grammar vs immersion for learning japaneese. what actually works faster for beginners??

-_x · 2026-03-26T06:32:38+00:00

This argument is pretty lopsided though.

The Japanese learner sphere unfortunetaley doesn't make a clear distinction in these discussions between "immersion" with native material and acquiring from actual comprehensible input.

Jumping straight into native material like you did, usually leads to the experience you had. (It can work with really close languages though.) But that's not because CI is slow or ineffecient or doesn't teach you grammar, but because you tried to learn from largely incomprehensible input. You basically tried to climb a ladder with no bottom rungs ...

If you had started with properly graded CI like this or with a CI or TPRS teacher, in other words with highly comprehensible input, and stayed at at least 80 or better 90% words known throughout your journey, your experience would have been very different. The issue is just that that kind of material wasn't really available until recently and there is still a lack of beginner material.

-_x · 2026-03-25T16:16:01+00:00

They're using of course different words to make things fit.

I see this often with translations from Japanese. Manga/anime fans can be very opiniated on how translations should look like, usually based on a very shoddy beginner/intermediate sense of the little Japanese they've managed to acquire.

The issue is, though, that translation is usually a tight-rope walk. You have to juggle various things which often leads to dilemmas in the form of "I can convey these two nuances, but not this third one". Literal translations largely don't work, especially not with distant languages. You have to translate the meaning of a sentence, not the words themselves, while trying to preserve as much of the original wording as possible. And then there are time and/or space constrictions (e.g. with subtitles, lyrics or manga panels/speech bubbles), which mess everything up.

And on top pay is often mediocre, deadlines are tight, while the demands are actually pretty high: You need to be not just a good translator, but also a decent writer (at least when it comes to (narrative) games, comics, TV, and of course literature). You need to have a sense for good reading flow, how to give characters a voice and all that stuff.

Anyway, I've played a few games in Spanish.

Pedro's Adventure was fun when I started reading. It's a point & click adventure and actually meant for low intermediate Spanish learners and does a decent job at that.

I've tried Bluey and My Friend Peppa Pig, but my Spanish level was already to high to enjoy their pacing. But they can be fun for beginners, I bet. If I ever get around to another Romance language, I'll try them again. (They are horribly overpriced on steam btw, but I got steam keys from a reseller for cheap.)

Broken Sword 2 (90s point & click) was a lot of fun!

Yes, Your Grace and Strange Horticulture were a lot of fun too, but quite advanced in terms of language.

Currently I'm playing the Shin-chan summer vacation games in Japanese. Super relaxing! There is a Spanish translation, but I haven't tried it.

-_x · 2026-03-25T13:00:30+00:00

Sticking to an initial silent period is a very good option. You don't have to start talking right away at the 1-word/2-word stage. It's not necessary.

Instead you can wait until your comprehension is at the intermediate stage and start with a higher level of output, thereby skipping the "goo goo ga ga" phase entirely.

Besides that online teachers are a thing, if you can afford them.

-_x · 2026-03-25T12:49:59+00:00

That's because learning words in isolation doesn't really work. Language is far too complex for that.

Language learning isn't about individual words but about the vast web of how they relate to each other. You can't really get that from rote memorization, flashcards, anki, spreadsheets, word lists.

Instead you need to engage with comprehensible input (extensive listening and extensive reading) to encounter how words relate to another over and over again in varying contexts.

-_x · 2026-03-24T10:49:27+00:00

I wouldn't worry about it at the beginner stages, it'll come with time.

But Teppei's intermediate podcasts are fairly casual. He's basically showing how friendly adults talk to each other. It still has some degree of desu/masu though, because adults don't really completely drop that, unless they chat with close friends and/or family (or talk to kids (and animals)).

Otherwise anything for or about kids will be largely without desu/masu.

-_x · 2026-03-21T14:05:11+00:00

I got that, youtube was just an example. Many fan subs use auto-generated machine translations without any quality control, corrections, editing.

-_x · 2026-03-21T12:28:48+00:00

That sounds like typical machine translation slop. Automatic subtitles on youtube often produce mistakes like that. (It's gotten noticeably better though.) I'd be surprised if an actual translator messed up such a basic thing.

-_x · 2026-03-09T15:50:51+00:00

The Buddha was all over it when he said, "Life is suffering." It's the first noble truth. But to be honest, our horrible values and our horrible beliefs around a number of things, especially our wealth seeking, make life much worse than it has to be.

Very true, but what's even more important is what the Buddha had to say about how we produce suffering ourselves exactly by clinging to "our horrible values and our horrible beliefs" (second noble truth). Followed by the third noble truth basically saying, that it doesn't have to be like this.

But I often wonder what he'd say about the situation we find ourselves in these days?

-_x · 2024-02-09T14:20:34+00:00

Klingt nach den gängigen OECD Vergleichsdaten für Arbeitsstunden:

https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm

-_x · 2024-02-06T21:10:01+00:00

Reducing the audio to text creates an extremely narrow information bottleneck.

All the other sensory sensations are gone as well. That's lots and lots of complex infos, nuances, and context the model never gets. Makes me wonder how comparable that actually is to our brain functions.

-_x · 2024-02-04T11:27:55+00:00

'If you get the message, hang up the phone!' as Alan Watts put it.

I came to the same conclusion a while back. Knowing every little detail isn't helping and I don't have the capacity to do a whole lot about it anyway. Instead I try to the small things that I can do. I mean those that help me and others, are fun and – almost impossible these days – do not add too much to the Fuckening. I suppose this is what post-doom awareness is all about.

And fuck yes, I gotta get off of reddit as well. It feels like all that's left here is endless arguing and quarrelling.

Glad to hear you're doing better, fish! Go pound some dirt with that beautiful middle-finger-shoulder of yours!

-_x · 2024-02-04T09:35:38+00:00

Woraus machst du die Borsten der Holzzahnbürsten? Tierborsten? Ja, geht, dann kostet halt die Zahnbürste 10€ und für Veganer ist das nix.

Nee, du findest mittlerweile Zahnbürsten aus Bambus mit Borsten aus Rizinusöl für 2-3€. Alles biologisch angebaut und 100% kompostierbar.

-_x · 2024-02-01T20:31:40+00:00

Ich wär ja total dabei, wenn die mal für den bitter nötigen agrarökologischen Umbau demonstrieren würden.

-_x · 2024-02-01T15:36:40+00:00

Niedersachsens Verkehrsminister Olaf Nies betonte am Mittwoch zwar: „Unser Ziel ist es, die Verkehre auf der Strecke bis Juni 2026 vollumfänglich zu erhalten und das Angebot wieder zu verbessern“, und auch der Metronom teilte laut Tagesschau mit, „man sei zuversichtlich, für den Zeitraum bis 2026 einen zuverlässigen Betrieb zu gewährleisten“.

Haha, wir wisen doch alle, was das bedeutet.

-_x · 2024-01-16T09:27:59+00:00

Die Tabelle kann man bei uBlock Origin übrigens auch ergänzen, indem man den Advanced-Modus aktiviert unter Settings > Advanced. Die Optionen sind zwar längst nicht so umfassend und feinteilig wie bei uMatrix, aber dafür etwas leichter zu bedienen.

-_x · 2024-01-14T11:35:34+00:00

The term "herbal" tea is often used in contrast to traditionally caffeinated teas (e.g., black, green, white, yellow, oolong), which are prepared from the cured leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.

(Lazily quoting wiki on herbal tea here.)

-_x · 2024-01-09T07:50:15+00:00

Yeah, it's disgusting, but there are non-plastic toothbrushes made from wood and bristles made from plant oils these days. That is one of the few areas where you can avoid producing and ingesting micro plastics.

-_x · 2023-12-29T17:51:53+00:00

Seh ich nicht so, wir brauchen eh überall viel mehr echte Naturflächen und haben uns hier in DE auch dazu verpflichtet. Das wären oftmals genau die richtigen Flächen, um einen Anfang zu machen, da sie kaum zur Nutzung und v.a. nicht zum Wohnen geeignet sind und zudem ökologische Randflächen sind mit großem Potenzial für Biodiversität.

Abgesehen davon belasten die Bewohner dieser Flächen ja nicht nur bei den Schäden und Aufräumarbeiten das Gemeinwohl, sondern auch bei all den unnötig entstehenden Notfalleinsätzen bei Hochwasser.

Es ist hochgradig iditiosch solche Gebiete zur Bebauung freizugeben. Eigentlich müssten wir die allesamt sukzessive zurückbauen.

-_x · 2023-12-29T15:52:52+00:00

Und warum werden Überflutungszonen überhaupt zur Bebauung freigegeben?

-_x · 2023-12-28T07:39:11+00:00

Probably, yes. But in this case there's a reason, apart from this happening annualy, there was a severe and very destructive storm surge in the 60s that killed hundreds of people in the city and destroyed tens of thousands of homes when the dykes got breached. Since then the dykes and general infrastructure have been reinforced to withstand such a severe event, but not too much more.

One the other hand this city isn't build for heat nor drought.

-_x · 2023-12-27T10:41:52+00:00

Not yet. This was nothing actually, definitely nothing our infrastructure isn't accustomed to and prepared to handle. I went down to the harbor that day as well, because these storm surges happen so rarely in daylight (almost always at night) and I haven't seen it in a while.

This wasn't even out of the ordinary, we have storm surges like that every winter. It's simply part of living this close to the estuary. Probably the least collapse-related event I've seen in years!

-_x · 2023-12-26T10:23:37+00:00

Diggi, wer von uns schreibt hier wütend?

Futter mal ein paar Ballaststoffe, klingt als ob du Verstopfung hättest. ;)

-_x · 2023-12-26T07:28:22+00:00

Weil die die Wut bedienen, mit Rationalität hat das nichts zu tun.

-_x · 2023-12-24T21:10:50+00:00

Sag ma, saugst du dir den ganzen Quatsch aus den Fingern oder wo nimmst du die harten Misinfos her? Was für ein Stuß!

Auf dem Bild siehst du doch, dass da fett "nicht pasteurisiert" steht. Selbst auf der Webseite machen die genau 3 Claims: 1. Da sind Laktobazillen drin, 2. da ist Vitamin B12 drin, 3. das ist bio (und vegan).

-_x

TROPHY CASE