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あ。い。う。え。お。
か。き。く。け。こ。
さ。し。す。せ。そ。
た。ち。つ。て。と。
な。に。ぬ。ね。の。
マーサー・ストゥーワートみたいですよねｗｗ
I usually do my daily doses of Kanji with Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun on my DS. Though now that I see it, maybe I SHOULD incorporate a little bit of Jim Breen with that as well.
Can i just get one thing straight to, i watch alot of japanese movies..but what exactly are "dramas" is that referreing to like japanese series? with episodes? like soap operas but japanese?
I personally download them at: http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php (with english subs)
for more info and help about which ones are good, try reading the j-dorama article! ;)
thank you very much for clearing that up ^^ They worth watching? i usually watch some movies from www.crunchyroll.com...shit quality but its better then nothing, and i normally just skip over the dramas because i look and see (like you said) 11 or so episodes and im always like boo forget it lol. But it seems there quite popular, im gonna check some out ^^ thanks
wow...that article is pretty inspiring, makes you really want to work hard
anyway, here's a good example how not to speak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3won-7W3Js . specially ichi and roku are so funny.
GET RID OF ROMAJI
It's just a short cut that cheats you in the end. It took me quite a while to read Hiragana and Katakana at a normal speed because of romaji....
Other then that, most of the stuff you listed I've been doing for a while and have suggested to others. I'll point this blog out to them, then maybe they'll listen to you because they don't listen to me.
Happy New Year
Uwaa, but going to Japan is so expensive...or at least the plane tickets are, from there, I don't know how I would survive, maybe you should do an article on some suggestions...or if you have, sorry, but I haven't encountered it yet.
I want to agree with the whole romaji thing, I also think that we end up associating those sounds with english too much, when it's not like that. But the only reason why I'm not all against it is because it gets difficult with the computer, the whole having to change it to japanese letters then back to english...but this is only for the computer, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.
@kevinnwhat
Usually if they are good, you don't have to skip, a good place to check them out would also be www.mysoju.net, they have korean, japanese and taiwanese ones. Depending on which ones you watch, you might find that the more popular ones seem to be more teenager-ish, not like The O.C. or anything. Thankfully Japanese dramas are usually have 8-12 eps, which is actually not a lot. Okay, done trying to shove this down your throat ^_^
If you use the shortcut (for Windows alt + shift), switching languages isn't too inconvenient. It's a little trickier (more keys) on a Mac, but Koichi knows how to do it :3
On a side note, yeah, I might start taking the romanji out of my articles... unless people who are still learning hiragana/katakana/kanji promise to look at the actual Japanese translation as well?
As for anime... ;_; Well don't undermine the power of anime. :3 It has a great learning curve too... AS LONG AS YOU WATCH IT RAW (unsubbed). I tend to watch most animes that I like raw and try my best not to depend on subbed ones. You just have to be mindful of what anime to watch so that you know proper language. Don't watch Gintama because that series is batshit rude (but hell funny! XDD). You can watch shoujo stories or seinen animes. :3 That could do the trick. Just saying that if dramas aren't your drift, raw animes are the way to go. Skip Naruto and Bleach for chrissakes. Watch something you know little about so that you can learn more. :3
Same for raw manga. Buy more japanese mangas and they'll help you with kanji! Buy technical seinen/josei ones so that you'll learn more ２級 words. Recommendables? もやしもん and 神の雫.
Just some other recommendables
NHK A DAY - watch NHK a day and try to understand what they are saying. There are lots of nice shows about food and farming, so keep watch of those and you'll learn a lot.
Open a MIXI blog - If you know someone with a mixi, ask them to help you open an account in mixi. If you join the Japanese learning communities, you'll have the opportunity to talk to more japanese people and also ask them to aide you in your study of the language. :3
Hmm maybe start learning the language again.
i liked the resolutions.
it's been a few months since i started my "j-doramaholic-life", and i have to admit that it's even more addicting than anime! i totally recommend people to watch some jdoramas. i told 2 of my friends to watch hana yori dango... and the next day they told me: "i watched the whole season!". really amazing :o
i also have the resolution to travel to japan... well, now it's like a dream haha ^^u, since i'm 15 years old. but anyways, i worked on december to earn some money; i'll be saving it for my future trip to japan! that's like... my eternal, but not impossible, wish!
now that i'm in summer holidays, i think i'll get back to study japanese language again. but it's a bit difficult, since here in Chile there are not many japanese lessons, or at least they are a bit expensive >_>. i haven't seen any books neither. but all those tips you gave before are really of big help ^-^! i must admit that watching j-dorama has helped me a bit with japanese language. not only for vocabulary (just few words ^^u), but pronunciation as well.
oh, i must congratulate you all for being named the best humorous blog in japan 2007!!
i really like the blog, so keep up the good work ^-^
happy new year!
Well I have to tell you that I found you only 15 minutes ago because I saw your videos on youtube.com, and in only 15 minutes I noiced that: a) you're great and funny and your blog is too b) I have to start practicing my Japanese very hard!
I'm a beginner (I started two days ago) and I only have a big confusion in my had... to many alphabets!!! But if there'sone thing I'm really happy of is that I noticed that is possible learning a language like Japanese through the Internet and there's a lot of people who took the same decision I took 2 days ago, so I'm not alone!
Well, the point is that you're doing a great job, and I'll show you videos and blog to all my friends!
So, my first promise for 2008 is learning Japanese and I'll try to practice everyday!
Good job Koichi!!!
I would normally love to share how drama is to be gotten, but since I want to keep this site reputable, I thought I wouldn't go into full detail. Of course, we encourage you to go buy it (off the internet?), but I think other people who are commenting have give out other ways to do it :)
The kana: I think a few people in my class either skipped the first class or weren't paying attention, because they'll pronounce ほん as hAn. I think they rely too much on romaji and pronounce it like English.
The CD: VERY VERY IMPORTANT. You not only improve your listening comprehension, especially if the dialogues are done at a near-native speed, but like you said, if you listen to them repeatedly until you've memorized them and can mimic them exactly, your pronunciation becomes A LOT better.
I've told my classmates that I listen to the CD everyday and they're like "HUH? Really? I didn't buy the CD." O_O (<--- my facial expression after I hear that)
and do they show Japanese dramas on youtube (or even American TV?!)
and why is everything all 'j'-ish?
like J-dorama, and j-pop? i don't get that. why don't they just write japanese pop music
I thiink the Japanese accent of accenting and stretching things and sounds is cool(if that's how it's supposed to be); it's very...japanese(or AWESOME!)
(how do you write japanese on this web site?)
J-dorama are just Japanese tv shows (not news, or anime, but just... series). If you want to know more about it or see some recommendations, check out our past posts; Koichi did an article a while ago on it.
I feel like abbreviating Japanese to J is just easier to type :D
You write in Japanese on this website by changing the font on your computer to a Japanese font (hiragana, katakana, etc) and typing like you would in English.
<3
>>>>>>>> WWW.CRUNCHYROLL.COM <<<<<<<
the quality is ok...but if you dont have another source this one should suit you. Most movies are subbed in english. It doesnt have every movie obviously, but it has quite a lot. You dont download the videos you just like steam them, pretty much like a big screen youtube for movies lol
yeah...
P.S. There would be more "Japanese sentences" but no one I'm ever around ever understands me so i have to stick with one every so often... :(
Thanks for this inspiring article! I'm all fired up now!
"Iryu" was the last one I watched which had me hooked... Luckily it was only 11 episodes :) It's a medical drama but very different to western ones :P
As far as anime and dramas go, most of them are based on manga so they're pretty much the same thing in my opinion.
Anime can be just as useful depending on what it is. Josei anime (Honey and Clover, Nana, etc.) are pretty good about using realistic Japanese that you hear most people using.