So...I'm learning Japanese...

[TopWargamer]

http://www.textfugu.com/

 

I've been using TextFugu for a few months now (slowly working my through it), and like the reviews say, for complete beginners, it really is good. It's more than just "memorize this, this, and this." While of course there is plenty of things to memorize, the author (Koichi) really tries to encourage you along the way to keep at learning Japanese and not just saying "Screw this, it's too hard/not interesting."

 

TextFugu starts out slow, with very little Japanese learning going on. Just read through everything. It's all important, trust me. 

 

Yes, this does cost money, but the first season of TextFugu (18 chapters more or less?) is completely free, so you can try it out. 

 

Just wanted to share this with you guys in case anybody else was interested in learning Japanese. Koichi is a pretty cool guy and has own blog, YouTube channel, and Facebook page. So if you guys are interested, go check 'em out.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu

http://www.youtube.com/user/textfugu

http://www.tofugu.com/

https://www.facebook.com/textfugu

https://www.facebook.com/TofuguBlog (If you any questions about TextFugu, ask them here, because he's a lot more active on this Facebook page than on the TextFugu page.)

 

I know this whole post really looks like I'm trying to advertise TextFugu, which, I guess I am, but I'm really enjoying it and I want you guys to use it to. So hope you guys check it out.

[TopWargamer]

I hate my spanish elective... 

 

This looks interesting, but I don't wanna be learning 2 different languages at the same time.

I still don't get why a lot of high schools only do Spanish (at least the ones I know of), and I hate Spanish. 

[zinton]

Xigmatek PRAETON LD963

 

EDIT: Wrong post, sorry!

[eoso]

I know I should be supportive, but whenever I hear foreigners speaking my native languages (Traditional Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese), it's freakin' hilarious. Imagine the stereotypical Asian accent in America and multiply the hilarity by two, and you might get a grasp of what it sounds like to us. 

 

Well, good luck. English was my second language, and I speak it a lot better (and without an accent) than a lot of people in Texas. If I can do it, you can too, albeit with a different language. 

 

Tips and tricks: no matter how good the curriculum is, you won't learn the language properly without complete immersion. So go to Japan if you're really serious about it. Also, a disclaimer: native speakers will always tell you that your Japanese is really good. But they will always leave off the end of the sentence: "for a foreigner." 

 

Not trying to be discouraging- just calling it how I see it. Good luck anyhow.

[Lyons]

I still don't get why a lot of high schools only do Spanish (at least the ones I know of), and I hate Spanish. 

 

Because of this. You're far more likely to use Spanish in the US than any other language. Any others are pretty useless in practical terms in America, but Japanese is very cool as a hobby or if you want to visit/live in Japan/watch anime without subs  

 

 

 

[eoso]

I'm in middle school, if that means anything to you.

 

No, not at all.

[Wulfgar]

If you're in the US, then spanish is very handy. By far the second most spoken language here.

[Nickadeamus]

I never was good at learning other language but have picked up a few words when I was over sea's. But a lot of young adults (didn't want to call them kids) seem to pick it up faster than we did growing up. One of my good friends son's learned Spanish by the end of middle school. Then learned Korean before he got out of high school. He is almost done with Arabic now and is in his last year in Collage. And when I say learned I am talking proficient in speaking it along with reading and writing it.

[qwertywarrior]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4

[LAwLz]

Hell yeah I love Tofugu.

I tried Rosetta Stone before to learn Japanese but I gave up after like a week. Might try TextFugu.

 

Funny video from Tofugu:

[Mooshi]

I still don't get why a lot of high schools only do Spanish (at least the ones I know of), and I hate Spanish. 

Because America is too PC to say "Our national language is English and all citizens should learn how to speak it." and bow down to people who don't respect the country they are in enough to learn the language the majority speaks. You can sugar coat it all you want, but that's the truth. Honestly, considering the most widely spoken language world-wide is Chinese and that a lot of things are manufactured there -- it'd make more sense to have Chinese as an elective language way more than Spanish. At least this is my take.

 

Edit: I can see the effectiveness to learn Spanish in some states, shoot I live in Texas! But I still firmly believe people should learn English if they are in the states and not the other way around.

[techswede]

I might have a look at this^^

I hope to go to japan in a few years to see if i can track down 2 cars and bring em home.

i'll hopefully be able to stay there for a while and experience the culture too.

[eoso]

Because America is too PC to say "Our national language is English and all citizens should learn how to speak it." and bow down to people who don't respect the country they are in enough to learn the language the majority speaks. You can sugar coat it all you want, but that's the truth. Honestly, considering the most widely spoken language world-wide is Chinese and that a lot of things are manufactured there -- it'd make more sense to have Chinese as an elective language way more than Spanish. At least this is my take.

 

Edit: I can see the effectiveness to learn Spanish in some states, shoot I live in Texas! But I still firmly believe people should learn English if they are in the states and not the other way around.

 

^This. My family came here legitimately, contribute to the economy and society, and learned English. The undocumented workers that are illegal get everything written in Spanish on the back. What the hell?

[BigD1970]

I still don't get why a lot of high schools only do Spanish (at least the ones I know of), and I hate Spanish. 

Because they anticipate this to be the united states of mexico in the near future.Press dos para ingles.

[CoolBeans]

I still don't get why a lot of high schools only do Spanish (at least the ones I know of), and I hate Spanish. 

Spanish is a lot better than French 

[LAwLz]

Spanish is a lot better than French 

I disagree. While more people talk Spanish, you also have to take into consideration that you can usually speak English with Spanish people very well. A lot of French people will flat out refuse to speak English, or speak it very very poorly.

[eoso]

I disagree. While more people talk Spanish, you also have to take into consideration that you can usually speak English with Spanish people very well. A lot of French people will flat out refuse to speak English, or speak it very very poorly.

 

...because there are a ton of French people refusing to speak English in the USA, right? We were talking about the US and Mexico, not about Spain. Mexican Spanish and Spain Spanish are very, very different.

 

Not to mention that there are tons of jobs available in service industry here helping those who speak English poorly and only other language is Spanish.

[16TerrorBites]

Nihonjin wa jissai ni manabu tame ni kantandesu. Sore wa chōdo renshū no ōku o hitsuyōdesu!

日本人は実際に学ぶために簡単です。それはちょうど練習の多くを必要です！

 

18 months of learning went into that sentence. :lol:

[rashdanml]

I went with Remembering the Kana/Kanji - a series of books that systematically helps remember the alphabet (kana) and kanji without having to memorize, as well as the romaji pronunciation to some extent. 

 

Remembering the Kanji is split into 3 volumes:

Vol 1 - remembering 2042 Kanji, specifically the characters, and their loose translation, as well as how to write the characters.

Vol 2 - how to actually read/write the Kanji, and their real meaning. 

Vol 3 - same as the above (two parts) for additional 900 odd Kanji. 

 

I've heard great reviews for the above. Currently almost done with the Hiragana lessons from Remembering the Kana, and I'm finding it surprisingly easy to recognize Hiragana characters while watching Anime or Japanese manga. Also purchased the first volume of Remembering the Kanji, and will buy the second Volume once I've made sufficient progress. 

[helping]

http://www.textfugu.com/

 

I've been using TextFugu for a few months now (slowly working my through it), and like the reviews say, for complete beginners, it really is good. It's more than just "memorize this, this, and this." While of course there is plenty of things to memorize, the author (Koichi) really tries to encourage you along the way to keep at learning Japanese and not just saying "Screw this, it's too hard/not interesting."

 

TextFugu starts out slow, with very little Japanese learning going on. Just read through everything. It's all important, trust me. 

 

Yes, this does cost money, but the first season of TextFugu (18 chapters more or less?) is completely free, so you can try it out. 

 

Just wanted to share this with you guys in case anybody else was interested in learning Japanese. Koichi is a pretty cool guy and has own blog, YouTube channel, and Facebook page. So if you guys are interested, go check 'em out.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu

http://www.youtube.com/user/textfugu

http://www.tofugu.com/

https://www.facebook.com/textfugu

https://www.facebook.com/TofuguBlog (If you any questions about TextFugu, ask them here, because he's a lot more active on this Facebook page than on the TextFugu page.)

 

I know this whole post really looks like I'm trying to advertise TextFugu, which, I guess I am, but I'm really enjoying it and I want you guys to use it to. So hope you guys check it out.

What do you plan on doing with that? I thought about learning a few different languages, but when I look back at how much struggles Latin was I probably couldn't pull it off while doing engineering without neural electrotherapy and meds.

 

I know I should be supportive, but whenever I hear foreigners speaking my native languages (Traditional Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese), it's freakin' hilarious. Imagine the stereotypical Asian accent in America and multiply the hilarity by two, and you might get a grasp of what it sounds like to us. 

 

Well, good luck. English was my second language, and I speak it a lot better (and without an accent) than a lot of people in Texas. If I can do it, you can too, albeit with a different language. 

 

Tips and tricks: no matter how good the curriculum is, you won't learn the language properly without complete immersion. So go to Japan if you're really serious about it. Also, a disclaimer: native speakers will always tell you that your Japanese is really good. But they will always leave off the end of the sentence: "for a foreigner." 

 

Not trying to be discouraging- just calling it how I see it. Good luck anyhow.

Is it really that bad? I can imagine a Mandarin/Cantonese ( Arabic, and Russian too) accent is hard but from what I've done Italian accents were piss easy to imitate since I, nor do most people in America, speak with any accent at all. After hearing it enough I can't imagine Japanese being too hard to imitate, the accent is probably something I'd be least worried about.

 

I disagree. While more people talk Spanish, you also have to take into consideration that you can usually speak English with Spanish people very well. A lot of French people will flat out refuse to speak English, or speak it very very poorly.

I wouldn't even consider French unless you really plan on going deep.

 

One of my professors lived practically around the world since she was a child and told me she had the worst experiences in France. She said that some people flat ignored you or refused to talk if your French wasn't absolutely perfect.

[TopWargamer]

What do you plan on doing with that? I thought about learning a few different languages, but when I look back at how much struggles Latin was I probably couldn't pull it off while doing engineering without neural electrotherapy and meds.

I have a larger, long term reason why, but for now it's just for fun and to give me something to do. Plus I'm really enjoying learning the language so far.

At least try it out, the first season is free after all.

[eoso]

Is it really that bad? I can imagine a Mandarin/Cantonese ( Arabic, and Russian too) accent is hard but from what I've done Italian accents were piss easy to imitate since I, nor do most people in America, speak with any accent at all. After hearing it enough I can't imagine Japanese being too hard to imitate, the accent is probably something I'd be least worried about.

 

Yes. Yes, it is that bad. Unbelievably so. Japanese accents are hard as well. Taiwanese, one of my native languages, is so closely related to Japanese that even some phrases are the same- and I can't do a Japanese accent for the life of me, much less a native English speaker.

 

Unfortunately, in order to be fluent in a language, accent is a thing to be mastered. No matter how good a white guy in Taipei is at understanding me and at basic intonation, I'll always have to pause and think about what he just said before answering. The usual accent is just so bad that it hinders comprehension.