Trying to learn a new language (Japanese) (1 Viewer)

[cosmicfire321312]

Hello! I'm planning to use my school holidays to get a start on a new language, in this case, Japanese.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips regarding learning new languages or more specifically Japanese.

Any tips will be helpful, thank you!!

 

[cossine]

Hello! I'm planning to use my school holidays to get a start on a new language, in this case, Japanese.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips regarding learning new languages or more specifically Japanese.

Any tips will be helpful, thank you!!

Be very dilligent. Study every day but maybe not for long time. Practise reading, speaking, listening, writing.

You will probably will have focus on hirigana, katakana first then kanji.

 

[jimmysmith560]

Apart from a few expressions, numbers and katakana characters, my knowledge of the Japanese language is rather limited, although I do speak three other languages and have previously helped students and other individuals looking to learn a language as a tutor (whether it be for an HSC subject or a non-school-related interest), meaning that I can provide my thoughts, which are perhaps more general/applicable to not just Japanese.

As a starting point, effectively learning a language requires that you focus on four important elements of the target language, being:

• Speaking - This will be the primary way of communication, which implies the need to emphasise developing your spoken/oral ability in the Japanese language. Here, it is important that you pay close attention to your pronunciation, accent and also work on learning a wide range of vocabulary. The more you do this, the closer you will get to the level of a native/fluent Japanese speaker.
• Writing - While this will most likely be the secondary way of communication, it remains important not to overlook your writing ability, especially when considering that Japanese features three writing systems (see cossine's post above), as opposed to other languages, such as English, which only have one.
• Reading - This is connected to your ability to speak and write in Japanese. Reading a range of texts will not only familiarise you with the different uses of the Japanese language from a reader's perspective, but it will also enable you to enhance your speaking (especially if you read out loud) and writing, by paying close attention to the correct way in which different words/expressions are written. It would be a good idea to start by reading basic/simple Japanese texts, and subsequently read more complex texts as you feel more confident with the language.
• Listening - This will assist you in understanding Japanese when it is being spoken, either to you or to someone else. Some of the best ways to support your understanding of the Japanese language include engaging in conversations with people who speak the language as well as listenting to audio (such as music) in Japanese and watching videos/shows in Japanese.

If you are not taking Japanese for the HSC, you may wish to use Japanese Beginners as a source of supporting material, specifically HSC exam papers, which contain several questions that target listening, reading and writing in particular and are aimed at students whose knowledge of Japanese is not advanced. As you make progress and feel more confident, you may wish to start using material from Japanese Continuers, Japanese Extension (as well as other HSC courses such as Japanese in Context and Japanese and Literature) to further support your learning.

Additionally, it is important that you regularly revisit what you have previously learned in order to reduce your chances of forgetting it. It would also be a good idea to establish some sort of schedule that you could follow for learning Japanese, so that you can effectively keep track of your progress and avoid learning too fast (which at some point may result in boredom) or too slow (which may hinder your progress).

I hope this helps!

 

[Masaken]

Hello! I'm planning to use my school holidays to get a start on a new language, in this case, Japanese.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips regarding learning new languages or more specifically Japanese.

Any tips will be helpful, thank you!!

hey! i did japanese continuers and you'll definitely need to study consistently in speaking/writing/listening/reading to better your understanding of the language. start with hiragana and katakana - those are the easiest and aren't that hard to master, unlike some preconceptions that some people have about them. the same goes for kanji - kanji may seem overwhelming at first, but go slow and start with the easiest ones. kanji is incorporated in japanese and can be read in two different ways depending on the context and what word/expression is being written, but just continuous/constant exposure/immersion to kanji (and by extension hiragana and katakana) will eventually improve your understanding. for example, after a while you'll know that 食べ物 is read たべもの(tabemono - food), but while the kanji 食 means food or meal, on its own it is pronounced as しょく(shoku). this kanji is also read as shoku in 食事 (shokuji - meal). it seems confusing now but much later it'll be second nature to you.

try to practise speaking. i know it can be a little difficult finding an active speaking partner but try not to be like me who neglected their speaking and was basically a flub at it for most of year 11 while the rest of the skills were fine; when i ended up actually practising and taking the effort to improve i went from a 50% student in speaking to an 85% student in speaking in the span of a few months. reading and listening will probably be the 'easiest' skills since they are receptive, strive to also be just as diligent with these skills as speaking and writing. it can get pretty easy for your reading and listening skills to slow down if they are neglected.

in terms of material, you can use the textbooks the japanese courses (the junior courses in 8, 9 and 10 / japanese beginners, then the japanese continuers stuff when you finish the junior material) use if you want something structured. of course, you could also use the genki textbooks, which are also pretty structured (and in my opinion, probably a lot easier to transition through as you're going through the content) then tobira if you're more advanced. genki and tobira are both international textbooks that aim towards completion of certain levels of the JLPT though, while the nsw ones focus on completion of nesa outcomes and the hsc courses where relevant.

japanese can first seem really difficult, and lots of people studying it independently tend to quit because they feel it can get too hard too quickly, especially in the intermediate zone. study consistently, and your japanese will end up improving tremendously. don't try to overload yourself with a bajillion kanji or grammar all at once, it's going to demotivate you very quickly. good luck!