Hi guys...I'm brand new and just had a few questions. I'm semi-new to this whole Japanese thing (tried studying several years ago, gave up due to family constraints) but I do remember some vocabulary and I've used Anki successfully to refresh my memory of the Kana (much to my pleasure I remembered tons!).

As I'm sure you know, the new Pokemon games are coming out this fall. I was just curious what you guys think the best approach might be for a semi-newb to try to attain some level of comprehension of them? I have Genki I and II, RTK1, 2, and 3, an iPod Touch, and I'm thinking about getting KO2001. On my iTouch I have a kana and kanji-writing app along with Kotoba's Edict which is FANTASTIC.

I was thinking of powering through RTK1 (I work full-time nocs, but I do have time in the evenings and especially on my day off) and KO2001 at the same time, with either Genki I or Tae Kim on the side? Does anyone have any better suggestions? Maybe postpone RTK since Pokemon doesn't use too much?

I'm really new to this, as I'm sure it shows. Oh, and I prefer to make my own decks, too, so I remember things better.

...another dumb question - can someone explain to me the concept of sentence mining? I read about it a lot and still don't get exactly how it works.

Wow, I could have sworn that I just read this same thread about a week ago.
I was right :p http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=5749

RTK wont help at all with pokemon.
Sentence mining just means finding a Japanese sentence and putting it into anki so you learn it. You generally want to do sentences that follow i+1, which means that you are only introducing 1 new piece of information in each sentence.

"RTK wont help at all with pokemon."
Pokemon games contain no kanji so if you want to understand pokemon-based text in the shortest time possible then I reccomend Smartfm Core 2000-6000 (かな). All the grammar in Genki I is useful but I don't think studying keigo in Genki II would be helpful since the language is mainly casual.

がんばって〜☆

pokemon, wonder what's all the hype about. I remember only playing that as a kid, now I never get near them...

We all have different interests though ta12. I personally find pokemon pretty charming, I haven't played any of the new games since I don't like reading kana, but I might try it because I would like get better at it. Also pokemon is pretty 懐かしい　to a lot of people here who played it when they were younger, it is probably a great way tojump into japanese for them.

If pokemon wasn't a good game I don' think it would of made it this far. It was the first RPG to have over a hundred and fifty characters! That was pretty neat back in the day.

To many people it's nostaligic which is why they make so much money on remakes.

Yonosa Wrote:We all have different interests though ta12. I personally find pokemon pretty charming, I haven't played any of the new games since I don't like reading kana, but I might try it because I would like get better at it. Also pokemon is pretty 懐かしい　to a lot of people here who played it when they were younger, it is probably a great way tojump into japanese for them.

Holy crap, did you have a brain transplant Yonosa? You seem to have morphed into the epitome of empathy. I agree with everything you said (!!!!).

I also agree with gyuujuice that smart.fm kana version of core2000 + core6000 is a good way to go, but I personally would download the shared Anki deck containing all the vocab and learn it directly in Anki, as the smart.fm study process goes a bit slowly for my liking. However, since you're just starting you might find it easier to remember vocab the smart.fm way - try both and see what you prefer.

Forget about the textbooks - you won't find people talking like that in pokemon.

What the...?
Are we three here already?

Gonna tell you where I am at learning:
Around 750 on RtK
Know the kana

What I was doing:
2001 kanji odyssey, but since I've got to do all the cards "by hand" into Anki...

What I am doing:
Core 2k and 6k, and then, after these (I'll probably be playing the game already), I'll restart 2001ko

I would say RtK only helps you at learning vocab on the begining, and it needs a lot of effort for not-so-much visible results on playing Pokémon, so leave it for another time (unless you can do it in 2 or 3 months and the vocab at the same time).

What would you recommend for grammar? Tae Kim's? I have the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (I get spoiled on my birthdays and stuff, plus I have a new job = money = spending), maybe mine from there? Find old copies of the pokemon games and mine sentences from that?

I'll get started on the Core 2000 tonight since I've got two nights off~! Man I hate my job, though. Blergh.

Yonosa Wrote:We all have different interests though ta12. I personally find pokemon pretty charming, I haven't played any of the new games since I don't like reading kana, but I might try it because I would like get better at it. Also pokemon is pretty 懐かしい　to a lot of people here who played it when they were younger, it is probably a great way tojump into japanese for them.

I have a friend who likes playing pokemon games. I'm more into 忍者 games.

nohika Wrote:What would you recommend for grammar? Tae Kim's? I have the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (I get spoiled on my birthdays and stuff, plus I have a new job = money = spending), maybe mine from there? Find old copies of the pokemon games and mine sentences from that?

I'll get started on the Core 2000 tonight since I've got two nights off~! Man I hate my job, though. Blergh.

If you download all the parts from Nukemarine's Core 2k and 6k from "shared decks" on Anki, you pretty much don't need to mine any sentences, as it comes with lots of them, even tough most of them are not really that useful.
If you really wanna sentence-mine, I recommend 2001KO for that, but it takes some time to add them, it might get you bored.

As for grammar, I dunno, I guess Tae Kim's is good enough for us beginners.

The simpler, the better, seriously. Don't try to do crazy difficult time-spending things that will bring you almost no results.

BlueFinger Wrote:If you download all the parts from Nukemarine's Core 2k and 6k from "shared decks" on Anki, you pretty much don't need to mine any sentences, as it comes with lots of them, even tough most of them are not really that useful.
If you really wanna sentence-mine, I recommend 2001KO for that, but it takes some time to add them, it might get you bored.

As for grammar, I dunno, I guess Tae Kim's is good enough for us beginners.

The simpler, the better, seriously. Don't try to do crazy difficult time-spending things that will bring you almost no results.

Where would you recommend getting useful sentences? I'm still really nervous about this, hah. I'm considering making my own deck if I can figure out how to do it...since I'll be super-slow at the beginning to get used to the grammar.

nohika Wrote:

BlueFinger Wrote:If you download all the parts from Nukemarine's Core 2k and 6k from "shared decks" on Anki, you pretty much don't need to mine any sentences, as it comes with lots of them, even tough most of them are not really that useful.
If you really wanna sentence-mine, I recommend 2001KO for that, but it takes some time to add them, it might get you bored.

As for grammar, I dunno, I guess Tae Kim's is good enough for us beginners.

The simpler, the better, seriously. Don't try to do crazy difficult time-spending things that will bring you almost no results.

Where would you recommend getting useful sentences? I'm still really nervous about this, hah. I'm considering making my own deck if I can figure out how to do it...since I'll be super-slow at the beginning to get used to the grammar.

Like I said, I think 2001KO (2001: Kanji Odyssey) has some good sentences, and if you do the Core2k&6k in 2001KO's order, you can pick it's sentences and combine with vocabulary, to max the learning.
At least, that's what I think =)

BlueFinger Wrote:

nohika Wrote:

BlueFinger Wrote:If you download all the parts from Nukemarine's Core 2k and 6k from "shared decks" on Anki, you pretty much don't need to mine any sentences, as it comes with lots of them, even tough most of them are not really that useful.
If you really wanna sentence-mine, I recommend 2001KO for that, but it takes some time to add them, it might get you bored.

As for grammar, I dunno, I guess Tae Kim's is good enough for us beginners.

The simpler, the better, seriously. Don't try to do crazy difficult time-spending things that will bring you almost no results.

Where would you recommend getting useful sentences? I'm still really nervous about this, hah. I'm considering making my own deck if I can figure out how to do it...since I'll be super-slow at the beginning to get used to the grammar.

Like I said, I think 2001KO (2001: Kanji Odyssey) has some good sentences, and if you do the Core2k&6k in 2001KO's order, you can pick it's sentences and combine with vocabulary, to max the learning.
At least, that's what I think =)

-feels dumb- ...how do I organize it like that? Also...would an okay way to learn grammar be to find sentences and break them down into their grammatical parts instead of using Tae Kim/Genki/whatever exclusively?

I really have no idea what I'm doing, thus the dumb questions. So far I've been wading through Tae Kim's guide and adding the grammar points to Anki because it's formatted the way I like. I'm just worried about the "kana soup". Should I just use the sentences from KO2001 in kana, then, or...?

/asks lots of stupid questions.

nohika Wrote:

BlueFinger Wrote:

nohika Wrote:Where would you recommend getting useful sentences? I'm still really nervous about this, hah. I'm considering making my own deck if I can figure out how to do it...since I'll be super-slow at the beginning to get used to the grammar.

Like I said, I think 2001KO (2001: Kanji Odyssey) has some good sentences, and if you do the Core2k&6k in 2001KO's order, you can pick it's sentences and combine with vocabulary, to max the learning.
At least, that's what I think =)

-feels dumb- ...how do I organize it like that? Also...would an okay way to learn grammar be to find sentences and break them down into their grammatical parts instead of using Tae Kim/Genki/whatever exclusively?

I really have no idea what I'm doing, thus the dumb questions. So far I've been wading through Tae Kim's guide and adding the grammar points to Anki because it's formatted the way I like. I'm just worried about the "kana soup". Should I just use the sentences from KO2001 in kana, then, or...?

/asks lots of stupid questions.

I don't think you should study grammar AT ALL in the beginning.
What you should do is, do Core 2k&6k or 2001KO sentences, and as you meet something you don't quite get, like a particle, a word, a kanji, you look it up. If it's a particle, look it up at Tae Kim's or a grammar book, if it's a kanji compound, at WWWJDIC, if it's a kanji, at Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary.
After you get to a point where you can actually read something without too much struggle or without relying too much on consults, than you should study actual grammar.