Anais3000 wrote:

SonicFan91 wrote:

Anais3000 wrote:

I just started to study japanese

Good for you! How's it going so far? Even though you just started…!

For the moment, I'm just learning the syllabs in japanese, like “shi” or “ro” !

Oh, yes, that's very fun! I hope you especially enjoy learning that part, because I really did, too! And, I'm REALLY sorry for the late reply…!

SonicFan91 wrote:

Anais3000 wrote:

SonicFan91 wrote:

Anais3000 wrote:

I just started to study japanese

Good for you! How's it going so far? Even though you just started…!

For the moment, I'm just learning the syllabs in japanese, like “shi” or “ro” !

Oh, yes, that's very fun! I hope you especially enjoy learning that part, because I really did, too! And, I'm REALLY sorry for the late reply…!

Just remember that not all Hiragana and Katakana represent a syllable. Small tsu doubles the next consonant so in かっこいい (kakkoii) the “っ” (small tsu) doubles the k from こ so it's pronounced kak-ko-ii instead of ka-ko-ii. ん (n) is added on to to the last syllable so in せんせい (sensei) it's pronounced sen-sei not se-n-sei. Also, you have to remember that in Katakana long vowels are indicated by a ー so in コーヒー (koohii) the “o” of ko and the “i” of hi and longer that usual.

For kanji I recommend learning them in words, not by themselves.
For example the word for “friend” is 友達 (tomodachi) and is made of the kanji 友 and 達. To learn these kanji, practice writing sentences on pen and paper.
Soon you will be able to form simple sentences like 私は映画館で映画を見ぶが好きだけど私の友達は映画館に行くが好きではありません。
and
私はMinecraftを遊ぶが好きだけど私の友達はMinecraftを遊ぶが好きではありません

For those of you looking for a grammar guide, I suggest Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese. It's very clear, and his Complete Guide starts all the way from the beginning (Hiragana/Katakana and a general introduction).

SonicFan91 wrote:

I'm studying it too, actually! How's it going for you?!

Me too!

For Kanji. I recommend learning radicals. Like the Person radical and the Tree radical together means ‘to rest’. Rather than memorizing them word for word. Also, Japanese uses a lot of foreign words. Like ‘Konpyuta’ from English meaning ‘Computer’, if you know Chinese, (because Japan mostly borrows words and characters from China) or any other language like English, which I'm sure you do. Japanese might become easier. Also, I personally think JapanesePod101 is a good one for learning the basic Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. Hope that helped.

If you have Firefox (and the owner of the computer's permission!) I suggest checking out Rikaichan.

When it's enabled, you can mouse over words on webpages to see definitions, like so:



(There is also a port for Chrome called Rikaikun, although I can't say if it's any good or not.)

I'm going to revive this to admit guilt for I haven't studied Japanese in far too ling…

I'm really stuck with how many words I can get done in a day. I've tried going for 20 words a day, but this just doesn't work for me…
Any recommendation on how I can just bulk study as much as possible.

bybb wrote:

I'm going to revive this to admit guilt for I haven't studied Japanese in far too ling…

I'm really stuck with how many words I can get done in a day. I've tried going for 20 words a day, but this just doesn't work for me…
Any recommendation on how I can just bulk study as much as possible.

Oof, I forgot that this topic existed! It was such a fun place.

Also, same here. Sadly, I haven't studied it in forever, either. I'm actually thinking about maybe learning Spanish, something easier and more familiar first, and then coming back around to Japanese someday. But that's just me. I still really admire everyone who has or is still learning Japanese, though.

I wish I could be of more help with the studying, though… I guess if you can find a way that you can really get yourself extra excited about it, you might get an extra boost of motivation?

I've finally got around to working through the first Japanese From Zero book, and it's very useful.
I already know the Hiragana, so that part isn't very useful, but learning words (even though I'm not learning kanji at this stage) is very useful.

I'll also add that writing Japanese with a fountain pen feels lovely.

Hi,

as a kind of warning, I learned speaking japanese 20 years ago, but I can still not read or write it (kanjis). I think the amount of effort to be able to do significantly more than order food at the restaurant is quite high.

Nonetheless, it is for sure interesting, so feel free to have a go.

I will not let this topic die

Surely there are other people beyond just me and a select few. Anyway, I'll provide some discussion for if people decide to arrive / return.

Do you focus vocabulary or grammar?