Japanese Society

Anyone here that uses Anki on an iPhone: I just downloaded it expecting it to have the whiteboard feature like the AnkiDroid version, but it seems you have to download a plugin from the desktop version. No idea where to start with this - any help please? I miss my Android and its efficiency now! :frown:

EDIT: problem now solved. Had an 頭が悪い moment...

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2681

Nimbus

12

Hi guys!
Apologies for changing the topic for a bit, I'd like to ask for some help with translating something into Japanese please (if that's okay)!

There's a sensei I'd like to thank properly for all's of his hard work on a project and I'd like to email the following:

Spoiler

This is what I've managed to come up with:

Spoiler

Some of the words might not show up, so please quote/edit this post to see the original text! >.<
I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help, thank you! >.<

Reply 2682

Decotte

Original post by Nimbus

Hi guys!
Apologies for changing the topic for a bit, I'd like to ask for some help with translating something into Japanese please (if that's okay)!

There's a sensei I'd like to thank properly for all's of his hard work on a project and I'd like to email the following:

Spoiler

This is what I've managed to come up with:

Spoiler

Some of the words might not show up, so please quote/edit this post to see the original text! >.<
I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help, thank you! >.<

its really good :smile:

i made a little change for you.

XXX先生、今回はprojectをもうけてくれてありがとうございました。私はとても感動しました! XXX先生のために絵を描いてみました。気に入ってくれると嬉しいです。(I hope you like it) これからも頑張ってください！

Reply 2683

C0balt

16

Original post by Nimbus

Hi guys!
Apologies for changing the topic for a bit, I'd like to ask for some help with translating something into Japanese please (if that's okay)!

There's a sensei I'd like to thank properly for all's of his hard work on a project and I'd like to email the following:

Spoiler

This is what I've managed to come up with:

Spoiler

Some of the words might not show up, so please quote/edit this post to see the original text! >.<
I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help, thank you! >.<

XXX先生、projectを設けてくださり本当にありがとうございました。とても感激しました。お礼に絵をかいてみました。気に入っていただけると嬉しいです。これからも頑張ってください

頑張ってください isn't really good in some situation; in some cases これからも宜しくお願いします is better. Inspirational is differently translated sometimes. It's hard to adjust properly without knowing who this sensei is and what he's done

Anyways I made the above poster's correction sound a bit more natural and have better keigo
Posted from TSR Mobile

Fail post

Why do you guys eat innocent animals such as cats and dogs ??

Also does it not scare you that Japan is in a very geographically dangerous position ?

Reply 2686

TheTechN1304

21

Original post by goobypls

Why do you guys eat innocent animals such as cats and dogs ??

Also does it not scare you that Japan is in a very geographically dangerous position ?

I'll ignore the first question as that doesn't even happen in Japan...

Does it scare me? No. Japan has adapted to the fact that it is in an earthquake-prone zone. Buildings are built to be stronger, further apart etc. and it is generally safe.

Reply 2687

C0balt

16

Original post by goobypls

Why do you guys eat innocent animals such as cats and dogs ??

Also does it not scare you that Japan is in a very geographically dangerous position ?

Hope you're trolling....

I am Japanese. Therefore I know tonnes of Japanese. NONE of them have ever eaten a cat or dog. And Japanese people will say "ewwww" if you say anyone eats cats or dogs, it would be a huge problem if anyone did that. Please don't mix us up with Chinese stereotyoes which don't even apply to majority of Chinese in the first place.

When I was walking on a street here in France, some random roadwork dude came up to me saying "Vous allez le manger ce soir? (Are you gonna eat that tonight?)", pointing at my dog in a cage. I had him in a cage because the fricking bus doesn't allow animals in without a cage, and I brought her out because my friend would keep her while I was on holidays as I couldn't let her starve to death in her own feaces while I was away.

Please, even if you were joking, it's not funny at all whatsoever. You are just proving your ignorance to everyone who has access to internet. Pathetic.

And could I please ask, why do you eat innocent cows pigs chickens?

Regarding to geographical position, it's not like we , the modern Japanese people chose to live there anyway. Japanese people from thousands millions of years ago knew there would be earthquakes tsunami all that? I don't know, maybe. But surely they wouldn't have known that there would be North Koreans shooting missiles or China releasing toxic gasse into the atmosphere in the future. And there would happen to be attractive culture to a lot of foreigners.

And maybe for your ignorance you wouldn't have known that the geographical position allows Japan to have one of the clearest and most beautiful four seasons, or the abundant hot springs and fertile soild due to volcanoes. We have many climate types in one country so we can make pineapples to potatoes, from south to north.
I may sound biased, but I am not. I know the dangers of the position more than anyone else here having experienced 3.11 disaster and smaller earthquakes happened in my lifetime in Japan.

Now, would you kindly leave, and come back when you have enough knowledge and proper eyes and brain to judge if an information is correct or not, and if a joke is funny or not. Thanks.
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Reply 2688

goobypls

14

Original post by TheTechN1304

I'll ignore the first question as that doesn't even happen in Japan...

Does it scare me? No. Japan has adapted to the fact that it is in an earthquake-prone zone. Buildings are built to be stronger, further apart etc. and it is generally safe.

Japan is basically in an earthquake hot zone though ???

Recent increased seismic activity around the world and the increasing amount expected in the future would be a serious threat to Japan.

Reply 2689

Furandesu

1

I'm going to start learning Japanese alongside computing for my degree this year! Really excited, I know a little bit at the moment but only enough to introduce myself briefly xD

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2690

TheTechN1304

21

Original post by goobypls

Japan is basically in an earthquake hot zone though ???

Recent increased seismic activity around the world and the increasing amount expected in the future would be a serious threat to Japan.

Yes. And the more earthquakes occur, the more the country adapts to prevent damage in the future. Japan's survived this long...it's unlikely it's going anywhere anytime soon.

Reply 2691

C0balt

16

Original post by TheTechN1304

I'll ignore the first question as that doesn't even happen in Japan...

Does it scare me? No. Japan has adapted to the fact that it is in an earthquake-prone zone. Buildings are built to be stronger, further apart etc. and it is generally safe.

Not to mention we train regularly in case of emergency at schools and offices. We have helmets or "bousai zukin" to protect our heads at school for every staff and student.
We also have developed over years and repeated disasters, strong perseverance and selflessness which will show in case of emergency and will prevent the chaos from getting worse

Patriotism you'd say, heck, it is, but I chose to stay in British education system because I just like it more hehehe

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2692

goobypls

14

Original post by TheTechN1304

Yes. And the more earthquakes occur, the more the country adapts to prevent damage in the future. Japan's survived this long...it's unlikely it's going anywhere anytime soon.

I get what you are saying but recent disasters have actually had big impacts.

Fukishima incident was clearly a massive problem but in the aftermath radioactive leaks into the sea became a massive environmental issue.

So in the future Japan will have to rethink it's plan for nuclear reactors because an event like this cannot happen again so how would you adapt to that??

You are correct your buildings are earthquake proof and could survive a magnitude of even 10 but what about a tsunami of tremendous force.
The previous tsunami had by passed all your sea defenses due to it's shear power.

Reply 2693

Nimbus

12

Original post by Decotte

Original post by C0balt

Thank you Decotte and C0balt for your help and advice~ I really appreciate it! ^_^

Reply 2694

MoshiMarlo

1

Isn't there a better place to discuss politics than here... :P

Reply 2695

GoldenEmblem277

12

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/grilledteriakichicke_80048

Had a go at cooking this tonight, and it went kinda well (though due to an error, ended up being Turkey, not Chicken. Still really nice though) :smile:

Reply 2696

R T

13

Heya

I'm interested in learning Japanese with the aspiration to become fluent or at least passable. I recently bought a book by Berlitz just to get started, however in retrospect I think I have been quite naive about what I was hoping to accomplish with this alone (I have already gone over a good ~1/2 of the book and I don't see myself improving much even if I was to learn everything in it).

Anyway, I'm sure this is a common question, but does anyone have a favourite or particularly good website or textbook to recommend? I'm limited by money more than anything, what I don't want is a dumbed down version that isn't very helpful (which seems to be the case for the book I bought). I know I'm more of an active learner, so if it has a built in quiz or any interactivity that would probably help me.

Anyway, thanks for any responses in advance :smile:

Edit: when I say complete beginner, I mean I'm vaguely familiar with a few words and common phrases and I am aware that the sentence structure is very different and word mutations are quite common (e.g. for negatives I think).

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2697

C0balt

16

Original post by R T

Heya

I'm interested in learning Japanese with the aspiration to become fluent or at least passable. I recently bought a book by Berlitz just to get started, however in retrospect I think I have been quite naive about what I was hoping to accomplish with this alone (I have already gone over a good ~1/2 of the book and I don't see myself improving much even if I was to learn everything in it).

Anyway, I'm sure this is a common question, but does anyone have a favourite or particularly good website or textbook to recommend? I'm limited by money more than anything, what I don't want is a dumbed down version that isn't very helpful (which seems to be the case for the book I bought). I know I'm more of an active learner, so if it has a built in quiz or any interactivity that would probably help me.

Anyway, thanks for any responses in advance :smile:

Edit: when I say complete beginner, I mean I'm vaguely familiar with a few words and common phrases and I am aware that the sentence structure is very different and word mutations are quite common (e.g. for negatives I think).

Hi.
I'm a native Japanese speaker so I can't quite help with resources.
However what I've found useful when I was beginner with English is internet. Internet not as in website for learning languages, but online games and twitter. These are the places you get natural conversations while having less stress than one on one chat via Skype etc.

In online games, you can choose not to talk. If you do not reply, you will just be seen as AFK. That decreases pressure on you. So say you were having a casual conversation with another player, but you see some unseen words in what he said, you go onto dictionary site and you search up. The other player will think that you were at toilet or maybe drinking water. This enables you to learn words used frequently in casual chats without being pressured or feeling bad by not being able to answer immediately.

Twitter may be better since games can contain technical words. What I did with twitter is to follow people with similar interest. If you are interested in a topic among the community, you will feel like participating and makes you talk in the language. It is more interesting than cramming words that are basic yet you probably wouldn't use that often. And if you join in the conversation successfully, you can branch out to other topics which may use different set of vocabulary.

You do not need to have advanced level of the language to do this method. The point is to make you search up any words you don't know the meaning of, and the words you don't know how to translate to Japanese. In fact, it was three years ago when I did this method and at that time I only knew how to make present tense and past simple tense in English with baby vocabulary. However this method made me remember a lot of words and expressions. I would have probably encountered them anyway in books, but seeing them in use or actually using them made them get stuck in my head.

However you do have to make a note to yourself that Japanese Internet community is complicated to use this method in. English has a lot of internet slangs, but Japanese Internet slangs are not comparable to that of English. You need to watch out who to follow on twitter while following your interest...really. For general indicator, people with anime or game icon never really speak proper Japanese on Twitter. I know it, because I have been a part of them. So if that's your only interest, well, good luck lol. In contrast, politicians, scientists those professionals who use twitter as a tool in their success will speak relatively correctly but then the topics will be a bit technical for language learners.

After writing this wall of text, I have realised that this method will work for every language except Japanese.... Japanese Internet culture is quite unique and the language allows so much freedom in that aspect... Well, anyway this is my two cents, the method I found was quite useful when I was beginner in English :smile:

Best of luck

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Reply 2698

R T

13

Original post by C0balt

After writing this wall of text, I have realised that this method will work for every language except Japanese.... Japanese Internet culture is quite unique and the language allows so much freedom in that aspect... Well, anyway this is my two cents, the method I found was quite useful when I was beginner in English :smile:

Best of luck

Thanks for the reply, your efforts are appreciated nonetheless :smile:

It is the freedom of the language that intimidates me more than anything - I've often heard it quoted that even native speakers get things wrong quite often.

my current plan

Reply 2699

TheTechN1304

21

Original post by R T

Heya

I'm interested in learning Japanese with the aspiration to become fluent or at least passable. I recently bought a book by Berlitz just to get started, however in retrospect I think I have been quite naive about what I was hoping to accomplish with this alone (I have already gone over a good ~1/2 of the book and I don't see myself improving much even if I was to learn everything in it).

Anyway, I'm sure this is a common question, but does anyone have a favourite or particularly good website or textbook to recommend? I'm limited by money more than anything, what I don't want is a dumbed down version that isn't very helpful (which seems to be the case for the book I bought). I know I'm more of an active learner, so if it has a built in quiz or any interactivity that would probably help me.

Anyway, thanks for any responses in advance :smile:

Edit: when I say complete beginner, I mean I'm vaguely familiar with a few words and common phrases and I am aware that the sentence structure is very different and word mutations are quite common (e.g. for negatives I think).

Tofugu (http://www.tofugu.com) is quite useful for beginners, and has some free guides you can use.

When I started japanese I used Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/) it was really useful in terms of grammar etc. and if you have an iphone/android phone there's an app for it too.

You might find it a bit boring working on grammar at first, but without any knowledge on grammar, it will be impossible to say anything. As you mentioned above, all verbs have a number of different forms (16 to be precise), and even though you only need learn about 10 to start with (though you could get away with 5), it's still very complex (but gets a lot easier with time)!!

Other things I did were watch anime, listen to japanese music then write down words they said and try and translate things. It also helped me get accustomed to hearing the Japanese language.

In terms of text books, I used japanese for busy people 1,2 and 3. I found them useful for vocabulary, and they explained grammar too, though I didn't like the fact that things were mostly in hiragana. The textbooks were good overall, and I used 1 and 2 for gcse and 3 for AS. They cost about £15 each though, so I'd suggest getting 1 to start with then seeing if you like it. Other people might suggest Genki, which I've heard is a good textbook, but I haven't used it so can't really comment.

In terms of kanji, I followed the edexcel gcse then a level syllabus, as you cover the kanji in their order of importance which is good. I got the kanji lists off the edexcel website as well as the vocabulary lists. Kanji learning is quite complicated when doing it by yourself, and I could probably write a whole essay on how to do it by yourself lol, but basically, you want to make sure that you learn ALWAYS learn the correct stroke order (see this: http://www.tofugu.com/guides/guess-kanji-stroke-order/) and that rather than going and learning the individual on-yomi and kun-yomi readings (japanese readings and the Chinese readings - of which there can be loooaaaads) you learn vocab specific to those kanji instead. It's much more productive and much less boring!!

Finally I got an app on my iphone called 'Japanese' (inventive name lol) that allows you to make vocab lists, test yourself on vocab/kanji and also acts as a japanese dictionary too. I mainly use it for learning vocab/kanji and the test function, which uses spaced repetition to help you remember words. If you don't have an iphone, there's a program on the computer you can get called 'Anki' which is free + uses spaced repetition, and you can make your own vocab lists to test yourself.

I hope this was all of some use and hopefully not too long! I taught myself japanese up to gcse and I'm doing a level mostly self taught, but it's always difficult giving advice on this sort of thing, as I take quite a boring approach to learning (write everything out loads of time until I remember it)!!

If you need anymore advice on anything, feel free to pm me

(edited 9 years ago)

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