Tofugu Comments - Latest Comments in The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Kortney — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:46:12 -0000

Do you know of a place to obtain text books to study from?

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Ahmed — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:49:05 -0000

Yo all !!
how its going here :D
am new here .. but i take some Japanese classes and i'm Addict to Anime !
but my problems are Kanji i cant read or writ kanji and i still cant understands words from Japanese ppl :(
am planing to join the japanese languge learning for the Japan-Embassy here :D
but still dont have plan for how am gona study it !! i wish i can find help here :)

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

anwar — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:51:43 -0000

damni want to learn japanese from primary 6 but i`m still studying at the moment.i`m now 19 maybe i should take it when i have time?what`s your opinion

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Chris — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:40:40 -0000

Hey! Thanks for this blog!
I just got back from a 6 month working holiday in Tokyo!
I am so eager to finally set in and start hardcore studying Japanese, but I don't know where to start.
I will major In Japanese at my Canadian university in 5 months.
Its a 3 year program, But i want to learn lots and excel so I can do the transfer to Japan in the second or final year.
Where would you advise starting. I start with my Japanese tutor next month!
Thanks,
Chris

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Rose — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:06:47 -0000

Hey Koichi! I just recently stumbled upon your youtube videos, and I think they're great! (No sarcasm intended XD) I was particularly "struck" with your "Japanese people aren't impressed with your Japanese", and it made me reflect a bit. But I also think that people react the same way regardless of cultural background.Anyway, just a quick question, but do you think I'm doing the right thing, 'cos I intended not to speak so much Japanese to Japanese people until I'm an expert at it?

Also thank you very much for waking me up to reality. Yes, I do need to stay away from YouTube (lol) or the computer for a while. XD

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

BenjiBenji — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:28:36 -0000

but since it's about Nihongo, it would be "Ne?".

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

leela miree — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:53:53 -0000

...I still don't know English apparently though. Haha, sorry.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

leela miree — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:52:14 -0000

I've been learning Japanese for about 10 months now and I'm in Japanese II. I found that the best way to "study" and expose yourself to Japanese is through music and reading it. Just learn hiragana and katakana! Even if you just know these, you can get so much farther! On the internet, whenever I have the option to change the language to Japanese I do, and then I force myself to figure it out and read everything to navigate the site. I also put my iPod in Japanese, after a while you just recognize the letters and kanji, I may not know the exact pronounciation, but I can at least recognize it.
The best way I found to learn to write kanji is to get a dry erase board and just write them over and over and write out sentances and words. Japanese is basically a lot of repetiton and memorization just like any language. It's a lot of hard work, but if you want it enough, it shouldn't seem as hard to learn it.
Watching Japanese television shows can help with listening comprohension, and it's more interesting than just listening to a tape over and over again. There is a really awesome site that has a ton of Japanese shows, (www.mysoju.com) they are all subbed, but you still get to hear actual conversations and everyday language. I have picked up so much by watching these, it's rather ridiculous, and it's really exciting as I get farther in my Japanese how much I can understand without having to read the subtitles.
These are just a few of the things that I found that make learning Japanese easier for me.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

reziel — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:53:37 -0000

learning Japanese language is very interesting

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

facebook-1027342875 — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:50:06 -0000

do j-drama count ?
i am starting with anime, but i have gon over to j-dramas and i have just starte out seen som tv show (cartoon kat-tun and so) and most music i hear is all so japanish.
any way try my best but have a hard time because there are not japanish theacher in my home town where i live and i can not read or write Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji
so i guess i am in trouble if i follow my dream of traveling to japan
but thanx for youre time
joan from denmark

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Zach — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:40:08 -0000

Japanesse is easier than it looks!
I taught myself japanesse by listening to people on CDs & it is as boaring!
There is one set back! i can't even write the alphabet

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

elkarlo — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:38:38 -0000

I think that making a plan is a good idea.

For example I weightlift. Just going to the gym and trying is not going to result in me getting stronger/faster. I follow a regimen. I plan my lifts in a scientific order, to get better results. I'm trying to do this with my Japanese. Just sitting and studying can/is a waste of time/effort. Which can result in a lack of enthusiam, as results are like mini goals.

I dunno man, I think we need to make a 21st cent approach to learning.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

anonymous — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:58:59 -0000

I study japanese by watching youtube japanese tutor videos...... lol
I know some of the basics, I have them stored on my computer, I read them every day, and slap myself if I don't.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

diwatasalangit — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:49:11 -0000

hi there im already 3 months here in japan but still i cant speak or even understand what they say, i can read and write hiraganas katakana and some kanji too but i dont know why i cant learn to speak that sometimes makes me irritated and mad bcoz my husband is japanese we dont understand each other when he speak to me in jpanese.watashiwa atama warui desu ka.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Asianpal (lol) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:41:12 -0000

Hajimimashte! Watashi wa smithudes. doozo yorushku

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Drew — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:50:47 -0000

Arigato!

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

steph1993 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:04:18 -0000

I think the best way to learn Japanese is to study with an actual teacher. That's what I'm doing, and I find when you have a Japanese native there in person to talk to and ask questions, it actually helps a lot. I also go on the internet constantly to try and learn kanji (I did the same for hiragana and katakana). Also, if you watch some Japanese shows (and I don't mean anime, I mean real TV shows e.g. game shows that they air in Japan) you're going to learn how people actually speak, and not end up saying sentences like anime characters do, and eventually discovering that the fansub was wrong and you said some strange phrase to your Japanese friend :)
If you're learning Japanese, even if it's hard, you'll know if you really are interested in learning because you'll want to keep learning (I've been learning French for 10 years of my life, and just because it has gotten hard, I haven't stopped :P)

So , yay Japanese!!!!! and thanks for reading this annoyingly long message that I wrote because I had too much time on my hands :)

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

¥uri — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:26:29 -0000

hello koichi.
take a look at this site ( http://www.realkana.com/hiragana/ ). it helped me a lot to learn the hiraganas and katakanas.
it's in portuguese but u'll just need the tabs hiragana, katakana and praticar (practice)
all u have to do is write down the "name" of the simbol, like this:
the site shows u this "り" u write down "ri" and press enter if its correct shows you another and if it's wrong a red x appear till u say the write answer!
hope it helps someone lol
c ya

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

koichi — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:23:21 -0000

Check out eduFIre - it's where I teach Japanese via live webcam. Or,
check out my recent article "top 10 free resources for learning
Japanese" - those are very helpful as well!

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

¥uri — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:16:23 -0000

hi my name is Yuri i'm from brazil! (i'm sorry if my english is wrong lol)
i've started to learn japanese 1 weak ago, i've already learn all the hiraganas and started to learn the katakanas and now i need some another way to learn words and thing like this... in my city don't have any japanese school, so i'm learnning on the net... if somebody can help me i'll be glad (bilgo_hyp@hotmail.com)
ありがと

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

moezy-chan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:45:11 -0000

When I first started to learn Japanese, I went the easy way out and just watched anime, but I realized that just watching it won't help my Japanese. I ended up getting software on how to learn, but that didn't work either. Quit, went back to my anime, and then saw a book at my college on how to learn Hiragana. I bought it and I'm still studying the book, and can read some sentences in Hiragana, and know just a little bit of kanji. Not too much though. I also bought a Japanese/English Dictionary in case I read something in Hiragana that I never heard or saw before. Now I'm teaching myself to read manga, and that in turn has helped me when I'm watching anime raw. I don't rely on just anime to learn, but I do use it to fine tune pronounciation for words. Still, it's not the main way I learn Japanese. I doubt I'll ever be fluent, but it's better than what my two sisters are doing, who just watch anime and think they'll learn >>;

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

rivasgirl — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:32:39 -0000

I want to learn Japanese and I try to go on webs, also repetition. I like to see results fast and this was not giving me any. So I star studding for a while then stop and star and so o n and on. Japanese is something that I am interested in, because I want to be able to use at work and also in my personal life. There is also the fact that I would love to go to Japan and be able to understand at what I am looking at and at whom I am talking to. So far I can truly say that I have learned nothing at all, may be just arigato and gomenasai. After watching your video I think it open my eyes a bit more. And I can see that there are so many places I can go and learn, practice and do. But most of all thank you for giving me my confidence and drive to want to learn this language that I really love.

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

7Star — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:01:52 -0000

I started learning Japanese at High School in year 8 and did it for 2 years there. But for some reason in those two years I could only learn the hiragana for 'no' and two words: 'watashi' and 'nagai'.

Though now I do self study with books and tapes with I borrow from the library.
The best one I have had was one which gives you a few words to learn everyday and then it gives you dialog to read without english translation and maybe a quiz at the end.
But I have come across a problem lately....

I can read (hiragana & katakana) and understand Japanese. But, I find I am not very good at speaking it... =S

How do you improve on something like that?

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Kenny — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:21:21 -0000

I just thought I'd randomly throw this out there, I found your videos because I was looking up
"方言"...and I saw your Hawaiian accent video and the "how Americans stereotype Japanese people" and I thought some were quite true (except you forgot to mention how many Americans think Japanese people, or all Asians for that matter eat DOGS...)...but I didn't really understand the one where people think japanese people only say yes... because I never got that stereotype here in Colorado.
But damn, after reading most of these comments I realized a lot of schools teach Japanese, I wish my high school taught Japanese...considering the fact that I was born there I'm half Japanese and I lived there for about 5 years and i visit frequently; my Japanese is shit, like seriously, I probably have the reading and writing level of a third grader and I speak in a heavy Osaka dialect. But regardless, I wanted to ask you if you have any advice on freshening up on my Japanese, because I know only a handful of kanji so reading articles is out of the question, despite my asianness I'm not too much into anime even though you mentioned not watching anime to study Japanese, so maybe if you could recommend like some books you had on learning Japanese that covers more intermediate to advanced Japanese, I would truly appreciate your help, I need to freshen up on my Japanese because I was hoping to move back there once I graduated high school and I'm still thinking about whether I should get a citizenship there (since I have dual citizenship), just in case McCain gets elected (insert Hank Hill gasp).

Re: The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

Tyler_bRoKeN — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:36:40 -0000

Hello! My name is Tyler. I have a youtube account, but I don't make videos.

I know this is old, and I can't make videos; so I can't make a video response...because of the lack of technological skill.
But anyways, I wanted to make sort of a response to the video you made way back in December "The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!".

Well, first of all, I'm a sophomore in high school. I've always had an incredibly small group of friends, until my small group of friends mixed with a different group of friends in my freshman year. The group my friends mixed with (and I mixed with, too) were all taking Japanese 1 for their language in freshman year. I was always SO jealous, as it was too late to take Japanese 1 with them. (insert ultra-sadness) But after a while, I decided to take Japanese the next year. I always regretted not taking Japanese 1 my freshman year, but my Japanese 1 class this year gets A LOT of praise from our sensei, Miyazaki-sensei. She is a really nice teacher, and I have a lot of fun in that class! I mean...

Before, I was just taking Japanese to be like my friends, you know? Sort of like a trend, or something more we could do just to be different (something weird like that), but during this last summer, I studied Japanese a lot, and found a passion for it. It really is a beautiful language, and I have an ambition to be fluent in it some day. So, anyways, A CORRECT RESPONSE TO YOUR VIDEO, would be this.

What I do to learn Japanese, at first, take it in high school. I have Japanese every other day, for 1 1/2 hours. Besides that, I take about 30 minutes each day (besides Japanese homework) and write down all of what I learned so far in the course. What I've known for a while, I look up the kanji to the correct words. Other than that, I take about 30 minutes to an hour each day trying to analyze this manga I have. Not too long ago, (here in St. Louis) we had a Japanese festival at the Botanical Gardens, and I bought a Japanese manga at one of the booths. It's called "20th Century Boys", and from what I have figured out, it's really interesting. At first, I got insanely frustrated at my inability to read it, except for the hiragana and katakana. But after a while, I looked up a lot of the words, and the kanji, and it all makes sense! I write down the kanji and words I learned from the manga on that day, and then form sentences with those words (considering my limited Japanese fluency/vocabulary, and the fact I've only been taking Japanese for about two months.)

I hope that answered what you wanted as a response. (even though it was like, nearly seven years ago) "dog" years

Hope to read and comment on more of your blogs!