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Eugene Randolph Young
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Nihongo

Mon Jun 23, 2008, 1:46 AM
Konbonwa!

After a years of building Japanese robot models, and watching anime I've finally enrolled in a beginning Japanese class! I'd been warned several times about how hard it is to learn Japanese as an English-speaking adult, but I figured the worst that can happen is I could get a bad grade. I'm taking it at my old junior college. I used to pass by my teacher's class when I was a student and enjoyed hearing her drill her class.

I have already learned to read and write 30 hiragana. I still blank out on a few of them. It's fun to come up with little mnemonics to help me remember some of them. I think my drawing time is helping a lot too. It will take a long time for me to get the grammar and basic expressions down. I have the hardest time with the longer, multi-syllabic words. The tsu and ra ri ru re ro sounds are also hard for me.

What I love about the hiragana is how systematic and logical it is. I have a former student who has offered to help me if I need it, but the study materials are adequate so far. I need to invest in an MP3 player to be able to take the audio stuff along with me. Right now I have to fire up the laptop to listen. I tried putting some of them on my cell phone but they're hard to hear. I could also burn them onto a CD.

I hope I can keep up. There's a lot of work because it's a summer class and I'm still a little behind.

Oyasuminasai.

4 Comments
  • Mood: Love
  • Reading: Imaro
  • Watching: Garo: Savior in the Dark

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~Vermelho:iconVermelho: Jun 23, 2008, 7:51:20 PM
I really want to learn Japanese! I've had so many Japanese ESL students, and they were all really awesome people. Many of them told me that the grammatical principles behind Spanish are very similar to those of Japanese. Also, all of the sounds are stable (not like English, but exactly like Spanish!). Some day I'll take a class somewhere. You've inspired me.

--
Hope incubates in the warm loam of every armpit. --Tom Wolfe
~CorporateXLullabies:iconCorporateXLullabies: Jun 24, 2008, 11:19:10 AM
It is pretty hard to learn. Better if you know someone who can speak it. When you watch anime, watch it with the original seiyu instead of English dub. If you watch the episode a couple time take of the subtitles and go back. You'll be amazed at how much you remember! Good luck!

--
l'auerin n'est pas encare de'termine'
~eurayo:iconeurayo: Jun 24, 2008, 11:43:30 PM
You'll love it! It is a lot like Spanish in several ways. I think having studied Spanish and spending an inordinate amount of time drawing and working on my handwriting is helping me to speak and write the characters.

The vowels are simply a - i - u - e - o, and you just add consonants to get the basic syllables. Some hiragana are derived from other ones when you write them, like ka and ga, or na, ba, pa, or ta and da.

I also like the the hiragana start looking like little people or animals doing stuff. It helps me to remember some of them.

These days I usually have at least one Japanese student. Growing up in the East Bay meant having first, second and third generation Japanese classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends. Here's an article on the greenhouses I saw almost everyday on my way to school from the freeway. They were built by Japanese immigrants:

[link]
~eurayo:iconeurayo: Jun 24, 2008, 11:53:12 PM
Yeah, I always watch anime with the English subtitles, but now I can try without them. That's a good idea! Arigatoo. I'm watching Garo. It's a live-action series.

I've been working on drawing anime/manga style stuff and it really forced me to concentrate on drawing accurately like an animator.
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