Ampharos64 wrote:

(for the anime watchers here, think all the writing in Bakemonogatari. Yep, I actually think like that)

Imagine the process of translating all the dialogue in The Tatami Galaxy, at the main persona's internal monologue speed. That would give you a hemorrhage. lol

Don't forget that English learning is aided by all the English around you. Whether it's natives who mingle English words into their own language (Spanglish style), TV (even if subbed), music, 90% of the Internet and so on. Exposure to Japanese requires an active effort, whereas with English you're constantly surrounded by it.

I tried Pimsluer & Rosetta Stone.  I would say the most learn came from a cross section of both.  Using repetition.  For writing and reading i started with hiragana.  For me to learn Hiragana first helped.

Max.89 wrote:

I have been studying japanese for about 3.5 years and english for 7 years and I have reached the conclusion that there is no method apart from a lot of exposition and immersion in the target language.

Both reading and listening are the most important aspects of learning a language, but if I were to choose one I would be inclined to say that reading is the most important. I remember that after having read a lot of english I became able to listen and understand a lot of difficult english stuff without no special listening training. After that I found out Stephen Krashen's theory about language acquisition and I have to agree with him.

I am reading japanese every day and I feel that I have improved my reading understanding, but I am still not able to understand all the spoken japanese (though I understand very well if they speak a slow and plain japanese).
This is a bit daunting because with the same amount of time I had already 'absorbed' english. I do not anymore know what I was trying to say (maybe that japanese is more difficult than english).

Since your reading is good, I'd suggest reading DVD subtitles and Japanese TV drama scripts in Japanese. For speaking practice, try to speak the dialogue and act out the scenes. Pretend you're the characters. It may not be exactly like speaking to a native, but you will pick up a lot of useful language used in daily conversation. Lots of language that you don't find in textbooks. Also, there's the added benefit that the movies and dramas are made by Japaense for Japanese. Maybe 99% of the dialogue will be Tokyo dialect, but that's more than good enough to get by in Japan.

Last edited by chamcham (2013 January 21, 12:20 pm)