Self teaching vs Class with teacher. Learning Japanese.

[Yee199]

I've always wondered is it better to just use the resources on A-S (and others) to learn Japanese or take the Japanese class that my school offers which is an online class.

 

[Selvaria Bles]

do what you think its better for you both methods have their pros and cons.

 

[Karlotto]

If you have the time, both. That`s what my friend does. He has a japanese class three times a week and then studies by himself at home. If you only have one option though, I`d say self teaching. You can go at your own pace and use methods that you find simpler. (ones that might not be present in a class environment.) My main gripe with language classes is that they, or at least the ones I`ve seen, don`t teach you certain things to do with the grammar or pronunciation. They just tell you "this works like this in this word." but don`t tell you why. For example, one of my friends is taking german and doesn`t know when or why an H is supposed to be silent, he just knows what words have silent H`s. (To clarify, an H is silent if it comes after a vowel. Should probably be telling him that though...)

Of course you can also try them both out individually and see which you like more.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm classes could be useful (in my experience with english) since there are words which can be pronounced different ways and unless you go for a dictionary which shows how to pronounce... well no one is really going to correct you if you say it wrong during self teaching... i would say classes are better to get down basics... hopefull they actually teach you the basics... and self teaching is for expanding on that~

 

[Karlotto]

^The pronunciation thing may be true for english, but you rarely see a syllable being pronounced multiple ways in japanese. Though you do need to know how to pronounce said syllables in the first place. Come in from another language and it can be a bit tricky.

 

[Mizu-chan]

In regards to Japanese... Uhm, is there anyone who can help me with sentence structure? I'm so damn lost. Dx

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm yes... just need to know how to pronounce the characters in japanese... my example was mostly for english xD I wonder if theres a trick to pronouncing kanji though...

 

[Mizu-chan]

Pronunciation is extremely easy, actually. :D~

 

[Karlotto]

@Mizu-chan

Don`t know exactly what you`re having trouble with so I can`t give specific advice, but the basic rule is Subject-Object-Verb in that order. Give me some specifics and I`ll see if I can help.

 

[Mizu-chan]

Yeah, I know that's the basics but.... I don't know, I've read a lot of stuff on different websites that have thrown me off. xD I'm not sure what exactly I need help on, but I do know the S-O-V part.

 

[~SnowAngel~]

Just one thing I have to add~ self-motivation is very difficult. I'm taking a German class and that's like forcing me to dedicate my time into learning XD
I'd rather take Japanese, but oh wellllll

 

[Second_Flight]

1st Stundets.... Imasu...

 

[Yee199]

What you're taking in students?

 

[FinalPyre]

I think having a prof/teaching is good just to have someone immediately correct you when you do something wrong. It also helps with motivation, and helps make sure you are going in the right direction. If you are learning by yourself, I would suggest starting out with the Genki series as it focuses on grammar and verb conjugation, which I think are good places to start.
I'm not terribly great at Japanese myself, but I have been taking it in university for the last 2.5 years as an elective. It's good fun.

 

[Infamous]

it really depends on you. some people learn better on their own instead of in a class. i'd recommend using a person from a place where they largely use the language you want to learn. that way they can try to lessen your accent

 

[Yee199]

[MENTION=40801]infamous[/MENTION]; I already have a Asian accent. XD Great advice everyone thanks!

 

[FinalPyre]

Also just to throw out there: you can't really learn the pitch accent through textbooks, but you might pick some of it up subliminally in class/listening to Japanese.

 

[Yee199]

[MENTION=37707]FinalPyre[/MENTION]; hmm I watch tons of anime and watch lots of J-rock and J-pop.
Does that count?

 

[FinalPyre]

It helps if you actually pay attention to what they are saying. :)
Pitch accent seems to be pretty subtle though, so in general I wouldn't worry about it at all. I think if you really wanted to learn it you would be best off going immersion.
Knowing pitch accent would provide you a very minute benefit in understanding words and knowing how to say them (I could be wrong, but I think I might have picked some of it up subliminally from listening to my teacher, and when watching anime w/o subtitles.

 

[paperfan]

In the beginning especially I think having a class/teacher is priceless. It will prevent you from making a lot of common mistakes that self study students make. But seeing as how Japanese is a long road every Japanese student will be doing some self study at some point in their journey.

The farther you get in your Japanese studies the easier self study becomes. One suggestion I learned from experience is don't listen ONLY to subtitled stuff like I did for years. Force yourself to watch some raw anime/dramas/whatever because the mind will pay too much attention to the subtitles and not enough attention on picking up how the language is spoken. Don't be afraid or annoyed not to understand things or mishear words because it will get better. My Japanese listening skills have improved tremendously after I started playing a lot of voiced visual novels and listening to drama cds.

 

[GlassNoodles]

I'm currently trying to teach myself Japanese now, I just started with memorizinng Hiragana characters and their pronunciations.

There is a place somewhat near me that gives Japanese lessons for a very reaonable cost, but I figure I should get the memorizing bit out of the way first. Once I get all the Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji characters memorized then I'm going to work on words and their meanings before taking a class, mainly for grammar and sentence structure. Not that I plan to memorize an entire Japanese dictionary or anything, mostly just the basics so I'm not completely lost.


Does that sound like a decent plan or am I going about this the wrong way?

 

[marmora]

well your lucky to have a place to learn japaness here there isnt any so if i wanna learn i need to do it all by my self

 

[~dreamer~]

I'm currently trying to teach myself Japanese now, I just started with memorizinng Hiragana characters and their pronunciations.

There is a place somewhat near me that gives Japanese lessons for a very reaonable cost, but I figure I should get the memorizing bit out of the way first. Once I get all the Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji characters memorized then I'm going to work on words and their meanings before taking a class, mainly for grammar and sentence structure. Not that I plan to memorize an entire Japanese dictionary or anything, mostly just the basics so I'm not completely lost.


Does that sound like a decent plan or am I going about this the wrong way?

sounds like an excellent plan to me. just be careful that certain characters can be deceiving. for example, さ is 3 strokes, not 2.

 

[GlassNoodles]

sounds like an excellent plan to me. just be careful that certain characters can be deceiving. for example, さ is 3 strokes, not 2.

Good to know mate, the site I'm using actually has the stroke order for each character as well as pronunciations and all kinds of other info. So I know that "sa" can be written with the hook underneath attached or unattached. ^.^

It also explains how to be able to type Japanese characters, which I need to look into. >.<

I've also seen anime themed Hiragana and Kanji flashcards for sale in the Crunchyroll store which are for helping people learn Japanese. I might buy them, they're only like $15 and are much nicer than the flashcards I made for myself.

 

[~dreamer~]

no no, for さ、the "hook" (the bottom stroke) is never attached.
in printed text it appears to be attached, but when you actually write the character, you must make sure it's not attached (something my teacher emphasized over and over)
same goes for き

note that ち (kinda looks like さ but in reverse) is 2 strokes, so the bottom is "attached" (the second stroke is continuous)