Does anyone else do beginners Jap? (1 Viewer)

[sassy_gal]

hey, just wondering if there were any other like me doin beginners jap (yr 12ers) ...how are you guys finding it? for me, it's one of my favourite subjects and I'm nearly finished the course, but it does get pretty hard sometimes....

since I'm doin it by dist. ed and theres no one other than my teacher to talk to i thought it'd be interesting to meet others doing the same subject ^_^ ~!

 

[rhia]

hi, am also doing beginners via distance ed. in fact, am currently listening to japanese radio program.

favourite subject!

 

[sassy_gal]

wow, Japanese radio, i don't think i'd be able to understand it yet. Do you listen to much Japanese music and stuff? Ive been looking for some bands, but i don't know any good ones (do u?) ....hopefully it'll help some of that Japanese sink in, lol.

 

[pLuvia]

There are many different bands:

Orange Range
Mika Nakashima
Mikuni Shimokawa
Ai Otsuka
Hinoi Team

 

[rhia]

wow, Japanese radio, i don't think i'd be able to understand it yet. Do you listen to much Japanese music and stuff? Ive been looking for some bands, but i don't know any good ones (do u?) ....hopefully it'll help some of that Japanese sink in, lol.

it wasn't japanese radio as in the kind of english radio you're thinking of, but rather a japanese-language-learning-show broadcast by the nhk.

i listen to japanese music quite a bit - when i'm in the mood for listening to music. i'm sorry that i don't know any good bands, as i don't really care about what i'm listening to, only that it's in japanese. i listen to j-pop all day broadcast by various internet radio stations. i've recently been listening to this one: http://radio.keiichi.net/index2.php and have recently been scouring around for talk shows, children shows etc, but am yet to strike gold.

ps: i wouldn't really recommend listening to music as a way of practicing, as personally i find children's games and books great for practice and for 'sinking in'-ing.

 

[pLuvia]

A better way to improve japanese is to actually get the Japanese lyrics of a song and try to translate it yourself, lets you learn more and more vocabulary each time and obviously having the english translation as a guide

 

[rhia]

yes, pluvia, good idea. translating songs is better than mindlessly listening to and not understanding songs.

[but again, i personally perfer kiddies books. even japanese people aren't born fluent, everybody starts at the kiddy level.]

 

[sassy_gal]

ps: personally i find children's games and books great for practice and for 'sinking in'-ing.[/QUOTE]

i think the kiddies books sounds good, i might have to borrow some from a japanese friend who has little kids. ...games as in online games?

my teacher told me to listen to japanese as often as i can just to get myself into the mindset-i don't know if it actually helps-so i thought songs might be good. Animes are also fun to watch but its too bad my local video shop basically only has the Love Hina series. I change the audio to Japanese and watch with english subtitles, i reckon it sounds betta than the english dubbing but it can distract you from what's actually happening.

 

[rhia]

i think the kiddies books sounds good, i might have to borrow some from a japanese friend who has little kids. ...games as in online games?

yep, games as in on-line games. they're really, really fantastic, imo. there are a large variety - games that have nothing to do with learning and are just for fun, learning games such as telling the time, foods and drinks, culture, maths, language, kanji...

yes- i watched 'spirited away' the other day in japanese with english subtitles. the subtitles help you to recognize things that you may not have without them, because they're speaking too quickly or whatever.