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Hey everyone! I’m a 22 year old college student here in Canada, and it’s great to finally be a member here.
As a kid, karate was my life. I read every book I could about Japan’s martial history and philosophy, falling in love with the language and culture as I went. Naturally, I discovered anime in my teen years, and getting to know the culture through a less formal medium cemented my resolve: I was going to live in Japan.
A year ago, I found textfugu and loved the first season, but didn’t have the time to keep up with it. Now I’m taking a Japanese class this semester, so I figured I’d jump in and get ahead of the game.
Well, that’s my story. Wish me luck! And I look froward to seeing you all in the forums ^^
Hello my fellow Canuck (SW Ontario here!)
Word of advice, get a BA and avoid Ontario Learn Japanese classes… especially the Edu2Go Conversational Japanese. Personal opinion of course but after my conversation with the instructor I couldn’t recommend it to anyone. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the Durham College class (they host it) so I won’t comment on it.
If you haven’t had a look around here yet there is a thread about Japanese DS games to help learning. There are also a few good iOS apps as well (instaKANA, JLPTSelfStudy, Study Japanese for iPad, Tae Kim’s Learning Japanese, Midori, and Anki).
Good luck! ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ
Hey hey! Awesome post ロブさん, very helpful.
The Ontario Learn Japanese Class is exactly what I’m taking. First class won’t be until a week from now. Do you mind sharing what about your conversation with the instructor turned you off from the program? If I can see the warning signs maybe I’ll heed them before it’s too late!
I won’t go into it too much as Ririko Hayashi isn’t a member here to give her viewpoints. That said, the course seems to be more of an automated classroom with lessons automatically ‘released’ by the server then through actual human intervention. The forums were left to students helping other students. When I took the class there were questions on the class forum that were left unanswered all the time, unless the student came back to give an update for other readers. Now this ‘students helping other students’, in my opinion, may work for places such as TextFugu where the students are at different levels and can help their juniors but in a class where everyone starts at the same first lesson at the same time it doesn’t.
The only time I saw Ririko in the class forums was during another students thread where I started commenting on how the u in desu isn’t always pronounced during conversation (kinda funny of all things given the other thread here). She agreed but made a point about saying su when learning. I went on to speak with Ririko and discovered the class would seem to be formal feminine Japanese in Romaji, without any overview or lesson on Hiragana. Granted the class is only 12 lessons over 6 weeks and geared around speech so it may be a bit unreasonable for kana lessons. However, when I asked her to state the amount of Romaji in Japan that students were likely to encounter the subject seemed to be avoided. Huh…
Honestly, save your $100-150 (depending on what college you went through) and get a Japanese phrases book/app… or better yet just use TextFugu. You’ll learn more here then that class would ever offer, IMO.
If you want structured class then I would save the extra money and look at the Durham College Japanese I class ($389.09 + books currently). It seems to be a little of everything, including speech, from what I’ve been told. I haven’t taken it so I can only comment on what others have said. I may look into it next semester (it runs every semester for the semester. The next class starts on the 6th, and the one after should start in January) just to see what it is about. Shame there aren’t more japanese classes here in Ontario.
Sorry to give you such a bad review but its only my past experience and opinion. TextFugu is a great place to start with helpful members and great information, much of which is free and can compliment TextFugu excellently.
Right on. I appreciate the candid review.
Your point on peer tutoring makes a lot of sense. I assumed the would avoid areas of in-depth study like kana (which I’m already confident with) and focus more on conversation and developing good pronunciation. Doesn’t sound like it, does it.
I mainly signed up because I needed to fill another credit slot and it was slim pickings. I also thought it might look good when I apply to Brock for linguistics. If it proves too monotonous I’ll switch out. Otherwise, just the mandatory presence of Japanese in my life throughout the term may serve as a good motivator to keep studying the higher quality sources we’ve been discussing. It wouldn’t make the class any richer, but it would be a benefit I wouldn’t otherwise have.
Definitely good to know about Durham. I’m not sure what I’m doing next fall so I’ll keep it in mind.
Your college is offering credit for these courses? Nice! The college here lists both courses as non-credit courses. Have you had a look at the program pages yet?
I wonder if they’ve updated or corrected some of their shortcomings. If you’re taking the Edu2Go Japanese it would be great if you updated this thread with your experience.
Now that I’ve hunted down my college’s page for it, it doesn’t mention edu2go as the source of the program. Instead, the course description mirrors Durham’s to a T, so perhaps they’re the same curriculum?
I’ve been texting my friend about his experience with this course last year, and as he took the online-only version of the class he expressed some parallel criticisms as yours with edu2go… However, he believes it might have been the limitations of the online format, so he’s retaking it in class with me.
Since it seems so similar to the one you’re looking at, I’ll definitely keep you updated.
Edit: for some reason the link won’t appear when I format it, so… http://www.niagaracollege.ca/content/ContinuingEducation/CECourseCalendar/CECourseList/CECourseDetails/tabid/793/ncAcademicTermId/1134/ncAcademicCareerId/PSEC/ncSubject/LANG/ncCatalogueNumber/1303/ncAcademicGroupId/CE/Default.aspx
The link button doesn’t work properly. The text value isn’t used for both the mouse over and link text, only the title attribute. To get around this bug/error when using the link button look for the >< and place the text you want to appear between them.
As in:
title="TextFugu">・Here・</a>The course you’re looking at does seem to be the same as the Durham College one, and you even get credit! Please let me know what you think of the course. It’d be great to get another perspective on it before committing time to it.
Thaaat makes sense. Saving that to a sticky so I don’t forget!
I’m probably going to start a Japanese language blog to keep me motivated. Use it as learning journal and to review different learning approaches. The college class would be a big part of that. If so, would you want me to link you, or just give you my general opinion once it’s done?
If I remember right in season 1 (1-7, I looked it up just to be sure) we were given the suggestion of starting a blog, huh. I wonder how many of us actually have. With the internet being what it is there is always the concern of sharing too much, so I’ll leave it up to you.
Good luck with the studies!
…ah, back to school season (●´∀｀●)
My only concern is being THAT guy. You know which one. He runs around telling everyone to check out his wine tasting blog, insisting that you simply can’t have that red without a wheel of this stinky cheese. Not that mine will have much wine tasting… Although sake definitely helps the studies.
Anyways. Here she is. Just have her back home in time for supper.
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