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Good…. I’ll go with “Evening.”
My name is Malcolm, and I’m going t o attempt to learn Japanese again, after a number of false starts:
Learning in secondary school at the same time as the mandated English, Welsh and German (did not help much at all)
Getting a book and audio CD (And being distracted by the wonder that is the Internet of the late 90′s)
Winning a copy of Rosetta Stone in a contest (which I tried and immediately felt like I was being taught how to suck eggs, so uninstalled it in disgust.)I saw Textfugu before during my travels online, but did not sign up immediately. After discovering the Learn Japanese section of Reddit and finding out about the New Year’s offer, I had no option but to go for it.
Maybe the fact that I’ve invested a decent chunk of change will force me to learn more. Maybe joining a community dedicated to it will help even more.
Either way, I’m here. Sorry about that…
I heard about the sale from Reddit also. I’m pretty much in the same boat. I’ve taken a couple of Japanese classes before, so I know a bit, but it’s not enough to hold up any form of conversation. Also Rosetta Stone is a piece of garbage. It’s just pictures and audio without any explanation…
But I hope we can both stay motivated here and maybe hold up a few minutes of Japanese conversation at some point in the future.
Malcolm, welcome and good luck with your studies! I hope this is the attempt that will stick for the long haul. :)
Thank you for the warm welcome!
As I’ve seen elsewhere, I really should set a goal for myself. And my goal is probably misguided, but here I go.
Before the Japanese bug started in secondary school, I went on a 2-week school trip to Italy. Part of the stay was in Rome, in a hotel that had a lift made seemingly from kitchen worktops. It was rickety and undeserving of the title “lift” and more deserving of the term “deathtrap.”
The penultimate day in Rome, I went down the elevator, and closed the SWINGING door on it. And suddenly an older Italian guy started shouting at me, verbally berating me about the lift. I cannot speak a word of Italian aside from “Pizza”, “Cappuccino” and the like, so I could only vaguely understand what he shouted at me for a full. five. minutes. I felt bewildered and helpless, that I couldn’t say anything to defend myself in the situation, and that “sorry” did not cover it for him, purely from the language barrier.I want to reach a point in Japanese, that if such a situation like that ever happened again, I could (a) apologise and be understood, and (b) if warranted, answer back with some smartalec comments.
But in Japanese. As I have no wish to visit Italy ever again…
I have a feeling that if you reach a point where you can understand the guy berating you for five minutes, you’ll be able to respond with no problems. ;) Thanks for sharing your story!
As a new arrival myself, I wish you a warm welcome and hope your newest attempt will hold. :)
I can only imagine that the Italian guy, was appalled at the state of the “lift” and how he was so angry at the hotel management for endangering a poor tourist child. ;)
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