#neesee learns stuff

[japaneesee]

It's a really awesome feeling when you come back after 6 months of studying Japanese and suddenly you can read all of your hoarded Tobari brothers comics without a translation in the description

[japaneesee]

My current Japanese study regimen:

Read news on Todai to learn vocabulary

Read fanfic manga on pixiv

Once a week remember to do duolingo i guess

That's it. It's been years and I'm tired bro

[japaneesee]

commanderpigg replied to your post “commanderpigg replied to your post “Last night I had a dream that I...”

I'm checking out Drops right now, would you recommend it for intermediate Japanese learners? I think I'll try it for Korean since I'm an absolute beginner in that! XD

It’s the single best app I’ve ever used for Japanese! I absolutely recommend it for intermediate learners, more than beginners to be honest. It’s 100% vocabulary-based, it has thousands of words divided into categories and then smaller groups. It does limit you to 5 minutes every 10 hours if you’re using it for free, but that’s about how much I’d use it anyway, so I don’t have a problem with it. The reason I love it so much is that it lacks the usual flaws I find in these apps. It teaches you each new word with visual and audio integration at the same time, it teaches you good reading and writing habits, it allows you to turn off romaji and English translations, it’s repetitive but fast-paced and interactive so it’s not boring, and it uses a variety of different presentations and exercises so you learn the word and sense of the word on every mental level instead of just one or two. It’s much more intuitive and accessible than any other app I’ve used. I’ve been learning new words faster than ever before since I started using it 2 months ago. I thought I’d plateaued my word pool, but this app is teaching me new words every day and I love it(I’ve learned like 250 new words in 2 months). It doesn’t stick to the narrow set of kind-of-useless tourist vocabulary that you usually find in these apps(I’ve completed multiple programs and courses and sometimes walk away without anything new). Instead it teaches you things you’ll actually see and use in everyday life that don’t seem immediately obvious. Like if you’re learning cooking vocabulary, you’ll be learning words for street food, take-out, various spices and ingredients, canned food, electric appliances, cooking utensils, and measuring cups, instead of re-learning egg, bread, pizza, and soup for the billionth time. 

Like I said, it’s purely for vocabulary, but it does its job so well that it doesn’t need anything else. I recommend supplementing this with Tae Kim’s guide and regular practice, to anyone who feels like they’ve stopped learning new words for some time like I did.

[japaneesee]

commanderpigg replied to your post “Last night I had a dream that I saw my aunt for the first time in 10...”

omg the only time i was ever called あなた was when i was talking to the immigration officer to get my visa renewed and he was honestly one of the rudest people i've ever encountered. but yeah language apps are so flawed when they don't explain cultural context!

SERIOUSLY, it’s like every Japanese course on every language app/program is just a Spanish course that they Google-translated into Japanese. They all teach you Japanese vocabulary but with an English-speaking mindset. It’s all so lazy. They all teach really bad habits that would not fly in an actual conversation. Things like using 「あなた」 all the time, misusing honorifics, overusing first-person pronouns, using 「お母さん」 and 「母」 in the wrong contexts, using nothing but hiragana, the list goes on forever. NONE of them teach etiquette or cultural standards, they all just slap Japanese text onto a generic language lesson and call it a day. It’s not the end of the world for me because I use like 20 different apps, books, websites, etc. Being intermediate means it’s just going to frustrate and annoy me. But I worry about all the new learners who are starting out with unchecked bad habits because they don’t know any better because of the apps they use.

So to anyone who’s just starting to learn Japanese, PLEASE don’t start with JUST DuoLingo and anime(anime also teaches bad habits, cartoons aren’t real people). This actually goes for any language or any app. If you’re starting a language, study using websites and books written specifically for the language you’re learning, and only use DuoLingo, Memrise, and other generic language apps for vocab flashcards and typing practice. And avoid Rosetta Stone entirely. If you’re wanting to learn Japanese, I think the #1 absolute best resource available to you is Tae Kim’s guide. Full grammar breakdowns and full cultural etiquette notes, more comprehensive than any textbook, more real-world value, and it’s free. The only problems are limited vocab and writing lessons, but you can do that with dozens of apps and books. I recommend Tae Kim’s guide for grammar, and the Genki books for vocab and writing. Also, Drops is my favorite app for vocabulary, I recommend the shit out of it. I really should make a full list of resources I’ve used to study for the past 2 years. I’m terrified for new learners who start with DuoLingo and Memrise and I just want to protec 😓

[japaneesee]

Last night I had a dream that I saw my aunt for the first time in 10 years. We spoke without an interpreter and I was doing well until I accidentally called her 「あなた」out of habit from shitty language apps, and she gasped, fainted, and ran out of the restaurant as I shouted clumsy apologies. I was yelling 「すいません！すいません！！恵子おばさんっていいね！本当ごめん！事故でしたよ、本当にごめんなさいいいい！！！ 😭 」and she was like NOPE! It was cartoonishly ridiculous but I felt so pathetic and disheartened. 

This dream was a manifestation of my fears and insecurities surrounding my verbal Japanese ability, but I'm actually impressed at how well I retained vocabulary and used proper grammar even during a dream. It wasn't dream gibberish, the words I spoke actually made sense in the real language. But none of that mattered because I was accidentally really rude and awkward because of bad habits from bad apps. Moral of the story: limit your use of language apps and study etiquette on your own time or your aunt will haunt your dreams and have an exaggerated cartoonish reaction to your awkwardness.

[japaneesee]

i want to start having verbal conversations with native speakers, but i’m really afraid to. i’m not very good at creating sentences yet, but that’s not even my biggest concern. i’m afraid i won’t know what to talk about. i’m awkward as hell even in english, i wouldn’t even know where to begin with japanese. even when i write letters to my aunt i have trouble coming up with interesting things to talk about, can you imagine if i had to think shit up on the fly? a big mess

[japaneesee]

moonfireflight replied to your post: Today it’s been one year since I dedicated myself...

Great job!! I’m working through the lessons in DuoLingo currently ��

I got an email the minute they made Japanese lessons available, and immediately started. I tested out of all lessons but the last 2 or 3, so I finished the entire course within about half an hour of them becoming available. True story!

Now I’m just going through them properly, doing one lesson a day.

[japaneesee]

pinsir replied to your post: Today it’s been one year since I dedicated myself...

Next you gotta lean portuguese so we can share my homeland’s memes

Being nearly fluent in Esperanto should actually make Portuguese REALLY easy for me to learn

Only problem is that after this, I’m already planning on relearning all my German and possibly picking up Chinese

I have like, four tiers of priority for languages I want to learn:

Japanese, Esperanto

German, Chinese

Swedish, Korean

Hebrew, Russian

I doubt I can even pull off more than 3, let alone all 8

But if I WERE to do it somehow, I’d totally learn Portuguese too.