Thread: Japanese

  1. #1
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    Thumbs up Japanese

    Is it possible to learn Japanese from a book?
    Sauron a few seconds before his defeat:
    "What? A 'division by 0' error?!?"

  2. #2
    Registered User Gades_GD's Avatar
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    Question

    Why would you want to do that?

    If you've got too much free time, and need something to keep your mind busy: could you learn CFD and try to explain me how to write some software for it?


    I know somebody who has studied Japanese and Chinese, if you're interested at all, I'll let you know if it's possible


    CFD = computational fluid dynamics
    Gades Yacht Design

  3. #3
    & the hat of GPL slaying Thantos's Avatar
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    Depends....are you trying to learn the written form(s) or the spoken. If you are trying to do the spoken then NO don't try it. The written forms are hard, it helps if you have someone explain them to you.

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    I prefer the C++ language.

  5. #5
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    i took 2 years of it in high school and all i know is my hiragana, katakana, a few words, and like one kanjii character for nihon (japan). in other words, that's not much...

    but one of my friends had taken the opportunity to become a foreign exchange student there (in Japan) for a year; and the guy is like fluent now! I think the best option is to just straight up live there, but of course that option isn't always practical. however, if you would like to master, or get a good grip of, the language; you will eventually have to live there for awhile and be constantly exposed to it. if you just wish to "get by" with the language, japanese lang. tapes are probably good enough.

  6. #6
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    I took one semester of Japanese in High School.
    Since it wasn't a popular class, my class had
    to learn through the T.V.

    5 Schools all shared one teacher, who was
    located at one of the schools. It became
    pretty difficult to learn through the TV
    after a while; so I dropped the class.
    Staying away from General.

  7. #7
    Registered User Camilo's Avatar
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    I toke 3 months of intansive Japanese, but since I was very occupied with school I abandoned it, it is easy, but requires some deidication, but I can say that it is more easy for me because the pronuntiation is extremely easy for Latinos. (hahahaha)


    Camilo
    'bored'
    no, life is nice, just a girl fooling around, alcohol fixes everything.
    OH, I now have a High School Diploma and need of ron (drink)

  8. #8
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    Learn another programming language, it's more fun!

    Oskilian

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    Wink

    LOL.

    Maby I should use my eagerness in a new language.

  10. #10
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    I think it would be cool to learn japanese, but my dumb school only offers spanish, french and german.
    To Err Is To Be Human. To Game Is Divine!"

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    gamegod3001: I think you should change your signature for this.

    I don't see any use in learning Japanese, but I do think that learning German (for example, I'll learn it next year) would be useful. Unless you work for a company whose clients are Japanese, but anyway they'll speak English.

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    Learning japanese from a book is OK, but you better have a LOT of audio or video to watch/listen to to get the voice right.

    I've probably watched hundreds upon hundreds of hoiurs of Japanese programming, and it really really helps if you're learning from a book, because to hear the language properly spoken of a daily basis is one of the best ways to mimic the speech; in fact, most people I know who have learned another language (like moving to a foreign country) have found television to be incredibly helpful to them.

  13. #13
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    Hey, Japanese is fun! I really want to learn that, but I am already taking French at school, so I don't have the time. But I think you can learn it pretty well through book, cause the pronounciations can all be written in English Translations (forgot the name). You can just read the letters and there you go... But I think the characters will be a whole different thing... There is a set of Chinese Character and a set of Japanese Phonetic Characters, the phonetic ones are easy to learn, cause they don't mean anything individually. But the Chinese character or Romanji (I think) is really hard. It's easy for me, 'cause I know Chinese, but for a person who don't know it, learning it through book will be really hard, not impossible, but hard...

    I can make out 50% of written Japanese and I haven't taken one lesson on it! ^.^ hehe... (since I know Chinese)

    Ok, if you really want to learn Japanese go ahead, but don't expect to master it anytime soon. Ganbade!
    Michelle (o^.^o)
    *Unique*
    Kaomoji House

  14. #14
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    *Michelle*: Is it easier to learn the Chinese, than the Japanese?
    Sauron a few seconds before his defeat:
    "What? A 'division by 0' error?!?"

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    It's a little harder to learn written japanese.

    Basically, the Japanese developed a spoken language, but no written language. The Chinese brought their kanji (their written language) and there it gets confusing.

    For example, the chinese had a kanji for bridge. The japanese already had a WORD for bridge, so they adopted this symbol to mean "bridge". But, in written words, this character can be pronounced EITHER like the chinese word for bridge, or like the japanese word for bridge (which I think is hoshi?).

    Overall, the written language is hard. You probably should NOT learn it at first. Rather, learn roomanji -- which is japanese words phonetically written using the latin (i.e. english) alphabet. This mimics the way people naturally learn languages -- we first learn to speak, then write. Once you know the spoken word, you can move to hiragana and katakana -- these are less complicated characters (i.e. fewer strokes) which the japanese developed for the purposes of representing sounds. It is in fact entirely possible to write solely in hiragana and katakana. The oldest known novel, the Tale of Genji, was written solely in hiragana.

    Once you know how to write in hiragana/katakana, you can begin learning the kanji. There are 1800 essential kanji to know; the best way to learn is to get a reader for young children -- they are written in the normal style (the hiragana and kanji mix) but under each kanji is the pronunciation in hiragana. This is, for the most part, memorization. Like learning a language, kanji can often be broken into parts, each of which has a meaning (like breaking a word into prefix, stems, etc.) but this isn't ultimately very helpful.

    This is pretty much the same for Chinese, except there are no hiragana/katakana, because every word can be written natively in their langauge, and the pronunciation isn't as hard. But generally, when reading japanese, you must do word-reading, not phonetic reading. I dunno if you're a product of the "phonetic" way of learning to read English -- this way of simply learning the words, then how to write the words is second nature to me, it's how I learned English as a child; I never put much faith in "sounding words out".

    Overall, learning the spoken Japanese language is fun, and no harder than any other language. Simply learning to speak and hear the language will often suffice; once you master this, you may learn the written word. One variant of this style is to teach the written word in hiragana -- it's really no different from learning in roomanji, you just use their phonetic alphabet, not ours.

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