A procrastinator self-studying Japanese @kitsuneprocrastinates - Tumblr Blog

Sometimes you fall off the wagon for months. Sometimes you tell yourself you’re gonna start fresh on Monday and by Wednesday you’ve already fallen back off. Sometimes you have to restart a 100 times and it’s frustrating. But it will be okay. You can do this. One day at a time

#learning languages #japanese learning #that's me #always #motivation

rosewater1997

me drinking green tea: this is gonna fix Everything

#so true

langblrwhy

I have only two modes:

1. Oh, I want to stay in bed all day and pretend to be a depressed cinnamon roll, please

2. I want to clean the house, learn japanese, hawaiian, russian, arabic, sign language, linguistic, geographical stuff, read 5 books and practice watercolor

#learn languages #watercolor #japanese langblr

zenpencils

ISAAC ASIMOV ‘A lifetime of learning’

learnjp

Reading Practice Hey guys, first of all I want to start this post off by thanking you all so, so, so much for 500 followers!! I honestly can’t believe that many people like my blog and content. I really appreciate it so much. I wanted to make a post on some short stories that would be good for reading practice. So here’s a quick little list of some easy short stories. If you find some of these challenging I recommend that you write out the words, sentences, or kanji, that you don’t know and study them!

Beginner:

ももたろう - The Peach Boy

さるかに - The Monkey and The Crab

つるのおんがえし - The Fairy Crane

うらしまたろう - Urashima and the Kingdom Beneath the Sea

かぐやひめ - The Bamboo Princess

したきりすずめ - The Sparrows’ Inn

かさじぞう - The Grateful Statues

きんたろう - The Nature Boy

Intermediate:

桃太郎「ももたろう」

さるかに合戦「さるかにがっせん」

鶴の恩返し「つるのおんがえし」

浦島太郎「うらしまたろう」

かぐや姫「かぐやひめ」

舌きりすずめ「したきりすずめ」

かさじぞう

金太郎「きんたろう」

I separated them into a beginner and intermediate list because the beginner versions have less kanji and provide the English translation for the stories! Another website with short stories that I’d like to recommend is this one. Hope you guys have been well!

#reading #japanese ressources #日本語勉強

railtracer1313-blog

Some Encouragement for Those Who Learn Languages Via Self-Study

So I have been interested in languages since I was a little kid. I’m 35 now, and when I was younger there were few resources online for serious language learning. There was virtually no software available, and I had no access to textbooks. It was very hard to get foreign language learning books with more than just tourist vocabulary in them. From that time up until this day I have constantly had people tell me you cannot learn a foreign language without formal lessons or college classes.

For the most part, I have not been able to afford formal lessons. I grew up very very poor in an area where public schools do not offer literally any foreign language instruction. This is incredibly common in America. I was constantly told to STFU and remain monolingual because poor people didn’t get to learn “fancy” things like languages. My first college was very rural and didn’t offer any languages except American Sign Language, so I did take formal classes in that and got a degree in it, but could not take classes in the other languages I wanted to learn. I couldn’t afford any other college.

After I got my ASL degree, I kept at it. I took advantage of every resource I could get. Now there are a TON of resources available to anyone with internet access for learning most languages. You can access whole textbooks for free, YouTube lessons, conversation partners, free audio lessons, videos, blogs, library websites that connect you to brand new free online textbooks, and the list goes on. I taught myself a huge amount of Japanese without ever stepping foot in a classroom.

I just started attending college to work on a degree in Japanese and found, much to my amusement, that I’d already taught myself MOST OF THE MATERIAL THAT YOU LEARN IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF JAPANESE CLASSES AT MY COLLEGE, plus a lot of random third and fourth-year stuff. And I was studying while working constantly, and often really half-assing it. I am taking the classes instead of skipping them so I can make sure there is nothing I missed or learned incorrectly (I want to be a translator, so I want my Japanese to be basically perfect) and so that I can get conversation practice, but I will never have difficulty in any of my Japanese classes. By the time I formally take third and fourth-year Japanese, I will have already learned all the course material on my own.

In spite of having no “real” conversation practice prior to my college classes, talking to myself out loud and hearing Japanese on TV have been hugely beneficial, and I find that when I’m feeling confident about it, conversing at a normal conversational speed in basic Japanese that takes my learning level into account is not a problem. The kana and kanji that I taught myself are just as good as they would be if I’d learned them from a native, and I was able to learn stroke order correctly. I read kana and JLPT N5 and N4 kanji with no difficulty (JLPT = Japanese Language Proficiency Test. N5 is the lowest level and N1 is the highest/most advanced level), plus many random kanji of higher levels. I have already learned N5 and most N4 grammar, with bits and pieces of N3 and up. My vocabulary is even better than that. I could have gone on as I was and learned almost everything on my own that I would learn at my school. I absolutely believe you can make it to at least JLPT N3 level or better without ever taking a class, especially if you are good at languages and find someone online to converse with a bit. With less difficult languages, reaching an advanced level through self-study is very attainable, unless it’s a rare language and learning resources are hard to get. Even if you can’t achieve absolute 100% native fluency, that’s OK - people who learn languages in college don’t either - that usually comes after a few years of working in an industry that utilizes the language (like interpreting), living in the country your target language comes from, living/working daily around native speakers, etc.

What I’m getting at is that even if you are learning a very difficult language and people say you can’t learn it without formal lessons, DO NOT LISTEN. You may not make it to native fluency without more help, but you CAN often reach an advanced level of proficiency entirely on your own AT LITTLE TO NO COST. In the entire time I was learning Japanese on my own, I got most of my resources for free, plus a few really really good older used textbooks and other reference materials that were all under $30 each. If any of you need free digital textbooks, audio lessons, video lessons, etc., feel free to ask me - I have collected a LOT of stuff. Do not let budget, disability, or time constraints stop you from learning.

#japanese learning

nordic-language-love

You still make dumb mistakes in your native language. You still misspell things and have words you mix up. You still mishear song lyrics. You still struggle with some dialects. You still don’t always get the grammar right. You still have to stop reading sometimes to look up certain words. You still trip over your words and forget what you’re saying.

Forgive yourself for not always understanding or for making mistakes in your target language - you can’t always get it right in your native, so there’s really no need to pressure yourself to get it right all the time in a foreign language that you’re still learning <3

#note to self #langblr #languages #learning languages

jeannielanguage

How I Read Japanese Step-by-Step

Earlier this year I said that one of my biggest goals was to try and read more in Japanese. Even though I didn’t read as many books as I had hoped, I have read a lot this year. As a result, I’ve refined my reading process and how to deal with all the unknown words that I come across. Today I want to share it with you.

Step 1: Read without looking up words

I like to try and get a feel for what I’m…

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#reading #japanese learning #tips

fuckyeahnativejapanese

Dates in Japanese can get confusing, like any counter. Hopefully this guide will help you keep them straight!

#japanese learning #日本語

nihononthego

A short explanation of Japanese Pitch Accents by UBC Enunciate for anyone who is interested in learning and understanding them. Keep in mind that pitch accents vary between dialects, and the best way to get better at them is by practicing and listening, rather than rote memorization. As one Vine said, “Let it happen naturally.”

What is Japanese Pitch Accent?

How Important is Pitch Accent?

Other Resources

NHK Pitch Accent Dictionary

Online Japanese Accent Dictionary features words from the vocabulary and readings of some of the Japanese textbooks with audio (male and female) and conjugations. (Some entries may not have audio.)

Forvo is a Web 2.0 platform where users contribute pronunciations for languages all over the world.

Common Intonation Mistakes by Dogensensei

#japaneselearning #日本語 #ressources