{"id":1348,"date":"2015-01-16T08:31:40","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T08:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/hey-i-can-imagine-you-get-this-question-often\/"},"modified":"2015-01-16T08:31:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T08:31:40","slug":"hey-i-can-imagine-you-get-this-question-often","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/hey-i-can-imagine-you-get-this-question-often\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, I can imagine you get this question often, but I might as well ask. Where exactly did you learn to speak Japanese? I know everyone has different learning styles, but I figure I might as well ask."},"content":{"rendered":"

cubewatermelon<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Heya, I thought I\u2019d give a bit of an updated response to this as my skills are progressing!<\/p>\n

For those unaware, I had VERY little Japanese knowledge when I got here. I could recognize different hiragana and katakana okay, and knew all the giant nerd words, but that was about it.<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve used a variety of resources to varying degrees.<\/p>\n

Google Translate on my phone has been super helpful, especially since it lets me write in and check kanji that I\u2019m unfamiliar with.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also been studying the Genki<\/a> textbooks, which are a bit difficult for self-study but are super helpful in checking my understanding of grammar and such.<\/p>\n

For Kanji, I\u2019ve actually just been using some workbooks I got in Daisou that are intended for first and second grader study XD It\u2019s slow going but there\u2019s no easy way to learn kanji.<\/p>\n

Now that my level\u2019s improved a bit, I\u2019ll occasionally read through easier manga like Yotsuba!. It spells out all the kanji for you, so it\u2019s really easy to recognize words you know (but don\u2019t know the kanji for) and to look up other kanji that was important enough to be included in something of that level. (If you try to learn kanji from more advanced manga\/other material, you\u2019ll end up learning a LOT of kanji that isn\u2019t exactly essential to daily life. Not that that\u2019s a bad thing, but you gotta prioritize when you\u2019re living here!)<\/p>\n

I also get a lot of help from various coworkers who know English and other ALTs who are better at Japanese than me.<\/p>\n

So yeah, obviously studying any new language is a long and complicated process =3=;; But everyone is right when they say that being thrown into that language\u2019s culture is a huge help. There\u2019s no way I would have gotten this far if I wasn\u2019t living in Japan, and I\u2019m still kinda proud of how far I\u2019ve come since getting here! But I have so very far to go, and there\u2019s no way I\u2019ll be truly fluent by the time I head home.<\/p>\n

But imma do my best! >:0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

cubewatermelon: Heya, I thought I\u2019d give a bit of an updated response to this as my skills are progressing! For those unaware, I had VERY little Japanese knowledge when I got here. I could recognize different hiragana and katakana okay, and knew all the giant nerd words, but that was about it. Since then, I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1130,1129,1128,114],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-everyone-follow-this-person-their-comics-are-brilliant","tag-good-to-know","tag-japanese","tag-reference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}