Learning Japanese on our own! (self studying)

[mazzi]

Hey!

I'm learning japanese at home for 6 months, and I still didn't loose the confidence, that it's possible to achieve certain level without the help of the professional teacher. I'm sure that there are more people like me, who try to do their best at home, and make their dream come true.

I just thought that It would be nice if we share our experiences in this thread and encourage each other to go further. It's really dull to be alone with this subject at home - japanese is too groovy to be kept closed in my mind

Who else is learning japanese alone?

[yidaki]

Hello

I'm learning japanese on my own.
It's fun, but slow.
It's tough without the discipline you'd get in a class.
But I think my japanese will be more modern and easily understood then if I were to take a university course in Japanese.

[a-nesuto]

me and my brother have been learning japanese together on our own for a year now.
i too find it very hard to keep to studying everyday...
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Tiffany <3

[yidaki]

Actually, I'm not sure you can say that I learn 'on my own'.
I'm following this class on IRC, #learnjapanese @ irc.rizon.com
They are free, and there's a teacher at a lesson once a week, and they issue homeworks.
On top of that I listen to Pimsleur chapters every day, to get the pronounciation down right.
And I use this game, Knuckles in china Land, to learn new words.

I don't have time for all of them every day, but I try.
School takes up too much time right now

[stvaldez]

I think that you need to take a class to learn the basics. After that you can learn on your own, but like all languages there is a lot of cultural issues mixed up with the language witch is hard to understand. So...if you have someone to ask questions, then should be no problem.

[uchiha_itachi]

I've been learning japanese on my own for almost 3 years now (i told my brother to learn it with me, but he's just a 怠け者）　i learned the basics from different web sites, then i did most of my studying from pimsleur chapters and Rosetta stone.

I played that game before! ^^
it was kindof weird so i deleted it. maybe i'll download it again.

Right now i'm using ->This<- site for learning. it's pretty good. You can ask one of their 3 or 4 teachers something and they'll have your question answered within 2 days.
There's 5 courses with about 12-13 lessons in each.
they've also got alot of shows that you can watch to help with your japanese.

You're right. Japanese IS groovy.

[cxlgirl]

at begining ,i thought i can learn the japanese on my own .but now i think it is impossible for me .because although i have the japanese books .i can't learn the basic pronounciation .so i want to follow a class.
is the online learning usefull?maybe i can take a couse to learn~~

[niko2x]

i guess it just depends on the person. some people can learn by themselves, and some can only learn in a classroom environment.
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[M]

People like me definitely do much better in a classroom environment. It's not fun when teachers quiz you and give you tests every week but it forces me to get down and study.

If I "self-study", I never really spend time on it on a regular basis. Like I've tried to learn French for years but until now, I only know a couple words I really need to discipline myself.

[G-Pjube]

I have lot's of learning resource's to fully understand the writing/reading/speaking etc! I have like 5 different audio books and a few ebooks, a dictionary, some vids that learn you Kanji, sites were you learn grammar and the writing and reading of hiragana/katakana and so on. I thought that all these materials could give me atleast some basic knowledge before entering Japan, but unfortunately I can't find time to study
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わたしは東京好き。

[kkcjojo]

こんばんわ　^__________^
i've been studying japanese　for 4yrs now
i took japanese in school and we learn just about everything but it is all in polite/formal form
when i went to japan i had a difficult time communicating because everyone talks in casual form
i actually find just reading manga and watching drama and anime really helpful
learning japanese is really fun don't you think?? ^______^
so lets all try our best がんばります！

[M]

kkcjojo wrote:

i actually find just reading manga and watching drama and anime really helpful

that is true.

i ask my hk friend what is the best way to learn canto, she said watch canto movies. its the most convenient way to learn a new language in terms of just plain communication and understanding, but of course if youre seeking a deeper/more formal knowledge, get back to the books.

[TrigunX89]

I've tried learning on my own, but I just can't seem to stick with it on a regular basis. I'm planning on taking a class as soon as I can...

[vega12]

I've been learning on my own for around 2 years now. It's hard when your an undergrad, but I still find time to continue advancing.

I started off playing Slime Forest to learn how to read the kana. Then I learned how to recognize the meaning of 800+ kanji through the game, which helped me remember readings and whatnot of kanji later. Then I bought a good text to start learning grammar and whatnot. The romanji helped out during the phase where I was still getting accustomed to reading kana at any significant pace, and I found the grammatical descriptions and flow-charts fit my learning style quite well. I'm a scientific person (well, math oriented), so I like remembering patterns which can generalize, instead of just remembering lists of things. The fact that the writer of the text was written by a former IBM engineer probably played a role in that .

After all this, I needed more material to draw from, so I purchased a large collection of books over a period of about a year. These include: Genki I & II, an intermediate level text, a simple dictionary, a kanji book, A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (and the Intermediate version), a particle handbook, and a Japanese literature book.

I've come a far way through self-study. I'm even teaching beginner level Japanese at the Japan club at my university. I've found the key to do something, anything, everyday. As long as I keep reading stuff, or looking stuff up that I think of, I either keep a base level of knowledge, or progress everyday. I'm always on the lookout for more reading material for me, as I've gone through the Genki texts like 4-6 times each now . That's another thing, I don't spend too much time to make sure I got everything down before moving on. Once I reach a point where stuff is way too difficult to continue, I just go back to start and work my way back up to where I was. By this time, I can usually progress further since I've solidified more concepts on my current read-through.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I find that through my self-directed method of learning, my reading is actually at a relatively high level, whereas my conversational skills is lacking. In other words, my passive skill is much better than my active one. This is why I wish I could take a course. I'm hoping that going to Japan this fall will also help me out.

[G-Pjube]

kkcjojo wrote:

こんばんわ　^__________^ i've been studying japanese　for 4yrs now i took japanese in school and we learn just about everything but it is all in polite/formal form when i went to japan i had a difficult time communicating because everyone talks in casual form i actually find just reading manga and watching drama and anime really helpful learning japanese is really fun don't you think?? ^______^ so lets all try our best がんばります！

..
I just read the japanese :/
lal, konbanwa and ganbare masu!
Although it was really slow reading xD
Maybe I should continue my Hiragana lessons

(maybe this isn't anything special, but it gave me this rush.. lal, just ignore me )
_________________

わたしは東京好き。

[logos]

I think you guys are very brave for learning japanese on your own. i would think it takes a lot of determination and discipline. even in my classes sometimes i feel it is too much and i may never get to the level of fluency that i want to achieve. i've also taken some linguistic classes and the teachers always seemed to make it sound like it was impossible to fully acquire a second language. it is encouraging to read that through only sheer hard work such progress can be made. i hope that you all continue in the ways of self enrichment and make more improvements.

[G-Pjube]

Hmm, I just read that the particle 'wa' is represented by 'は' and not 'わ', same goes for 'e' that is 'へ' and not 'え' and also the 'o' which is 'を' and not 'お'. So I might assume that my current signature needs to be changed into 'わたし は G-Pjubeです。あなた は?'?
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わたしは東京好き。

[kokuou]

G-Pjube wrote:

Hmm, I just read that the particle 'wa' is represented by 'は' and not 'わ', same goes for 'e' that is 'へ' and not 'え' and also the 'o' which is 'を' and not 'お'. So I might assume that my current signature needs to be changed into 'わたし は G-Pjubeです。あなた は?'?

Yup!

国王★
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"I like the word 'indolence'. It makes my laziness seem classy."
-Bern Williams

[TrigunX89]

I just bought the book Japanese for Busy People I. It's looking good. I hope I'll be able to stick with it.

[konpeitou-chan]

jello and hello! im new here but i was looking around and saw that people were self-teaching themselves japanese. i am too!

ever since my family began hosting japanese students studying in canada i've been learning some japanese, too. its cool how there are others out there who're trying just like me!

its hard though because im not being formally taught and my school only has french and spanish. some of the japanese students buy me childrens books to learn hiragana and katakana. they're really working and i've pretty much mastered hiragana.

right now im just starting katakana and learning the basics (greetings, and grammar) from sites. http://www.japanese-online.com is a really good site!

so far its been two years since ive began "studying" and its only been recently that i've really began to take my studying a little bit more seriously.

oh yeah, whats a good age to start?
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