皆さんに今日は(か今晩は). 僕はアクラだ. 日本語が手伝うえ求むで.
Oh, please do not say you cannot even translate a single phrase from that. It's hardbreaking to hear ESPECIALLY if you do have the font.
Welcome. My name's obviously アクラ and if you can't read that by now, it's Akura (no, my name is not random boxes). I have made this thread because I am aware of the Japanese culture fad at this point and I do have a lot of opinions in regards to thinking that just reading manga, watching anime and eating sushi makes you japanese is not true but I will not go into detail on that.
Let me get this clear to you now. I am not Japanese. I am chinese. I have an interest in Japanese not because of the fad but because of career options that have entitled me to learn an asian language of my choice, preferably Japanese. I did not get this name to impress anybody. I did not make this thread to seem over the top. I merely wish to help and for those interested in helping to recognize and collaborate.
So after learning japanese for approxiametely a year and a half now, I have taken the liberty to tell you this now. You have two roads to go in learning Japanese: the gradual road and the rapid road. I'm taking tha rapid road. Let me tell you of the options:
Gradual road - You can learn Japanese at a steady pace, to any speed you desire and a minimum of 2 days a week to learn and only 1 if you have weekly classes.
Rapid Road - Three hours a night. Minimum: 5 days a week. Is the rapid road hard? Yes. Is it worthwhile? If you want to hurry. Do you really still know as much in the end? Only if you knew you were going to take the rapid road from the beginning.
Why did I choose the Rapid Road? I'm nearly 16 years old at this point and I have two years to go under college classes start and I can't slack off using the steady road. Learning Japanese is a long process (read that sentence two/three more times). It's not easy. I'm barely managing both Chinese and Japanese, which is a heavy challenge to overcome. A lot of people I know take the slow road. They know a few phrases. They can probably speak pretty well and can respond using the phrases they know. I give them some Kanji thrown in with some kana (which is now referred to as "furigana"), they freak out.
At this point, I am hoping you at least can read your kana and recognize them. You should take your time to memorize all 96 characters and it is rather important to understand when to use them in speech. Kanji is at a more difficult level and I began learning to understand furigana only a month ago. Be sure to read up on radicals and how they can help you emphasize the mearning of the characters read in kanji and even other basic chinese characters.
I have recommended the following books I found quite useful:
"Japanese for Dummies" by Eriko Sato
"Teach Yourself: Beginner's Japanese" by Helen Gilhooly
"Teach Yourself: Beginner's Japanese script" by Helen Gilhooly
I actually have a few more but my friends are borrowing them at the moments and I seriously wished I could've put them on the list. Anyhoo, I do recommend those books to be read and somehow in that order as well. Japanese for Dummies, regardless of the title, is a surefire way to get you going as a newbie (you really don't know the limit of newbie so I really recommend you at least look into it). Both books by Helen Gilhooly were magnificently paced for the reader. If you read her books, you will learn much in due time. But do following the arrangement on that list and don't just SKIP to the last book. It's not healthy for your learning.
In regards to advanced Japanese, may I recommend (if I do not be blamed for this) to visit the Gendou forums. I am well aware of this forums' policy against other forum advertising so this shall only be brief as I mean no damage and I truly do not desire a punishment, if you may so spare me upon this. I will definetely admit this. I CANNOT READ EVERYTHING ON GENDOU. Please do not tell you actually expect me to. Their Japanese is top-notch and at the fluency level. I can relate to them at times and speak heartily but they are hard to understand so I am hoping that is not an intimidation.
That is all for now. Please do not give up. A lot of people quit learning Japanese. You might say you won't now but a hell lot of people do. The vast majority of quitters were the people who learned japanese at an even slower pace than the gradual road. So don't give up but if you don't give up, don't brag about your japanese either. It can be quite embarrassing to have to act high and mighty and have someone correct you. Gendou is full of that which is why I always keep my mouth shut there.
Anyways, I'm getting offtrack. Please have a wonderful time with the rest of your japanese material and if I didn't help, then you can always PM me (as long as it's not hatemail or I'll ask for a mod to pre-warn you) and I'll try to settle some things when I'm not in school.
-Akura
Oh, please do not say you cannot even translate a single phrase from that. It's hardbreaking to hear ESPECIALLY if you do have the font.
Welcome. My name's obviously アクラ and if you can't read that by now, it's Akura (no, my name is not random boxes). I have made this thread because I am aware of the Japanese culture fad at this point and I do have a lot of opinions in regards to thinking that just reading manga, watching anime and eating sushi makes you japanese is not true but I will not go into detail on that.
Let me get this clear to you now. I am not Japanese. I am chinese. I have an interest in Japanese not because of the fad but because of career options that have entitled me to learn an asian language of my choice, preferably Japanese. I did not get this name to impress anybody. I did not make this thread to seem over the top. I merely wish to help and for those interested in helping to recognize and collaborate.
So after learning japanese for approxiametely a year and a half now, I have taken the liberty to tell you this now. You have two roads to go in learning Japanese: the gradual road and the rapid road. I'm taking tha rapid road. Let me tell you of the options:
Gradual road - You can learn Japanese at a steady pace, to any speed you desire and a minimum of 2 days a week to learn and only 1 if you have weekly classes.
Rapid Road - Three hours a night. Minimum: 5 days a week. Is the rapid road hard? Yes. Is it worthwhile? If you want to hurry. Do you really still know as much in the end? Only if you knew you were going to take the rapid road from the beginning.
Why did I choose the Rapid Road? I'm nearly 16 years old at this point and I have two years to go under college classes start and I can't slack off using the steady road. Learning Japanese is a long process (read that sentence two/three more times). It's not easy. I'm barely managing both Chinese and Japanese, which is a heavy challenge to overcome. A lot of people I know take the slow road. They know a few phrases. They can probably speak pretty well and can respond using the phrases they know. I give them some Kanji thrown in with some kana (which is now referred to as "furigana"), they freak out.
At this point, I am hoping you at least can read your kana and recognize them. You should take your time to memorize all 96 characters and it is rather important to understand when to use them in speech. Kanji is at a more difficult level and I began learning to understand furigana only a month ago. Be sure to read up on radicals and how they can help you emphasize the mearning of the characters read in kanji and even other basic chinese characters.
I have recommended the following books I found quite useful:
"Japanese for Dummies" by Eriko Sato
"Teach Yourself: Beginner's Japanese" by Helen Gilhooly
"Teach Yourself: Beginner's Japanese script" by Helen Gilhooly
I actually have a few more but my friends are borrowing them at the moments and I seriously wished I could've put them on the list. Anyhoo, I do recommend those books to be read and somehow in that order as well. Japanese for Dummies, regardless of the title, is a surefire way to get you going as a newbie (you really don't know the limit of newbie so I really recommend you at least look into it). Both books by Helen Gilhooly were magnificently paced for the reader. If you read her books, you will learn much in due time. But do following the arrangement on that list and don't just SKIP to the last book. It's not healthy for your learning.
In regards to advanced Japanese, may I recommend (if I do not be blamed for this) to visit the Gendou forums. I am well aware of this forums' policy against other forum advertising so this shall only be brief as I mean no damage and I truly do not desire a punishment, if you may so spare me upon this. I will definetely admit this. I CANNOT READ EVERYTHING ON GENDOU. Please do not tell you actually expect me to. Their Japanese is top-notch and at the fluency level. I can relate to them at times and speak heartily but they are hard to understand so I am hoping that is not an intimidation.
That is all for now. Please do not give up. A lot of people quit learning Japanese. You might say you won't now but a hell lot of people do. The vast majority of quitters were the people who learned japanese at an even slower pace than the gradual road. So don't give up but if you don't give up, don't brag about your japanese either. It can be quite embarrassing to have to act high and mighty and have someone correct you. Gendou is full of that which is why I always keep my mouth shut there.
Anyways, I'm getting offtrack. Please have a wonderful time with the rest of your japanese material and if I didn't help, then you can always PM me (as long as it's not hatemail or I'll ask for a mod to pre-warn you) and I'll try to settle some things when I'm not in school.
-Akura