english is not perfect, i'm after al swedish, but when i grow up in sweden everyone started to learn english in third grade (at 10 years of age) and now i think kids starts even earlier. How is it in japan? Do they teach english in schools at al? Nowadays it just must be a great disadvantage to speak no or bad english. Most things on the internet are in english and it really helps a lot to be able to communicate with people from al over the world.



Haha, yea, your English is a little bad 
al -> all
weary -> very (or really?)

English education in Japan definitely has some problems. I think they don't start learning it seriously until middle school, and even then, their teacher is probably a native Japanese speaker. It can be argued that English is just *really hard* for them, because it's so different from Japanese, but I don't think that argument holds much weight, because Korean is also very different from English, but they produce much better English speakers.
Most of the Japanese people I know who haven't lived in an English speaking country seem to be kind of ok with English. In the sense that they can sort of have a really basic conversation, but not much more than that. I had Japanese teachers who have actually lived and taught here in America for YEARS, and they still had ****-poor English. But on the other hand, I have met a few Japanese people who had a great command of the English language. I knew one girl who had only lived in America for 1-2 years, and she sounded like it was her native language. 

One of my Japanese teachers tried to explain to me that historically, foreign languages have been something that Japanese only learn to read, but don't learn to speak. I don't know how much weight this idea holds, but it seems to have some merit. Much of the Japanese writing system came from China, so its possible for Japanese people to learn to read Chinese without necessarily knowing how to pronounce the words.
I have friend who I write emails to, and she can read and write English very well. But when I went to Japan, I called her up on the phone, and she absolutely refused to speak to me in English, because she had no confidence in her speaking ability.

Japan is physically isolated from the rest of the world, and they have strong immigration laws, which means most Japanese people don't have much contact with English-speaking people. They seem very keen on learning English, but I get the idea that its just a giant echo-chamber of the blind leading the blind.


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## megaminxwin (Apr 6, 2010)

Bump.


luke1984 said:


> Now I'm all about learning Na'vi, the language from the movie Avatar. It's fictional, but has a full language structure and the grammer is very interesting. Check out the little phrase in my signature, it means: "I speak a little Na'vi, but still have a lot to learn."



Really? You know the one thing I've wondered is - if it's possible to get this information - what are the numbers one to ten? (In Na'vi, obviously.)

(If it's in the movie, I wouldn't know, since I am possibly the only person in the world who hasn't seen it... yet.)

Also: Where do you find out how to speak a fictional language that isn't even fully disclosed in the official source? (Unless I'm missing something...)


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## iChanZer0 (Apr 6, 2010)

lancetheblueknight is learning japanese


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## megaminxwin (Apr 7, 2010)

Really? Lol. I wonder how much he knows already...


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## Forte (Apr 7, 2010)

I'm Japanese and speak it with my mother because I don't like speaking in English to her >_>

I'm pretty sure it must be really odd to learn all these odd sentence structures and such 

Keep at it


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## iChanZer0 (Apr 7, 2010)

He said he was taking it in college.


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## Chapuunka (Apr 7, 2010)

I kinda miss Lance. Hopefully he'll have time this summer when off from college.


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## dillonbladez (Apr 7, 2010)

Sa967St said:


> It's my first language and I used to speak it fluently. I've forgotten so much of it though



Wait... Is sarah asian???


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## canadiancuber (Apr 7, 2010)

dillonbladez said:


> Sa967St said:
> 
> 
> > It's my first language and I used to speak it fluently. I've forgotten so much of it though
> ...



asians ftw lolz


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## megaminxwin (Apr 7, 2010)

Forte: Yes it _*is*_ really odd. Why don't you like speaking in English to your mother?
Page topper


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## Forte (Apr 7, 2010)

megaminxwin said:


> Forte: Yes it _*is*_ really odd. Why don't you like speaking in English to your mother?



Well, my mother was raised in Japan (I was born in Japan and moved here when I was four). So I guess it's out of habit? It just feels weird. Also my mother's English isn't the best >_>


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## CubesOfTheWorld (Apr 7, 2010)

noperz. im gonna learn espanol cuz its easy.


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## megaminxwin (Apr 7, 2010)

CubesOfTheWorld said:


> noperz. im gonna learn espanol cuz its easy.



Lol, I had a slight double take there; I thought you wrote Esperanto instead of Espanol.

They are very similar, though, both in name and in the actual language. Hmm.


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## Sa967St (Apr 7, 2010)

dillonbladez said:


> Sa967St said:
> 
> 
> > It's my first language and I used to speak it fluently. I've forgotten so much of it though
> ...



LOL

yeah, well... half-Asian


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## megaminxwin (Apr 7, 2010)

Sa967St said:


> dillonbladez said:
> 
> 
> > Sa967St said:
> ...



Win


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