- Joined
- Aug 11, 2004
- Messages
- 885
- Location
- CT/NY/OH/
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- Secondary Job
- Third Job
- Linkshell
- idkmybffjill
I think the majority of Japanese people will go out of their way to help you out with learning if they find out that you are studying the language. I've met a lot of really funny people just by listening to shouts for help in Jeuno both NA and JP and those people have introduced me to a lot of other interesting people.
Particle usage is really frustrating at times... ga vs ha to indicate subject and such almost becomes something you have to feel out instead of something that you should be able to logically distinguish.
As far as kanji goes... most learning styles tend to concentrate on hiragana/katakana and grammar before focusing more on kanji. In a normal college course you probably start using kanji at 1st year but really start to pick them up 2nd or 3rd. Supposedly most 3rd year courses focus on grammar while 4th year focuses on reading (articles and such) and writing (essays no thanks ;/)
For conversational japanese I think FFXI is a great tool. A lot of the chat in FFXI is really really casual and slangy and a lot of jokes. It can't beat finding someone to actually speak the language with since writing and speaking are quite different but its a great way to practice recognition and comprehension and a compartively intimate look at Japanese opposed to one that you'd find in most text books.
If you like using media to improve your Japanese skills, try branching out to raw manga or tv shows (i hate jdrama but...) Variety shows are pretty great while being fairly funny since the majority of the conversation is unscripted and extremely natural, as opposed to scripted conversation given by voice actors or soap actors.
as far as mixi goes, a couple of my friends studying Japanese in Japan are big fans... But I never really used it so I can't say how useful it is.
Particle usage is really frustrating at times... ga vs ha to indicate subject and such almost becomes something you have to feel out instead of something that you should be able to logically distinguish.
As far as kanji goes... most learning styles tend to concentrate on hiragana/katakana and grammar before focusing more on kanji. In a normal college course you probably start using kanji at 1st year but really start to pick them up 2nd or 3rd. Supposedly most 3rd year courses focus on grammar while 4th year focuses on reading (articles and such) and writing (essays no thanks ;/)
For conversational japanese I think FFXI is a great tool. A lot of the chat in FFXI is really really casual and slangy and a lot of jokes. It can't beat finding someone to actually speak the language with since writing and speaking are quite different but its a great way to practice recognition and comprehension and a compartively intimate look at Japanese opposed to one that you'd find in most text books.
If you like using media to improve your Japanese skills, try branching out to raw manga or tv shows (i hate jdrama but...) Variety shows are pretty great while being fairly funny since the majority of the conversation is unscripted and extremely natural, as opposed to scripted conversation given by voice actors or soap actors.
as far as mixi goes, a couple of my friends studying Japanese in Japan are big fans... But I never really used it so I can't say how useful it is.
Or even start a small website that we can check up on 
