I just sentence-mined a human and it was awesome. I got 20 casual sentences, i heard them said 4 or 5 times each, i got kanji, hiragana and english. I discussed the situations where they would be used. Certainly not part of my active japanese yet. (Do i even have any active japanese? very very little. I'm a beginner.) But, I'd know these phrases if i heard them.

I've had access to several bilingual native speakers for a while, but I didn't really think about how to make use of them in a language learning capacity. Tonight, 10 minutes into a voice/text chat (all english), I started working through how to have the same conversation in japanese. To be honest, it rocked my world. Never has so much been learned by so meager a mind with so little effort! Over the course of 2 hours, i discussed these sentences, dissected them, doubted them, had them reinforced, had them repeated. Time flew. Learning came for free. I was totally absorbed. I asked her how she felt about it. She said it was totally fun for her too.

I don't know if people have access to bilingual native speakers, but if you do, how do you make use of them? I'm in no way able to hold a complete conversation in japanese, so until now, i've just been asking the odd question. Trying out phrases as I pick them up. Tonights adventure was much better. hearing and repeating japanese.

I've heard so much advice here on how to study. It's all so appreciated. I haven't read anything about how to make use of a native speak. I stumbled onto this tonight. Thought I'd share...

That's awesome. I'm about there too, my Japanese is at so low a level that I can't hold a Japanese conversation, but I can learn a lot by using English and the little Japanese I know with a native bilingual. It is fun and a big boost to learning and motivation. I am just now getting a weekly language partner, and I am excited about the prospect. I try to speak as much Japanese as I can, but I am also asking questions, and getting clarifications about some of my mined sentences, and pronunciations. I also have tons of idiom/"how is the language used" questions, and cultural queries. Learning from a dictionary has it's limits, and human communication is my biggest motivation for learning Japanese. And the time sure does fly when your having fun....

I meet with a nice lady from Japan every week and do my best to sentence mine her questions She also helps by generating nice example sentences for obscure vocab.

It's great fun

Oh, I thought maybe you pasted kanji braille all over your gfs body and started reading. What a great way to study Japanese!

Boy, I know what it's like to have access to native sources. Unfortunately, I didn't use mine as you did yours when I was a beginner. Looking back on it, I wish I had. But over time, when we started conversing using Japanese only, they helped me (and still do) to hone my pronunciation, usage, and syntax. They give me those phrases you can't find in the textbooks.

Though, you might find this eventually as well, I don't ever seem to need anki to remember what they teach me during conversation. It just naturally works itself into my speech as well. I don't know what would happen if I used anki (and I think I might be too lazy to try to write down all the things I learn during casual conversation), but I can only imagine it would be positive.

Last night, I was pleased to have access to a sentence-generating native human source and efficiently made use of her in a language learning capacity to hone my syntax.

Guys, what's with the creepy Data-speak? parody or ...

@Thora...

This is a language learning forum so we talk like that. Go to the alt.sex.binaries.japanese forum to hear a more casual, less language focused description of the encounter.

scatbubba Wrote:This is a language learning forum so we talk like that.

Pursuant to the heretofore unmentioned regulations concerning the permitted style of discourse among registered members of the language learning forum known as Reviewing the Kanji (hereinafter, "RevTK"), in my efforts to exploit the existing knowledge base of said members to incrementally augment my capacity in the Japanese language in areas such as (without limiting the generality of the foregoing):
i) generation of content for conversing function (hereinafter, "Speaking");
ii) text decoding (hereinafter, "Reading");
iii) aural interpretation (hereinafter, "Listening");
iv) orthographic representation (hereinafter, "Writing");
v) phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (hereinafter, "Debate Ammo");
vi) techological innovations in furtherance of the aforementioned i) through iv) (hereinafter, "Cool Stuff")
(hereinafter, collectively "Language Capacity"),
I shall:
a) employ such terminology, lexicon and syntax befitting the academic linguistic seriousness of RevTK;
b) make best good faith efforts to effect concurrences, within a single paragraph, of expressions of the ecstatic passion inherent in humanity and of the cold utilization of humans as experimental tools to enhance Language Capacity, all without any apparent comedic intent; and
c) in the event any member jokingly points out any instance of the apparent incongruity described in subparagraph b) above, respond in such manner as may indicate incomprehension, lack of humour, offensiveness or general snarliness.

Edit: I guess I missed the memo, dude. My bad. :-)

Thora Wrote:

scatbubba Wrote:This is a language learning forum so we talk like that.

Pursuant to the heretofore unmentioned regulations concerning the permitted style of discourse among registered members of the language learning forum known as Reviewing the Kanji (hereinafter, "RevTK"), in my efforts to exploit the existing knowledge base of said members to incrementally augment my capacity in the Japanese language in areas such as (without limiting the generality of the foregoing):
i) generation of content for conversing function (hereinafter, "Speaking");
ii) text decoding (hereinafter, "Reading");
iii) aural interpretation (hereinafter, "Listening");
iv) orthographic representation (hereinafter, "Writing");
v) phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (hereinafter, "Debate Ammo");
vi) techological innovations in furtherance of the aforementioned i) through iv) (hereinafter, "Cool Stuff")
(hereinafter, collectively "Language Capacity"),
I shall:
a) employ such terminology, lexicon and syntax befitting the academic linguistic seriousness of RevTK;
b) make best good faith efforts to effect concurrences, within a single paragraph, of expressions of the ecstatic passion inherent in humanity and of the cold utilization of humans as experimental tools to enhance Language Capacity, all without any apparent comedic intent; and
c) in the event any member jokingly points out any instance of subparagraph b), respond in such manner as may indicate incomprehension, lack of humour, offensiveness or general snarliness.

Edit: I guess I missed the memo, dude. My bad. :-)

Haha.

Though I do think they were being self-conscious in their use of linguistic terms relative to a conversation with a person. They've *got* to be aware of double meanings with the word 'scat' in their name.

Personally, I hate the idea of language-learning partners, but for my own reasons. ;p

yeah, I assumed so at first as well. I smiled at the "She said it was totally fun for her too" bit. But then I wasn't so sure...

The thread title somehow reminded me of Sylar from Heroes.

@Thora
LOL!!!
I think that was Einstein語 for, "Yo Momma!"

BTW: 20 casual sentences in 2 hours? No thanks. ;p

bodhisamaya Wrote:@Thora
LOL!!!
I think that was Einstein語 for, "Yo Momma!"

My original response to this thread title was "I sentence-mined your mom last night" but it seemed inappropriate.