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View Poll Results: What's your level in Japanese ?

Voters
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  • Native speaker

    33 4.98%
  • Native level (upper-advanced - JLPT1)

    19 2.87%
  • Advanced (JLPT2)

    41 6.18%
  • High intermediate-lower advanced

    46 6.94%
  • Intermediate (JLPT3)

    59 8.90%
  • High beginner/lower intermediate (JLPT4)

    118 17.80%
  • Know the kanas, but still pretty much beginner

    123 18.55%
  • Just a few words or phrases (greetings, etc)

    170 25.64%
  • I don't know anything, but I want to learn !

    53 7.99%
  • Don't care about Japanese language.

    1 0.15%
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Thread: Do you speak Japanese ?

  1. #76
    もうすぐ卒業するんだ! ragedaddy's Avatar
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    Yeah, the best place to learn Japanese is of course in Japan. A good way of getting down the language at a faster pace is to enroll in a Language School. 3 years ago I studied Japanese for about 4 months in the Northern part of Japan for like 4 months at a University. That was way too short of a stay, and so I came back and tried to study on my own. However, that pretty much sucked, and also my college didn`t offer Japanese classes. I really wanted to learn Japanese, so I researched online and found a Japanese Language School. Before I came to Japan this time, I had a small base, but I could hardly hold a conversation. However, after studying at a language school for about less than a year, my skills have improved drastically. I can get by pretty well now, so that is definitely a cool thing.

    I also have been living with a homestay family for the last 6 months, so that has really helped my conversational skills as well as my listening skills. Also, having a Japanese girlfriend has improved my language skills as well, but that is only one of the many benefits about having an intercultural relationship. Everyday in Japan is basically a learning experience, because you are forced to speak Japanese to get around. Plus when you are hanging out with Japanese friends, you can pick up lots of new words, because they ussually end up repeating those same words frequently through out their conversation. I also have some good American buddies over here as well, so it is good to go out and speak some English once in a while.

    As for Kanji, I invested in an electronic dictionary, and as I would write sentences in class, I would look up the kanji for the word and write that down opposed to hiragana. It was kind of a pain at first, but once you write the kanjis down a bunch of times, you start to get the hang of it. In my practice book, I also wrote down the kanjis individually about a billion times until they were pretty much engrained in my head. As of right now I can probably read close to 800 or 900 kanji, and probably can write about half. However, I am not even close to where I want to end up, so I`m going to have to keep on with those kanjis.

    I also depends on how dedicated you are to studying the language. I worked myself hard day after day to get where I am.
    If you are a slacker and you don`t like to study, then it will take longer to become proficient. There are so many things you can do to improve your language skills. For example. watch Japanese TV, listen to Japanese music, read Japanese books, etc.

    If you already have a good base of the Japanese, then it will be even easier to pick up on the language. Therefore, you shouldn`t have any worries about studying here in Japan, because it`s the best place to learn Japanese. All I can say is best of luck to all of you guys studying, and the most important part is just having fun with the language. It gets frustrating, believe me, but don`t give up! You can do it!


  2. #77
    Danshaku Elizabeth's Avatar
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    I have been studying about 5 years on my own, with a tutor and three months at a language school in Japan. I'm not sure of the exact number, but probably able to recognize between 3,000-4,000 individual kanji by now so newspaper and magazine reading is semi-fluent. I do write a lot of emails to my tutor and boyfriend in Japan, although conversation and listening are slower.

    I definately agree with a previous poster that once you have the basic sentence structures & vocab down the best thing is to begin trying to think in the language on your own and weaning yourself from phrase books, sample sentences in dictionaries, etc. It's very hard for me because I hate making mistakes and sometimes there really isn't any way to reason with Japanese.

    Like this sentence I got from my b/f the other day. We were talking about the phrase 'kimochi ga waitekite' (sort of like suddenly realizing someone is gone and feeling lonely/missing them). I think he was saying in the case of enjoyable things it doesn't matter whether you gradually or suddenly realize someone is gone and wrote: "Kimochi ga waitekite....." wa 'suddenly' dewanakute 'gradually realized.....' de.....wa tanoshii koto demo kamaimasen." I still don't quite understand the grammar behind "tanoshii koto demo kamaimasen," though, so this could be a bit off base.

  3. #78
    Junior Member Soccerphile's Avatar
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    Been here for over 10 years but not much better than intermediate - still live in hope and have been following Kanji clinic on my phone:
    http://japanvisitor.com/i_mode/clinic.html

  4. #79
    Junior Member Kyo's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Elizabeth
    I'm not sure of the exact number, but probably able to recognize between 3,000-4,000 individual kanji by now so newspaper and magazine reading is semi-fluent. I do write a lot of emails to my tutor and boyfriend in Japan, although conversation and listening are slower.
    I think you overdid it a bit. Usually you can read magazines with a proper knowledge of about 1200-1500kanji. Newspapers at around 1600-1800 kanji.
    But 3000-4000 kanji ??? That would be really old japanese literature. Not even a native japanese could read that much.

  5. #80
    Danshaku Elizabeth's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Kyo
    I think you overdid it a bit. Usually you can read magazines with a proper knowledge of about 1200-1500kanji. Newspapers at around 1600-1800 kanji.
    But 3000-4000 kanji ??? That would be really old japanese literature. Not even a native japanese could read that much.
    Yes, thanks, I realized that later since my dictionary just lists 2,882 and only 1,945 Jouyou Kanji have been authorized for general use. Anyway, I am terrible with numbers.

  6. #81
    Regular Member lil_chickie's Avatar
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    Originally posted by deborah gormley
    Just greeting for me I'm afraid but willing to learn more
    hai. japanese is hard. ^_^ "
    lilsweets4u&me

  7. #82
    squabblemaker ax's Avatar
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    I know katakana and hiragana plus kanji. I know some basic grammar and sentence pattern. But am not very conversant in japanese.

    ax

  8. #83
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    Hi. I've been taking Japanese for about 5 years know and know between 200-400 kanji and all kanas fluently. I have been to Japan and that has helped tremendously. Yesterday, a japanese student wrote my name out in kanji and it meant the mountain with no meaning. It seems to change every year.

  9. #84
    Twirling dragon Maciamo's Avatar
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    @number of kanji

    Electronic dictionaries usually list all the kanji used in Japanese, that is a bit more than 6000. Of course, that includes the old ones used only in literature, as modern Japanese requires only a bit more than 2000 of them (and not all adults Japanese know even the 1945 jouyou !). There are lots of books with different levels of kanji for Japanese students (and adults). Even university educated people aren't expected to know more than 2500, so I am surprised by Elizabeth's 3000-4000 kanji to read a newspaper.

    Elizabeth-san, have you tried any of these books to estimated your knowledge of kanji ? Here is the 1kyuu (level 1, about 6000kanji) for Japanese. There is also level sub-1 (準一級, about 3000 kanji). Very few Japanese can achieve even level sub-1 if from what I've heard.


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  10. #85
    Hadoken!!!!! Himura's Avatar
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    I never learned jap at school... what a shame! Learning Nihongo is my hobby... NO!!! it´s more than that! I love this language!! - IT´s my fate!! Muhahahaha
    ....but I´m still so bad that´s depressing
    *That´s why I never had time learn... because of the school... I´m looking for a teacher in my near! <==OFFER ;)*
    *Sushi & Instant Soups 4 ever!!! -- Miyamoto Musashi rulez!!!*
    -==> Hayabusa & Hayate (DoA3) / Dante (Devil may Cry) <==-
    ---====> Hiko Seijuro -- The best Swordsman ever <====---

  11. #86
    Regular Member
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    Japanese is easy when you get over the structures. I thought at the start of the course that it was the hardest language and now I am getting A's in correspondence.

  12. #87
    Regular Member lil_chickie's Avatar
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    i love nihongo!! but i can only teach myself as i dont learn it at school. but im doing well. ive been taking japanese not long.

  13. #88
    Regular Member Mae's Avatar
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    i'm kinda true blue nihongo fan, just know sum'in bout it, The basics i mean...really basic, i learn it all from the jap dorama, they'r GREAT!!

  14. #89
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    i can't speak or understand japanese..but i would really love to learn..i found the japanese characters or kanji i think is what they call it really cool..looks hard to learn though:d

  15. #90
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    Kanji isn't too hard to learn once you learn the first 100 or so. But if you study them a lot you will know them in about one week per 10 kanji

  16. #91
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    yeah, i know how to speak, read, write in japanese. i know about 150 kanji. but i have only been studying for a year. and i am continue. and i would have to agree that its hard esp. for the newbies such as myself.

  17. #92
    フリクル Kaleikuiha's Avatar
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    That is so true! Well for me, I took a Japanese101 in college. my sensei taught us Japanese as if we're Nihojin in Nihon. The speed of the course was this... Kindergarten-12th grade & 1st year of Uni, all in the a matter of 3 months! The language was/is deep within my subconsious mind that I start speaking it and not know that I'm doing it. I can understand Japanese but I just can't always translated to someone that will make complete sense to them.

    The one grat thing about the class was that I was the top student and I know more Kanji then that of the Chinese Transfer Students ufufufu. I have the Kanji vocabularly of a 4th year Uni Studet^^ too bad I don't know all of the Kanji that there is, at least I know the most obscure kana and kanji.

  18. #93
    Junior Member taU_U's Avatar
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    Konichua!( is it correct?*confuZed*) I'm new in this forum! Could you please tell me, where can I find a site in which I can study japanese?


    Domo Arigato! ( or something like that^_^)

  19. #94
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    u should study english first ^_^ just kiddin
    buy a studybook , there's nothin better.
    ~KETTOBASE`~

  20. #95
    Junior Member taU_U's Avatar
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    Hei, hei, hei! I'm studying english for second year!Okai? If you want we can play CS1.5 or NFS6 or WARCRAFT3! And I mean some website!

  21. #96
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    Konnichiwa, mina-san! Hajimemashite!
    Watashi no namae wa Joe (Jou that is) desu. Douzo yoroshiku!
    Watashi wa koukousei desu. Watashi no shumi wa nihongo desu!

    Whew, that's the longest chunk of Japanese I've ever written. And I only had to use two dictionaries, Babelfish, and a quick glance at Japanese For Dummies for a particular phrase that I couldn't find (for one's hobby - "I really like it but I'm not very good at it"). Oh well . Back to my native tongue now.

    I've been interested in nihongo since I was a little kid, and now I'm starting to learn it. I'm making slow progress. I know most of the hiragana (ne/re/wa and sa/chi still drive me crazy), almost none of the hiragana, and about five kanji. Between Usborne's First Thousand Words In Japanese and kanji flash cards, I'm starting to pick up the vocabulary. I also watch fansubbed anime, which helps me with typical conversation and some cultural things. And finally there are plenty of great websites that are helping me learn (including this one ;)

    So that's where I am in my studies of nihongo. I just joined this forum today as you can see (*points leftward at join date*), I found it through a Google search for places to learn nihongo. "Sometimes the best friendships are formed through a chance meeting" - (from Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai") ;)

  22. #97
    Junior Member Yuya's Avatar
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    I only can speak a few words...-_-' am just a beginner...

  23. #98
    Regular Member Matsuyuu's Avatar
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    I don't know if we're supposed to WRITE a reply, but here's mine.
    I know a little Japanese, the common forms of "to be," and most hiragana. I'd be a little less than a small child, there, right? Anyway, I really like Japanese, although it's pretty hard, and I'm gonna keep at it.
    <img src="http://www.angelfire.com/ego2/mathuzia8814/me002.jpg" width="50" height="25" border="1" alt=""> マツユー<br>
    <p align="right">"I'll be around only if you want me to be there by your side, I'm ready for you. Don't be afraid, I know what you're going through. So when you think it's time, I'm ready for you."<br>-Hoobatsank: I'll Be Around

  24. #99
    Follower of None jspecdan's Avatar
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    i can speak a good amount, can read hiragana + katakana. Basically I'm illiterate.
    _J-Spec Dan

    American born with Japanese specifications.

    Saitama - home of...initial D 4th Stage's WRX!

  25. #100
    Regular Member maji's Avatar
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    i know the kanas and some grammar and stuff but im not that good yet... i didnt learn enough kanji and flunked an exam

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