Introductions

[togz 2004]

WELCOME TO THE JAPANESE STUDY GROUP

This group was implemented with hopes there were more of you out there that were struggling to study alone, want to start studying, or just like using the Japanese language as much as you can to keep it fresh in your mind. I consider myself to be beginner to moderate but I hope that all of the information here will be helpful to everyone. I also hope that some of the more advanced speakers are willing to contribute their knowledge. I am looking for help to run the club as I plan on having weekly updates etc to help the members actively have new things to learn. There will also be a few separate topics for discussion purely in Japanese, a help section if you need help understanding a phrase etc. There isn't much harder than learning a language all by yourself, but I have a few methods that have helped me get better on my own that I hope will help the rest of you. 

 

In order for everyone to mingle and understand each others levels of Japanese, please fill out the introduction format below in a separate post.

 

Quote

 

Name:

Age:

Years studied:

Estimated level: (Beginner - Moderate - Advanced - Fluent)

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: (None - Few - Half - Most - All) Please elaborate on if you know one more than the other etc.

Kanji: (Roughly how many Kanji you know)

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: ( What do you want to work on most? Reading? Writing? Conversational? Business? Vocabulary? Grammar?)

What materials have you used before?: ( Books, websites, audio etc)

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by togz

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

I guess I'll be the first one to introduce myself? Thank you @togzfor starting this club btw! I have been thinking about creating one myself as well~ ^^ (it works a lot better than just having that one single thread)

 

Name: plastic_rainbow

Age: 23

Years studied: 3 years of formal Japanese classes at University, the rest is self-taught so a total of 5 years probably

Estimated level: I'd say moderate to advanced. I've gotten rusty ever since I left uni. :/

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: 1500-2000 characters I think? That doesn't mean I can write them all tho lol, but I will usually recognize them if I see them.

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Be able to read faster and comprehend the contents cuz lawd that takes so much time. I want to reach at a level where I can read Japanese novels because even reading manga is still quite hard for me.

What materials have you used before?: Genki Elementary + Intermediate, and a few other books which I can't remember the titles of. Some of them came with audio cds. I also tried Lang-8 for a while.

 

Well, nice to meet you all!

よろしく！^^/

Edited September 22, 2017 by plastic_rainbow

[togz 2004]

@plastic_rainbowThank you for getting this started. I'm still working on setting everything up and could use some help from someone with more experience in Japanese if you'd like to help!

 

I should introduce myself haha

 

Name: Tomina / Mina

Age: 27

Years studied: 1 year in school + 3 years off and on self study

Estimated level: Beginner ( I got super rusty since college)

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: all

Kanji: probably only 20

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: To increase my vocabulary and practice conversational skills.

What materials have you used before?: I've used Yokosou in university but since studying alone I have loosely practiced with friends. I pretty much find out a word I use daily and add it to an app called study blue to practice with flash cards and I use various websites in combination with Genki elementary to practice grammar and conjugation 

[violetchain 912]

Name: violetchain

Age: 26

Years studied: 3 years in university as an elective, self-study on and off since then

Estimated level: Moderate? (I should technically be better than I am, but I'm very rusty, and I wasn't all that good at speaking even when I was taking formal classes)

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: Maybe 150? I studied about 200~250 in school, I think, but the amount I can actually identify and read without a popup dictionary is not anywhere near where it should be.

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: ( What do you want to work on most? Reading? Writing? Conversational? Business? Vocabulary? Grammar?) I just want to improve my overall understanding because I'm interested in the music, movies, etc. I don't really have any dreams of living in Japan or working there. I've forgotten a lot of grammar, and my conversation skills are sorely lacking recently, so I think those are the two main areas. I think my reading and vocab have improved substantially over the years because I read artist blogs, scan through Twitter, translate lyrics, etc., but pretty much everything else is not very good.

What materials have you used before?: ( Books, websites, audio etc) I write for a website where I need to gather and translate information from Japanese sources, which helps a lot with forcing me to practice reading each day, I use Rikaichan and Rikaikun all the time, and I have a kanji book and lecture notes from school that I use sometimes when I get really inspired to study. I've also played around with Lang-8, but I'm not really good at blogging or small talk, so I always end up spending way more time correcting English entries than writing in Japanese, which kind of defeats the purpose...

Edited September 23, 2017 by violetchain

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

Not sure how active I'll be, but hopefully a bit at least.

 

Name: Takadanobabaalien/マコ

Age: 26

Years studied: 2 years in Tokyo, been trying to motivate myself to do self studies but I don't have the discipline. 

Estimated level: Upper intermediate

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: I can read about 800-900 kanji.

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: I want to get fluent at some point. 

What materials have you used before?: I've used tons of books, completed 6-7 books while in Japan. We used Minna no nihongo for the first year and then we went on with another series. I'll post the name once I get home and can see them. I used nihongo soumatome as well, it's very good. 

[qotka 433]

Name: qotka/kat

Age: 30

Years studied: 6 years at uni, 4 years of self study. I could be fluent by now if I had any discipline lmao

Estimated level: Moderate? I can read by my conversational skills are lacking.

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: 1000~

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Be able to have normal conversations with people around me. After a year and a half in Japan, I'm only just getting over my anxiety and starting to talk with people. I do end up making really silly mistakes and making up grammar, so any extra chance to practice is a treasure. Also be able to read faster.

What materials have you used before?: Genki, WaniKani (nice for kanji!), random JLPT prep books.

 

よろしくお願いします！

[akippon 2]

Name: aki アキ

Age: 21

Years studied: Don't really know. I've been learning at my own pace for a long while now.

あまりわかりませんが、しばらく自分のペースで学んでいます

Estimated level: (Beginner - Moderate - Advanced - Fluent)

中級と上級の間は、私のレベルがあります

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: (None - Few - Half - Most - All)

全部知っています

Kanji: Again, I don't know but I can read a good amount of kanji

絶対にわかりません。かなりの漢字を読めますが

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Perfecting my grammar and expanding my vocabulary

文法を完全にし、語彙力を増やしたいです

What materials have you used before?: Talking with Japanese natives mostly, textbooks.

日本人と喋ったり、教科書を読んだりします

[itsukoii 1300]

Name: itsu? idk

Age: practically still a fetus

Years studied: i wanna say two? all on my own, because there are no japanese classes offered where i live

Estimated level: beginner

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: i can recognize/read all of them, but writing them still gives me trouble

Kanji: um... like the basic 100-200

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: man i just wanna be able to understand what i hear as well as understand what i read. but of course i wanna be able to speak it decently too

What materials have you used before?: Human Japanese is my primary source for learning, and Duolingo and HelloTalk to practice sometimes. also Kanji Study on android

[Anne Claire 392]

Name: Anne Claire
Age: 17
Years studied: about year and a half on my own
Estimated level: Beginner(there were times where i just gave up on studying for whatever reasons, so yea, only beginner level)
Knowledge of hiragana/katakana: all of them
Kanji: maybe around 150-200, i can read them, but i can't write mostly of them
What is your main goal with studying Japanese: i wanna be able to read, communicate with people, watch something etc. in Japanese. But what i really want to learn bout' the language is grammer('cuz man i suck at this) and vocabulary.
What materials have you used before: mostly i used some apps for learning Japanese(for example - skritter, wanikani etc.) , some websites(i don't remember which though, sorry) and there was one guy who sent me lessons through e-mail. I also tried to communicate with Japanese people on social media, but it didn't really work out for me becacuse of my lack of knowledge.

[anakuro 847]

Name: we can go with anakuro

 

Age: 27

 

Years studied: Uh, 2.5 at university, then self study on and off. I've lived in Japan for 5 years and that's what improved my japanese the most.

 

Estimated level: advanced.

 

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: all. 

 

Kanji: if you're asking me to handwrite, not many at all. I can read basic readings of probably 1000~ kanji. I can recognize the meaning of more (but not be able to tell you how to read it). It's hard to assess because, well, I don't/can't really count them; depends on what criteria you're using; for many kanji I know them in the context of words, not a single kanji alone.

 

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: need to improve vocabulary and grammar. I want to pass the N2 for job related reasons.

 

What materials have you used before?: At uni we used Genki 1 & 2 but I wasn't a big fan at all. I don't know what we used when I studied abroad, but I wasn't that into it either. I've used memrise to help with learning vocabulary. JET program japanese language course books two years (intermediate, advanced). I'm currently using sou matome, but it seems way too easy for the N2--also, not the biggest fan of the grammar book.

 

But really, I learned through immersion. I lived in a really small town for three years and had to use japanese every day. I couldn't be shy and not speak japanese--otherwise I'd never talk at all. On the other hand, I feel like my skills went down after moving to osaka. I've started self studying again & my boyfriend only speaks japanese so I feel like I'm slowly getting back to where I used to be.

[doombox 4421]

I really need to get back into studying! Nice to see this group @togz!  

 

Name: Kelly

Age: 35

Years studied: Maybe 2-3 years seriously, but a lot of time on and off trying to teach myself. 

Estimated level: I've completed beginners level classes and books and I can read a bit but listening skills, pronunciation, and formulating grammar just... i need lots of help lol.

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji:  I used to be closer to 500 but I think I've backslid to probably around 300 at this point. 

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: I guess conversational, definitely grammar.

What materials have you used before?: My online classes had us working out of Japanese for Busy People workbooks, since then I do some duolingo and watch youtube channels like Japanesepod101 and tomoko tomoko.

Edited September 24, 2017 by doombox

[togz 2004]

Thank you everyone who has participated so far even in the introductions alone. I myself am somewhat of a beginner to moderate level. More on the beginner side. But I did notice some advanced peeps joined the club which I'm very happy for. Don't get me wrong I don't want to just take take take. I hope to be up to that level to contribute to conversational stuff and just keeping things fresh. We do have a few people in here just starting out, so I will be making a beginners post soon.... 

 

However, I am taking volunteers to help me set up more advanced stuff. I won't expect you to do much other than correct me if I'm incorrect. I'm teaching myself currently... and would accept any help but I don't want to be too greedy with running the club and also asking everyone for help haha.

 

 

I AM SUPER AMAZED HOW WELL THIS IS TURNING OUT JUST IN A DAYS TIME. 

[Tatsusalt 47]

Name: MyakuHaku
Age: 16
Years studied: Just a few months on and off.
Estimated level: Beginner.
Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: Few Hiragana, Hardly any katakana,
Kanji: None? 
What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: I wanna understand more of course but as of now, I'd like to work more on Hiragana and Katakana and grammar, eventually kanji. Then work on speaking and hearing. Also hoping to go to college in japan too.
What materials have you used before?: So far only a few books and mostly websites. 

[suji 8317]

Name: suji

Age: >20

Years studied: 2-3 yrs maybe?? on and off, i'm too fuckin lazy

Estimated level: beginner af

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: I'm way more experienced with katakana than hiragana ;w; Just now trying to get the hang of hiragana tho

Kanji: the kanji for "ai"...that's it

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: to be able to experience japanese culture instead of just watching from a distance for the rest of my life :/

What materials have you used before?:

Quote

http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/katakana.htm

This is what I've been using to study katakana. The main site has a multilingual keyboard where you can also input characters of other languages (like Arabic, German, etc.), but on the Japanese onscreen keyboard, it shows what the characters mean, like モ for "mo", etc. You can scroll down to the bottom half of the page, where it'll show instructions, and also has an option to convert the katakana text to romaji (you can also do this with kanji and hiragana texts)~ There's also a page for kanji and hiragana, although kanji is much more complex since you have to type the sound of the first kanji rather than get help from an onscreen keyboard.

 

https://twitter.com/mlcjapanese

This Twitter account not only shares lessons on characters, but also of casual and formal phrases~ Like they'll put up a phrase in Japanese, and then rewrite it in Romaji and English. They also tweet about homophones, vocabulary, formal and casual speech, and show videos of short quizzes. They also offer quizzes via email, and even Skype sessions. I'd totally take some quizzes if I had the time or motivation ;w;

 

[Seimeisen 4406]

Name: James (God, 神様, etc.)

Age: 24

Years studied: Never really committed to "studying" but I started trying to read the language about 9 years ago

Estimated level: Pre-Beginner

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: Can read all kana, but for some reason my brain can process hiragana much quicker.

Kanji: Maybe 50? But I can only remember to handwrite a few (if any).

What is your main goal with studying Japanese? Reading, Conversational, Vocabulary, and Grammar. I went to Japan back in May and felt very bad that I couldn't hold a conversation in Japanese with *anyone* and I also didn't like having to rely on the English menus at restaurants (haha).

What materials have you used before? I'll try to translate song/album titles whenever possible. I use WWWJDIC, imiwa?, and shirabe-jisho for vocabulary, and as for grammar, I'd just use Google (both translate and search, though the former is not very reliable). Also, I need to just go on a tangent about how fucking stupid it is that people on the internet will translate song lyrics and go into deep analysis about it but they won't even bother trying to translate the actual title! WHY?!

[gekiai 231]

Name: Maya (or Mel doesn't really matter)

Age: 18 (turning 19 next month)

Years studied: 4 years self study, half a semester (and many more to come since it's one of my majors)

Estimated level: Moderate. Still so much to learn though :'D (and classes are just a tad slow for me, despite being in "Intermediate JPNS")

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: ~250? It's bound to change since I...surprisingly, enjoy kanji.

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: To read my favorite novels in Japanese, translate lyrics and interviews of my favorite musicians, live in Japan for a few years..so basically, become fluent.

What materials have you used before?: I have used too many lol. I mainly use Genki series (even though I hate it with a burning passion), Japanese Demystified, Memrise (for vocab), Rikaikun, lang 8, and Hello Talk

Edited September 25, 2017 by gekiai

[Triangle 345]

Name: Beatrice

 

Age: 23

 

Years studied: 3 years of university, and one year in Japan that helped me more than I ever expected XD

 

Estimated level: I'm calling myself Moderate XD

 

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana:  All.  I'm still struggling with katakana sometimes, like how to tell "tsu" from "shi" apart XD.

 

Kanji: Oh my god this is a hard question XD. 1000-ish I guess? I mean I did pretty well so far, but I'm not going to cocky until I pass N2 and graduate from university XD.

 

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Well, to be honest, I only decided to learn Japanese 4 years ago when I was deciding what major I should pick to study in university. 4 years ago was when I discovered MUCC and made this big goal of learning Japanese to understand their lyrics. Then, I continued studying it and I found a lot of fun and interesting things and now my main goal is to become as fluent as possible so I can go back to Japan and live there and ride unicorns into the sunset.

 

What materials have you used before?: All the textbooks my teachers have provided me with (Minna no nihongo all the way and some others that I can't remember), a lot of N3 and N2 books, a book that was recommended by my teacher during my one year abroad in Japan called "Ryugakusei no tame no kanji no kyoukasho" (please excuse my romaji, the original title is : 留学生のための教科書) for intermediate level and I liked it very much, especially the illustrations in it XD . Oh and online dictionaries like imiwa, jisho-shirabe and good ol' google translate XD. I tried translating some lyrics, and when I watch anything in Japanese I try looking for words I don't know and kinda save the word somewhere on a piece of paper or on my phone. I tried keeping a notebook with vocabulary but failed to update it. And making Japanese friends on twitter helped me too.

 

[meat 135]

Hello! Happy to see so many fellow learners here <3 I am hoping to be able to ask questions that I can't normally ask (*wink wink nudge nudge) and help out with questions if there are any.

 

Name: Let's just go with Meat

Age: Old enough to remember Kuroyume 

Years studied: 10yrs+

Estimated level: Got N1 certified a few years ago but still really bad at speaking from lack of exposure and have problems with kenjougo (basically, I can respect others but I don't now how to lower myself :P)

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All

Kanji: approx. 8000

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: I tell polite company that I want to be able to read Mishima Yukio but really I just want to be able to tell rude people in Japan to f-off

What materials have you used before?: At uni we used Situational Functional Japanese. I also used JLPT N1&2 prep books and grammar dictionaries when self-studying. Nowadays I read manga, books, newspaper, etc. everyday to keep it going. And despite the lack of exposure to speaking & listening Japanese, it seems that my conversational Japanese has improved just from reading manga and listening to Jrock!

 

Yoroshiku~

[monkeybanana4 1732]

Name: Let's just go with monkeybanana4 

Age: Too old

Years studied: informally - too many years (on and off - I need more discipline, lol); formally - 4 years

Estimated level: Moderate/Advanced (I've slacked off ever since I graduated from uni ;A;)

Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All (Having a chart of both hiragana and katakana stuck on my wall really helped me memorize it)

Kanji: That's a tough question >w< Probably a couple of hundred. (According to estimates, to pass N3 for the JLPT one needs to know about approximately 650 kanji characters. So let's just go with that XP)

What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Being able to converse and understand Japanese. Would also love to understand the Japanese culture, too.

What materials have you used before?: Genki books, various prep books, and many online resources