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Japanese

Hi, I'm (hopefully) starting Japanese ab initio in September and to say I'm scared is a slight understatement. I do French at the moment and I'm not very good at it, so I'm worried about how well I'm going to be able to do Japanese.

I'm planning on learning hirigana and katakana over the summer but I was wondering if there is anything else I should try to do to make the transition slightly easier for me. :redface:

I know I'm probably panicking unnecessarily and I know I'll have to put a lot of work in when I get to university (especially with an ab initio language) but I just need something to make me feel slightly more confident.

Reply 1

Gael

ummm...youll end up getting paid more than us indo-european sell outs....?

Reply 2

_Sian_

drsmeeth

ummm...youll end up getting paid more than us indo-european sell outs....?

Not if I fail I won't :tongue:

Reply 3

duckblink

Hey im doing Japanese, feeling pretty much the same way as you... :confused:

which uni you going to? I should hopefully be going to Sheffield come September :biggrin:

Reply 4

JadedHippy

I'm going into second year Japanese, so here are some tips that I learned from mistakes I made.

Buy a kanji dictionary at the start and use it straight away.

Don't just do they work they give you, find extra authentic Japanese material and translate for yourself, with said dictionary.

When -te form (Don't worry if you don't know what this is yet) is introduced, learn it like the back of your hand. It is vital for progression.

Don't do what I do and lament over what you don't know. It will only depress you and hamper your progress.

Ganbatte Sian San.

Reply 5

Eien

I had to do the japanese GCSE in two years instead of four, so my situation resembled yours a little, but of course the GCSE course is far easier. Jaded is absolutely right about learning the te form, not only does it have many uses, but the "tara", "ta", and "tari" verb forms are converted the same way, meaning when you know the "te" form, you can immediately use the other three forms. It probably sounds confusing now, but it should become clearer once you learn. Despite Japanese being a totally alien language in many respects, compared to many European languages which resemble English in some way, you may find it is not as overwhelmingly difficult as you anticipated - this is what I experienced in any case. The best way to learn is to constantly expose yourself to the language (of an appropriate level), especially kanji, in order to learn them. I'm lucky I already have a Japanese A level before starting the degree, but I'll be starting Korean more or less from scratch - ganbatte ne!

Reply 6

_Sian_

duckblink

Hey im doing Japanese, feeling pretty much the same way as you... :confused:

which uni you going to? I should hopefully be going to Sheffield come September :biggrin:

Liverpool John Moore's. I'm glad I'm not the only one's who's nervous about it if I'm honest, possibly means that some of the people on the same course as me will be more sympathetic. I have images of starting and everyone else being near native fluency and me being way behind :redface:

JadedHippy

Thanks! I was planning on buying some books before I started to give me a feel, a kanji dictionary will now go top of the list.

What sort of material should I look for? Just newspaper/magazine articles or something a bit more/hefty?

I don't know what the -te form is yet but I'm sure I'll find out pretty soon on

Eien

Thanks! And good luck with the Korean, I always wanted to learn that as well :smile:

Reply 7

ilovetash

If you're gonna be reading newspapers and magazines you really really need that kanji dictionary, trust me lol. When reading, Kanji is the only thing that holds me back because there's so much. However, although it may seem like your worst enemy, it's extremely useful in breaking up sentences and signifying certain words so it doesnt get confusing. Definately learn some basic Kanji beforehand, just verbs like taberu (to eat) （たべる　－　食べる） and miru (to see) （みる　－　見る）, you'll understand once you learn that hiragana. Some kanji is extremely useful though because it just makes words a lot more recognisable and just shorter. For example, racial discrimination: じんしゅさべつ　＝　人種差別

In my experience, Japanese is a lot more simple than English, and once you get the alien parts down (writing system, phonetics) it really is an easy to pick up language in my opinion.

I'm hoping to study Japanese also, at Oxford or Sheffield.

Reply 8

Exoskeletal

does anyone know which kanji dictionary is the best?

or has anyone used electronic kanji dictionaries?
they're much quicker for finding characters, but i don't know which one to get.

Reply 9

cheesecakebobby

Exoskeletal

does anyone know which kanji dictionary is the best?

or has anyone used electronic kanji dictionaries?
they're much quicker for finding characters, but i don't know which one to get.

I have one from Japan for my Nintendo DS. Now of course it is aimed at Japanese people improving their Kanji and learning English, but it is still very useful, for one reason in particular - you can draw the Kanji on the screen. Sadly you usually need to know the stroke order, but it really is a fantastic tool and can be found on all good import websites (I got it from Yes Asia for about 20 quid delivered)

Reply 10

Gravastar

That's absolutely fantastic! Nintendo never cease to amaze me with their great ideas.

Reply 11

Exoskeletal

damnit, i'm getting a PSP! lol :biggrin:

my japanese teacher had a sweet little Sony electronic dictionary.
but it was made for the japanese not someone trying to learn japanese. ah well.

Reply 12

Marmotta

You could always try this:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=304&products_id=7653&PHPSESSID=4ac01055bceeb9386ac6173a68f23241

Reply 13

cheesecakebobby

Talkman is absolutely crap and the voice recognition doesn't work, the UK version just came out and its less useful than a phrasebook with half the pages torn out.

Reply 14

Marmotta

Aww, was thinking of getting it myself, but I'll take your word for its crappiness :wink:

Reply 15

jaybones

Hey everyone,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/4770028555/026-2194109-5662058?v=glance&n=266239

This is by far THE best kanji dictionary to buy. Its an essential part of the course (espeically for 2nd years) at SEAS and it's recommended everywhere. I cant state how great and easy to use this dictionary this is. You will find that you wont be needed it too much in the first year but it becomes absolutely necessary after that. I dont agree with buying a kanji dictionary straight away.

Okay, Maybe I bought it straight away but thats because I wanted to go there prepared so to speak but I barely used it all year only to look up kanji for the common words that we used ALL the time! Its a very cheap dictionary too and has around about 2500 kanji entries and so many different ways of looking up the kanji so it makes finding them so simple!

Also you will find you come to depend on this website:

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

Jim Breen is an absolute legend - you'll find this site to be a godsend once you get the hang of using it!

good luck everyone!

Reply 16

JadedHippy