Has studying japanese or using your current study methods, and I'm guessing they work well, motivated you to feel like "...after learning Japanese, everything else is just so easy!".
I've been cranking out the Italian/French books I have and using the SRS program and all around tactics, and its just insane. My first language is Spanish, so the jump isn't that big, but after Japenese it's just an eye opener at how streamlined learning a related language. It actually makes me feel good, the same feeling I get when I did some big physical exertion(Biked to the beach and back, hiked, etc). I'm tired but I could take on the world.


Also this is the second part I wanted to address. Does Japanese have better learning materials on the internet than any other language(English being the exception), or is it just me? Rikaichan, tons of flash card sites, review sites, grammar compilations. Where is the Tae Kim guide to Italian damnit. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? Anybody have any resources for these two languages that are innovative and well built?

Yes, I'd be really interested in some sentence collections in other languages.

Yeah, it's really funny how Japanese resources are so easy to find. Before I got serious I looked into finding something for German. I couldn't find anything worth while. It helps that people who want to study Japanese are commonly internet savvy.

I have some experience with Korean, and there's a whole heap of materials between the two languages. Here's some useful links:
Naver's jpdic page - Has a Japanese/Korean translator, dictionary, tons of sentences with furigana for Japanese. There's also a Chinese/Korean section (중국어사전) for those wanting to bridge from Chinese.

Yahoo Korea's Dictionary site - You can get Korean example sentences with either Japanese or English translations.
예문 = 例文 (example sentences).

Dr. Eye - For Chinese (both simplified and traditional), Dr. Eye is a good dictionary and has tons of example sentences with English translations:

The Italian and French Yahoo websites don't appear to have any decent dictionaries. I'd be interested to know if anyone has any more good suggestions for Korean.

The reason why there's such an abnormal amount of Japanese learning resources online, I "blame" on two things:

1. EDICT. Basically the first open source really good dictionary between two languages. Even those here who are affraid of J-E dictionaries have to give it credit for what it has done to Japanese studies.
2. Nerdlove for Japanese, though this is a pretty new concept. Still, if you're a nerd, chances are you like video games or anime, both having strong connections with Japanese. If you're a nerd, there's also a good chance you like using the internet. Put the two together and you have millions of Japanese learning sources online.

Tobberoth Wrote:2. Nerdlove for Japanese

3. Japan creates an enormous amount of media. Similar to English, it's not difficult to actually immerse yourself completely in the language 24/7. It's not comparable to what other languages have. I'd say Spanish might be a third 'easy' language to learn. And then the 'fourth' there's German with its enormous literary corpus. After that, on the internet at least, it becomes rather 'empty'.

phoenix Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:2. Nerdlove for Japanese

3. Japan creates an enormous amount of media. Similar to English, it's not difficult to actually immerse yourself completely in the language 24/7. It's not comparable to what other languages have. I'd say Spanish might be a third 'easy' language to learn. And then the 'fourth' there's German with its enormous literary corpus. After that, on the internet at least, it becomes rather 'empty'.

The media is only on the internet because of the nerdlove. Despite having amazing infrastructure Japan is quite behind on the internet.

Jarvik7 Wrote:

phoenix Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:2. Nerdlove for Japanese

3. Japan creates an enormous amount of media. Similar to English, it's not difficult to actually immerse yourself completely in the language 24/7. It's not comparable to what other languages have. I'd say Spanish might be a third 'easy' language to learn. And then the 'fourth' there's German with its enormous literary corpus. After that, on the internet at least, it becomes rather 'empty'.

The media is only on the internet because of the nerdlove. Despite having amazing infrastructure Japan is quite behind on the internet.

Please elaborate. I'm interested to see your thought process on that one.

kerosan41 Wrote:Please elaborate. I'm interested to see your thought process on that one.

Most internet users still access the internet through their keitai. Owning a computer is nowhere near as common as it is in the west. Most stores and businesses have a minimal online presence, usually limited to information on their location. Internet access to television programming is extremely limited (unless you count all of the unlicensed streaming services). For example, TBS still only sells copies of their content on expensive VHS tapes. Streaming movie rental services are more or less non-existent or useless (mail-order rentals are much more useful, thanks to Japan's amazing postal system). Almost all of the major content sites are western services that have branched into the Japanese market. Official websites for tourist locations are almost all extremely old, out of date, and full of broken links. This is part of a greater trend of official sites being created and then never updated. I can't count the number of times I've read something on an official site only to show up and find out that the information is incorrect, incomplete, or out of date. I always call on the phone now. Things are of course improving, but Japan is very much behind the west in terms of the quality&quantity of content.

Pretty much all of the Japanese media that we can get on the internet as foreigners is provided by other foreigners in pursuit of their "nerdlove". As an aside, this also leads to people having incorrect impressions about Japan since what gets passed around the most is stuff nerds like, such as anime, weird porn, really bad music (momusu), etc. Little do they know that other than child friendly stuff like doraemon, anime is pretty much only on in the middle of the night or on satellite.

I figure after learning so much about learning in the pursuit of japanese, I'll want to learn Vygotsy and Piaget in the original. Also a few others.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Lots of words

I have to agree with you there.

Japan built an amazing internet infrastructure, but from what I've seen the actual content lags far behind the US (my main comparison). There are some aspects that I really like, such as being able to buy something online then paying for it with cash at a conbini, but overall it's quite lacking.


If there's any detractors to those remarks, actually try and utilize Japanese sites for day-to-day living and you'll see what I mean. You'd have to live in the country to get for full experience though, as much of it revolves around trying to get local information, online shopping, etc.

spoonsman Wrote:Japan built an amazing internet infrastructure, but from what I've seen the actual content lags far behind the US (my main comparison). There are some aspects that I really like, such as being able to buy something online then paying for it with cash at a conbini, but overall it's quite lacking.

That kind of service actually exists just because most sites don't offer direct payment by creditcard, and most Japanese people are very afraid of using creditcards anywhere, let alone on the scary internet anyways. The other option is usually just furikomu from an atm or a postal money order.

Which brings me to the topic of the genkin society. So damn fuben.. A mugger's paradise though.

Also, Japan's amazing internet structure is starting to crumble. Many of the service providers for NTT's fiber are starting to implement bandwidth caps. Asahi-net's are so low as to make the service unusable for anything other than web browsing and occasional downloads. What a waste of 100mbit.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Which brings me to the topic of the genkin society. So damn fuben.. A mugger's paradise though.

I try to restrain myself from complaining about things in Japan but I must admit that this one really gets me going. For a genkin society, it can be remarkably difficult to get hold of your own genkin. The amount of times that I've run out of cash and found it ridiculously difficult to get more is just beyond belief.

If you do manage to find an ATM then the chances are that you'll either have to queue or pay for the privelege of withdrawing your own money from a machine. ATM machines get more overtime pay than Japanese humans. Sometimes bars come down shuttering them off after a certain hour. Of course, they must need a rest. Some of my friends can't come out for a drink because they're working into the small hours (and often not getting paid) while your Mistubishi UFJ ATM machine is chilling out for the night.