Thinking about studying Japanese

[HappyPixels]

I am absolutely fascinated by languages and a few years ago I decided to teach myself Japanese. My broke butt couldn't afford lessons but there is a ton of free material out there so finding free courses and the like was easy. That's actually a big reason I chose Japanese, its popularity. Yes, I love things like manga and Japanese video games but it was the vast amount of free learning material that sold it for me. Well, that and the fact it's a pretty difficult language for native English speakers. I wanted a challenge and it was either this or Mandarin Chinese.

I had to stop studying Japanese because life got in the way but I've been wanting to pick it up again recently. It's been so long so I'll be going back and reviewing all the beginner stuff, give myself a refresher course.

I was wondering if anyone else here is learning Japanese or interested in doing so? It would be nice to have a study buddy.

 

[Hemix]

There's a lot of stuff in Japanese, specially rare things, manga, anime and videogames. However, because it's only used there, I didn't get fully engaged by it. Besides, Japan is politically doomed, so that's a turn off.

I tried to learn some Mandarin Chinese, expressions like 你好 (hello), 晚上好 (goodnight), 我很好 (I'm fine) or 你好吗 (how art thou?), but the language is very difficult and I don't know for what I could use it, so I stopped.

 

[DiaperedAndDamp]

I've been studying Japanese for quite some time. I go to Japan several times a year, so it made sense to do so. Getting the hang of everyday shopping and eating stuff (simple sentences and requests) is not so bad, but learning the language well enough to have a decent conversation is a whole other ballgame .... it's so complex!!
That said, when foreign visitors demonstrate that they have made some effort to learn, it is SOOOOO appreciated by the locals ... and they will forgive the inevitable mistakes !!!

 

[notnearmine11]

One thing I have learned. WATCHING ANIME WITH ENG SUBS DID NOT TEACH ME ANY JAPANESE.
Unless you count 'daisuki' I really love you or some kind of love confession and 'Baka' idiot or a slur with a focus on their mental ability. But that's it, years of watching and two words thant I will never use.

 

[Hemix]

One thing I have learned. WATCHING ANIME WITH ENG SUBS DID NOT TEACH ME ANY JAPANESE.
Unless you count 'daisuki' I really love you or some kind of love confession and 'Baka' idiot or a slur with a focus on their mental ability. But that's it, years of watching and two words thant I will never use.

Or common expressions like "nande??" 😱😁

 

[Sidewinder]

I've been fascinated with foreign languages ever since I was about 3 or 4, starting with French.

As a result, I was in French Immersion from the first grade to the 8th.

Along the way, I developed the knack for picking up on other languages, such as Spanish, German and Italian.

In High School, I sought to challenge myself by learning Japanese and since there were no Japanese classes in my School's curriculum, I learned from books, audiocassettes and an interactive CD ROM which was all about teaching oneself Japanese.

Also, on Thursdays, at 2:00 PM, there was this educational program on television that I skipped School to watch and record on videocassette entitled Let's Learn Japanese.

 

[RetroGirl15]

I love languages also! I have been speaking german for 9 years and speaking mandarin chinese for 3 or 4 years now. Also im learning Japanese too, i recommended hello Japanese and bunpo for apps (i dont recommend duolingo since they brought back the hearts system) i highly suggest learning hiragana, Kanata, and some basic kanji frist.

 

[Belarin]

i tried learning japanese many years ago and again more recently using duo lingo, not a bad app but with no one to actually talk to and no real reason to drie me it didnt last long.

would like to do polish as well cause many polish clients at work but even less drive to keep going on that one.

 

[PrincessRaccoon]

I would like to learn eventually, its a very pretty language 😊

 

[HappyPixels]

One thing I have learned. WATCHING ANIME WITH ENG SUBS DID NOT TEACH ME ANY JAPANESE.
Unless you count 'daisuki' I really love you or some kind of love confession and 'Baka' idiot or a slur with a focus on their mental ability. But that's it, years of watching and two words thant I will never use.

Oh my word yes. The one thing everyone has told me about learning Japanese is that, for the love of all things holy, don't try learning it just by watching anime. It's difficult and apparently lots of characters talk in a way normal Japanese folk don't so if you did pick up some things you might end up sounding ridiculous.

I love languages also! I have been speaking german for 9 years and speaking mandarin chinese for 3 or 4 years now. Also im learning Japanese too, i recommended hello Japanese and bunpo for apps (i dont recommend duolingo since they brought back the hearts system) i highly suggest learning hiragana, Kanata, and some basic kanji frist.

Thanks for the app recs! And I did used to know kana and a little kanji but its been a good couple of years since I really studied anything so I'm definitely gonna give myself a refresher course on those before I get into the meat of the subject.

I would like to learn eventually, its a very pretty language 😊

And you're more than welcome to hit me up if you ever decide to learn. But, be warned, I have no idea what I'm doing.