i am a college student currently studying japanese. i never had any interest in the language before, but it just seemed so interesting one day while i was looking at this japanese drama on youtube that i started getting more and more into it.
how do you run on unfamiliar terrain without thinking about it?
practice bro!!
that's the only way that i can suggest
>>1 If you are an American, you will never be able to master Japanese, period.
>>8
Nope, I know an American who is a translator for his career in for Japanese to English, has a Japanese wife, lived there for something like 10 years and he is completely fluent.
>>9
But they still won't let him into the public bath.
Some people can latch onto conversational, spoken Japanese really quickly, but then have trouble with writing/reading, sometimes visa/versa. Like anything, it depends on how you learn and where your talents are.
>>8 I know an american who speaks perfect yamagata-den which is supposedly the hardest japanese dialect to learn
Fluency is possible. There are gaijin who know more kanji than a Japanese (although this ain't common by any stretch).
How does one actually DEFINE fluency, though? Japanese Language proficiency test level 1 (highest)?
>>10 lol nah they do, just not if you're rude (they seriously do, and they put your name up outside aswell ~in katakana though :P~)
participate in a study abroad program. you will find that the experience there (even if it's for only a few weeks) will be very helpful.
>>10
They will if you speak Japanese. Seriously, the myths created about Japan 10 or so years ago are mostly wrong now. The only reason gaijin aren't allowed in things anymore is because they are afraid you will screw things up. But if you speak fluently, all is well.
Speak Japanese. All the time. Just generally speak Jap whenever possible. Sooner or later it will snap into place.
just practice and use, no shortcut
Try a daily blog and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Join mixi.
Do join Mixi. And use it to get a language exchange harem.
i agreed with the study abroad program...
renshu,renshu,renshu...i'm sure you know this means...practice,practice,practice...
renshu = practice?
wow although i don't know the Japanese language, the sound this word is very similar to the Chinese word, which also means roughly "to study hard!"
>>29
In case you haven't heard, Japanese is like, what, 80% Chinese vocabulary? So much for originality, Japan.
>>30 jah, but the Japanese pronounce things differently, usually, and some of the chinese characters that they adopted/stole/borrowed have even developed new and different meanings.
>>31
different but only due to the limited amount of pronounciation for syllables in the japanese language. they're still pretty close imo.
But i like the pronounciation of Japanese better than Chinese :)
Because their pronounciation of words, remsembles more languages of the western countries ;)
>>1
Go there.
I was always good at (understanding, writing) English, but I could barely speak it at all. After spending three weeks in an English-speaking country, using the language for work and daily life, something just clicked, and now I don't have any problems at all.
More like 65%, and T'ang Chinese at that. Kinda like English and Latin, but also French where we've inherited a bunch of medieval middle-French and O'il words like "Fuck" from Fuccant - to stab, that have since disappeared over there, although the French do have "foutre" dunno if it's related.
to speak fluently you have to live there, or speak it A LOT like constantly. Like >>34 said, just go there. You'll have more fun than you're having at the moment.
>>1
Yeah...Speaking with native or really experienced speakers truly is the key.That's the point...You have to SPEAK.
When you study don't just lock yourself in a room and read for hours and hours like most people tend to do.
Say stuff aloud and practice pronunciation.
sorry..I was gonna say
"you'll start to understand the grammar more and it isn't as hard to speak it."
and towards using whatever you can to practice: