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Hi. Well, obviously I’ve just signed up.
I am 28 and I’m currently a student, actually, doing what’s called a TAFE course (Tertiary and Further Education, it’s an Australian technical college kind of thing) called Adult Tertiary Preparation. It’s something of a primer for university, which I plan to go to to become a teacher. I also have adult ADHD though, which is both part of why I’m doing this (must have more things on my plate!), and also a large part of why I shouldn’t. But anyway.
I’ve actually wanted to learn Japanese for a long time, for something like a decade or more even, but the desire started off as a passing curiosity and sort of gradually snowballed. The thing is, I don’t have any particular legitimate reason or need to, it’s just been something of a fascination with the language and the Japanese people (I’m kinda a wannabe anthropologist and developmental pyschologist), so my reason for wanting to learn is mostly just for my own interest. That said, I also should admit I have an interest in relatively niche videogamey things like JRPGs which aren’t popular/Western-safe enough to become localized outside of Japan, which I would eventually like to be able to experience. Kinda lame of me, I guess, sorry.
I’m working on ways of managing my ADHD at the moment, and I’m hoping that a combination of what I’m trying to do to become better at studying for my classes and what I’ve seen of (Koichi’s?) teaching style, while being motivated by finally properly doing something with my interest, will be positive for me.
Welcome to TextFugu!
There’s kind of a crazy amount of Aussies here actually. If you look at the intro posts, you’ll notice the trend. I’m an Aussie too btw.
Have you taken any Japanese courses at TAFE? Even though they aren’t fantastic at teaching you the language to fluency, it is a really good primer to get you started, as you should have a native teacher, and they will be able to set you on the right path with pronunciations and other things that can be difficult to grasp from text alone.
Oh yes, don’t bother being shamed here for listing J-RPGs as your motivation for learning. In general, the majority of new users will state a desire to some day work in Japan or at least visit Japan, so they think it would be a good idea to learn the language first in order to fully appreciate the culture (which they are absolutely correct in). However Anime/Manga is by far the single most popular specific reason listed, followed by J-RPGs and J-Pop/J-Rock.
Check out the following links:
Guide for using Anki 2 with TextFugu:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/guide-to-using-anki-2-with-textfugu/
Track your progress and share your ideas/concerns when you finish a season (gain a level ^_^):
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/textfugu-season-completions-for-great-motivation-of-heart
List of additional Japanese resources you may find helpful:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/japanese-learning-resources/
List of Common Errors in TextFugu:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/common-errors-in-textfugu/
がんばって！
Thanks for saying hi! I’ve looked into courses, but the only one I can find running nearby me is on the Gold Coast (I’m in Brisbane) so that’s difficult. I think I saw some were available at universities around the place, but they were fairly expensive too. I might look again when I’ve gotten into TextFugu a bit.
Hi Rob! はじめまして！
Does anyone know why this forum has so many Australian people? I find it really, really interesting in an academic sense.
Not from the desk of Eihiko. Eihiko's boss took his desk away from him.I can’t exactly say myself! We are exposed to a lot of people from various parts of Asia though; China, Japan, Vietnam especially. Either through tourism or migration, and I guess we’re just quite close to Japan geographically.
Alternately, it’s also not too long after the start of the school year, so perhaps we’re just getting a surge, and in six months we’ll start filling up with Americans and Europeans again. =P
Japanese is taught in a lot of Australian primary and secondary schools.
Until recently there was also a particularly high number of Japanese tourists, once again location a likely culprit, and there were quite a few business partnerships with Japanese companies.
Though most people you ask will claim that is still the case, if you know what you are looking at, you’ll see there’s been a massive decline in this during the last decade or so.
No idea why that would be though. Though there’s a possibility that it’s nearly as strong as it was, but there’s been a huge influx of non-Japanese Asians and business flooding in, which may no longer cause the Japanese to stick out as much. So maybe the Japanese presence hasn’t declined much, just been masked by other Asian presences.
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