掲示板 Forums - Your study methods

I study using Renshuu, sometimes, although not much in the last couple weeks. I take weekly Skype lessons which I arranged via italki, and I sometimes use Anki to memorize kanji and vocab. I just started the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese textbook, and even Unit 1 is getting difficult. I've never had a formal class, never studied in high school or university. My wife is Japanese, but we don't speak in Japanese much - wish I could fix that. I live in a developing country without great internet, so streaming video is pretty much out of the question. I like learning and finding fun things to do is good, but I often feel like my language level never changes. I don't really improve. Nice to see the way you folks study. I might try some of your methods.

[quote author=Feldin link=topic_id=5982&post_id=35050#rmsg_35050 date=1416997930] Any suggestions for easier (language wise) DS games?[/quote] [color=red]Pokemon Black/White Version 2[/color] should allow you to choose between kanji and kana, [color=red]The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass[/color] and [color=red]Animal Crossing: Wild World[/color] should have a simpler japanese compared to other games. You can start with those 3 :) [color=red]Golden Sun: Dark Dawn[/color] uses kanjis but if you tap on a kanji,the furigana appears on top of it...though that japanese should be more complicated compared to the previous 3 games,I suppose...

Remember you will need the japanese copy of the game! (is not like steam games,where you just swap languages ;D) Also,as I mentioned in another topic,if you guys have the japanese 3DS there is a great game with a lot of text and furigana on all of it, [color=red]Shin Megami Tensei 4[/color] The advantage is that the one on the DS may be hard to read,while this on the 3ds XL are bigger and neater fonts :) below you can compare　the font: (both image have bad quality,so expect something a little better from the real thing) Golden Sun Dark Dawn -> [img]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pmXR1fqEzto/maxresdefault.jpg[/img] Shin Megami Tensei 4-> [img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61vA3jAvPGL._AA1024_.jpg[/img]

No problem finding the Japanese games for me. My 3DS and DS are both Japanese, too, so no region issues in that regard. As for Golden Sun vs Shin Megami Tensei, I've always been into GS since it first came out, so I'm partial to that. Dat music score yo!

Yea, the @ mark doesn't make anything magic happen on renshuu.org :)

[quote author=shirokitsune link=topic_id=5982&post_id=35309#rmsg_35309 date=1418020889]Anybody have any ideas for staying motivated while studying?[/quote] I personally don't "study" with games. I'll play games that my Japanese is already at a decent enough level to understand, with maybe understanding one or two words through context, but I use online stuff like renshuu.org or offline stuff like writing and reading. I don't do well with mixing studying while playing a game, it generally just ends up with me being frustrated and skipping through and guessing based on hints in the Japanese. This works, but it's not helping me learn Japanese, and it's not helping me enjoy the game. It sounds like maybe you might be better off finding actual studying methods to work on your studying, and then using games to relax. Some people just don't do well with both together, and I'm one of them. If I have to stop to look something up, it pisses me off if I'm at all enjoying the game.

Actually, if you can concentrate on a movie and the subtitles at once, actually going to a movie in Japan is a good way to keep your English and Japanese minds going at once. I often go to see movies and keep an eye on the subtitles (see the 2D version and you'll get subtitles, 3D gets dubbed Japanese) to see what is presented as what is being said in Japanese and how it matches up against the English. It's quite humorous sometimes, and kind of sad to think of how much Japanese people might be missing out on little things just because things are translated quite literally. It can also help you on a more basic level. I went to see Interstellar lately, and at times, with all the noise going on about the characters, you can't hear what they're saying over the wind/sand/etc. Subtitles to the rescue! Some movies do have a rather... stylized script, though, so be prepared to have to think for a minute as to what that hiragana (I kid you not, some of the styling is way overdone) is. I'm thinking of actually doing the same thing in reverse - watching some of the fansubbed anime I watched ages ago and seeing if I can catch differences in what is presented by the subtitles and what is really being said in Japanese. Should be less of a gap, though, as for fansubbers it's not a job, but a passion.

And with that I am calling for an end of the off topic discussion. I see my notification thinking I am about to read somebodies study methods only to get the quote disscusion. Sorry guys but could you please take it to another post?

[quote]I'm not going to start deleting posts, but if you could voluntarily remove those posts since they're completely off topic, it would let others get more out of this discussion. Thanks![/quote] True,sorry for the OT >_> :-[ I'll move that on another topic eventually,for now I'll remove the reply from here :) About the study methods,like lostinwakayama I can't do it with videogames...I was a fool thinking that it was possible ;D I mean,as he said probably for someone is even possible to study using videogames,but I can't do it,and the final proof was the Shin Megami Tensei 4 game I purchased this month... it had the furigana ok, but a big part of RPG's is the story,so with my basic japanese not only I have to put too much effort just to translate one sentence (wich usually comes with 2-3 unknown words),but even if I translate it I end up pretty much with a literal translation,I lose all the nuance from the original grammar and I end up frustrated after 5-10 sentences because sentence after sentence I keep introducing new vocabs wich I forget in a matter of minutes...and really feels like I am not doing progress at all,and worst of all,wasting/spoiling an awesome game experience at the same time ( if only I where able to properly read it... ) :'( So I don't know,this is my main concern,how do I get to pass over the "literal translation" barrier and get the ability to translate stuff with the right nuance?! For now I'm worried I will never learn it and I will be stuck with shitty translations I do which don't capture at all the "spirit" of the stories in this games... (;_;) and each of this stories will "feel" poorly written,just because of my poor translations...

[quote author=lostinwakayama link=topic_id=5982&post_id=35333#rmsg_35333 date=1418102009]Also remember if it's one word in a while, you may very well be in the situation as some Japanese gamers. They hit words they don't know, too, especially if they're specific to the anime/genre.[/quote] Heh, that would be like a new person watching Star Trek for the first time and hearing them talk about tachyons and subspace interference and the like. The fantasy and sci-fi genres in tv, film, and games will throw a bunch of random words at you, sometimes they don't even make sense. :P