Jarvik7 Wrote:I haven't read it, but wasn't it somewhat inspired by 1984? ...seeing as the title is a 'pun' on the name and all...

Sure was. All of 村上春樹's novels are inspired by something written/directed/spoken/thought about in English. He probably loves English more than any of us here love Japanese.

For anyone remotely curious, I haven't read 1Q84 yet, but 村上 is a very good writer and his stuff isn't very hard to understand. In fact, it's probably some of the best stuff you can read if you're just deciding to jump into novels (other than Japanese translations of books you've already read in English).

Yonosa Wrote:I haven't read a novel in English for some 7 years.

I usually don't succumb to this, but here I think I will. I'd just like to say, it shows.

!!, I read plenty of nonfiction!
Haha but actually I haven't read more than a few books in the past year, and on my defense, I live with my japanese girlfriend, and my chinese roommate. I'm pretty immersed over here so cut me a little break! ...also...I am no literary expert nor seek to be, and most of the other folks here aren't either. But the past few days I have spent way too much time on these forums. I'll be back in a week or so, I'm thinking to take the JLPT 2 in July so I really have to gauge if I am ready for it. Good luck increasing your speaking man.

By the way by July when the test is I will have only studied a year and 1 month. So I'm doing work over here son. Maybe Jlpt 1 this December too, If I feel particularly bold.

Sign-up for July's JLPT ended 4 days ago...

Guess I can focus on the JLPT1.

Yonosa Wrote:I'm pretty immersed over here so cut me a little break!

IIRC, you're an undergraduate intl exchange student at Fudan Univ. Aren't the (non-Chinese language) classes and readings in English with other foreign students?

RTK: 22 days. JLPT2: predict 13 months [er...I guess not.] JLPT1: predict 18 months (while becoming fluent in Chinese). Start masters at Tokyo University as regular student: next year. Degree in Austrian Economics from the Mises Institute: when? (Is that the Mises Inst in Alabama - a think tank which offers a one-week summer conference called the "Mises University"?)

It's getting a bit confusing. Why not announce your accomplishments (and precise time periods) after you achieve them?

I agree that you should just speak. You need real practice conjugating, throwing together constructions, and turning as much passive vocab as you can into active vocab. This involves lots of pausing, frustratingly not being able to remember things, and relying on your partner for help, but it only gets easier and more fluent.

As long as you're learning and getting exposure, you'll be surprised at what you can produce if you really give it a go. I'm talking going for a 2-3+ hour conversation, not just short snippets of dialogue. The more you speak the more you learn, and not just from yourself but from your partner too. There's just too much language out there to prepare for, so you really need to get out there and do it.

Don't forget that it's not just about grammar and vocabulary - you've got to get your personality across! Find out what speaking style, gobi, etc work for you, and practice "translating" your humour while it doesn't matter how さむい you are. This is really important for confidence, which I think is at least 50% of speaking.

One thing that might help away from speaking, though, is shadowing. I found that it helped my general speaking flow, as well as pitch accent and intonation. Sounding good is another way to boost confidence. It's surprising how well you remember what you say as well.

Thora Wrote:

Yonosa Wrote:I'm pretty immersed over here so cut me a little break!

IIRC, you're an undergraduate intl exchange student at Fudan Univ. Aren't the (non-Chinese language) classes and readings in English with other foreign students?

RTK: 22 days. JLPT2: predict 13 months [er...I guess not.] JLPT1: predict 18 months (while becoming fluent in Chinese). Start masters at Tokyo University as regular student: next year. Degree in Austrian Economics from the Mises Institute: when? (Is that the Mises Inst in Alabama - a think tank which offers a one-week summer conference called the "Mises University"?)

It's getting a bit confusing. Why not announce your accomplishments (and precise time periods) after you achieve them?

　
I tend to speak tentatively a lot, but actually, I have no plans of attending a japanese university as of right now...I heard there can be a lot of crap involved from more than enough people to the point that I am pretty adamant at not doing so. As of right now I have decided that when I finish University I am going to go travel abroad for about a year or so and thereafter will decide on master degree plans. Oh an about my chinese, its nowhere near on par with my japanese yet, I changed my focus back to japanese even though i am in china studying chinese. I find that to me chinese language content is nowhere near as entertaining as japanese content. So right now I am not planning on really trying to tackle the HSK (and not a high level at that) until late next year.

But hey don't worry you know me, I'll keep you posted! haha, And come december openly share my 1kyuu test results, I don't have any idea if I will pass, but I'm gonna definitely take a shot at it then.

wccrawford Wrote:People who play piano just to hear piano music are artists. People who talk just to hear themselves talk are ass****s.

As for it being his wife, he's already said he has trouble with longer sentences and tends to answer simply. He's asking how to fix that. "Just do it" is -not- a valid answer. It's not helpful in any way. He already knows that he needs to talk more and is asking for suggestions on how to make it happen.

People who talk to become better at it are smart, not a-holes.

If he can only answer simply, he needs to practice his speaking more. "Just do it" is not only a valid answer, it's the ONLY valid answer. He's asking how to make it happen, and to just do it is how you make it happen. There is honestly no other way. People can try to think of their interesting new ideas for how to magically go from being able to talk only in single words to having full conversations without actually conversing, but it's not helpful since it won't work. There are no shortcuts. All you can do is talk so much that it becomes second nature. You start simple and it automatically becomes more advanced. First week, single words. Next week, simple sentences. Suddenly, you're fluently expressing your thoughts without any issues at all, and you're wondering how it happened. It happened because you used an ability so much that you got better at it. It's honestly quite as simple as that.