@JKline – What’s language shadowing?

I hear that on the holidays.

I wasn’t meaning to imply everyone speaks English. Although, a surprising amount of people are passable in the cities. However, even if the clerk doesn’t speak any English, and you don’t speak any Japanese a lot of communication, especially in retail transactions, is routine, and body language. Very rarely do you need to ask questions, and very rarely do they need to tell you anything other than the price, and even if you speak Japanese, if you’re white, they’ll just point at the display to indicate price.

Also, expect to hear “thank you desu.” I love that. ;)

I found most clerks are pleasantly amused at my speaking Japanese to them during the transactions. A very rare few might just wish to hurry along with the transaction, but a quick apology seems to work on every Japanese person I’ve ever interacted with. I don’t intend to foster stereotypes, but they sure are polite. :)

I think we can all agree to keep AKB48 out of this. :)

Seriously though, the big difference between Missing’s style and trolling is Missing is using cute girls being cute. That’s something I think most people would rather see. ;)

I do have to ask Tuba, whether I agree with you or not, and I have no comment to be honest. If you’re tired of people asking questions then perhaps you need to take a break from putting yourself in a position to answer questions?

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by  hey.

@Miki – I’ve listened to podcasts for awhile, and didn’t notice an improvement, but found myself demoralized by them, so I’m giving them a break. I do plan to give them another shot soon. I suspect until I can really understand more than random phrases and words in the podcasts I’ll cycle them in and out of my listening. Perhaps I’m giving up too early on them, so I’d love to hear if someone has a different experience. I do honestly understand how you feel. It really does feel like I should be able to do more based on the time I’ve put into this. At the same time I do see improvement over time.

@AdvancedWind – I can’t stress this enough. In fact, I should address this to everyone…

@Mina – If you are practicing katakana it can be the easiest part of your entire Japanese study career. This website:

http://www.manythings.org/japanese/kana/

has two links:

http://www.manythings.org/flvb/movies1.html
http://www.manythings.org/flvb/movies2.html

I used them to learn katakana rapidly. It gives you English movie titles, but displays them in katakana. Even if you’re only strong a on few of the kana in the name you’ll have a good chance of getting the answer right. As a result you quickly see the correct sound for the ones you don’t know. Also, over time you’ll see how some of the stranger katakana get used in the wild. You will not regret using this to learn or practice katakana. If only hiragana had a way to be so easy to learn. :)

I’m on season 5 start of chapter 8.

At some point, maybe a few chapters back, Koichi says that you hit intermediate Japanese. I’ve had other people say that as well, but honestly it doesn’t feel like it. I will feel intermediate when I can understand more than parts anime conversations. ;)

I honestly don’t think it’s possible to pass N5 after finishing Textfugu. I’ve already started my “What do I do after Textfugu plan.” Originally it was my “What do I do after Textfugu panic!”, but I’ve had some time to think about it. I’ll miss having someone walk me through everything, but the later chapters have a lot less hand holding anyway.

The real question is how will I know when I’m ready for n5? What resources can I use to get myself there?