Ok, I've talked about it in another thread but now I've decided to open a separate thread.
I need something aimed at shadowing, with useful content so I can pick useful sentences by a side effect. Obviously I could shadow audio-books or similar, but 90% of the content will be about things that I will never need to say. While content aimed at shadowing has mostly only dialogues and sentences similar to the ones we use in real life.

I know there is a good book called "shadowing japanese" but the problem is that it's not available in digital format, and as my family doesn' know I'm studying japanese, I don't want to order phisical books about it. (And yes, they will take the package and open it before me ._. ).

So any suggestion is appreciated! I've considered Moses (laoshu505000) FLR method but I've seen some of his youtube demos and I'm not as sure as before about it.

Also, I suspect it's not, but just to be sure: is it legal to buy a digital scan of a textbook, as if it was a used copy? I know many students rent books from the library of from friends, they scan the book and give it back. I remember one suggestion of jalup or ajatt was to buy Genki, mine it (which is by any means equivalent to scan/fotocopy it) and then to re-sell it. So I have this little doubt if it's ok to do it.

Quote:I know there is a good book called "shadowing japanese" but the problem is that it's not available in digital format, and as my family doesn' know I'm studying japanese, I don't want to order phisical books about it. (And yes, they will take the package and open it before me ._. ).

You should order some porn along with it and request that it get put on top to hide the Japanese book. They won't suspect a single thing.

As for the other question: I don't think it's necessarily legal, but no one is going to come busting down your door because you made a copy of a book for personal use and then resold it. In fact, I would bet that some people do that to begin with. I know that people go to school libraries and scan textbooks but don't resell them and such as it is.

Edit: Just reread closer (sorry, just woke up). *Buying* a scanned version probably still wouldn't be legal, and it's probably more morally iffy too in my opinion but that's up to you. If you're willing to pay then just get the real thing unless you absolutely can't afford it. At worst, have the package shipped to a friend's house or something if you think your parents are going to freak out about you learning Japanese for who knows what reason.

(2016-04-01, 3:36 pm)zx573 Wrote:

Quote:I know there is a good book called "shadowing japanese" but the problem is that it's not available in digital format, and as my family doesn' know I'm studying japanese, I don't want to order phisical books about it. (And yes, they will take the package and open it before me ._. ).

You should order some porn along with it and request that it get put on top to hide the Japanese book. They won't suspect a single thing.

As for the other question: I don't think it's necessarily legal, but no one is going to come busting down your door because you made a copy of a book for personal use and then resold it. In fact, I would bet that some people do that to begin with. I know that people go to school libraries and scan textbooks but don't resell them and such as it is.

Edit: Just reread closer (sorry, just woke up). *Buying* a scanned version probably still wouldn't be legal, and it's probably more morally iffy too in my opinion but that's up to you. If you're willing to pay then just get the real thing unless you absolutely can't afford it. At worst, have the package shipped to a friend's house or something if you think your parents are going to freak out about you learning Japanese for who knows what reason.

Lol, I think it could work, as long as the porn is not a japanese one xD

In the past I did the mistake to say it to my mother (that I'm studying japanese, not that I watch japanese porn lol ), and now on every occasion she criticises the japanese culture in front on me just to undermine my willpower to study it. The rest of my family would be even worst. They are the typical people who mimicize the chinese speaking in a stereotipized way to make fun of them, they think all chinese people eat dogs because they are monster and so on. Their main phrase is "japanese people are crazy and fanatical people" (because of the kamikaze thing). I know for other people this is not a problem but I am not able to bear it, it will drive me crazy. Not only the ignorant talk, but also the fact they do it just to provoke me.

And I can not ask a friend to order it because I have no friend (who lives near me)

I have the Shadowing Japanese book, and it definitely has useful dialogues in it, but I can't clearly say that they're more useful than, say, the dialogues on JapanesePod101.com.  I think you could probably get just as much value by shadowing their dialogues (using the lesson notes as a guide).  There are a few recent lessons available for free, and a basic membership is pretty affordable and will get you all of the lessons along with lesson notes with transcripts.  If you're especially short on cash you could get the basic membership for just a month, then download all the mp3s and lesson notes that interest you - the library is fairly deep at this point.

The Shadowing Japanese text is a bit more "textbook-y," at least at first (although it's better than some other texts I've seen), and the dialogues are shorter, whereas Jpod101.com will have more variety, more casual conversations, and longer dialogues.  The longer dialogues might make them more frustrating to keep up with at first, but if you set your goal at shadowing just a few sentences, then build from there, it would probably be fine.  If you don't need the grammar lessons or a detailed vocab breakdown you can skip everything after the dialogue.

(I'm not affiliated with Jpod101.com at all, but I've been a subscriber on and off for a while and I feel like I've gotten a lot of value out of their lessons)

thank you shaydwyrm! that's the kind of answer I needed.

what I find confusing about jpod101 is the quantity of lessons. Am I supposed to do all of them? I fear some redundancy...

NHK has 48 free audio lessons. Short dialogs that you can read and listen to. You can even download all of their content for free!

http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/

TUFS Japanese has 40 dialog videos with transcripts which can be seen in 4 different patterns, with the 4th pattern having no script.

http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/ja/en/dmod/

I'm sure they will bee useful in shadowing practice

(2016-04-01, 4:37 pm)cophnia61 Wrote: thank you shaydwyrm! that's the kind of answer I needed.

what I find confusing about jpod101 is the quantity of lessons. Am I supposed to do all of them? I fear some redundancy...

Redundancy is actually a good thing here. I mean, that's the way learning works, right? But in the case of jpod101, I hear the quality is significantly improved in later seasons and many people say to start with those.

No offence but your family sounds like a bunch of rednecks  

Good luck on your studies anyway!

cophnia61 - your story reminded me of this old AJATT article: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blo...supportive.

Well there will always be discouraging and ignorant people in your life, I can tell you from experience that it gets better when you get older. You'll be able to put some distance (physical and emotional) between yourself and the people in your life who discourage you, and be more selective about the people you choose to let close. In the meantime, just keep doing your thing and let your own small successes push you forward. 頑張って。

^ agreed. To sum up the article in a picture (since is picture is worth a thousand words)

(2016-04-01, 10:28 pm)kendo99 Wrote:

(2016-04-01, 4:37 pm)cophnia61 Wrote: thank you shaydwyrm! that's the kind of answer I needed.

what I find confusing about jpod101 is the quantity of lessons. Am I supposed to do all of them? I fear some redundancy...

Redundancy is actually a good thing here. I mean, that's the way learning works, right? But in the case of jpod101, I hear the quality is significantly improved in later seasons and many people say to start with those.

You're right, and I find jpod101 content very well done!

To the other users, thank you for your support xD It's a little discouraging when the people who are supposed to support you preffer to act as an obstacle. I remember when I said to my mother that I've decided to study japanese, she answered "why? but why this idea??" like if I was saying "I've decided to be part of ISIS". ahahaha

I've read that article by katzumoto and it summarizes what I think. I've started to really get into studying japanese and to see results from the same moment when I've decided to put apart all those people who where draining my time and energy. I've finally learned to say "NO" as an answer xD

Hey man, sorry to hear about the unsupportive environment.

If you don't want to receive this or any other book at home, there are many book scanning services in Japan. They will cut, scan, OCR and send you the PDF of any book you want. Scanning fees for one book start at 100円 usually (so cheap!), and since it's going to be destroyed anyway you can order used books. There is a bazillion of those for 1円 plus shipping on Amazon Japan.

Type 書籍スキャン into google.co.jp and have a look

(2016-05-18, 3:22 pm)thedoc Wrote: Hey man, sorry to hear about the unsupportive environment.

If you don't want to receive this or any other book at home, there are many book scanning services in Japan. They will cut, scan, OCR and send you the PDF of any book you want. Scanning fees for one book start at 100円 usually (so cheap!), and since it's going to be destroyed anyway you can order used books. There is a bazillion of those for 1円 plus shipping on Amazon Japan.

Type 書籍スキャン into google.co.jp and have a look

Wow, this sounds like a great service! For the moment I've found free digital stuff to work it, but I'm sure I'll sometime in the future use it!

(2016-05-18, 3:22 pm)thedoc Wrote: Hey man, sorry to hear about the unsupportive environment.

If you don't want to receive this or any other book at home, there are many book scanning services in Japan. They will cut, scan, OCR and send you the PDF of any book you want. Scanning fees for one book start at 100円 usually (so cheap!), and since it's going to be destroyed anyway you can order used books. There is a bazillion of those for 1円 plus shipping on Amazon Japan.

Type 書籍スキャン into google.co.jp and have a look

This. Oh my God, this. My life has just become easier. Thank you.