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I’ve been away from TextFugu for some time. About a month ago I decided to pick it back up. I started back at Hiragana, just to review, since I don’t remember much, but I quickly re-learned everything up to where I last stopped.
Verbs
I have no idea why, but this section in Season 3 is very difficult for me. I have no trouble with verbs I have heard before, or that make sense in some way (のみます、食べます、いきます、きます), but the other verbs I just can’t get them to stick.
Anyone have any tips for learning these. I tried to make some sort of connection with the languages I already know (English, Spanish). I’ve also tried to connect their meanings with sounds, but to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.
Maybe try to connect the verbs with the actual act of doing them? There’s not much use in trying to find a connection with English or Spanish, because it’s a completely different language, but (say) running is running, no matter which language you do it in.
Dunno if this would be considered cheating but I added the word with kanji next to the kana word. So i see 食べますーたべます
For some reason being able to see the kanji in there made me remember the meanings much much much easier than before.Oddly enough that really did help. Seeing the kanji really helped. Also just writing it constantly with its meaning helped a bit too. Thanks.
Hate to double post but I can’t find the edit button.
I thought I’d share what has really worked wonders for me. Specially how simple it is. I look at how its read in japanese. Hiragana or Kanji if you know that much. Then just look at the English meaning while I repeat the Japanese pronunciation a couple of times while still looking at the English words.
For instance, for the verb “To Play” look at it in English. Just stare at the words “To Play” then keep repeating 遊びます/あそびます out loud with correct pronunciation. This should help you relate the Japanese to the English. That way you know that 遊びます/あそびます means “To Play” in Japanese.
It’s pretty simple, but it helped me really learn them quickly. At least much faster than what I originally did. It also makes reviewing it easier.
The edit button goes away a half hour after you post. Or maybe an hour, I’m not certain.
Anyway, since you mention 遊ぶ, you know the usage is a little different from English, yes? In English, we’d say “play cricket” or “play a computer game”, but in Japanese, 遊ぶ just means… well, the act of having playtime. The two examples I gave use する – ゲームをする
I had a similar problem – I stared at the words in Anki and they just did not go into my memory. This was true for verbs and adjectives, but family members were the worst…
I got around this by using Memrise. I copied the vocab list into my own private course in Memrise then thought up some mnemonics to help me remember (e.g. ‘oh toes of my father!’) – this worked much much better for me.
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