MH FEATURED POLL #49: How much Japanese do you know?

[beni 2149]

How much Japanese do you know?

 

 

Poll suggested by the always glorious @fitear1590!

 

To submit a poll for the MH POLL OF THE MONTH, P.M @beniwith your poll question, choices, and state whether it's multiple choice or not.

[JukaForever 758]

I know all the Japanese because I listen and understand from the heart

[robkun 4184]

I know most of my Japanese through occasional Skype sessions and through constant indulgence in visual kei and Japanese music of all sorts XD.

[lichtlune 915]

I don't know as much as I should! I need to study more :c 

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I have a minor in Japanese language, although I have not spoken to any natives in about 4 years so my verbal grammar and comprehension is extremely rusty. I've also lost a lot of grammatical semantics and proper writing compositional skills, so things like news articles and song lyrics are a bit difficult for me to translate. Short phrases, like vkei news updates and song titles, I am a lot better at understanding.

 

That being said, I've used other tools post-graduation to help understand the language better.

 

I am currently level 23 on WaniKani, which means I know / recognize / am familiar with / should be familiar with around 749 kanji and 2300+ vocab words (from this app alone. I know others from school and recognizing song titles).

 

For writing, I also made an account on Lang-8. This is a site that lets you write diary entries in any language you'd like, then has natives correct your grammar or give you suggestions on how to improve it. While it does support any sort language, the users are typically Japanese wanting to learn English.

 

I would love to start taking lessons again and maybe even converse with others so I can build back up my speaking skills and learn more informal langauge. My training was all polite and super formal towards the end, as it was geared towards students studying abroad or people learning Japanese for business, so informal language used in songs and anime often escapes me. 

[IGM_Oficial 1964]

Native speaker of Japanese: 0%

I can write almost as many kanji as I can read: 0%

I can watch TV/movies/anime without subtitles and understand with ease: 0%

 

lel

 

[saishuu 3220]

my Japanese knowledge is 100% basic, just like myself.

[itsukoii 1300]

oh i started using Human Japanese for a couple months and it was a great introduction to the language, and i'm sure i could certainly get by with using Japanese if i studied harder and completed the successor, Human Japanese Intermediate. as for kanji i don't know any, but i can read the kana.

 

i am also the SHITTIEST at remembering vocab so i gave up a while back lmao. and understanding song lyrics will have to wait because of all the slang and weird words that i'll probably never get taught in a family-friendly app like HJ

[fitear1590 2414]

 

I am currently level 23 on WaniKani, which means I know / recognize / am familiar with / should be familiar with around 749 kanji and 2300+ vocab words (from this app alone. I know others from school and recognizing song titles).

Thanks for the tip, boo. WaniKani sounds like a good tool to boost my kanji knowledge. Like you, I haven't taken any formal Japanese course in 4-5 years, but I'm itching to get back into it lately.

[violetchain 912]

I studied Japanese as an elective in university for three years, and I used to be able to hold a basic conversation, but I'm super shy about using it around people outside of class so I haven't really practiced speaking, or writing for the most part, since I graduated. I practice reading and listening comprehension a lot, so I think I'm improving in those areas, but I really need to force myself to at least start using Lang-8 again so I can remember how to form sentences of my own.

 

I also have a really long way to go with kanji. Being generous, I think I'm at about 250~300 that I know well, and I'd probably need to practice a bit before I could write a lot of them properly again. I've been picking up vocab from reading and translating stuff, but kanji really doesn't sink in for me unless I actually take the time to break down the components that make up each character in my head and write it on paper 20+ times.

Edited August 29, 2016 by violetchain

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

 

Thanks for the tip, boo. WaniKani sounds like a good tool to boost my kanji knowledge. Like you, I haven't taken any formal Japanese course in 4-5 years, but I'm itching to get back into it lately.

If you join, I think there's a way to mention a referrer. Be sure to put "Seraphim" so I could possibly get a discount

[CAT5 9075]

I self-taught for a bit, so I can read kana, and I know some basic grammar and vocab, a few random kanji as well. I'd like to get some formal training at some point, though.

[doombox 4421]

I took beginner's Japanese online through Tokyo Mokyo. I stalled out at intermediate due to there not being enough people to hold a class (I think we needed 6 people to register) so I started teaching myself from there. I have some books, Genki I and Japanese for Busy People. I do a handful of translating for updates on my news blog thanks to chrome plug-ins like rikaikun that help with kanji I don't know yet. I also follow some youtube channels that give vocabulary and grammar lessons. 

[Yukimoto 1237]

I studied Japanese for a few years in America and in Japan and have done self-study so I'm pretty ok if I should say so myself but you can never be fluent in any language so it's always good to study

[Nagisa 131]

I self-studied Japanese in senior year of high school and double majored in it in college (still learned a lot by myself though). I read novels occasionally and can write, speak, and understand a decent amount, although I think I'm the weakest at speaking.

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

I did some self-study before taking formal classes at University for three years. During one of those years I studied abroad Japan, in which only the language classes were taught in Japanese while general subjects were still taught in English. But outside of class it was beneficial, and challenging, to utilize what I learned from class in the outside world with actual native speakers. The classes I took at my home University focused heavily on speaking so I had many conversations and learned to speak well, so much so that I even felt that I could express myself better in Japanese than in English. I felt like I was only really able to talk to someone if I spoke in Japanese (I never talked much outside of Japanese classes or Japanese related events). Despite that I still had a pretty basic vocabulary, so nothing too complex. Sadly, after I came back from Japan I slowly stopped speaking Japanese and am pretty rusty now.

 

I stopped taking formal classes because I felt burnt out and wanted to pursue the language for my own enjoyment, not for things like businesses and careers. So now I just focus on reading manga, playing games in Japanese, watching stuff without subtitles, and translating lyrics. (being able to play Japanese games was practically my sole reason for learning Japanese btw, haha) I still struggle a lot with understanding but I learn to pick up more things as I go. I write from time to time as well and use ameblo as a Japanese blog, but I mostly write simple and short entries. I think I've learned over 1,000 kanji over the years but I still feel like I only know as few as 300-500. They're so easy to forget! >.<

 

I've heard of Lang-8 and have thought about trying it out. It may really come in handy for improving my writing~

Edited August 31, 2016 by plastic_rainbow

[WhirlingBlack 1043]

Heading for a bachelors degree in Japanese at the moment, just started my third year/fifth semester of full time Japanese studies. Focus on reading and translating as it's what I'm going to use the language for in a work setting in the future. 

I'd say I'm decently proficient at reading at this point (1000+ kanji) but if you asked me to write them by hand the number would shrink by a lot, but then again I've heard it's the same for a lot of Japanese people.

[Ruri 278]

I've been studying Japanese properly for about two years now.

 

It's actually because of j-rock that I discovered my affinity for languages, because it was my first real exposure to foreign-language media and I was always fascinated by how the language sounded. Now I'm doing a major in linguistics with a minor in Japanese, and Chinese classes for extra credit

Edited September 4, 2016 by Ruri

[YuyoDrift 1540]

This is funny b/c I started learning Japanese when I was 10 lol.

Bought various books and CDs (before Rosetta Stone existed), and would read them endlessly.

 

Other than the basic #s/date/small phrases, nothing has been able to stick.

It's like I have Japanese Dyslexia lol

 

I even took 2 years of Japanese in college, and I only picked up small sentences, and maybe 20 kanji haha.

I couldn't write them to save my life doe haha.

 

I blame the english language.

[Atreides 454]

I can speak intermediate Japanese, and read hiragana and katakana (though I forget certain characters sometimes).  However I can't read Kanji for shit, I know maybe 100.  I plan on hitting the books more, it's a bit of a hobby of mine.

[gekiai 231]

I'm an upper beginner to intermediate...I can read pretty well, but speaking and writing is a disaster, along with the fact that I forget kanji all the time. 3-4 years of studying haven't done me much good on my own :')

 

Once I study it in uni I know I will improve and get to the fluency I want! ^ ^ Translations, here I come

Edited September 22, 2016 by gekiai

[nick 10212]

10+ years and counting, but still at a kindergarten level. lol

[peffy 3568]

100% self-taught over 12-13 years, never been to a single class and don't have any Japanese-speaking family or friends. My university offered a beginner Japanese course, but they only had space for like 20 students per semester, so I never got into it. So during boring lectures, I would fill my margins with hiragana & katakana practice. Not really sure how I passed my courses. 

 

After I finished school, I bought a couple of grammar books and learned a lot from those. Also learned a TON of vocabulary from doing romaji lyrics, and picked up a lot from watching anime/dramas, and playing Japanese video games. Interestingly, I went to Chinese writing/reading lessons during my childhood but my Japanese ability is far far faaaaaar better. (probably because I had very little interest in Chinese when I was young)

 

I suck at writing kanji/Chinese from memory, but that's mostly due to not practicing it at all. I know all about radicals and stroke order and can *copy* the characters easily.

 

.. Hmm, I voted wrong for the "Speaking" part. I put Intermediate but I really should've put Beginner. My speaking ability is mostly untested, and native speakers talk too fast for me to understand easily. (However, when I went to Japan I was told that my pronunciation is very good)

 

[mahoujin 395]

I tried learning Japanese on my own nearly 10 years ago, but I didn't get very far because I had no guidance and was basically trying to memorize stuff on my own with no actual practice. I don't really remember much from then, aside from being able to decently read katakana, hiragana, and a few kanji. I'm terrible at speaking or understanding spoken Japanese. What I know now is really basic stuff and pretty random words and phrases that I've mostly just picked up from being a fan of Japanese stuff, but not from actively trying to learn the stuff.