Intelligent Discussion Thread.

THE WINNER ISSSSSS ------------- MARTH!
He turns and looks at Khoi
「ずっとずっと大好きだよ・・・」
"lol that sounded cool, that from Fire Emblem or something?
「・・・あ、　いや、何でもない」
"Haha, lets go for another round."

I lol-ed.

Pretty much covered it, I asked him earlier and he said "It's 'Show me your moves' in Japanese." Lol'd

In any case, if any of you are interested in actually learning the Japanese language, I would recommend getting the Adventures in Japanese textbooks AND workbooks. They're what I used throughout high school and they teach it pretty great. Especially if you actually go through the workbooks. With their method of teaching, I usually went through the entire workbooks for each year before the teacher even went through 10% of the material. lol

I will write that down.

What learning aids did you have to offer, Spidey?

I will write that down.

What learning aids did you have to offer, Spidey?

Grammar
Kana
Kanji

You don't have to read the "read why most kanji textbooks suck" section, but the other two sections are pretty nice. You can read the first section of it if you're not convinced that a dude like him can be good at teaching the kanji (his site used to be named "Kanji Dicks", and he makes a lot of lewd jokes to help you remember stuff).

The Genki text books are good too, from what I see. I haven't used it much though. You can find it in PDF form online if you look. My weakest point is grammar because I focused so much on kanji, so I suck when it comes to forming sentences on my own, but I can comprehend a good amount of Japanese if I read or listen to it (easier to read in some cases).

So a few pointers I'd like to give you to avoid screwing yourself over when you're pretty far ahead:

Don't rely too much on furigana. Use it only for kanji you really don't recognize. Try your best to remember what the kanji is before giving up and looking up its reading. Remember to break down kanji that look too difficult. Sometimes you know the kanji but just won't remember what it is, until you break it down into radicals and it fits in your head like a puzzle. I relied too much on fugirana when I was learning my kanji, and you've no idea how much of a safety net (in a bad way) it becomes. Relying too much on furigana for kanji is like relying too much on romaji for kana. Only use it when you're first learning, so you can get the pronunciation. Don't go back to relying on it again.

For right now, Rikaichan is okay for you, but try not to focus so much on the literal meanings it gives you. It's good for individual words, but can be confusing when you're trying to translate a sentence with it. Since you're still just beginning, it's okay, but I can imagine this becoming a similar safety net to my own if you get too used to it. Try not to rely on it too much if you are. I usually have Rikaichan off as much as I can, and only turn it on when I'm really stumped or haven't learned the word before.

Don't be like me and jump straight into kanji when you think you have "enough" grammar under your belt. I have a tough time jumping back into grammar, because I pretty much brushed past it pretty quickly when I first started Japanese. I'd recommend kana first (you seem like you've got this) → grammar → a bit of kanji → then kanji and vocab at the same time, alternating between the two rather than focusing on one. I say this because the earlier you get accustomed to kanji, the easier it'll be to learn. However, you don't wanna be like me and end up sucking when it comes to sentence structure.

Final word of advice: Don't stress yourself. Don't beat yourself up over "if I had only started this earlier" or anything like that. You turn something you wanted to learn into a chore, and so you end up less motivated to learn it. Reward yourself every now and then. If you're feeling bored. think of creative ways outside the study material to practice. Like putting on a Japanese song that you like and actually listening carefully to the lyrics, and how they're used. Try to read something simple in Japanese. There will be a lot of times where you feel like you're not getting very far, because it's gradual. I remember when I was first started I'd beat myself up over what I don't know, and over small mistakes. When I decided to try to read a manga in Japanese (Yotsubato is a very simple manga to read through, with lots of everyday phrases packed into it) I surprised myself that I actually did know more than I thought I did.

In other words; don't stress the small stuff. Climb at your own pace. You don't wanna slack around on it, but you certainly don't want to work yourself so much that you end up disliking the learning process. Even Justin has his times where he doesn't think his Japanese is as good as it should be, despite the level that he's at, it happens to all of us. Don't focus on stuff like that. Go with your own flow.

Ah yeah, I felt like grammar was my next step at this point. There are so many little nuances of words that go beyond raw vocab that I don't understand. And that Kana-practice website is significantly better than the flashcards I made. I hadn't planned on bothering with furigana until I'm actually at a point where learning Kanji would help me, but I'll remember not to rely on it when that time comes.

Thanks for the bookmarks (especially the grammar one) and the tips, those'll be helpful. I don't think I'm going to have any motivation issues, though.

Oh, ShiKage, where would one find those text/workbooks? I don't think my school would have 'em. Barnes & Noble maybe?

And wow, sorry Meta, totally ruined your thread. Lemmie try to fix it...
Spidey: Bacterium that is like /jp/ and /c/ in concentrated form.
Khoi: Wishes he was a girl.

I secretly am.

secretly

Not fooling anyone.

Secretly.

You know. I just read this thread from page 1, rather than like page 4.

A white Otaku that is Asian is like "LOLwut". I'm just a geeky Asian guy.

@Rob: I can prove you wrong. I searched already. Everywhere. Even 4chan. EVERYWHERE.

Comment made me lol. Made it seem as if 4chan wad the image sanctuary.

4chan archives actually does have a lot. I didn't search Japanese sites since I can't read Japanese like certain people.

google translate
???
profit

4chan archives actually does have a lot. I didn't search Japanese sites since I can't read Japanese like certain people.

Easymodo would probably be the very last place I'd ever search for an image. If I can't find it anywhere else, but I find it there, chances are it was an original image from a resident artist. That, or the original work was pulled down from wherever it was previously hosted, and uploaded on some other obscure site.

Too much work, you know how I am. Lazy to the max. Come on now, Ken. `-`

So...


I'm about to start reading this VN. It's been getting a lot of hype lately, so think I'll try it out. Wish me luck that I can read the philosophical/difficult parts.

Looks pretty boring. Enjoy it.

 Bigger CG, no text

Looks pretty boring. Enjoy it.

Dunno, been getting good ratings, and not as generic as it would seem from what I've read about it.

I might have to take that back. Long brown ponytail-styled hair. Hmm.

That smokes. I love characters that smoke. They look so bad ass.

I might have to take that back. Long brown ponytail-styled hair. Hmm.

But- it's about the story, not the chara...
Whatever.

 Spoiler

That smokes. I love characters that smoke. They look so bad ass.

[imgspoiler]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2633/1271090146666.jpg[/imgspoiler]

Freaking amazing. Want more. PM me to avoid derailing the thread.