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Fabrice, could you PLEASE provide the ability to delete our own posts? I have in the past wanted to delete my own posts but could not.

Just add a "delete" button along with the "edit" button.

john555 Wrote:Fabrice, could you PLEASE provide the ability to delete our own posts? I have in the past wanted to delete my own posts but could not.

Just add a "delete" button along with the "edit" button.

It was disabled because people (or: mainly one or two people) who were major contributors went back and deleted thousands of their own posts, which makes those old threads hard to understand now and took away useful information. I would like to be able to delete my own posts too, but the reality is that you can just edit it so it contains basically nothing. Just write 'oops' or something.

Kinda destroys the point though, since you could go back and edit all your old posts to contain nothing...

Just to keep it simple my goals for this year are:

12 Light Novels (1/month)
12 Visual Novels (1/month)
120 Manga (vol) (10/month)
1500 Episodes (30m) (4/day)

kameden Wrote:Just to keep it simple my goals for this year are:

12 Light Novels (1/month)
12 Visual Novels (1/month)
120 Manga (vol) (10/month)
1500 Episodes (30m) (4/day)

What are "light" novels exactly? Can you give an example of a well know English language "light" novel and one not considered "light"?

john555 Wrote:What are "light" novels exactly?

A short Japanese novel aimed at teenagers and young adults.

john555 Wrote:Can you give an example of a well know English language "light" novel and one not considered "light"?

Nope.

john555 Wrote:What are "light" novels exactly? Can you give an example of a well know English language "light" novel and one not considered "light"?

It's wasei-eigo and refers to Japanese serialised novels targeted towards the young adult demographic and are usually only a few hundred pages long (typically around 200-400). A quick look on wikipedia would have taught you this much.

What is or isn't a light novel basically just comes down to whether it was published under a light novel label or not, although there are a few examples that aren't officially light novels that are popularly thought as such, notably the Monogatari series.

Edit: Looks like Kameden was quicker.

[Zgarbas]

Light novels are to Japan what Young Adult Novels are to the US, basically.

Zgarbas Wrote:Light novels are to Japan what Young Adult Novels are to the US, basically.

So is it safe to say that Japanese "light novels" are, for the learner of Japanese, relatively "easy"? So e.g. if I want something not too difficult to practice with, I could read one of these?

2014 resolutions
1. Get married to Japanese woman
2. Move to Japan with a spouse visa

Failed both.
2015 will be the same resolutions. If I don't see luck coming my way come mid 2015 I may just end up going to college this year. Nothing like starting college when your 23 right? I can't wait to graduate college when I'm 27...at least then I can finally get a work visa.

john555 Wrote:

Zgarbas Wrote:Light novels are to Japan what Young Adult Novels are to the US, basically.

So is it safe to say that Japanese "light novels" are, for the learner of Japanese, relatively "easy"? So e.g. if I want something not too difficult to practice with, I could read one of these?

Some are easier than others. I would recommend Zero no Tsukaima as a first light novel to read. But note they are not graded readers. You will find N2 . N1 and beyond grammar in them. And if it is your first one and you've only done Core 10k or the like. Expect to see 1000+ words you don't know. That's how it was when I started. i've read about 40 since. A characteristic of them is thst they have a few pages of color illustrations in thr front and a number of b/w illustrations throughout. Many animes are based off of them.

My resolutions I had for 2014

1) Write on Lang-8 more, and get better at writing.
2) Read more! Novels, manga, news, anything.
3) Finish the core 10k deck.
4) Finish MnN series / start Tobira, ect.

How did it go?

1) I wrote for a couple months. I'm bad at writing still, and I gave up on lang-8 in november. It helped, but a lot of the time I didn't get a lot of corrections, or no explanations as to what I did wrong. My writing ability is that of an N5-N4 student.

2) I read a little bit, but not nearly enough. It's a struggle for me to read. I started to read RAW manga, but my eyes just glance over the text and focus on the pictures. I wish I knew how to force myself to push through text. I also bought children noves and while I probably COULD sit there and spend hours making my way through pages, I decided not to. I'm a bit ashamed. I did realize though that the more I read, the easier time I had making sentences.

3) I got 1k cards in and called it quits. It was helpful, but I just got too stressed out by it. Now I'm using Nayr's deck and I like it a lot more. The audio and sentences are really helpful to me.

4) I finished the first book. Keep in mind i've been learning for 2 years and I've gone through Genki and Tae Kim. I have a hard time remember certain things but the MnN series is perfect for me. I really enjoy it. I'm almost half way through the 2nd textbook. As for Tobira, it was too difficult for me. My kanji knowledge is terrible, and I NEED furigana. Trying to read the articles in that book was taking me forever, and I decided to post pone it until a different time. Maybe when I have more vocabulary cards done.

As for 2015.. here are the things I want to do.

1) Finish MnN and get into Tobira or An Intergrated Approach to Japanese.
2) I want to finish the Nayr's core deck! I love it! I just feel stressed out whenever I open up anki for some reason.
3) Read more! I want to start reading a lot more.. I've joined various groups on FB where there's Japanese people constantly posting. I have to use rikai-kun for a lot of it , but that's okay.
4) Get to a level where I can play my 3DS/Vita games without wanting to slam my head against a dictionary.
5) Make Japanese friends.. I don't have a single one. Yeah, I have that one random user on LINE, but we never talk.

I don't know if I'll be able to get all these goals. Right now I'm pretty stressed out about my life. I want to learn Piano, Web Development, Korean * at some point * and continue Japanese.. but I feel like I never have any free time to relax.

2014
Focused mostly on my classes and learning general knowledge.
Not much focused Japanese study but I learned a decent amount of vocabulary.

2015
A's in my classes
Japanese: a few subgoals (subs decks and vocab review)
Meditate an hour a day
Limit consumption of meat and refined sugars
Exercise four or more times a week (mostly aerobic/flexibility training)
Keep up with recent anime series

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Arupan Wrote:

PotbellyPig Wrote:Some are easier than others. I would recommend Zero no Tsukaima as a first light novel to read. But note they are not graded readers. You will find N2 . N1 and beyond grammar in them. And if it is your first one and you've only done Core 10k or the like. Expect to see 1000+ words you don't know. That's how it was when I started. i've read about 40 since. A characteristic of them is thst they have a few pages of color illustrations in thr front and a number of b/w illustrations throughout. Many animes are based off of them.

Just wondering but why read books which are originally meant for junior high school students?

For me, it'd be entertaining. Light novels and manga are fun to read. It'd be like reading Harry Potter or something similar.

Arupan Wrote:

PotbellyPig Wrote:Some are easier than others. I would recommend Zero no Tsukaima as a first light novel to read. But note they are not graded readers. You will find N2 . N1 and beyond grammar in them. And if it is your first one and you've only done Core 10k or the like. Expect to see 1000+ words you don't know. That's how it was when I started. i've read about 40 since. A characteristic of them is thst they have a few pages of color illustrations in thr front and a number of b/w illustrations throughout. Many animes are based off of them.

Just wondering but why read books which are originally meant for junior high school students?

Like I alluded to. many animes are based on these books. If you like an anime and want to continue to read the story, this is the way to do it. Personally, I don't care for manga. Even in English books, I don't usually read true adult fiction books. I like Harry Potter, Eragon and the like that are aimed at a younger audience. It is a matter of taste I guess.

I passed various translation agency tests and learnt some arabic. I also improved at chess. I set up my own import company.

This year i aim not to alienate or damage anyone deliberately and to actually help people

My 2015 resolution is to use Facebook and YouTube less. That should help all things, not just Japanese.

Also, figure out what to do with my life.

2015...a year of major changes for me. From student to 社会人.

→　Read 60 books:
- a russian classic
- a book series (still not sure which, probably something on zombies or spies)
- 3 japanese books (I can read in japanese without much problem, but I just don't feel like reading in it, dunno why...)
- get hooked in one genre (other than dystopian)
- read a bunch of business books to get fired up for 就職活動
- read a book in spanish (100 years of solitude)
- read more books in portuguese (mother language)
- continue reading genre and literary fiction, but mainly read non fiction (lately the opposite is happening...)
→ continue learning new japanese words
→ graduate
→ get a job (either in japan, or back home or some other country, the world is mine)
→ get into some sort of combat sports gym (wanna release all the bad emotions and feel alive fight club style - that is after I get a job)
→ use facebook less (I read the news through facebook, need to start reading them though other place exclusively like feedly)
→ change to a more mature look and not the western college student archetype
→ find more inner peace by facing my fears and taking more risks. There are no negative implications, so why the fear/anxiety? (probably from things I was used to fear that no longer exist, but the head is still set up to fear them)
→ be confident on a daily basis and not only sporadically, feel good and get better everyday (改善)

Rina Wrote:→ get into some sort of combat sports gym (wanna release all the bad emotions and feel alive fight club style - that is after I get a job)

You've probably seen that movie but... (9/10 from me).

Inny Jan Wrote:

Rina Wrote:→ get into some sort of combat sports gym (wanna release all the bad emotions and feel alive fight club style - that is after I get a job)

You've probably seen that movie but... (9/10 from me).

and also read the book!

Excellent book (though I found Palaniuk's writing a tad confusing) and excellent movie.

john555 Wrote:

Zgarbas Wrote:Light novels are to Japan what Young Adult Novels are to the US, basically.

So is it safe to say that Japanese "light novels" are, for the learner of Japanese, relatively "easy"? So e.g. if I want something not too difficult to practice with, I could read one of these?

It isn't safe to say that at all. A lot of them are certainly easy, but a lot of them are not. The subject matter will have a big effect on what's easy and what's not - hard science fiction is going to be a lot harder than school life stuff, for instance. Starting with children's novels is better, I think - especially if you're reading on paper because you get furigana. Though there are some light novels that have been released in children's editions which have furigana.

@Arupan - because good things are good regardless of who the target audience is.

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On further reflection, I've decided that I need a tighter focus for the new year. I'm going to focus more than I have on listening. I don't want to head to Japan with my listening in its current shape. I'll be using NHK news, TV Japan, and a few anime series to pump as much into my ears as possible.

My reading is making a shift as well. I've resumed using LingQ. I've found that I really hate studying vocab out of context, and that service gives me the best context one can have - the full original article. I also want to read more material from my field in Japanese, and start following some japanese tech blogs.

Finally, I realized that, even though the technical training I write for work is translated into japanese, I've never read one of my course manuals after it's been translated. I'm going to make that a priority once the new version of my course comes back from the translators.

Fun story - my team knows I study japanese, and my manager is on the lookout for opportunities where I can apply my language skills. The other day, I was asked to test a short, mock version of one of our translated certification exams, which I have already passed in English. I had 30 minutes to answer 20 hard ass questions about cloud computing. I was having war flashbacks to the JLPT the entire time. (And yes, somehow I managed to pass!)

Tzadeck Wrote:My 2015 resolution is to use Facebook and YouTube less. That should help all things, not just Japanese.

Also, figure out what to do with my life.

That's a great plan. Well worth sharing.