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+--- Thread: how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? (/thread-5901.html)
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - IceCream - 2010-06-25
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how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - kainzero - 2010-06-25
When did IceCream become aijin eating IceCream? =O
Anyway, what's the real objective to learning species names? Are you going to be tested? Do you need to communicate in it? It's kinda hard to say how to learn it without an objective.
I don't think knowing the Latin is too helpful...
As an example, the "homo" in "homo sapien" and "homo erectus" means "human," but at the same time when you think of homo sapien and homo erectus, you figure that what binds them together is the fact that they're both human so it's easy to place them in the same genus and I wouldn't really know if knowing the latin translation is helpful...
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - mizunooto - 2010-06-25
Luckily for Latin, you already know a lot of it! Yes, because just as people who know Latin can work out what English words mean (sometimes), people who know English can give this process a try in reverse.
If you look here:
Latin and Greek roots of English words
I would think there'd be lots of "primitives", haha, you recognise from English words. Well I think you can use that knowledge to work out what the Latin means (or help you get a grip on it).
Have a quick look at how Latin words are declined and you can see how the words are inflected with the endings changing but the root remaining the same. It's just like します, しました.
You don't need to know all of that stuff but you could just get a feel for what words look like in that language. For example, lower down the page you can see that sacer and sacrorum both mean "holy" but just in different contexts (nominative and genitive plural to be precise
).For learning completely new Japanese vocab, we've just got to learn it kiddo!
Then when you say
iceCream Wrote:some species seem virtually indistinguishable by sight alone.doesn't it remind you of what we thought about Kanji in the beginning? I bet there is something to distinguish them. Maybe taste. Yeah definitely that's how you will have to do it.
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - Reviewed - 2010-06-25
mizunooto Wrote:doesn't it remind you of what we thought about Kanji in the beginning? I bet there is something to distinguish them. Maybe taste. Yeah definitely that's how you will have to do it.Clearly the answer is assigning primitives to their body parts.
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - kazelee - 2010-06-25
kainzero Wrote:When did IceCream become aijin eating IceCream? =OHeadache .@_@.
Why?
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - mizunooto - 2010-06-25
just to be clear, when I said "taste" I was thinking of the plants!
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - mizunooto - 2010-06-25
that would be too *primitive*!!
HOHOHO
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - masaman - 2010-06-25
The idea of what plants and animals are common is pretty different between Japanese and English. Every Japanese kids know what マントヒヒ (mantle baboon）is, but I don't think Hamadryas Baboon is as common in English. キツネザル (fox monkey=Lemur), メガネザル (spectacles monkey=Tarsier) are pretty common in Japan, but Loris isn't, and it is usually just called ロリス not the name in the dictionary, ヤセドウケ, which I had never heard of. Plants can be even worse. 金木犀, 紫陽花, 椿 are all fairly common in Japanese, and they are osmanthus fragrans, hydrangea and camellia. I have a feeling they are not very popular names. Inversely, I din't know the Japanese names for ilex, cottonwood and juniper up until now. Cottonwood don't even have a proper Japanese name.
I would just focus on Latin names and remember the Japanese or English names only if they looked like super easy. Of course, you can cowboy up and remember everything too
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - Aijin - 2010-06-25
Hey now, I think you mean 'sumo up', this is a Japanese forum after all! Though we also don't want to encourage life-threatening obesity, so I'm open to suggestions.
For me personally, when I have to learn long latin words for tests etc. I usually just treat it as any other word: just memorize it through sheer repetition and exposure. Learning what the Latin in the words means and being able to relate it to the actual thing will of course cement your understanding of it more than just memorizing what would be random strings of letters otherwise. Since this field will be your speciality, I think having that understanding might be important. Learning all the different Latin roots is unnecessary of course though, I'd suggest just memorizing the explanations of the latin for each species/suborders, etc. when it seems to you like a good mnemonic.
Regarding learning biology terms in Japanese: you'll actually find that a lot of the terms in the sciences are just translations of the English terms, since the origin of most of the terminology, inventions, and advancements in those fields was from English-speaking countries. レム睡眠 for REM Sleep for example. I'd say you may as well learn the terminology in both languages since a lot of it is so similar and it'll be more useful in life if you have knowledge about it in both languages.
how to approach learning stuff you don't know in english? - masaman - 2010-06-25
Sounds like someone wants her icecream to be sumoed up a bit, before she eats it