I think it's great you are practicing Japanese after coming back to the states. I've visited Japan… - Feed Post from chibiryo to Nagareboshi9
I think it's great you are practicing Japanese after coming back to the states. I've visited Japan twice and it's always the hardest to practice especially when there's no one around who speaks it here. がんばって！ (*^o^*)
posted by chibiryo
Comments 19
Thank you! ^^ Actually, I live in Switzerland, but for some reason it won't let me change my location... But yes, it is hard to practice when you haven't got anyone to practice with. I'm afraid I'll forget half of it. >__<
Where in Japan did you visit? ^_^
Oh that's weird it won't let you fix it! I feel like I've already forgotten more than half of it!
The first time I visited Japan, I went to Sapporo and actually studied in an intensive school for a few months. It was lots of fun, but very busy. (@_@)
The second time, I went to Tokyo. It was a completely different experience, but I loved it. ^_^- Tokyo is said to be more hectic and fast paced than other cities. It would have been fun attending the intensive language school. I'd like to do that myself for a few weeks. ^^
Do you have plans to go to Japan again? - Yes, I plan to go again either sometime this year or next year. I want to visit Okinawa and go to Kyoto. How about you? Do you plan to go again?
- I'm hoping to stop by Tokyo end of the year if possible. ^^ I haven't been to Kyoto in forever, so I'd like to go there again. Himeji castle has also been on my list for a while, oh and Okinawa!
Do you still keep in touch with anyone from Japan? - I have a couple friends from Japan, but they've been really busy, so I haven't really kept in much contact with them recently. It's part of the reason why my Japanese is digressing. How about you?
- Same here... Though most of my friends in Japan were fellow gaijin, lol. So sadly I didn't get to speak it much while I was over there. Just for general stuff like in stores, etc.
I'm hoping to find someone whom I can practice with locally or online. How about you? - Yeah, I used to have friends I chatted with online on Skype, but I found I was usually helping them with their English rather than learning Japanese from them. I would like to find a language practice partner for sure. I'm fairly good with understanding Japanese, both spoken and written, but I'm not so good at formulating my own sentences.
I have a few friends that I've tried teaching them some Japanese, but they're busy and it's more of a side interest for them. But I did practice with them for awhile too.
When I start law school next year, the university is actually a sister school to Tokyo University, so I am hoping to find an exchange student there who wouldn't mind being a conversation partner! - Ah yes... I used to have the same problem, I'd end up teaching English and not really learn any Japanese... Maybe try finding someone who is also learning Japanese to practice with, might work out better. I'll try doing that also.
I also understand Japanese quite well, it's just formulating sentences that gets me stuck...
Have you thought of going on an exchange to Tokyo for a semester? - Well, that wouldn't really work well for me at the moment with my family, but it would be a great experience. Have you thought about it?
- I have thought about maybe attending a language school there, but that's not in the cards at the moment.
What do you find the hardest part about learning Japanese? - Definitely just not having someone to have practice conversations with. I can study all I want, but not being able to talk to someone means I won't continue learning how to formulate sentences correctly off the top of my head. The rest of it, writing, grammar, etc., can come from study and practice.
How about you? - Pretty much the same for me really. Not being able to speak it with someone else makes it difficult to formulate sentences correctly. ^^
Apart from that, learning Kanji can be tricky at times. How do you find Kanji? - Learning kanji can be difficult. I had a hard time with straight out rote memorization, which is how I first started learning kanji because I got frustrated as I learned more. Learning in context is definitely the easiest. But, to make myself feel like I was actually making some progress, I found Heisig's Remembering the Kanji worked well for me. So, even though I don't know all the ways to read each kanji, I am pretty comfortable with most of them and can guess a lot of their meanings. Currently, I'm working on just reading a lot, so I can learn them in context and expand my vocabulary.
- Learning in context is definitely easiest. For online reading, I use Rikaichan. Do you know it?
- I have heard of it, but I haven't personally used it. I actually own some novels and manga that I use for reference and reading in Japanese. I have a Uwajimaya bookstore probably 45 minutes from where I live, so I often go and browse the titles. But I also read using the iPhone app Wakaru which has browsing and ebook reading.
- I'll give Wakaru a go. Seems like a good app. There are many good phone apps that are free these days and very useful. For vocab I have few, such as i-Sokki and imiwa. But I do most of my reading online using Firefox, so I have the Rikaichan addon which helps with reading Kanji. ^^
- I've also used i-Sokki and have imiwa on my phone. I use Anki for the SRS flash cards for kanji.
どれくらい日本語を勉強していますか? - 遅いですね！ごめんなさい！！！
むずかしです。。。I've been studying Japanese on and off for quite a while. It's quite frustrating really, because I should be very fluent, but I keep forgetting stuff due to the lack of use. And you?