Author Comment Disco Supafly manipulator of the Virus (6/11/02 10:06:43 am) Reply How long? I just thought this might be interesting ... We've probably talked about it before, infact I'm pretty sure we have. But for the benefit of the newbies, how long has everyone been studying Japanese here? And how proficient would you rate yourselves? (out of say ... ten) Ok, me first. I wasted 3 years of high school getting bullied by a feminazi weight lifter in a class SUPPOSEDLY for the benefit of learning Japanese. Then, years later, I studied Japanese for two years at Uni - which is responsible for holding my level of it now. I'd probably rate myself at about 6.5 out of ten. Ok, minnasama douzo. Oshiete kudasai. Gibal Sandwich out from the well (6/11/02 10:14:18 am) Reply Re: How long? Hmmmm a total of..... 5 days.... which is bad... i only have 2 more to live!!! Why did u ppl start learning?? Its that damn ring for me... and the possibility of meeting Otaka Rikiya.... Turtle God Kame manipulator of the Virus (6/11/02 10:52:08 am) Reply hmm well, 1yr I guess, 2semesters... but I'm pretty good, so I'd say 6-7 rating... that's in gaijin japanese, as for REAL japanese, I can probably talk to 1st graders pretty well... >) eabaker out from the well (6/11/02 11:23:20 am) Reply Re: hmm Studied for 3 semesters, then had to stop so I'd have more time for my film classes. I'm pretty good at understanding grammatical structures, and have an okay smattering of vocabulary, but in terms of actually utilizing that for any kind of comprehension/conversation, at this point (devoid of practice) I'm down to about a 3-year-old's level, I imagine. ring rasen loop Administrator, Ring guru (6/11/02 11:57:10 am) Reply Re: hmm My first Japanese class was 12 years ago, but in terms of continuous study time this probably equates to 8 solid years ( 4 in Japan). j. Double Helix citizen of the Loopworld (6/11/02 12:40:24 pm) Reply Re: hmm My first Japanese lesson was a little over 4 years ago, but it was only a night school class, 2 hours once a week for 3 years. Got to about GCSE level (maybe a bit further since I did some extra studying). My vocab isn't great, grammer limited but I know my way round a kanji guide . Conversationally I'm godawful - no practice since my class got cancelled. Dunno what number to put on it but I'm probably a little lower than most folks on this thread rage against everyone Sadako slave (6/11/02 1:23:25 pm) Reply little off topic i dont speak japanese but i have been considering learning but i dont know of any local uni's/colleges that do courses what does everyone think of these home learning courses (linguaphone, etc.) Narusegawa out from the well (6/11/02 1:46:58 pm) Reply Re: little off topic I want to learn more than anything. But since I live in a little podunk town here in North Carolina which has one college which only teaches French, Spanish, and German. And Im pretty much stuck here. I'm looking into self taught Japanese. I've absorbed alot through film and anime as well as all the j-pop I listen to. But its still hard. I'd love to move to Japan but I couldn't possibly in this ligual state... ring rasen loop Administrator, Ring guru (6/11/02 2:53:42 pm) Reply Re: little off topic Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of "Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics," which features real Japanese comics skillfully broken down to analyze grammar and vocab. We used to pass those old black-and-white Mangajins around the classroom back in my day. Sigh. j. rage against everyone Sadako slave (6/11/02 6:52:54 pm) Reply Re: little off topic thanks j. im wondering tho to be able to read a novel in japanese ring or any other would you need to be able to read kanji, katakana, and hiragana or is most literary work done in one of the above KappaEx further down the Spiral (6/11/02 6:59:11 pm) Reply Manga Ahh Mangajin...brings back memories. Manga are a good way to start reading Japanese especially when they put those lil' furigana above the kanji. That's the great thing about learning Japanese, you can read comics all days and claim it's educational. ring rasen loop Administrator, Ring guru (6/11/02 9:42:03 pm) Reply all of the above Reading pretty much anything in Japanese requires knowledge of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Grab some Mangajin and some Hadamitsky and Spahn resource materials and you're on your way! j. p/s-- a fellow Mangajin-er?! Kudoz to the kappa! Disco Supafly manipulator of the Virus (6/12/02 1:00:38 am) Reply Re: all of the above Hmm. THAT got a lot of replies! Congrats to all those who perservered with their study, and those who'll get up off their asses to do so. It's great if you can learn another language - if only to listen in on conversations when they think you can't understand them. I remember this one time I went shopping here, and these 4 Japanese girls (about 18 years old) walked past me. As they did, I gave a little smile to one of them and heard what they said as they walked past. "Hey, what did you think of that guy?" "I prefer girls..." Hmm. I didn't bother following up on them after that. Heh. So anyhoo, in addition to my Uni study, my girlfriend/s have also taught me some Osaka-ben, whic - if you don't know, is a really difficult to understand local dialect. What you learn in schools and manga is generally "Tokyou Japanese", which is unofficially the national standard. But Osaka-ben is ... well, different. Mecha muzukashii yan! Demo Osaka ben sa zenzen wakaran yo!