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juliecao611
Joined: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 8
Location: Los Angeles, California
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 Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:14 pm Post subject: Learning Japanese. . . |
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| I am coming to Japan to start teaching and absorbing the Japanese cultural as of Mid-March. As of now I have little knowledge of the language, but am eager to learn and understand it will take time. I am looking for any advice from you vetrans. Such as are there any books you would recommend to start with (maybe geared to the Western mind)? And what should I focus on in the beginning? I know I can do this!!! |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:27 pm Post subject: Re: Learning Japanese. . . |
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| juliecao611 wrote: |
| I am coming to Japan to start teaching and absorbing the Japanese cultural as of Mid-March. As of now I have little knowledge of the language, but am eager to learn and understand it will take time. I am looking for any advice from you vetrans. Such as are there any books you would recommend to start with (maybe geared to the Western mind)? And what should I focus on in the beginning? I know I can do this!!! |
I think Glenski has a list of books for beginners but what you have to do is start learning how to read Japanese symbols. Japanese has 3 alphabets each with different symbols. There are about 52 sounds in Japanese and these are represented by hiragana. Its a bit like our alphabet with phonetic sounds like ka-ki-ku-ke-ko and ra-ri-ru-re-ro.
The next one is katakana which is foreign words put into Japanese. There are literally thousands of these and things like western foods, places (such as McDonalds and Disneyland), foreign personal names and names of countries are written in katakana. These words are virtually unrecognisable to native speakers of English once they are put into Japanese.
The mother of all languages is Japanese Kanji which is the Chinese characters they use, and there are over 2000 of these different symbols that Japanese learn by the time students finish high school. Learning Japanese without learning to read and write the Kanji is like driving around on 3 wheels. Consider this a long term project as it will take about 3-4 years of consistent study to learn how to read and write the language properly. It is possible to learn to speak Japanese without knowing Kanji, but as your language learning progresses you will read a lot more and pick up vocabulary etc and more advanced texts are often only written in Japanese Kanji and hiragana, so at some point you will need to learn the written forms. There is a method to memorising all those characters, but I dont want to bog you down with details right now.
Japanese is a fairly simple language to pronounce compared to English as it has a very regular sound system so it will help to learn how to pronounce the Japanese sounds. Many of the books available will teach you basic grammar and vocabulary etc.
Last edited by PAULH on Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:36 am; edited 2 times in total |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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For learning hiragana and katakana: Kana Can Be Easy by Kuniko Ogawa - Easily available in Japan
For learning kanji - Basic Kanji Book Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
Flash cards for kanji - Tuttle Kanji Cards I and II
These are all things that can help before you come to Japan and continue once you get here. |
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Captain Onigiri
Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 103
Location: fly-over land
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:50 am Post subject: |
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| I bought "Ty's Teach Yourself Japanese" several years ago just because I needed something to do during my lunch hour and I learned a lot. It's one of those books that come with two CDs. It's filled with lots of practical stuff like how to count and how to introduce yourself. I also bought "Your First 100 Words in Japanese" and "Easy Kana Workbook" to supplement. First 100 Words comes with flashcards to cut out. Now I know just enough Japanese to be dangerous! Anyway, I bought all of those off of Amazon.com |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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Willy_In_Japan
Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:42 am Post subject: |
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| Learning Katakana, Hirigana, and Kanji are the 'right' ways to do it. However, if you want a book that I have found to be quite useful for 'survival Japanese' it is 'Japanese in 10 minutes a day'. It is aimed at the tourist, but it teaches you to say quite a bit. |
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stretch
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 59
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:13 pm Post subject: studying |
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I have never found a book that I like that much for studying. I find that they all lack something. Too many books try to teach us Japanese in romaji which to me is useless for the most part. For me the best way to study Japanese was to force myself to speak it as much as possible and right down new words and new forms as I heard them and research them late. I did use the JET study guide when I first got to Japan and that gave enough of the basic foundation I guess. I became a fan of the Daily Yomiuri's pera pera penguin in the paper, which also is availale online. Lots of great expression and explanations with lots a good mix of kanji vs romaji.
The most useful book I have in my arsenal are a good Japanese - English dictionary with romaji and kana(i have one by random house that is pretty good) as well as the book Kanji and Kana (by Hadamitsky and Spahn) which is essential in my opinion. This book gives all the kanji in a very logical order and layout and was my best study buddy. Learn a new word or verb whatever, and look it up and learn the kanji for it. Helped me immensely. Hope that helps a bit. |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 2068
Location: eslcafe
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:37 pm Post subject: Japanese for Busy People |
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Japanese for Busy People Book 1;
Author: AJALT (the Association for Japanese-Langauge Teaching);
Publisher: Kodanshu International Ltd;
ISBN: 4-7700-1882-7
English Website: www.thejapanpage.com
Thoroughly recommended. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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I would also recommend this website for learning Kanji. Links for beginners to learning Japanese.
http://www.kanjiclinic.com/
Hope this helps |
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lostinparis
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 77
Location: within range of a flying baguette
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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While we're on the subject... would someone mind recommending a good English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionary?
My paperback Webster's New World Dictionary has been driving me nuts, as I can't even find some pretty basic words in it.
cheers |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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| I prefer the Random House dictionary. It is still on the shelves after the 1995 copyright. |
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stretch
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 59
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject: random house |
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I'm with Glenski as I mentioned above.
Go for Random House. Big, but good for studying and letter writing not for in your pocket.
From Amazon.ca
Paperback - 688 pages (April 7, 1997)
Language: English
Random House Reference ; ISBN: 0679780017
$15.96 Canadian
Hope that helps. |
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lostinparis
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 77
Location: within range of a flying baguette
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| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:11 am Post subject: |
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Funny, I actually bought this dictionary when I was taking Japanese in college... but it's been years since I've seen it and I have no idea where it could be (probably in a box in the attic at my parents' house).
Thanks for the suggestion, Glenski and stretch. |
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Munchen
Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 1:27 am Post subject: Previous topic |
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Please don't forget that this has been a repeated topic a few times before on this forum. A lot of good suggestions if you dig down into previous messages.
In the end, the best in acquiring any language is getting to the place it's spoken, take a good immersion course there and interact with the people, life and culture of that country. Flicks, TV, newspapers and talking.
I studied Spanish in the US high school and university system, but it didn't really click until I took intensive language training for several months in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
It's as simple as that. |
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The G-stringed Avenger
Joined: 13 Aug 2004
Posts: 746
Location: Lost in rhyme infinity
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 5:29 am Post subject: |
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I agree with the above - learn the basics before you go and then you'll be able to survive before throwing yourself into immersion.
Japanese Morning Noon and Night is good for natural expressions in various situations. A departure from standard textbook Japanese. |
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