captal Wrote:It IS! Every time someone looks at me funny or mentions how I should be learning Chinese because that's going to be the world language, I get more motivated.

When that happens, we will be doing ACATT

ALL my friends and family, except my very best friend, think that I'm crazy and I'll not make it, and it's always like "is this guy for real?" on the face of whom I tell I study Japanese.
Seeing you guys struggling like me in it is VERY motivational and is enough for me

Actually, sometimes I'M the one who thinks I'm crazy. Like... I love doing it and I won't stop but I think why? and it stresses my brain out cos I just kinda got hooked and got started and now it's a freight train that just won't slow.

Eh... just crazy enough to work!

My friends don't exactly think I'm crazy, they just see it as another language. As a group though, I'd say people probably think our interests are a bit strange compared to most other people's. We all taught ourselves french together, one of my friends is working on Polish, the other Korean, and we're in the midst of picking out a third language for us to learn over next summer. The idea is that by next summer we can maintain the languages we already know (in my case japanese and french) just by watching movies. I think I'm already there in french after only 9 months of study, but idk how japanese is gonna go haha

I think my parents and friends just sort of indulge me when I go off on rants about languages. They know me by now... XD

Some people are just generally impressed and keep asking me: How do you say [X] in Japanese? I usually have to say I don't know.

My friends KNOW I'm crazy.

No one really thinks I am crazy XD, well except my parents. I was almost kicked out of my house from spending to much time learning RTK1! I now spend all my time at my uni's library and everything is good. My friends either accept what I do or they ignore me (another form of acceptance XD).

I find it odder when people don't find it crazy and illogical.
Normal people don't learn a language unless they need it.

Tobberoth Wrote:Wow, a long topic I haven't written in, this has to be remedied.

When it comes to being thought crazy, it usually comes in waves. When you're a beginner, people are going to think it can't be done, that you're wasting your time. When you get good at the language, suddenly everyone and their grandma want you to translate things. When you get REALLY good, they think you're crazy because it's supposedly impossible.

lol, this is so true.In the beginning there was a lot of resistance or that feeling of "he's crazy about japanese,Asian languages,etc" . When you do get good, it eventually goes down, which is right on the ball!

mezbup Wrote:Actually, sometimes I'M the one who thinks I'm crazy. Like... I love doing it and I won't stop but I think why? and it stresses my brain out cos I just kinda got hooked and got started and now it's a freight train that just won't slow.

Eh... just crazy enough to work!

Same as me!

mhaellix Wrote:This is my group's website:

Massuki Fansubs - http://www.massuki.com

You can find our releases in d-addicts.com

Dramas I've translated:

14 Sai no haha
Dance Drill
Tantei Gakuen Q
Dream Again
One Pound Gospel
Sense wa Erai SP
Change
Furuhata Chuugakusei SP
Seigi No Mikata - current project

That's interesting. I was actually watching Furuhata Chuugakusei SP as I read this. Amazing coincidence! (not looking at the subs though)

Yea, all of my friends do think I'm crazy for doing this method. Especially now since I'm in Japan as a foreign exchange student..

Everytime I tell people what I'm doing now they always tell me that I should really "focus on speaking and grammar more", and they also criticize the fact of learning the English keywords for the Kanji. Honestly though, I've grown to not care what people think anymore. I'm a pretty big believer of the whole input before output method, so I figure I'll pick things up as I continue to watch Japanese shows and read in Japanese.

Although I'm only here for about 5 more months, and I really do want to speak... I'm not going to rush it because I will probably start making mistakes early on and just keep reinforcing those mistakes as time goes on.

Just my experience as of now

Quote:Everytime I tell people what I'm doing now they always tell me that I should really "focus on speaking and grammar more"

Bullshit bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit. For the longest time I was an illiterate gaijin who could speak fluently but couldn't read basic elementary school Japanese. It is _not_ fun, at all. Don't be that guy.

I know man, I really don't want to be that type of person who can speak very well but when it comes to reading is illiterate. It's a little embarrassing if you think about it.

I don't know your situation, so perhaps I'm wrong about what's actually going on here but...

Quote:I'm only here for about 5 more months

I encourage you to go through RtK and all that stuff.
But you're only in Japan for 5 more MONTHS! Surrounded by native speakers!! You can spend your time reading and watching TV shows when it's the only form of Japanese you have available. Take advantage of what you have, get out there and speak!

You can only learn to speak by speaking...and I think it'd be a little embarrassing to be able to read/write all this vocab and kanji and what have you, but not be able to hold a conversation past "nice weather we're having today"

That's true, but I'm not really even sure where to start as far as vocab goes. Also, is it ok to learn vocab while going through RtK?

It's okay because it gives you Japanese keywords (sort of). Because going to Japan is like a once in a lifetime opportunity (more or less), so you should really take advantage of that. You could do some assimil: it's a three months course, but you could do it in a mouth, and by then, you'd be pretty decent in Japanese (I mean, just watching manga, we all know the meaning of yume, mamoru, daijobuka, ohio, tabete, nite, seiko... so the rest shouldn't be that hard).

EratiK Wrote:(I mean, just watching manga, we all know the meaning of yume, mamoru, daijobuka, ohio, tabete, nite, seiko... so the rest shouldn't be that hard).

I'm reminded of a remark by a friend of mine: he knows the kanji for 'one', 'two', and 'three', so the other two-thousand odd can't be any harder, right? :-)

pm215 Wrote:I'm reminded of a remark by a friend of mine: he knows the kanji for 'one', 'two', and 'three', so the other two-thousand odd can't be any harder, right? :-)

Actually, the more I do Heisig, the more I think like that. I remember trying to write kanjis like 犠 or 憾 before Heisig: total nightmare! But now, I hardly even notice anymore.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Even if it did say "Star Samurai", that is a retarded thing to get as a tattoo.

Although the original story was already funny, I laughed out loud upon reading this. Ahh.

But to go on topic, no one really thinks I'm crazy. I guess I have to give thanks to going to an open-minded "college-prep" private high school (expensive... debatable on whether or not it's worth it). But I certainly don't have many friends who share any of my interests (be it otaku-type stuff, computer-science, or language acquisition). But, my friends supporting me is more than I could ask for.