.

I'll admit that I'm at risk of sounding like an anime character... But that still doesn't stop me from watching them all the time. I like to think I pepper in enough manga, books, drama, movies, and Skype to make me sound like a generic lunatic, rather than an anime character.

Watch Ryoumaden. I quite like it and it's easy to follow. It's a samurai drama, but it sucks you in.

You know you could just watch variety shows. They pretty much all have enough text on the screen to make it understandable.

Q10 was good, if you like cutesy girl stuff.

There's also that show SP. The movie looks pretty rock on. http://wiki.d-addicts.com/SP

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Aibou is good too, but way way way long. 9 seasons I think.

I believe IceCream was asking for TV programs in which people talk normally, not just for recommendations in general. You were just enumerating your favorite shows, right?

IceCream Wrote:recommendations for how normal people speak!?

Cranks Wrote:It's a samurai drama

Hmm...someone missed the question.


I guess I've never ran into this problem. What sorts of drama have you been watching? From my experience, if you're just taking words out of the normal conversations that they have, it shouldn't be a problem. Long, dramatic speeches and things could lead to some more dramatic vocab but hey..

Do you find yourself using phrases directly from the drama that sound out of place? I met a kid who learned to repeat things for effect (a la Obi-Wan: "Now, that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time") which sounded odd in real conversation.

What are you learning from drama that leads to this?

Seriously, there is quite a bit of general conversation stuff in these shows (most old-modern stuff outside NHK specials they slap around a bit of old Japanese, but give it in after a few minutes.) Watch them and you'll see what I mean - samurai dramas, speeches and keigo aside (I know Ryouma does get a tad worked up at times, but I wouldn't mind sounding a bit like him at times too, lol - talk about motivating the workforce FTW.) You'll find most things outside of anime (and even in 'some' of that) are pretty (ab)normal (that's a fairly wide statement).

Personally, I think variety shows give you the best bang for your buck, if you can ignore that most of them are about food that is.

On another note, all entertainment is slightly scripted by its very nature. Anything you do hear will be slightly skewed towards unnatural speech. That said, anime and its TV live spin offs generally push this to the extreme. Icecream, from what I can gather, is pretty skilled, so anything outside of this genre is going to be pretty fitting.

Edit: Actually, why not watch music shows where Japanese interview Japanese. No subs, but definitely worth it. Also, IRIS sorta rocks in Japanese. I think the DVDs are coming out pretty shortly. Coffee Princess was fairly decent too (most Korean dramas dubbed to Japanese are pretty interesting.) Dr. Koto was pretty good too. Moteki was sort of fun.

Edit2: You could just check the TV listings on NHK or Yahoo.jp. That will probably give you a good idea about what's out there - watch what the natives watch.

http://tv.yahoo.co.jp/
http://www.nhk.or.jp/

Edit3: No more edits, but can you think of a show where someone had a completely real general conversation in The States? Xfiles, CSI, Special Victims, Boston Legal, even CNN interviews? "How was your weekend?" "Did you watch the Red Sox game?" "How's your daughter's play going?" "I hear your wife is pregnant again, how's she doing?"

Cranks Wrote:can you think of a show where someone had a completely real general conversation in The States? Xfiles, CSI, Special Victims, Boston Legal, even CNN interviews? "How was your weekend?" "Did you watch the Red Sox game?" "How's your daughter's play going?" "I hear your wife is pregnant again, how's she doing?"

Oh, there's plenty of them. The only problem is that they focus exclusively on just awful, trashy people that you would never want to talk like.

That's why I only watch dramas with women as the main characters . I don't want to end up speaking like a man : P

IceCream Wrote:hahah it's not so bad really, it's more funny... i think it's half just that i usually only speak japanese when i'm really drunk, so have a tendency to sort of, speak exxageratedly. It's things like using 「だよね」　or 「XXXじゃないですか」 when it's not a negation. it's not too hard to drop once you know. i would like to hear some more normal conversation stuff though...

one girl said to someone else, hahah your japanese is so funny, it's like an audiotape! then to me, ...and yours is like a drama!

another guy said to me, "your japanese is kind of like a mature womans..."
guy 2: what do you mean? ちょっとセクシー？
guy1: ない!!!!! ないない!! [looks round at me]... ah, ちょっと, a bit.

looooooool!

Where you living at? Here in Osaka I hear だよね　a lot.. mostly by girls tho (infact in this email I just got) I try to avoid saying ね at all and just use　な, but I think that sounds normal out here anyway.

was under the impression じゃないの form was an acceptable was to ask a question.. sort of like "aren't you?" 行かないの "your going aren't you?"

Since あいのり is a reality show, it should be close if you want to keep the addictive aspect of a drama series.

It's like American TV... or any TV. People say outlandish things and don't act like truly normal people do in real life. That would be boring.

You just need to filter in what's normal and what isn't. You won't find a show that has 100% normal dialogue. Shows are going to coin, turn, and generally do weird things to phrases.

Imagine a Japanese person learned all their English from... Dexter. Now, they if that's their only experience and they think that is 100% normal for America, they will probably start talking like a creepy serial killer, and have a strange way of expressing certain ideas ("Dark Passenger").

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's like American TV... or any TV. People say outlandish things and don't act like truly normal people do in real life. That would be boring.

You just need to filter in what's normal and what isn't. You won't find a show that has 100% normal dialogue. Shows are going to coin, turn, and generally do weird things to phrases.

Imagine a Japanese person learned all their English from... Dexter. Now, they if that's their only experience and they think that is 100% normal for America, they will probably start talking like a creepy serial killer, and have a strange way of expressing certain ideas ("Dark Passenger").

I agree with this. Every show has it's "normal" conversations and the other words/phrases that people won't say in real life(not a high chance at least). Whenever I watch anime like bleach,naruto,rurourni kenshin. There are phrases/conversations that are normal but the rest that is said would never be used in real life. We just need to filter what is normal and what is "not".

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Imagine a Japanese person learned all their English from... Dexter. Now, they if that's their only experience and they think that is 100% normal for America, they will probably start talking like a creepy serial killer, and have a strange way of expressing certain ideas ("Dark Passenger").

I did this when I watched too much dexter and I'm English :$ I realised I was doing it tho.

Watch less drama and scripted stuff and have more conversations in Japanese?

When I was taking a class for a couple weeks in Japanese, some guy sounded like Byakuya from Bleach lol. I'm starting to sound like Anchang from Sex Machineguns though so I'm not any better.

IceCream Wrote:anyone got any programme / film with subtitle recommendations for how normal people speak!?

I've been told by japanese that toki o kakeru shoujo has very good natural/slang japanese.

If you want natural speech, try radio talk shows. Plenty of podcasts you can grab with iTunes or whatever. Unfortunately at my level I find this stuff very hard to follow, since I have no visual context to go off of. :/ And your not going to find subtitles for this stuff. Oh well.

I know it may seem boring to some, but is there any way better to sound more intelligent than by learning Japanese from watching the news? I watch 30 second news bites at Fuji News most mornings with the aid of Rikaichan. Play the WMP video at half speed while reading the transcripts. Then go back to regular speed when you feel confident. Keep up with current events while you are at it.

juniperpansy Wrote:

IceCream Wrote:anyone got any programme / film with subtitle recommendations for how normal people speak!?

I've been told by japanese that toki o kakeru shoujo has very good natural/slang japanese.

Lol, which one? There are 4 live action films, one anime, and one drama...

Jenkoi Wrote:When I was taking a class for a couple weeks in Japanese, some guy sounded like Byakuya from Bleach lol. I'm starting to sound like Anchang from Sex Machineguns though so I'm not any better.

lol

Cranks Wrote:Edit3: No more edits, but can you think of a show where someone had a completely real general conversation in The States? Xfiles, CSI, Special Victims, Boston Legal, even CNN interviews? "How was your weekend?" "Did you watch the Red Sox game?" "How's your daughter's play going?" "I hear your wife is pregnant again, how's she doing?"

Many British soaps, e.g. Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, use very natural realistic British-English and UK-slang. They're meant to be real people talking to each other, so the writing and acting reflects this.

Watching these types of dramas is a great way of picking up natural speaking and listening skills - I guess Icecream is looking for the Japanese equivalent?

Yeah, he is.

As for Dexter, except for Dexter himself (who is a PSYCHOPATH!) I think everyone on that show sounds pretty natural. People really do talk like that. And most other shows, too. They really do ask about your wife's pregnancy and the latest ball game.

bodhisamaya Wrote:I know it may seem boring to some, but is there any way better to sound more intelligent than by learning Japanese from watching the news? I watch 30 second news bites at Fuji News most mornings with the aid of Rikaichan. Play the WMP video at half speed while reading the transcripts. Then go back to regular speed when you feel confident. Keep up with current events while you are at it.

I just tried that and I imagine this must be exactly how IceCream sounds when she speaks Japanese. Drunk

Seriously this is a good idea I just have to remember they are sober.

http://asianmediawiki.com/Mito_Komon

I'm thinking that would be the Japanese version of East Enders.

@Icecream:

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Upcoming_JDrama

Has a list of stuff that's coming up on in Japan in Winter 2011. Maybe find something you like and follow it. Usually the 1-3am slot stuff is pretty mint (lol, or at least the dramas I buy into are usually in that time frame.)