Do You Know Japanese? Are You Learning it?

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all japanese all the time is probably the most beneficial, wonderful, free, motivational, awesome link that I posted. Go to it if you want to learn Japanese FAST (by fast, I don't mean one week, that's ridiculous, more like 2 years) It looks a bit "gung ho" at first glance, but it's fun and effective. Try it!

Oh, and がんばれ！

おれの小さい時にそふたちと日本語を使っておったの。
けれど、今ほとんどうしなわれたの ：（
その上には、そふたちは大日本帝国時代に住んでおったのでおれの日本語は。。。ちょっとろうじんてきだと言われるかなあ。。。

<<When I was little I spoke Japanese with my grandparents. But now I've almost lost it all. On top of that, since my grandparents lived under Imperial Japan, it could be said that my Japanese is ... old-fashioned.>>

For those learning the Japanese languge... I can't deny I had a bit of an advantage given I grew up with multiple languages and didn't speak English until i was 5. It's also true that each person has unique gifts with regard to what's easy to learn and what isn't. But for myself there are few studies more rewarding than getting access to the words of another culture or another point in time.

a nice addon for Firefox, for learning kanji

I am currently learning japanese but as I've seen here and there I am one of the very unfortunate souls who's dumped a buttload of money into rosetta stone ... I mean I got a good deal(lvl 1 - 3 $150 from HSN or something with the first 3 months for totalle free). Since then I renewed 6 months at $70 something and another 3 months at $47. I don't think rosetta stone is that terrible per say but like the article said if you only use it for an hour or so a day then use your native tongue every other time of the day then you're not gonna learn it properly. I am taking from many outside sources other then rosetta stone and that's the only reason I am able to maintain a significant amount of what I learn. I subscribe to japanese youtubers, I go on japanese websites, I even watch anime and play some of my games in Japanese. Not that anime and games will teach you Japanese but its still a source either way even if it is a small resource. The biggest problem I have with rosetta stone is that they don't explain anything ... There's stuff I learned months ago and still don't fully understand what they mean because they don't explain anything.

It's hard enough learning to be fluent in the other official language in my country, which is French, and in the part of the country where I live being bilingual is "wrong", apparently. Whenever my mother and I have driven to New Brunswick I know we're in the province when the stop signs start saying stop in English and French. As a kid I think there was some huge debate over that and my grandfather complained constantly about French-Canadians, but I never understood and I still really don't.

Asian languages are quite "choppy" sounding, and I don't think I could imitate it well at all and might unintentionally offend some people. French words are sometimes pronounced nasally, and that's funny because it's supposed to be a "romantic" language even when you speak as if you have a cold.

I'm envious of people who can speak several languages either because they're from part of the world where people speak them, or they learned how on their own, which really intelligent people are able to do.

have begun slowly making my way in studying through books, asking google, and hearing/seeing the language in japanese media.

my main interests in learning are in being able to visit or study in japan, and also to be able to interpret japanese literature on my own... namely works of philosophy, history, and martial arts that have no comprehensive english translation. so, my biggest hurdle is, that there is very little for incremental rewards in learning so slowly as many japanese imports inclusive of the language... like the majority of anime and japanese dialogue/text heavy games, are of very little appeal to myself(like few, don’t care for most), and nobody around my person appears to have any interest in learning japanese that it could be shared, so it cannot be used without inducing befuddlement and judgement as me being an eccentric. most of the people around me, too, are of older generations and associate the use of the japanese language to a person having an unhealthy obsession with anime, and they associate anime with unwholesome themes... so this interest of mine has been kept to myself.

my main difficulty so far, seems to be in grammar and sentence structure. the book currently being used for study will write japanese text(mixed romaji with hiragana that has been learned up until that point) which can easily be interpreted by myself, but the english example next to the phrase will be written as an interpretation, and not a direct translation(often there will be multiple japanese examples written in the same structure, but the english interpretations will be written in different structures to retain proper english grammar). so, it’s proving to screw up my ability to come up with expressing my own thoughts based around such concepts tripping my mind’s confidence in what’s being/been learned and not being able to ask for clarification(might just be me over thinking it all), because the rules to the new structure are expressed in a language that does not follow that same structure... it’s as if the authors think that they’re helping the reader in linking english to japanese, but in actuality, it’s very disorienting to myself. my learning style is not to translate english into japanese, but to learn japanese so that it can be thought of in it’s own context without english being used as a vehicle at all. it would help more to merely explain what the sentence structure should be(as they would so if studying english in an english speaking country), or to explain the concept rather than mirror it into english with a trick mirror, and that’d be all it would take to improve the momentum of my studies tenfold... instead, roadblocks of such concepts can get me stuck unnecessarily for many days if not weeks if feeling stubborn enough to insist upon learning whatever of said concept from the book instead of just searching google for clarification... which, my way is so much so to do things by the rules of their books, that it is proving a fair bit detrimental to get hung up on such sentiments in this current endeavor.

would probably benefit better in taking classes at a community college, but the one nearest by, doesn’t appear to allow anything but a coarse load toward a major transfer for university anymore due to overcrowding. not to mention, my foreign language requirements there are already stacked from taking a couple years of spanish right out of high school, so, they might not even allow another language be taken there even if a new major were selected since the requirement was finished despite not knowing spanish anymore.

Many years ago I wanted to teach myself spoken Japanese; it was long before the internet, so I bought books with phonetic spellings. I learned basic sentence structure and a bit of vocabulary but I didn't stick with it long enough to be anything like able to speak fluently or not. It's an interesting and elegant language though.

I checked out the Pimsleur Japanese language CDs from the library and made mp3 files. I completed all 90 lessons twice, but still am nowhere near fluent. I could order things in a restaurant, talk about the weather, or invite someone to a meeting. I understand almost none of the dialog in a Japanese movie. I decided it would help to learn written Japanese so I've started using the TenguGo app on my android. It's a cool way to learn the alphabets.

I don't want to learn Japanese because it seems too confusing, they have a whole different alphabet (for lack of a better term). I love Japanese food though.

Been learning the language non-stop for 16 years!

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Feel free to talk to me, if you wish.

Every day is a gift- cherish it!

"A true, true friend helps a friend in need."

I don't know Japanese but I would love to learn it.

I teach myself german and spanish, I've been slacking for a year and a half due to needing the energy elsewhere but hope to resume.