Japanese Society

I got an offer for Japanese, SOAS :woo:

Reply 1402

screenager2004

14

Original post by SteveCrain

Thanks for the reply; me being impulsive, I've ordered my first mandarin book, minutes ago, and minutes after the idea first came to me lol.
How old were you when you started learning, and how advanced are you, in terms of reading and ability to converse.

I was 18 (I think - I was in year 13) when I started learning, that was just from a book for a year and a bit, then when I went to uni at 19 (after a gap year) I took intermediate classes at the uni for two years (when this year ends) - my progress has been quite slow because I've been working full time or doing a degree. But after three and a half years I can hold a very very hesitant conversation in person, or chat quite freely when I'm online on japanese blogs or forums.

All round intermediate I'd say, nothing special.

Reply 1403

Original post by ussumane

I got an offer for Japanese, SOAS :woo:

Congrats!! :biggrin:

are you thinking about firming it?

Reply 1404

Original post by Natsuko

Congrats!! :biggrin:

are you thinking about firming it?

Fo'sho

I'm still waiting for one more reply, Japanese and Korean though.

I see you are a SOAS student :biggrin:

How is it?

Reply 1405

Original post by Natsuko

Ah ok! Yeah, I can imagine perfectly well that switching between the two must be difficult... But worth it :smile:

and anyway, it can't be that bad if you sound kansai (intonation wise)! Any tips for the dialect itself?

That's true, and all the cities are so close to each other, too, so lots of opportunities for going somewhere different, as you say :smile:

whereas if you go to Tokyo, you can quickly get to... Tokyo. It's so big!

That does look pretty good! I went onto the bit about mai nichi no gakushuu ni, and are all those dictionaries it cites included in the jisho? (you said something about it including more than one dictionary) Because that in itself would be reason enough to go for a denshi jisho over an iPod app XD

Listen and copy! Try to say it the same way as your friends and the people around you do! I guess it goes for every dialect, but listening to people around you is really the most important thing. You'll notice small differences in almost everything, not only intonation but vocabulary as well!

It's got all the dictionaries and books listed under "Shuuroku kontentsu"(about 130 books) + more. So it's quite a lot. :smile:

Reply 1406

Original post by ussumane

Fo'sho

I'm still waiting for one more reply, Japanese and Korean though.

I see you are a SOAS student :biggrin:

How is it?

That's what we like to hear! :biggrin:

what do you think you'll put for your insurance?

It's very good, you learn a lot very quickly (more than anywhere in the country, I do believe, although I may stand corrected), 1000 kanji in the first two years and enough grammar for you to be able to read most things with the help of a dictionary, and that's before you even get to Japan. Of course, the speed makes it pretty hard, especially if you're doing Korean as well, but it's all very worth it! Employers do like SOAS graduates :smile:

(particularly MI5 if you have Korean but shhh :K:

) the very difficulty of the course means that you'll gain skills that employers love, and a pretty high level of language competence (SOAS usually wins the Annual Japanese Speech Contest). Also, the university itself provides you with countless opportunities to get involved with what's going on (from knitting to leading protests), so you can round yourself off whilst having fun, and get a
The teachers on the Japanese course are extremely hard working, and will do their best to help you where they can (one guy I know in first year got one of the teachers to give him 1-1 help once a week), seriously, they are the most dedicated human beings you could meet. They do get very busy (to the point of sleeping in their offices), so it's best not to ask them for too much time, but they do their best.
And the SOAS bar/SU is very cool, by all meanings of the word :smile:

Have you done any Japanese before, by the way?

I know I probably sound like I'm firing out propaganda, but I've had nothing but good experiences with the course :smile:

... did I leave anything out? Any questions? XD

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1407

Original post by Natsuko

That's what we like to hear! :biggrin:

what do you think you'll put for your insurance?

If I get rejected for Japanese and Korean, I will put Sheffield as my insurance :yep:

It's very good, you learn a lot very quickly (more than anywhere in the country, I do believe, although I may stand corrected), 1000 kanji in the first two years and enough grammar for you to be able to read most things with the help of a dictionary, and that's before you even get to Japan. Of course, the speed makes it pretty hard, especially if you're doing Korean as well, but it's all very worth it! Employers do like SOAS graduates :smile:

(particularly MI5 if you have Korean but shhh :K:

)

Interesting.. :beard:

the very difficulty of the course means that you'll gain skills that employers love, and a pretty high level of language competence (SOAS usually wins the Annual Japanese Speech Contest). Also, the university itself provides you with countless opportunities to get involved with what's going on (from knitting to leading protests), so you can round yourself off whilst having fun, and get a
The teachers on the Japanese course are extremely hard working, and will do their best to help you where they can (one guy I know in first year got one of the teachers to give him 1-1 help once a week), seriously, they are the most dedicated human beings you could meet.

Thats nice. I heard tales about a legendary teacher called..Kashiwagi sensei? I'm not sure if I have the name correct :colondollar:

They do get very busy (to the point of sleeping in their offices), so it's best not to ask them for too much time, but they do their best.
And the SOAS bar/SU is very cool, by all meanings of the word :smile:

I know I probably sound like I'm firing out propaganda, but I've had nothing but good experiences with the course :smile:

... did I leave anything out? Any questions?

Yes, though I am not sure if you can answer this. Do you know anyone doing Japanese who will aim to get into finance/investment banking? Or diplomacy? Although I really love the language, I don't think teaching/translating/intreperting is for me :redface:

And what year are you on now, may I ask?

Reply 1408

Twaha

japanese culture is amazing , i am currently doing a cultural based unit in travel and toursim , one day after uni i am planning to either move over to do a masters there or do a placement year there - i thought i was the only japan lover ahaa :smile:

Reply 1409

Original post by Ilot

Listen and copy! Try to say it the same way as your friends and the people around you do! I guess it goes for every dialect, but listening to people around you is really the most important thing. You'll notice small differences in almost everything, not only intonation but vocabulary as well!

It's got all the dictionaries and books listed under "Shuuroku kontentsu"(about 130 books) + more. So it's quite a lot. :smile:

Yeah, I guess that's probably all you can do! But it's the same with any language, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, certainly not once I get into the swing of it :smile:

yeah, I've heard about the differences in vocabulary (omoroi, akan...), but learning vocab is what we do anyway!

Oh, I see it. Wow, that's a lot! Haha I love how much they have under eikaiwa - toraberu :tongue:

ichiban muzukashii men desu ne~
You may well have successfully sold me a denshi jisho! XD

Reply 1410

Original post by Natsuko

Yeah, I guess that's probably all you can do! But it's the same with any language, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, certainly not once I get into the swing of it :smile:

yeah, I've heard about the differences in vocabulary (omoroi, akan...), but learning vocab is what we do anyway!

Oh, I see it. Wow, that's a lot! Haha I love how much they have under eikaiwa - toraberu :tongue:

ichiban muzukashii men desu ne~
You may well have successfully sold me a denshi jisho! XD

And just to make it even more awesome, it comes in 6 fashionable designs, three with texture. :cool:

(I have the hot pink one w/texture.)

Omoroi and akan yeah. Other things include honma for hontou, chau for chigau, ya for da, se for sou, -hen for -nai (shinai and konai becomes se'en and ke'en), and for emphasis "de" is used a lot instead of "yo" and "zo". (Iku de! Se ya de! Chau de!) and so much more. :biggrin:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1411

Original post by ussumane

If I get rejected for Japanese and Korean, I will put Sheffield as my insurance

Interesting..

Thats nice. I heard tales about a legendary teacher called..Kashiwagi sensei? I'm not sure if I have the name correct

Yes, though I am not sure if you can answer this. Do you know anyone doing Japanese who will aim to get into finance/investment banking? Or diplomacy? Although I really love the language, I don't think teaching/translating/intreperting is for me
And what year are you on now, may I ask?

I love how everyone hears about her before they go! XD Yeah, Kashiwagi sensei is awesome :smile:

She runs the Japan section, and she possesses some kind of gravitational field which means that you get dragged to the ground in a full bow every time you see her... Almost, she certainly feels like that, at least! And yet she's really small and wears cute hats all the time...

I know someone going into accounting... It's not directly related to Japanese, but he seems to think they'll have him dealing with Japanese clients. But I don't know many of the 4th years that well, sorry :frown:

I'm just finishing my second year :smile:

Reply 1412

Original post by Ilot

And just to make it even more awesome, it comes in 6 fashionable designs, three with texture. :cool:

(I have the hot pink one w/texture.)

Omoroi and akan yeah. Other things include honma for hontou, chau for chigau, ya for da, se for sou, -hen for -nai (shinai and konai becomes se'en and ke'en), and for emphasis "de" is used a lot instead of "yo" and "zo". (Iku de! Se ya de! Chau de!) and so much more. :biggrin:

Oohh pwetty! :biggrin:

how much would one of them cost if I bought on in Japan? (can't just see on the website...)

Yeah, I've heard of a few of those! And wa for emphasis, but less so than de... And nen for no... Such a long list! XD

Reply 1413

Original post by Natsuko

I love how everyone hears about her before they go! XD Yeah, Kashiwagi sensei is awesome :smile:

She runs the Japan section, and she possesses some kind of gravitational field which means that you get dragged to the ground in a full bow every time you see her... Almost, she certainly feels like that, at least! And yet she's really small and wears cute hats all the time...

I know someone going into accounting... It's not directly related to Japanese, but he seems to think they'll have him dealing with Japanese clients. But I don't know many of the 4th years that well, sorry :frown:

I'm just finishing my second year :smile:

Accountancy eh? Nice :colone:

So if you on your second year, that means you will go to Japan next year, correct? What Japanese University? :biggrin:

Reply 1414

Original post by Natsuko

Oohh pwetty! :biggrin:

how much would one of them cost if I bought on in Japan? (can't just see on the website...)

Yeah, I've heard of a few of those! And wa for emphasis, but less so than de... And nen for no... Such a long list! XD

Actually nen is also used for emphasis, I can't really remember it being used for no.. unless it's like "nani yattennen" instead of perhaps "yatteru no".

for no as in "risa no neko" or "iku no?" you often hear that they just say "n".

The XD-B4800 model is brand new (Released on Feb 4th.) and cost me about 35 000 yen when I bought it on March 5th or something like that. A bit pricey, but def. worth it imo. (According to xe.com that's 259 GBP, but it doesn't update exchange rates on weekends.)

PS: Kanji doesn't work on this forum?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1415

Xurvi

11

Whoa, I didn't expect dialects to have so many differences... I figured it was mainly the accent that changed, not the actual language...

Kanji doesn't work, and neither does any foreign characters (Arabic, Russian, Greek, etc) since the big TSR update. They're trying to fix it but apparently it's pretty hard because fixing it would mean many changes to other stuff that could potentially create more bugs.

Reply 1416

There are dialects even more different from the standard than the Kansai-ben. (Kansai-ben is just the most famous one of all the dialects) Take Miyazaki-ben for example. My friend (gaijin) speaks Miyazaki-ben after having lived there, and wow. When he speaks his dialect, I have trouble understanding him at times!

Not being able to use foreign characters kinda sucks. :I

Reply 1417

Original post by Ilot

Actually nen is also used for emphasis, I can't really remember it being used for no.. unless it's like "nani yattennen" instead of perhaps "yatteru no".

for no as in "risa no neko" or "iku no?" you often hear that they just say "n".

The XD-B4800 model is brand new (Released on Feb 4th.) and cost me about 35 000 yen when I bought it on March 5th or something like that. A bit pricey, but def. worth it imo.

PS: Kanji doesn't work on this forum?

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that :colondollar:

it's been a while since I've looked at this... But yeah, 'no' as in 'iku no'

Pricey indeed, but it certainly sounds as though it'd be worth it. I'll have to check funds when I'm there :tongue:

if I realised I couldn't afford that one, what would be a worthwhile second option, do you think?

Also, how did you learn Japanese? Out of interest :smile:

Reply 1418

Not to mention Okinawa-ben! Apparently that's quite similar to pre-modern Japanese >.<

Reply 1419