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Hi folks,
I’ve been using TextFugu for 3 months, I’m around Chapter 5 now. I have learned a ton of things and I feel very confident in typing intermediate Japanese in Lang-8, as well as reading in an intermediate fashion, if you will.
The thing I feel is my real handicap is the fact that I haven’t developed a satisfying level of listening or speaking. For speaking, I can *eventually* articulate my sentences adequately, but it takes a long time. As for listening, that’s where it’s all black for me.
I always had a great love for the Japanese language, but I can’t say I ever was an otaku. Having said that, I don’t watch that many Japanese shows, nor am I the biggest J-POP fan. (though, I primarily deal with Japanese-style video game music, as a profession.) My intentions for learning the language were purely for professional/business reasons, as I want to give Japan a shot in the very near future.
So, long story short (please bare with me!) how does someone go about becoming proficient in speaking/listening Japanese, with a way as natural as TextFugu is for everything else?
Thank you,
Yiannisそれは練習するしかないですね。
Anonymous^
Protip:
If you want to read faster: Read
If you want to improve speaking: Speak
If you want to improve listening: Listen
The king has spoken.
Go to Lang-8 and make friends, add them to skype.
Listen to podcasts
Watch TV shows with Japanese subtitles
These men speak the truth.
Anonymous(*^-^)／＼(^-^*)ﾅｶﾏ!
Please explain to me how everyone past season 3 consider themselves intermediate level
lol
Please explain to me how everyone past season 3 consider themselves intermediate level
Definitely not me lol. I’m still working through Season 5 albeit at a slow pace and I know just over 100 kanji. I wouldn’t even begin to consider myself intermediate until I’ve at least finished all the TF lessons, gone through stuff on Tae Kim which isn”t yet covered here on TF, and know around 1,000 – 1,500 kanji.
Thanks for the responses everyone, good insightful tips. I will apply these things very soon.
And by no means I consider myself “intermediate”, I was literally quoting Koichi from Season 5′s intro. Sorry for the confusion. Beginner is more appropriate.
Does any one have any good online resources to share, like podcasts or anything relevant for listening/speaking? I haven’t heard of Tae Kim. I will look into it.
I also came across other supplementary learning methods, like AJATT. It sounded like too much to me. The guy suggests listening to 18-24h of Japanese listening footage all day, everyday, for 18 months (~10,000 hours) in order to “become” Japanese. I think it’s the opposite of TF’s approach; fun, laid-back, yet, efficient.
I’m in mid-Season 5, but I feel the most confused as I’ve ever been, in terms of learning direction (again, for listening/speaking). I know it might sound silly to some, but the internet is so torn between opinions and opinions, thus not knowing which one to choose. Any personal insight would be graciously appreciated!
Tae Kim’s guide to Japanese grammar is a free online resource and highly recommended by a lot of Japanese learners. Check out http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/
http://www.japanesepod101.com/ is useful for podcasts. I believe you can sign up for a free account and get some podcasts free but after that you will need to subscribe. Subscribing is worth it as you also get the transcripts for the lessons.
AJATT is useful if you tweak it your own way. The backbone of your Japanese learning will still be TextFugu or whatever resources you use, but you can still learn Japanese by doing something you enjoy like watching Anime or listening to Japanese music. Basically, just pick out the bits from AJATT that are useful for you and integrate it into your study time.
I will look into Tae Kim’s method. Seems interesting.
As for JapanesePod101, I gave it a shot (that was my 5th attempt to study Japanese) but the materials were very scattered and they ended up being very spammy/scammy. (especially not allowing me to properly unsubscribe – they eventually did and got a 3-month refund)
TF is amazing, it made my Japanese learning extremely fast, fun and efficient. In the meantime, I have spent a lot of time in Lang-8, long time before it was suggested by Koichi in Season 5 and looking for new vocabulary/grammar, in order to be able to articulate my sentences better, so having said that, I learn some new multiple-stroke kanji along the way, that apply in the things I do, like I’m a “作曲家” or the other day, I had to take my car to the “修理工場”, so in a way, I’m kind of getting ahead of myself.
I wish I could find a “lifehack” method of equivalent success for listening/speaking.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I appreciate it! :)
Your best bet and what Bbvoncrumb said earlier is to make Japanese friends on Lang-8 and add them on Skype. Nothing is better than having a proper conversation with a native. This will improve your speaking and listening tremendously.
If you don’t want to go down the Jpod101 route again, you can always try Pimsleur. If you know “where to look” you can get hold of it for free.
As for the leisure learning, watching TV shows and movies is a good choice.
Fantastic, I am looking forward into trying all these things. Thank you so much, I feel much more confident now!
I second Jpod as pretty awesome for reading and listening. They are definitely spammy/scammy though, which turned me off of them at first. You can find the pdf’s around though.
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