Suggestions for quick/fun exercises to learn/study Japanese?

Index » The Japanese language

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Reply #1 - 2012 September 03, 10:20 am
Espionage724 Member
From: Charleroi PA USA Registered: 2012-09-03 Posts: 37

I've tried using a few different methods to learn Japanese over the past few months, but I don't think I actually completed any of them.

With Rosetta Stone, I got bored of it on the second unit I think, and just haven't returned to it.

With Pimsleur's, I was trying to do 1-2 lessons a day, which was going somewhat alright until I got to lesson 11 I think. I basically listened to the entire lesson, barely understood much of it at all, got demoralized, and didn't return to it hmm

With Genki, I only read about 40 pages of it on a bus ride. Wasn't too bad I guess, just haven't returned to it yet.

Human Japanese (Android app) was possibly the funnest course I tried. The lessons aren't too long, and the flash card games/vocabulary quizzes at the end of some lessons were pretty quick and fun too. I did manage to finish this.

I think I like reading and learning things, when lessons are generally small. This way, I can do a lesson, take a small break, and possibly go for another lesson and repeat. With longer lessons, they tend to "drag out" I guess and I end up getting bored after a while.

With Rosetta Stone (I haven't used the program in a while), the Core lesson would have like 40 slides to go through. I used to do about 15-20 (or however much I could sit through), and then pick it up tomorrow. The lessons after that had less slides (9-20 possibly) and were funner to go through.

Pimsleur's would start to get boring around 15-20 minutes of listening, and lessons are usually 25-30 minutes. I tried pausing it about halfway and then picking up on it another time, but this didn't work out too well on whatever lesson I tried this on, and I ended up being confused throughout that lesson.

Human Japanese I just did a lesson right before I went to bed since they were somewhat quick to go through.

Anyone happen to have any suggestions as to how/what I can study Japanese?

Reply #2 - 2012 September 03, 11:28 am
EratiK Member
From: Paris Registered: 2010-07-15 Posts: 874

I guess the Japanese Assimil course could be call short. Not sure about the fun part.
Japanese the Manga Way is kind of fun, but it might be too long for you.
Anyway, I hope you are aware learning a language cannot be all fun all the time. Good luck!

Last edited by EratiK (2012 September 03, 11:29 am)

Reply #3 - 2012 September 03, 12:11 pm
TwoMoreCharacters Member
From: Sweden Registered: 2010-07-10 Posts: 480

For someone who easily gets bored of and demotivated by technical resources and is looking for fun ways of learning, I would really suggest the more..."liberal" approaches of learning through direct exposure to the language. At the least to complement tiring exercises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/bl … to-fluency
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddNVFWd … ature=plcp
http://japaneselevelup.com/

If you liked the quick flashcard runs of that Human Japanese app then it sounds like SRSing suits you. That means reviewing vocabulary you've come across by flashcards, only there's an algorithm to it that decides the intervals for your cards based on how you rate their difficulty when you review. It's quick and effective. There are pre-made decks of frequent vocabulary such as "core2000" you can download. Check this out for that: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=5322

Our 'essential resources' thread might have some other things that are interesting.
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=480

EratiK wrote:

Anyway, I hope you are aware learning a language cannot be all fun all the time. Good luck!

Yeah, likely not all the time but it much depends on your approach, for sure.

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Reply #5 - 2012 September 03, 1:27 pm
howtwosavealif3 Member
From: USA Registered: 2008-02-09 Posts: 889 Website

Do song lyrics witH rikaichan
Watch Japanese drama or anime with Japanese subs
Watch  talk variety shows since they have mad text on the screen

Of course not all songs, anime, drama, talk shows will be to your liking regardless of whether you're fluent or if you understand 50 percent. Find the song or show that you like

Last edited by howtwosavealif3 (2012 September 03, 2:00 pm)

Reply #6 - 2012 September 03, 4:39 pm
rahsoul Member
Registered: 2012-02-29 Posts: 63

howtwosavealif3 wrote:

Do song lyrics witH rikaichan

Can you suggest a good lyrics site (meaning with actual Japanese)?

Reply #7 - 2012 September 03, 4:57 pm
gaiaslastlaugh 代理管理者
From: Seattle Registered: 2012-05-17 Posts: 525 Website

rahsoul wrote:

howtwosavealif3 wrote:

Do song lyrics witH rikaichan

Can you suggest a good lyrics site (meaning with actual Japanese)?

Just google the name of the song you want and the word 歌詞. In general, though, I like http://j-lyric.net/. Many other sites incorporate anti-copying code via JavaScript that tends to block rikaichan/Rikaisama.

Reply #8 - 2012 September 03, 5:11 pm
Zgarbas Watchman
From: 名古屋 Registered: 2011-10-09 Posts: 1210 Website

Also, barring rikai-chan, looking for the song with 歌詞付き on google will usually find you a version of the song with the lyrics on the screen. Good for when you're not good enough to tell when one word ends or not since it makes it much easier to follow.

Reply #9 - 2012 September 03, 5:25 pm
ryuudou Member
Registered: 2009-03-05 Posts: 406

Have you completed RTK? You won't get very far doing a classroom style-ish approach.

Last edited by ryuudou (2012 September 03, 5:26 pm)

Reply #10 - 2012 September 03, 6:27 pm
MindTrick Member
From: 澳洲 Registered: 2012-09-01 Posts: 24

I found listening to JapanesePod101 to be fun as a beginner. Lessons are only around 10 minutes long and the hosts are entertaining (subjective!). It really didn't feel like studying at all.

Reply #11 - 2012 September 04, 12:58 pm
Espionage724 Member
From: Charleroi PA USA Registered: 2012-09-03 Posts: 37

ryuudou wrote:

Have you completed RTK? You won't get very far doing a classroom style-ish approach.

Hmm, I was doing RTK a few months ago but didn't return to it for some reason (no particular reason why). I think I'll give this another go though smile

I think I'll try practicing recognition of Kana/Kanji characters, writing them (maybe using Human Japanese for Kana stroke order; RTK1 for Kanji meaning and stroke order). I have a flashcard app on my Android tablet (Obenkyo) that should also be pretty nice for practicing on-the-go.

The Drama watching and script reading approach mentioned does seem pretty interesting; I'll probably give this a try once I get through RTK1.

In order to get more exposure to hearing native speakers, I used to stream Japanese TV to my media PC, via NTKTV. Only thing that isn't convenient about that program is having to manually open the next segment after every hour.

Last edited by Espionage724 (2012 September 05, 7:26 am)

Reply #12 - 2012 September 04, 1:08 pm
rahsoul Member
Registered: 2012-02-29 Posts: 63

gaiaslastlaugh wrote:

Just google the name of the song you want and the word 歌詞. In general, though, I like http://j-lyric.net/. Many other sites incorporate anti-copying code via JavaScript that tends to block rikaichan/Rikaisama.

Thanks for that.  And Zgarbas too.  smile

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