kainzero Wrote:i dunno why but the first word i think of when i think "fun in japanese" is ふんどし。

This is why all good teachers stress the need to move away from ローマ字 as quickly as possible. Possibly because I am very overtired the first word I thought of was 糞.

a friend of mine told me about a variety show its called 世界の果てまでイッテQ is pretty cool and interesting to watch even thought I dont understand.

イッテQ　is the only Japanese show I can watch. That and ごちになります. It's great. Imoto is fearless. And they actually show foreigners as real people, not freaks or muggers. The rest of Japanese TV is absolute garbage. When you compare it to what's coming out of America, its no contest. Anyone who disagrees with me doesn't live here.

Harpagornes Wrote:Possibly because I am very overtired the first word I thought of was 糞.

haha Perfect! (Can I borrow this?) btw, anything pop into your head when you hear "get used to Japanese"? :-)

Mennon Wrote:イッテQ　is the only Japanese show I can watch. That and ごちになります. It's great. Imoto is fearless. And they actually show foreigners as real people, not freaks or muggers. The rest of Japanese TV is absolute garbage. When you compare it to what's coming out of America, its no contest. Anyone who disagrees with me doesn't live here.

鉄の骨
振り返れば奴がいる
初秋
白い巨塔
功名が辻
それでも、活きていく
王様のレストラン
不毛地带


Ever heard of these shows? I've never seen an American TV show like any of the ones above.

Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

AlexandreC Wrote:Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

Agreed! I have lots of friends at Lang-8 and it's great seeing them growing in English as much as it must be a joy teaching me! I find this is one of the most fun part in learning Japanese, too, AlexandreC!

Thora Wrote:]Harpagornes wrote:
Possibly because I am very overtired the first word I thought of was 糞.

haha Perfect! (Can I borrow this?) btw, anything pop into your head when you hear "get used to Japanese"? :-)

@Thora
Re: Can I borrow this...
Of course. Spread the joy, so to speak.

Re: Anything pop into your head...
I'm no longer in New Zealand

A feeling of happiness. If someone said this it would have been in response to a complaint on my part. On hearing their reply, I realize my complaint is invalid; I am in a Japanese rich environment, my language skills are being extended. My frustration turns to happiness.

Now if they had said "Get used to Japanese -----" it would be another story.

I am sure that you can find something you like on this website: http://www.anoword.com/category/77 There are clips, short reviews, and pictures of the shows, drama, movies etc.

Something that I found only recently was

26 episodes of the most hilarious Anime I have ever seen. .d

Mennon Wrote:Anyone who disagrees with me doesn't live here.

one man's trash is another man's treasure...

Nagareboshi Wrote:Something that I found only recently was

26 episodes of the most hilarious Anime I have ever seen. .d

And... there went my 3 hours that were supposed to be productive. ありがとうございます。 ^^

Hey how do you guys study vocab? or new things in general

jordan3311 Wrote:Hey how do you guys study vocab? or new things in general

1. I see an interesting looking new word in a media/book.
2. I look up the word in a EPWING reader.
3. If I'd like to learn that word, I sentence mine it. ^-^

@Bokusenou

thanks but what is EPWING reader?

You going to learn more the more fun/exciting/different it is because it stimulates your brain to be interested. All the studying in the world won't help you if you don't rather go chew tinfoil than keep going.

Bokusenou Wrote:

jordan3311 Wrote:Hey how do you guys study vocab? or new things in general

1. I see an interesting looking new word in a media/book.
2. I look up the word in a EPWING reader.
3. If I'd like to learn that word, I sentence mine it. ^-^

Have you paid for that dictionary? I've been looking so hard on the internet for a monolingual jp EPWING dictionary that I can... acquire, but I can never find anything.

jordan3311 Wrote:@Bokusenou

thanks but what is EPWING reader?

A program that can read the Japanese EPWING dictionary format.

TwoMoreCharacters Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:

jordan3311 Wrote:Hey how do you guys study vocab? or new things in general

1. I see an interesting looking new word in a media/book.
2. I look up the word in a EPWING reader.
3. If I'd like to learn that word, I sentence mine it. ^-^

Have you paid for that dictionary? I've been looking so hard on the internet for a monolingual jp EPWING dictionary that I can... acquire, but I can never find anything.

Go here, and apply to join the group. After you get accepted, there's a thread about EPWING dictionaries there that you might find to your liking. ^-^

TheSlyPig Wrote:

Nagareboshi Wrote:Something that I found only recently was

26 episodes of the most hilarious Anime I have ever seen. .d

And... there went my 3 hours that were supposed to be productive. ありがとうございます。 ^^

どういたしまして! At least you were doing something in Japanese.

AlexandreC Wrote:Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

Yeah, learning japanese has never been for me about interacting with my computer in japanese but about communicating with real japanese people

AlexandreC Wrote:Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

See, that's the problem. I don't know anybody that speaks Japanese. Or, should I say, fluent Japanese. The only person I know is my school's Japanese teacher, and he's quite older than me and I don't think I would be comfortable talking casually to him on a daily basis. All my Japanese outlets come from movies, games, TV, novels, educational books, internet articles, etc. Because of this, I've been improving on my listening, reading, and writing, but my speaking is probably terrible. So what I'm saying is - where can I talk to native Japanese speakers? Or at least something that would do me the same if there was someone I could talk to. There's not much Japanese people in a small city in the center of Arizona.

Jombo Wrote:

AlexandreC Wrote:Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

See, that's the problem. I don't know anybody that speaks Japanese. Or, should I say, fluent Japanese. The only person I know is my school's Japanese teacher, and he's quite older than me and I don't think I would be comfortable talking casually to him on a daily basis. All my Japanese outlets come from movies, games, TV, novels, educational books, internet articles, etc. Because of this, I've been improving on my listening, reading, and writing, but my speaking is probably terrible. So what I'm saying is - where can I talk to native Japanese speakers? Or at least something that would do me the same if there was someone I could talk to. There's not much Japanese people in a small city in the center of Arizona.

I use this site for language exchange meet-ups
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

Some are just looking for chat or skype or meet-up (or all of them).

Hope this helps, I'm probably in a similar boat like you. My speaking is lagging behind my solid reading/listening/understanding kanji abilities. I feel that I just need more time and methods to improve my speaking. I know writing will be a different battle all together but I won't mind if it took me another 1-3 years to gain fluent writing abilities but speaking will be my goal for next year.

jettyke Wrote:

AlexandreC Wrote:Nothing has ever motivated me more than using the language with native speakers. If you are still at a low level, get a language partner and get speaking!

Yeah, learning japanese has never been for me about interacting with my computer in japanese but about communicating with real japanese people

A bit of both doesn't hurt

I think it's really, really important to find a form of media you can enjoy without understanding too much to carry you through the beginner stage and to not get caught up in preconceived notions of what you "should" like. I made the mistake of wasting hours trying to enjoy anime when I was a complete newbie. I liked anime in English so I kept telling myself that I liked it in Japanese even though I wasn't enjoying myself much at all.

For me, it was 実況プレイ videos that carried me from understanding only a few words to the point where I could follow things well enough that I could enjoy all kinds of media. For many people it's anime and manga. For some people it's dramas. For some music. For others it's news podcasts(yes, I knew a guy who just LOVED listening to the news even when he couldn't understand. Maybe it was the smooth jazz in the background, or maybe he had a fetish for really well spoken ladies or something... it's beyond me).

Anyway, the point is to try as many different types of media as possible and not to expect to like something in Japanese just because you like it in English.

That is really good advice. Another thing is using translations so you can comprehend and enjoy more. Using rikaichan isn't cheating. Using English subs also isn't cheating. If you need subs to enjoy an anime's story then use subs you'll still be recognising words you picked up from other sources, learning the odd new word from matching the subtitles etc.

@Jombo

Doesn't Arizona border California?
How far are you from California?

There are tons of Japanese there.

If it's possible, find someone in California and
meet somewhere that's halfway in between.

Also, you can meet tons of Japanese on Skype.