Someone learned Japanese using a selfstudy course ?

jibbajabba

Apart from Rosetta Stone, are there any other audio courses available ?

dynamik

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/30824-any-game-nerds-here.html#post209457

I've picked up a ton of apps for my iPhone as well.

jibbajabba

dynamik wrote: »

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/30824-any-game-nerds-here.html#post209457

I've picked up a ton of apps for my iPhone as well.

Heh, cool .. gonna have my iphone and touch on the plane next week

Going to check them out tomorrow on my laptop which I use to sync my iphone and touch (which is in the office at the moment).

apena7

It depends on much are you willing to learn.
Is this for survivalist phrases? Converstations? Fluency?

jibbajabba

apena7 wrote: »

It depends on much are you willing to learn.
Is this for survivalist phrases? Converstations? Fluency?

Yes yes and yes

Let's say I was always interested in learning another language .. I am happy to finally speak English .. well not 100% obviously .. but good enough to work in England ..

Now Japanese is a language I was always interested in .. I'd love to go to Japan one day (well for holiday anyway) but I hate to depend on people there speaking English (lol or German for that matter).

So my first goal is to be able to have some chit chat and to "survive" without the need of speaking English ..

If I can speak casual Japanese it would be stupid to stop right there so the next step would be obviously to speak it fluently and or even write a bit .

But first things first .. starting slowly and shift up a gear when necessary

Do you know what I mean ?

dynamik

Definitely hit up Japanesepod101.com. That's a great place to start.

Your native language is German, correct?

jibbajabba

dynamik wrote: »

Definitely hit up Japanesepod101.com. That's a great place to start.

Your native language is German, correct?

Yes it is

apena7

You're in luck because Japanese is probably the easiest of Asian languages to speak.
It won't be difficult to learn the basics and you will probably be able to form simple sentences within a few weeks.

As suggested, look up Japanesepod101 and see if that catches your fancy.

dynamik

Gomjaba wrote: »

Yes it is

Nice. German is another one I'd like to learn (you're one ahead of me ). There's a germanpod101.com, but I've only listened to a few.

Do you ever go to Oktoberfest? I'd love to make it out there one year.

Apena, what's your skill-level/interest in Japanese?

jibbajabba

dynamik wrote: »

Nice. German is another one I'd like to learn (you're one ahead of me ). There's a germanpod101.com, but I've only listened to a few.

Do you ever go to Oktoberfest? I'd love to make it out there one year.

Apena, what's your skill-level/interest in Japanese?

Been there twice .. Back in the day, where the Octoberfest was about fun and beer, and then again to show it to an English friend of mine .. Man that was disappointing ... Too damn commercial ... It is like the setup of three shops is mirrored over the whole area .. you know the first two feet of the fest, you know the whole thing .. Know what I mean ?

tiersten

Self study is good for starting off but eventually you'll want to find a teacher or at least somebody who you can talk to in Japanese frequently. The best way to learn a language IMO is to get the basics done and then just go to that country. Not very practical and If you don't learn quick you'll starve

dynamik

You can actually find a lot of Japanese people that are willing to exchange emails or chat with you online. Check out J-List Friends (J-List is totally NSFW though).

So how many people went to J-List after reading that?

apena7

dynamik wrote: »

Apena, what's your skill-level/interest in Japanese?

I visited Japan almost 2 years ago.
Naturally, I wanted to learn a little bit of the language in order to get by. I remember that it wasn't terribly difficult to learn. Unfortunately, I haven't spoken it since (aside from shopping in Japanese markets).

As a side job, I privately tutor ESL students. It definitely helps to know enough of your student's language to help overcome common errors. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, "he" "she" and "it" are pronounced the same, but are written differently. So it's a very common mistake for a Chinese-speaking ESL student to use "he" when talking about a woman and vice versa. If I didn't study Chinese, then I wouldn't know why the student is confusing those words with each other. As for myself, I know enough Spanish, Japanese, and Korean to get by and I hope to gain fluency with Mandarin Chinese.

As you can probably tell, I love languages (with the exception of Java), so best of luck to you, Gomjaba!

Pash

I work for a japanese company with japanes people in the UK.

Id be interested in finding out peoples learning methods to pick up the language.

I can say some very basic stuff after 2 years and other than that im learning to speak japingish, thats a great language to learn.

Lamini

Japanese is not hard. Nihongo wa kantan dayo.

spoken japanese is easy, written japanese is not so easy. english was my 4th language.

ps, learn from a guy, or else you'll talk like a fag. formal japanese is girlish. dont learn the hard way :P. i did 8 yrs there myself

want to make money? advertise in japan as conversational english instructor. they had to put a cap on the dependent wives in the military while i was in as nearly (all) made more than their husbands (which is not hard to do). 5yrs ago, $40per student every hour was a typical deal, and they were in groups of 5+ when they were brought on base. japan peeps are one of the friendliest. just remember more girls want to learn than guys, and the younger ones think its fad. i have a buddy who got out the air force, taught sports in japan, got a free house, free car, gets 6figures, no qualifications whatsoever, but he's white, blonde hair. I tried myself, but being asian myself, was not sought after.

want to learn japanese quickly? katakana and hiragana took me roughly two hours to memorize, good start. you only need to know ~800 kanji characters to be able to read a newspaper. when i passed final fantasy 7 the first time, took me 80hrs, all in japanese :P. passed english version in about 12hrs.

ULWiz

Japanese is a language i wanted to learn as well but unfortunately dont have much time to pick up something else. English is not my first language but is something i have spoken since 89 when i first came to the US. Most people have no idea i was born somewhere else, so in a way thats a good thing.

Danish is actually my native language or as my friends say "the language of the Donuts or pastries".

Anyways best of luck on the Japanese.

JBrown

Lamini wrote: »

Japanese is not hard. Nihongo wa kantan dayo.

spoken japanese is easy, written japanese is not so easy. english was my 4th language.

ps, learn from a guy, or else you'll talk like a fag. formal japanese is girlish. dont learn the hard way :P. i did 8 yrs there myself

want to make money? advertise in japan as conversational english instructor. they had to put a cap on the dependent wives in the military while i was in as nearly (all) made more than their husbands (which is not hard to do). 5yrs ago, $40per student every hour was a typical deal, and they were in groups of 5+ when they were brought on base. japan peeps are one of the friendliest. just remember more girls want to learn than guys, and the younger ones think its fad. i have a buddy who got out the air force, taught sports in japan, got a free house, free car, gets 6figures, no qualifications whatsoever, but he's white, blonde hair. I tried myself, but being asian myself, was not sought after.

want to learn japanese quickly? katakana and hiragana took me roughly two hours to memorize, good start. you only need to know ~800 kanji characters to be able to read a newspaper. when i passed final fantasy 7 the first time, took me 80hrs, all in japanese :P. passed english version in about 12hrs.

Very interesting. I have noticed that most IT guys are into;

1. learning foreign languages
2. digital photography
3. 1) and 2) in combination
4. hang out in bars with some geeky girl.
5. some other sport, such as NSFW websites

In any case, I would love to learn some Japanese. For me it means no more depending on HULU for Bleach and Naruto's subs.

dynamik

JBrown wrote: »

In any case, I would love to learn some Japanese. For me it means no more depending on HULU for Bleach and Naruto's subs.

Bankai!

wedge1988

I'm learning Japanese. Have been now for about 2 months, and I love it. The japs have great music ( jpop ) I have an iPhone, which I'm actually using to type here! But I'm using it to help me learn. I have brought 2 apps called ikana and ikanji, both of which are amazing to learn from. Also, as an audio aid, I have pimsleurs Japanese audio books, which I also listen to whilst at the gym on my iPhone! Get all 3 they're brilliant!

Bl8ckr0uter

dynamik wrote: »

Bankai!

+1 on the Bankai!

dynamik

knwminus wrote: »

+1 on the Bankai!

I just saw they're throwing in a new arc before the Ichigo/Uliquoira showdown. BOOOOOO!

mikedisd2

wedge1988 wrote: »

The japs have great music ( jpop )

I love Japanese music coz I have no idea what their saying. I think that's important.

If you want to learn Japanese, marry a Japanese girl like I did. You'll pick it up pretty fast.

jibbajabba

mikedisd2 wrote: »

I love Japanese music coz I have no idea what their saying. I think that's important.

If you want to learn Japanese, marry a Japanese girl like I did. You'll pick it up pretty fast.

I haven't seen any Asian girls here at all ...

dynamik

Gomjaba wrote: »

I haven't seen any Asian girls here at all ...

I haven't even seen any single ones

JBrown

dynamik wrote: »

I haven't even seen any single ones

Come to Brooklyn, NY, I'll introduce you to a few of them. The sushi restaurant I go to has a few good looking Japanese girls ( at least i have not seen any bad looking Japanese girl so far yet) working there.

wd40

dynamik wrote: »

Nice. German is another one I'd like to learn (you're one ahead of me ). There's a germanpod101.com, but I've only listened to a few.
Do you ever go to Oktoberfest? I'd love to make it out there one year.
Apena, what's your skill-level/interest in Japanese?

I really really really want to learn German, I want to be able to listen to Die Zauberflöte and understand what they are saying..
So I took a German class taught by a German teacher, so I told him I wanted to understand the magic flute .. he said

Mathias Kluge wrote:

even I do not understand it fully .. it is old German

I was disappointed a bit, and I faild miserably in the course .. but still, I would love to learn German.


The Magic Flute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

jibbajabba

wd40 wrote: »

but still, I would love to learn German.

Well, if you want a German pen-pal I am glad to help

Anyway, I signed up today at the local adult college .. They offer a 30 week Japanese course (once a week - 2 hours) for £204 (10% discount if booked early) ... not a bad deal .. oh and £204 = $337

Gonna be interesting to learn a third language based on a second language I am not native in

(course is in English / Japanense but I am German)

RobertKaucher

Gomjaba wrote: »

Well, if you want a German pen-pal I am glad to help

Anyway, I signed up today at the local adult college .. They offer a 30 week Japanese course (once a week - 2 hours) for £204 (10% discount if booked early) ... not a bad deal .. oh and £204 = $337

Gonna be interesting to learn a third language based on a second language I am not native in

(course is in English / Japanense but I am German)

Self-study for languages is great, and can really help you in learning. But you really have to have a teacher or move to the country if you want to be fluent to any degree.

I studied Irish Gaelic for years and I could read it and write it well. I once got into a voice chatroom with some people whose master of those aspects of the language were far inferior to my own... I could not keep up with them in the spoken language, though. One of them even said he was shocked and that he thought I was Irish from my use of the language on the email lists. This was all due to a lack of actual, context driven practice with someone to correct me while speaking. Repeating after a tape or CD will only do so much for you! So, I think you are going about this in the right way. Good luck! I bet you will improve your English as well 2 for 1!

wd40

Gomjaba wrote: »

Well, if you want a German pen-pal I am glad to help

Thanks for the offer .. .. I will contact you when I go back to the learning mode.

wd40

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Self-study for languages is great, and can really help you in learning. But you really have to have a teacher or move to the country if you want to be fluent to any degree.

I studied Irish Gaelic for years and I could read it and write it well. I once got into a voice chatroom with some people whose master of those aspects of the language were far inferior to my own... I could not keep up with them in the spoken language, though. One of them even said he was shocked and that he thought I was Irish from my use of the language on the email lists. This was all due to a lack of actual, context driven practice with someone to correct me while speaking. Repeating after a tape or CD will only do so much for you! So, I think you are going about this in the right way. Good luck! I bet you will improve your English as well 2 for 1!

You can always watch Japanese TV, this is how I learned English, the basics at school and the rest on TV

dynamik

You can always sign up for J-List Friends (possibly NSFW if you google), and exchange email, chat, etc. That's my next step once I feel a little more confident.