Just starting, no prior experience, I plan to start going to classes as well in a months time but due to time constraints I can’t do that right now.
I want to buy something from itunes to get me started, app or itunes university? Which courses or apps do you recommend?
My aim to be able to hold basic conversations in six months time when I plan to live in Japan for 3-4 months. Realistic if I go to classes twice a week?
I’d say no way. Classes twice a week for six months would bring you to a point where you can speak some basic Japanese (say some phrases and construct simple sentences) but understand very little spoken Japanese and almost no written Japanese. If you want to progress faster you’ll need to do it yourself.
I don’t know anything about iTunes but I suggest you take a look at a website called japanesepod101.com
They have weekly podcasts at lots of different levels from beginners to advanced. By going through the old podcasts in the learning centre, you can have daily instead of weekly. In addition to the audio podcast, they have lots of pdf learning material for each lesson, some of which is available free.
Warning: they will drive you mad with e-mails. If you sign up for the basic, free, level of service you will get non-stop e-mails with “special offers” trying to get you to pay for the premium level.
I also think the Pimsleur Japanese courses (parts 1, 2 and 3) are good. But they are expensive.
Realistically, I think you will gain conversational ability in Japanese while you are there, and not before.
Rosetta Stone Japanese. I don’t know about this particular program but I’ve tried out a couple of others (briefly) and they look quite good and intuitive. I can’t say how quickly you might progress, but it would definitely give you a leg up in the classes so that you could either start with a more advanced class or get more out of whichever ones you end up taking.
Whoa. Going there in only six months? :eek:
You need some heavy-duty classes, like these guys, to even get to the very basics. The linked website is that of a school in Toronto that teaches in total immersion, even for beginners. They start with body language, and you have to learn the kana before day one. After the first eight weeks of the beginner’s course, we were taking notes in kana and building simple sentences (In the afternoon, I rode the train to the store to buy some sushi), but we had very little vocabulary. The next class had opportunities for conversation in Japanese, and theoretically after the first five courses, lasting a year and a half or so, I could have challenged the basic level of the Japanese proficiency test.
Maybe by doing these courses and basically nothing else in my spare time but Japanese-related activities, I could have learned enough to hold my own in conversation in Japanese. We’re talking a year and a half of dedication, not just a lecture twice a week. This isn’t Esperanto here.
I tried the trial of Rosetta Stone to learn some Japanese. God, that program is awful. It just says a sentence and shows you a picture that you’re suppose to match up. It’s been a while but it showed everything in full Japanese (Hiragana, katakana, and Kanji). That is literally all it does. How am I suppose to learn the syntax, grammar, and other things with no written instruction?
Taking five classes a week at the local university, I do recommend, however. That’s what I’m doing. I’m rather shy, but it’s rather fun interacting with classmates. The semester isn’t even over and I feel I could at least survive in Japan.
How did you learn it when you were a kid?
Ditto to both of these sentiments. Japanese is complex enough that you’ll gain a smattering of either verbal or reading comprehension, but not both.
I’d concentrate on a few basics of speaking, at least “Excuse me.” and “Sorry, I don’t speak much Japanese.” :~} And start learning the word order: "Are you Japanese?" becomes “You Japan-person are, question?” (I ‘Amedika’-person am)
Oddly enough, my french class twenty years ago and the few Spanish podcasts I’ve heard have helped me be flexible and adjust to different sentence structures.
The rest you’ll pick up there. I listened to a LOT of japanesepod101 podcasts, but luckily was good at gesturing, doodling!(take a notebook), and relying on the patience of storekeepers, waiters and hosts.
Have fun! Hope you can find a good 100 Yen Store (we called it the less-than-a-buck store). Yes, the quality is right up there with our Dollar Stores, but with a lot of fun stuff, like Hello Kitty Surgical Masks and rulers with no numbers (?) and Anime school kits. All for 100 ¥en!
If you use Firefox, you should get the Rikaichan add-on. If you are reading Japanese websites (which, admittedly, will be beyond your level right now, then it is a great help for working out those difficult compounds).
well I’m actually in Japan right now (for two weeks)… I can manage fine just pointing at things to purchase them, and I bought a Pasmo card so I don’t need to work out the subway fares, just put 1000 yen on it and swipe in and swipe out.
Ok well I’ll see how I can go, your right I’ll pick it up when I’m here for 4 months, but I want to have a basic vocabulary down before I get here. If all goes well I may be able to live in Japan for 4 months of every year… Australia for the other 8 months…
I’ve read some good reviews of Japanese Coach for the Nintendo DS; conveniently it also includes a dictionary, and the stylus+touchpad can act as a scribble pad. Some people complain that it contains some errors. Not speaking any Japanese myself, I don’t know whether the errors are significant or not, or whether it contains more errors than comparable learning tools.
(I thought about doing it but decided it was more sensible to brush up on my Spanish instead, being something I can use and practice every day, watch Spanish language TV, spanish newspapers, etc. )
In terms of apps on my iPhone, I have the Kotoba dictionary, Human Japanese Lite for general lessons, and Kana Cards flipcards from Mulishani.
I’d second pimsleur.
Listening to cd’s in the car is pretty straightforward and if you commute by yourself you can repeat out loud to yourself without being too embarrassed. Basically a 30 minute to hour lesson every day.
2 classes a week with no outside instruction, absolutely no way will you be able to have basic conversational level. Even with outside study, you will basically be spending your first six months learning how to learn Japanese. I had 3 years of 5 day a week Japanese, and I was considered a good student and I wouldn’t say I have basic conversational level, because I’ve never been to Japan outside the airport.
You will do your real learning while you are IN japan, if you avoid only hanging out with english speakers an immerse yourself. But classes to learn the basics so you can absorb what you are exposed to is a good idea. I wouldn’t waste a ton of time with self study, except to memorize vocab words.
Have fun!
Oh wow… Thanks for Kotoba… you can DRAW the kanji shape and it looks it up in the dictionary and gives you english translation… thats simply incredibly useful… and it’s FREE…
Not to be harsh here, but you’ll really have to work to make that happen. I’ve known people who have been living here for years, studying Japanese on the side, and they’re only at perhaps upper basic conversational level. Unless you make studying Japanese a main focus of your 4 months in Japan, you’re going to come away with not more than survival Japanese.