Learn Japanese The Easy Way - Intro
Name's Chris. I'm quite laid-back, easy-going and a little lazy but when it comes to studying Japanese, I'm very motivated. My drive to study Japanese comes from loving anime and games from a young age. The stories, music, voice acting, graphics, character personalities that are presented are much better than the stuff that's airing on real TV. One main reason to study is so I can surpass English subtitles in anime. My eyes are always looking down at the subs and rarely at the main scenes. That reason alone was the final push I needed to actually study the language because those Japanese characters just looked so hard from the start.
One of my study tools is watching my favorite current anime being released as of now with the actual Japanese anime subtitles. It's interesting trying to translate what they're saying and seeing if the professional / fan English translation was correct by having the english subs right above the japanese subs as I'm watching anime.
Another study tool of mine is translating raw manga and comparing my version with fan translations to see if I was close to the actual meaning:
Manga: Citrus -Raw:
-English Translation:
My ultimate best way of studying Japanese is reading untranslated visual novels (that will or will never get a translation). I wasn't too fond of reading at the start cuz it'd put me to sleep but when u think about it, reading is just a good way to review a hell load of vocabulary, kanji (chinese characters) and grammar all at the same time. As the words suggests, 'visual novels' contains lots of visuals & dialogue, which definitely kept my interest.
-Visual Novel: Flowers -Le Volume sur Printemps-
-Translation: Sakura fairy, no..... that can't be it.
-Translation: (Wow, how embarrassing.....!)
-Translation: Seems like you've strayed away considerably. If it hurts, let's take a short break, ok?
I've been studying japanese on my own for about 5 years on & off. Right now I've completed Japanese Core 6000, which teaches the most common 6000 words used in Japanese. I can honestly say that i'm still not fluent yet. even when i'm translating japanese subs to english, there's always a few words here & there that are unfamiliar. Knowing 10k words doesn't seem like enough but once ur past the 6k mark, it's very easy to pick up words. At this point it might seem despairing to even study japanese. but everytime i watch anime & get to those climactic moments, i can't help but fall in love with the language even more. even if i have to learn 10k+ words, i believe this feeling i have will help me break through that barrier & reach a point where i can truly turn off the subtitles for good. I'm a huge couch potato & I'm usually hanging out by myself. If you need any type of help, I'll see what I can do. よろしく！
