Japanese Studies

Hey, so I'll be starting at Newcastle in september studying Japanese (grades permitting) and just wondering if anyone has done this course and has any advice on what is expected of me before I get there?

I've looked around the forums a bit and generally found mixed advice, either saying learn as much as you can before you go, or don't learn anything at all in case you develop bad habits :s-smilie:

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!! :smile:

Reply 1

TheTard

km31

...

do you know anything at all about japanese at all? of you dont, i would suggest learning all the kana (hiragana & katakana) dont rory too much about kanji, but if you have kana down, that will probs make life much easier when you get there cos all you have to wory about then is grammar and vocab etc not how to read/write it.

Reply 2

olliecapehorn

check out my sig's link to get you off to a good grounding. My advice is to stay completely away from any romaji based resources and learn hiragana and katakana completely before you go... can't hurt at all. Plus learn vocabulary but not the kanji - you need a native to teach you the stroke order really...

Reply 3

Soxi

I've just finished my first year of study at SOAS, so different course, but from my experience, it's definitely a good idea to learn katakana and hiragana before you go. Romaji wasn't used at all - everyone had to have learnt hiragana and katakana by the end of the first week, so you might as well use the summer to do that so that you'll feel confident about it.

I'd already taken Japanese at GCSE, so I knew some basic kanji and grammar anyway, but if you haven't studied it before, there's no need to rush out and try to teach yourself the basics - your teachers will do that in a much better way when you get there. Learning the stroke order of kanji (something that I'm not too great at..) is definitely a lot easier with a teacher, and learning it correctly makes learning the kanji themselves easier. So really, just focus on katakana and hiragana :smile:

Reply 4

km31

ooh phew, i already know the kana but im relieved that i won't be expected to already know any grammer, or kanji cause that looks tricky
thanks for clearing that up :smile:

Reply 5

guy_incognito

hooks and fades, hooks and fades.

Reply 6

hakone88

guy_incognito

hooks and fades, hooks and fades.

Ever since you said that I've wondered if I've learned to write kana correctly. I would say the way I write it at the minute is somewhere in between a bland computer font like い and fancy calligraphy like http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/7047/hi.htm !

From that sheffield thread I gathered that there's a lot of emphasis on neat and correct handwriting. Don't want to turn up next year and get a ********** for it :p:

Reply 7

guy_incognito

Supposedly Arai-sensei is not there next year so maybe they will be less strict on the kanji. Saying that Nagai still pulls me up on tons of sh**tingly drawn kanji on the sakubun.

I think my handwriting is quite neat in Japanese though. Go figure.

Reply 8

guy_incognito

Also don't base too much on that site. There are two ways to write kanji and kana.

The correct way or the practical way. The practical way is how most Japanese people write them because its easier. For instance, そ is always written as one stroke because its hard to do it as two strokes when you are writing quickly. Now of course, the correct way dictates you should do it with two strokes, but it doesn't take into consideration any type of practical usage. For the time being, just learn the correct way and the practical way will follow eventually.

But yeah, after two to three years of writing Japanese you'll understand what I'm talking about. Seems bizarre talking about kana now. It was like three years ago to the day I started studying Japanese and here I am attempting to learn the kanji 潔斎 which even a Japanese person would struggle to remember.

Reply 9

hakone88

Even though I'm only beginning, it really does amaze me how much you know after just 2 years at uni (1000 kanji, is it?). It must put it into perspective for you looking at me knowing how far you have come. I've only got to a conversational level with a language before but I often fantasize (!) about being fluent in another language, especially one that I have an interest in and is as different as Japanese. Great feeling.

I'll look over my kana but I think, for the most part, I have been writing them correctly and not using 1 stroke like in the case of そ. I suppose it's not too much to worry about in the grand scheme of things. Time to crack on with my first kanji and some vocab.