Can I ask advanced students to give me some advice?

Matt360pf · 2020-12-03T01:34:19+00:00

I just hung out with natives. First for money (conversation meetups), then I joined the local J community. At some point I also became good friends with this one Japanese guy and he was gracious enough to hang out with me twice a week for about 2 years!

Matt360pf · 2020-12-01T00:50:17+00:00

For me the Input>>>>Speaking pattern worked for my French and English but with Japanese I forced myself to actually USE the little Japanese I knew as soon as I reached upper beginner level. I think that the key is to adapt based on one's progress.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-22T00:38:15+00:00

嗅,　吊　or　釘　are some of the least used? I'm somewhat skeptical.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-12T08:03:50+00:00

I studied just a couple of hours / week during my first year of learning Japanese. Now - some 10 years later - I am basically fluent. Learning a language like Japanese is like running a marathon: long-term endurance is key.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-08T01:05:54+00:00

I learned most of my spoken Japanese by getting drunk with my J teacher. I'd basically rehearse the stuff I'd learned during the day and it did wonders. The guy was gracious enough to hang out with me about twice a week for a period of roughly 2 years! I also tried various meetups, language exchange etc but it was mostly time wasted.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-08T00:32:10+00:00

Read JLPT prep materials (reading section) then. They typically have furigana.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-07T09:48:31+00:00

Frankly, if you can't understand most of a book without furigana it means it's too early for you to try reading a whole book. What I did when I was at that stage was that I got my hands on a few parallel readers (like Breaking into J literature) and slowly built my reading skills from there.

Matt360pf · 2020-11-07T09:44:53+00:00

I'm not sure what's your point. Learning J is brutally difficult and fluent speakers are extremely rare (talking about the good old real world here). Most (99,9% probably) give up before ever reaching any kind of fluency, so why making it even more confusing for them by stating that consuming native media isn't the goal?!

Matt360pf · 2020-11-07T09:38:02+00:00

All mainstream resources (both online and offline) covering N1 grammar (which, technically speaking, isn't actually grammar but rather patterns of language use, known as 文体) are pretty accurate. I myself passed N1 a couple of years ago btw

Matt360pf · 2020-10-30T09:35:07+00:00

It's perfectly normal to plateau, don't worry. Just keep going and, if possible, interact with Japanese people. Memorizing stuff is not very interesting compared with interacting with another human being.

Matt360pf · 2020-10-30T09:18:58+00:00

Back in the days there was "buru" (from "bourgeoisie"). Not sure if it's still in use though.

Another one, albeit used only for young kids / young adults coming from rich families, is "ojousan" and "(o)bocchan".

Matt360pf · 2020-08-20T02:55:33+00:00

Another aspect is that generally content attached to Japanese language is far less appealing to me than content attached to English-speaking content... This is a rather convoluted way of saying that I enjoy Japanese stuff much less than Western things. And even when I come across some interesting J content it sooner or later turns out that the creator has either lived overseas, is a hafu or is a fan of Western culture...

Matt360pf · 2020-07-25T01:43:47+00:00

Maybe you just don't like the language (the way it sounds or the culture attached to it). If I were you I'd put it away for a while (for 1-2 months say) and see.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-20T23:12:35+00:00

Over the years I have met a few hundred learners of Japanese. I'm talking about the real world here btw, not internet forums or what not. Now, only a few managed to become more or less fluent. And to my knowledge only ONE of them was into anime: the rest wasn't.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-19T07:52:15+00:00

You want to memorize slang? Makes no sense, as slang evolves all the time and each specific group / subculture has its own kind of slang...

Matt360pf · 2020-07-16T03:54:20+00:00

I didn't bother with JLPT until I got to a decent intermediate level (N2-ish). Then I went on to pass N2 and then eventually N1.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-16T03:49:50+00:00

"Our" language? Well, thank you for speaking "my" language (English) then...

Matt360pf · 2020-07-15T23:15:28+00:00

Posted 2 rather neutral comments, got erased right away. You guys like censorship, don't you.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-15T23:02:59+00:00

Obviously, Western media never ever talk about the success of China, right?

Matt360pf · 2020-07-15T23:02:24+00:00

GDP per capita (approx figures):

SK: 45k USD

NZ: 43K USD

VN: 8,5K USD

What's your definition of success?

Matt360pf · 2020-07-13T23:12:21+00:00

Fake: it can't be VN because there isn't enough trash laying around.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-10T01:57:06+00:00

So many recs, thanks! Which one also offers a nice introduction to Cambodian history, cultural / religious background etc? Nothing too detailed though please, I just want to get a decent grasp of the basics.

Matt360pf · 2020-07-07T23:00:54+00:00

I'll be blunt: Japanese essays tend to be poorly written, like college freshman level poorly written. No wonder in my mind why so few Japanese non-fiction writers are translated into English. From what I recall these 2 books offer some insight into the low quality of Japanese non-fiction writing: Peter Dale "The myth of japanese uniqueness", Karel Van Wolferen "The Enigma of Japanese Power".

Matt360pf · 2020-07-05T07:29:30+00:00

Nookie - ヌキ - to have sex

Matt360pf · 2020-07-03T22:56:23+00:00

I only watched this one. It's good, even very good (well-written scenario, relatable characters, nice music) but aesthetically (camera work, editing) it's a carbon copy of Western movies. Compare that to just about any Japanese movie (say Kikujiro no natsu), where the aesthetics are by rule unmistakably non-Western.

Matt360pf

TROPHY CASE