Learning Japanese - From TV

[Ming]

If you're a a Japanophile you might have considered learning to speak Japanese. When I was first studying Japanese as a boy in Hawaii during the late 1980's I used to watch a local Japanese TV channel that would show old reruns of Zatoichi (the Blind Swordsman) or other equally old TV shows from the 1970's that were shown with English subtitles. Listening to the actors speak Japanese while glancing down at the subtitles was a great way to build my listening skills.

Nowadays the sheer number of subtitled shows available on the web from Japan, including Anime, is staggering. For learning Japanese I recommend live actor shows, not Anime, as Japanese Dramas tend to show many close-ups of the actors faces while they speak, whereas Anime sometimes seems designed so you could dub it into any language.

Fansubs, or fan created subtitles, are often made for Japanese TV shows that are rarely, if ever, licensed for distribution outside of Japan. www.D-Addicts.com is a website where the fansubbers, RAW (unsubbed) watchers, and fans of Drama series from other Asian countries hang out and share links to downloadable shows.

I recently finished watching a seven episode series of Drama (actually more like comedy) titled "Papa to Musume no Nanokakan" - or directly translated, "Father and Daughter's Seven Days". It's a sort of a "Freaky Friday" story where the Father and Daughter switch bodies after a certain event occurs.

I found it enjoyable to watch, and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Japanese. Even if you only pick up a few words while mostly reading subtitles, its worth watching for the fun factor alone, not to mention the cultural aspect of learning about modern Japanese behavior and attitudes.

So how can you view the show, you ask? Well, if you don't know how to download a Torrent, you should learn. Google it. Next thing you'll need is the DivX or Xvid codec to play the movie.

Third is a link to where the English translations of this show (that just wrapped up last week) are located - this is the first translated episode of the show: http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_50639.htm

If you're unfamiliar with all of this it will take a bit of learning, but once you've figured out how to download torrents and find shows with subtitles you'll realize you've stumbled onto a mother lode of potential study aids for your quest to learn Japanese.

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[Minnesota Nice]

I took two heavily intensive, brutal years of Japanese in college. All my teachers were from Japan and lived there 90% of their lives.

It was hard as hell (partially due to that they made it harder than it needed to be), but I can speak Japanese at a level it would take most other places at least four years to learn.

[Ming]

I was lucky to have it in High School in Hawaii. The teacher/school let me double up on classes (levels 1 & 2, 3 & 4) at the same time) since they knew I would be going to college in Japan. Once I got to Japan I had to take about 6 months of Japanese classes as a "College Japanese Primer" with other gaijin, including several kikokushijo and nikkeijin. After that I had to jump in the fire and take college courses in Japanese (some of my classes were in English with visiting professors as I went to an "International" university).

I never felt it was hard, because I was absolutely obsessed with learning the language. There are still words in certain instances that I don't get, like legal or scientific terms, though. Newspapers on political happenings are also difficult for me to read with many complex Kanji. A computer enthusiast magazine, on the other hand, is something I'm completely comfortable with.

[Minnesota Nice]

Originally Posted by Ming

I never felt it was hard, because I was absolutely obsessed with learning the language. There are still words in certain instances that I don't get, like legal or scientific terms, though. Newspapers on political happenings are also difficult for me to read with many complex Kanji. A computer enthusiast magazine, on the other hand, is something I'm completely comfortable with.

I was also very intent on learning the language. It wasn't hard to learn, but it required a lot of work and effort. They made the material harder than it needed to be, though.

Certain grammar forms and what not are silly. Have you ever tried explaining long form/short form to people, and how to take a dictionary form of a verb, and turn it into long form and short form.

It's fun to watch people's head spin at that, when in reality, that's one of the more basic concepts hah.

[Diesel/_]

Wow, I hope to speak that well in a few years.
どもありがと for the link .

[genjy]

There aren't many who have the ability to learn to speak, listen, or write a foreign language really well through college courses and casual interactions.

By your late-teens, it is almost certain you no longer have the natural ability to acquire a subsequent language. Although, it is possible for a young adults to master a subsequent language at near-native level by going through an intensive and extensive submersion into the language's culture and communities.

So... move to Japan if you want the language to stick.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Nice

I was also very intent on learning the language. It wasn't hard to learn, but it required a lot of work and effort. They made the material harder than it needed to be, though.

Certain grammar forms and what not are silly. Have you ever tried explaining long form/short form to people, and how to take a dictionary form of a verb, and turn it into long form and short form.

You're right (sorry for the long delay). The Japanese taught in schools for non-Japanese tends to be a bit too formal and unrealistic. My wife recently told me that some of the forms I avoid because they are tongue twisters are rarely used even by natives (the -raremasen de****a types) -- Try "I could not get used to it" - vs. Nareru koto ga dekinakatta. Koto ga is a nice shortcut and legit for words like Yaru that make double r rolling annoying.

[Minnesota Nice]

^ Absolutely. I used to get marked down because I used ~kamoshirenai instead of ~deshou. I think, in part, was because it just rolled off my tongue easier, and the meaning was practically identical, but I just couldn't get used to saying ~deshou lol.