tbourner Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Anyone here speak Japanese? What's the easiest way to learn apart from living there for 6 months!! I was pretty poo at French at school, and never tried to learn a language since then - but I've always wanted to learn Japanese for some reason. I know it's supposed to be really difficult but never mind. Any good courses or anything that people know of? Is this one too good to be true? Seems cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 I know what you mean... bizarrely enough, it is something I want to do before I'm 40.. My languages are bad as well, I speak three English, Afrikaans and Shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted January 23, 2007 Author Share Posted January 23, 2007 Also fancied learning sign language, but I'll do that some other time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3542200/___Learn.to.Speak.Japanese.I.Reading.Booklet.©.Pimsleur.pdf http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=learn%20japanese Worth a go? So you can see what the pack is like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 I am in the same boat, and i suspect a lot of other people are too. If you do buy the kit, will you let us know what it is like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Something to get you started, I scanned this out of a Japanese phrase book I bought ages ago - I'm another that thought it would be fun to learn (but nothing came of it) http://www.megaboost.co.uk/old/pics/mr2/misc/japanese-car.jpg BTW, while some of them seem like comedy Engrish I'm told they are serious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted January 23, 2007 Author Share Posted January 23, 2007 shirindah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian W Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 BTW, while some of them seem like comedy Engrish I'm told they are serious nearly spat my tea all over the laptop there I particularly liked sanroof, enjin and raji-aytah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 shirindah? What *strokes bakku-up-right* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schtuv Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Any good courses or anything that people know of? 'Speak' is a lot easier than 'Read & Write'. I picked up some basics from 'Japanese Phrases for Dummies' and 'Japanese for Busy People'. My best advice would be to learn with someone (so you can practice), and listen to people speak (to get used to the pronunciation and enunciation). Watch 'Battle Royale' in Japanese with subtitles on, as it has common things (yes, no, hello, sorry, and aaaaarrrrgh) repeated often and clearly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoriFan Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Konnichiwa minna-san If you cannot find language classes, then personally i would recommend Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone as first calls if you are serious about learning Japanese. there are also many Japanese language shows you can download. some are pure language shows while others are travel shows with English subs. Language shows: Nihon de Kurasou Japanese Language and their People (BBC series with Yuka Nukina) Travel Docs with English Subs: Next Stop discovery soko ga shiratai if you check out the torrent sites you can find them there, or buy them. if you are going to torrent i use Demonoid and just type 'Japan' or 'Nihon' into the search engine. same thing for Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), and Korean. best one i had was for Taiwan where they showed you how to say 'is it alright to breast feed on the train' hope that helps a little, ja ne Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoriFan Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 to add: for the written language there are 3 alphabets, Hiragana, katakana (mostly used for foreign names or words) and kanji. kanji is the hardest to learn and in everyday use you would need to know about 2000 Kanji to read a newspaper or non technical documents. total kanji can top out at around the 50,000 mark. the main dialects are Kanto for Tokyo area, and Kansai which is the area including Osaka and Kyoto. also in Japanese unlike English, it gets a bit confusing as words like Ki 木 can mean tree or trees, where as here we know the difference in quantity, Japanese has no grammatical number or gender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Also fancied learning sign language, but I'll do that some other time! I was in a sign language learning group type thing at a previous job. The company had a few deaf people working there who attended the 'all staff' meetings and they wanted to have their own in-house signers. We were great! We won an award and everything - something like forward thinking ideas in business? Mike might know, I dragged him along to watch us collect our award, from Toyah Wilcox. Anyway, it's fairly easy to pick up, if you're thinking of giving it a whirl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 You're all putting me to shame! My sister in law is Japanese, so if anyone's got an incentive, it's me! I've tried (in a half-hearted way), but didn't get anywhere. If you really want to give it a go, I guess just set aside a bit of time regularly, and you'll soon be speaking a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted January 23, 2007 Author Share Posted January 23, 2007 Cool thanks peeps. I'll have a look at those torrents and then maybe buy that one from that site! Sign language seems easier so I'll have that as a back up when I fail at Japanese! Problem will be keeping it in mind without regular practice - I might learn it and then forget it within a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cable Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Started learning Japanese years ago but alas somebody pinched my car and I couldn't make it to the classes anymore. I don't remember much of it now I have the book previously mentioned called 'Japanese for busy people' and it's quite good for starting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Forget learning Japanese. The lingo to learn if you want to succeed in life is Mandarin Chinese. Even the Japanese are queuing to get into Mandarin classes. The funny thing is a mate who works at GCHQ says most of the stuff people write down the sides of their cars isn't Jap. It's Chinese!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_have Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 My Gf is Japanese and teaches (or translates) at reasonable rates. Mind you, she's been teaching me for three years and I'm still struggling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 My Gf is Japanese and teaches (or translates) at reasonable rates. Mind you, she's been teaching me for three years and I'm still struggling. I'm tempted to insert an League of Gentleman "will she give me oral lessons with her Japanese mouth" style comment but I'll refrain. I tried learning Japanese. Did it for a year and found it a real struggle. Tempted to try again though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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