The GHZ Forum

Okay, so I've been taking Japanese for a little more than two years now and I've definitly developed the sense of "what's the best way to teach someone from scratch?" Obviously if it's your second language you have to learn it from a slightly different approach, keeping in mind you can still communicate in some sense.

So I always look around for online quizzes and stuff mostly out of curiosity on how others might instruct the language (I already have my own 'curriculum" for how I'd teach, which is incidentally how I learned). Recently I stumbled upon this:

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/linguist ... apn_l1.htm

Wow. Are people that stupid?

The romaji is painful on the eyes, but I was at that stage at one point too I suppose. I think that it's great to use English phrases to help remember new words. I typically think of the phrases up myself though. And then it is slowly obsorbed into my memory as just a word. I don't think it's all that stupid when you're fist starting off though.

Don't touch my moustache!

I used to use things like that when I started, but it's something you really have to make up on your own and then never, ever tell anyone. This page sounds like advice for people who do not know how to learn.

To be more precise on my view, I have no problem with beginners using Romaji. It's obviously necessary but I think it should be used more in a furigana sense with the kana so the student can still get a feel as to what real Japanese looks like.

And of course as the vocabulary is gone over, so should hiragana. My teacher had an alphabet set for the kana in blocks and timed me as I put them all back together in the right order. After I mastered Hiragana the same went on for Katakana. I waited quite a bit for kanji but I was still shown just to get a feel as to how it worked.

Actually the difficulty of learning Japanese has always given it some appeal to me. Likely from the inferiority complex from not being able to write my first language properly.

I type everything with speech recognition software

Psxphile wrote:http://pepper.idge.net/japanese/

I laughed at that more than I probably should have. Pocky is awesome though and should not be spoken of with the same disdain that one would of natto.

The "classmates" section was a bit depressing in its accuracy. Funny, but very, very depressing.

That really was hilarious, and I somehow felt relief at the end. =p I have a private tutor though so it's alot easier when it comes to time and focus.

G. Silver, I'm glad you also know the power of Don't Touch My Moustache!

Yes, that essay is amazing. A friend showed me it a few years back. I printed it out and showed it to me teacher at the time. He read it in front of the class instead of teaching.

Totally truth, why bother learning Japanese when English in the second most used language in the world, and is so easy to write it like you where an idiot?.

Credits sure help. Plus if you want to have a good relationship with a company derived from a different country, it's wise to master their main language for a higher impact on communication and whatnot.

And obviously you must be struggling with English still.

I feel like a lamb who ran eagerly to the slaughter some 3 or 4 years ago. Yeah, it sucks, particularly too much when your teachers (three of them) don't know shit of your language; the very first day he says something like ude wo mawashimasu, and then you pray for not doing something stupid and/ or give the impression that you're an asshole for not understanding what in Heavens' Glory he just said to you.

Then I got better, but the bottom line is that I seriously don't care about the language that much to forsake the rest of my learning capabilities just so I can play a little game here, see some anime there, read some manga over there and so.
Ore wa nihongo wo chotto sukoshi hanashidesu = I suck at Japanese, don't make fun of me.

Why learn any language? Oh, yeah that's how people communicate...

Why learn a second language when you already have one? It actually works a different part of the brain, is very challenging, opens the doors up to new cultures, new people, new places. It can help take you a step out of the house.

Why do I fear sunlight? I would guess upbringing, but it could also be nature.