- Posted: July 20, 2009, 1:34 am
- Categories: Campus Life, Japan Life, TOPICS, Tokyo Life
- Tags: bar, beer, campus, culture, drinking, japan, japan campus, japanese, language, learning japanese, listening skills, nerima, nihon, nihongo, student, study, study abroad, temple university, tokyo, tuj
- 2 Comments »
Yes, I am studying Japanese
Yes, you read the title right.
In this post, I want to talk about going to a Japanese bar in order to study Japanese.
When I first came to TUJ, I met a student who was really great at speaking Japanese. I asked him how long he had been studying and he said, “a year and a half.”
Any student of Japanese knows that a year and a half is a fairly short amount of time to get a tight grasp on Japanese. Eager for tips, I asked him what has helped him the most in his journey to fluency, and he said going to his local bar.
I was so suprised! He said he didn’t even learn from taking a class.
After going to a bar myself, I have seen how helpful it can be. You’re able to hear different speeds of talking, different accents and intonations, and you’re forced to speak– even if you’re usually too nervous!
For two months, I have been going to a bar in my neighborhood every Friday night. I bring my notebook and pen, electronic Japanese-English dictionary, and of course, money to spend. The bar is great for learning Japanese.
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- Posted: July 6, 2009, 9:07 am
- Categories: Campus Life, TOPICS, Tokyo Life
- Tags: campus, culture, japan, japan campus, japanese, japanese television, language, learning japanese, listening skills, nihon, nihongo, study, study abroad, temple university, tokyo, tuj
- No Comments »
In my last post, I explained how Rosetta Stone was the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my journey to fluency in Japanese.
Yes, that statement still stands.
However, since I have finished Level 1, and do not have enough money to buy Level 2, I will be Rosetta Stone-less for now. However, that doesn’t mean I should give up on Japanese, right?
Right. So, what am I doing to study now?
Anything and everything, to put it lightly.
Before I came to Japan, I looked for websites to help me learn Japanese. Most of the websites I went to all told me “surround yourself with Japanese. Listen to Japanese music, and watch Japanese TV.” If you’re like me, this advice doesn’t seem to be enough. I thought, “But, how is simply listening to music and watching TV going to help me?? I can’t understand what they’re saying!! It’s impossible to become fluent in Japanese simply by listening to Japanese!”
Well, I wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I have to admit, watching TV has helped me.
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- Posted: July 1, 2009, 10:19 am
- Categories: Campus Life, Tokyo Life
- Tags: campus, japan, japanese, language, learning japanese, nihon, nihongo, rosetta stone, student, study abroad, temple university, tuj
- 3 Comments »
日本語の勉強、頑張って！！[nihongo no benkyou, ganbatte!!] (Roughly translated as: Good luck with your study of Japanese!!)
Learning Japanese is… ugh, there’s too many words I want to use. Difficult, fun, challenging, tricky, rewarding, empowering–to name a few.
There are countless websites, podcasts, and textbooks dedicated to a student’s advancement in Japanese, but I haven’t found THE outlet that makes me feel like I am actually getting closer to mastering the language. The outlet that makes me say, “SCORE!! I AM LEARNING!” …I’m trying a variety of methods right now but only one has filled me with satisfaction and glee.
First off, I’ve been studying Japanese for a total of 8 months.
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