So I came across this speedlearning thing http://www.espritline.co.jp/ad_af_net205...c2a9605c29

One of my Japanese friends said he was going to buy it but didn't cause it was like the equivalent of like $200... for a Cd that plays classical music at you while it gives you the English sentence and then Japanese translation. I might be being a bit judgmental but that strikes me as an incredibly crappy way of learning a language, the only thing I agree with about this program is that it's recorded at natural speed. At any rate I love the way the guy in the video outlines the "secrets" of this program as if they're groundbreaking innovations.

It's almost like believing you're going to learn a language by watching all anime all the time...

I kid I kid.

I disagree. I think that could be valuable listening practice and could work quite well.

Now, if you told me it was designed to be played while you sleep, I could agree that it's worthless.

[Comment ostensibly related to OP criticizing personally disliked study method]

Jarvik7 Wrote:It's almost like believing you're going to learn a language by watching all anime all the time...

I kid I kid.

Well, you aren't going to learn anything from watching anime all the time, unless you actively *try* to learn something from it.
I had watched literally thousands of hours of anime before I started to study Japanese, and I only knew a handful of words, probably less than 20.

anime isn't a bad thing. But i agree that that isn't the only thing people should immerse and try to learn from. It's best to go from different sources, movies,news,shows,drama's. Having some mangas+anime+games in japanese isn't so bad to learn from. But even Japanese games use vocab i never even heard of....
All and all, it's best to go from different sources. So it will be enjoyable.

Zarxrax Wrote:I had watched literally thousands of hours of anime before I started to study Japanese, and I only knew a handful of words, probably less than 20.

J-dorama: tenchou bouchou kekkon o shimasu dekekkon o shita kyotsukette itadakimasu puroposaru .........
:-)

The 3 years before I seriously started learning Japanese where mostly spend watching a *lot* of (subbed) anime. It certainly did not help me get fluent in Japanese or anything, nor is it the most effective tool for learning vocab (though I must say that I've picked up a surprisingly large pool of words from it). But for listening, that's a TOTALLY different story.

After around a half year worth of serious study, I can still say that my listening skills are far above reading/writing/speaking. You won't get fluent just watching anime all day, but it certainly does not hurt to listen or read Japanese in your free time off 'actively studying'.

So yea, immersion does help and does add up. It's no replacement for active study however, would you wish to become fluent.

Hmmm. definitely need to start a vocab deck soon. Just have so much sentences. Plus good thing about vocab is that i can easily do 70-100 daily no sweat. And keep doing it daily no-problem, no matter the review size. Because the sheer volume of only down to 1 word per card. Not 4-10 when using sentence in context or even more depending.