learning japanese for anime

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BaconBitsAMV
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learning japanese for anime

Post by BaconBitsAMV » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:59 am

hey guys, just curious to know how many of us who are anime fans can actually speak japanese as a second language, your motivations for learning, and are you good enough to just watch raws without subs?

I personally am studying japanese part time for my own personal knowledge and to eventually watch anime without subs all together. I just dont like missing all that happens in an anime or when i come across some obscure japanese video on youtube i want to know whats happening cause it seems so bizzare i just NEED TO KNOW! LOL :D

how long did it take you to became what may be concidered "good" or "fluent"

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ZephyrStar
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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by ZephyrStar » Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:53 am

I would certainly enjoy knowing the language better, mainly to facilitate easier visits to the country. As of right now, I have hardly any knowledge of the language other than common words from listening. I don't know how to form sentences, I don't know my alphabet. Everything I know I got through watching anime :/

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Radical_Yue
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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by Radical_Yue » Fri Nov 23, 2012 2:52 pm

KAWAII DESU~ UGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


WATASHI WA COCA CORA

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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by EimiJ7 » Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:11 pm

I have been learning Japanese off an on for the past few years. I wouldn't by any means call myself fluent, but I often watch raw anime without subtitles and can understand what's going on. I guess once you have a base understanding of the grammar and vocabulary, you can use context clues to help you figure out what's going on even if you can't understand everything. I originally started studying Japanese because of anime, but I also had the chance to study abroad for a few months.

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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by iheartsable » Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:45 pm

Japanese is actually one of my two majors in school. Taken 1.5 years so far.....I know some of what is said in animes but not enough to completely understand everything going on when watching RAW. I decided to learn it because I love the language and the culture of Japan. Being about to understand it for anime and manga were just great bonuses.
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Zanzaben
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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by Zanzaben » Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:33 am

I don't speak Japanese any more than just some a few common words I learned from watching anime. I have always wanted to but I realized how much time and effort I would have to put into trying to learn it and since I would only use to watch anime I have always thought that it just wan't worth it.
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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by Kionon » Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:36 am

Bacon,

Japanese is my daily-use second language because I live in Japan and need to engage in most normal adult situations in Japanese. I can easily go my entire day without using English, and that includes discussions of the humanities (usually politics, but also art, history, philosophy, etc). Hard science is pretty much beyond my ability, and my reading and writing is way behind my verbal. I can only read and write at about a 4th grade level. I'm naturally good at languages, but kanji is a very real barrier to my reading and writing, and I eventually will need to have formal lessons. I only know about 400 without the use of a computer/smart phone. I can recognise many more, so with a computer/smart phone, I can write things which, ironically, I might not even be able to read (except, of course, I happen to know what I'm saying). I have dreamt in Japanese. I have lived in Japan for nearly five years.

I still struggle with most modern anime series. I've gotten to the point where I can watch almost any children's programming, and several anime which have younger demographics. Just this year I have reached the point where I can watch the original Sailor Moon quite easily. The older the anime, the more likely I am to be able to follow along. However, most recent series throw around so many technical terms (even slice of life!) that I often get lost in the jargon, and once I get lost, it's hard to "reset" and catch up. And yonkoma often rely on very complex understandings of idiom and pun. A show like Nichijou is extremely difficult for me to follow without subtitles. The yonkoma manga itself is incomprehensible to me. Even if I think I know what I'm reading in a dictionary sense, I don't yet have the years of experience needed to understand the multiple meanings beyond the dictionary meanings, and that is where the humor is found.

You cannot, cannot, CANNOT learn Japanese from watching anime. Hell, as I tell my students (after all, I teach a foreign language- English to my junior high schoolers here in Japan) that if they are really serious, they have to up and move to an English speaking country, at least for a while. Japanese is the same way. Want to learn Japanese? Move here. Otherwise it's going to take a long, long, long time and you will miss out on all the common, everyday slangy expressions which you can never find in a textbook.
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Re: learning japanese for anime

Post by ibabrak » Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:45 am

I'm in my 2nd year of japanese courses and have been watching anime for 4 years. I can watch some children anime without any bigger difficulties but whenever Kanji comes in I'm just screwed. I can only read like 150 Kanji (I couldn't probably write them all). The two alphabets are easy as pie but I still can't read them fluently (not to mention outloud :x ). Languages were always my stronger side so when I started attending japanese courses I already knew a lot beforehand. As for grammer I usually just look at it and understand it right away. As for vocubulary I have encountered only like 40 words so far I haven't known beforehand (excluding words like ながら that form grammatical structure). But the kanji is a bitch :X

The most useful thing I learned so far is probably when to use all those particules like ga, wa, to, ni, he, wo, etc.
(Not saying that the courses aren't useful, their awesome!!)

I do recommend anyone who watches anime to take up learning japanese since yeah, if you have a talent for languages, then japanese isn't hard. Only the freaking kanji :D
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