I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

[turtlegirl]

Sing along now! And I apologize to everyone who now can't get that song out of their head.

Today was my first day of formal Japanese class. Whoa. What have I gotten myself into!?! The teacher speaks Japanese a LOT and I only knew two words! This is a beginners' class, and I am a total beginner, though I have been trying to prepare myself over the past several weeks by studying at home. I was lost within 15 minutes of the start of class.

Lots of the other kids in my class seem to have taken Japanese before.
They offer Japanese in high school now?? The girl next to me has had 4 or 5 years of Japanese class, and she's like 19 years old! And I swear the guy sitting other side of me is some sorta samurai!! Are they just there for an easy A?

The best I could remember to say when the instructor asked me a question was "Hai". I was horrified! And for some wierd reason, my brain was busy trying to translate English into Spanish, while my mouth was trying to recite Japanese!!!

Is this a normal '1st day of college' thing? Or a normal 'learning a 3rd language' thing? I've kinda freaked myself out, and all I want to do is study my face off for tomorrow's class... or burn my books and fly home for my Mom to take care of me! Okay, the former is the best option, but, wow, I've been out of school for a loooong time!

I know it'll be fine, and I'll learn, and I'll be glad I did. I guess I started this thread to share my experience, and seek any advice thats out there, and maybe hear about others' experiences learning a new language.

Anybody out there have any advice?

[sansei]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

hi this is sansei and i myself know conversational japanese in which i can speak only with a japanese friend and my cousin who live's in the country side and they can understand my japanese only my cousin,i speak japanese in which she respond's in english and in jr high,i took japanese only my folk's didnt speak japanese so i changed class and went into science and at that time,i didnt enjoy japanese and here's how i say how is the weather in japanese,otenki De hawaii wa atatakai or warm and cold in japanese would be samui so i hope this may help you with learning word's in japanese?
Good luck or gambate kudasai!

Well thank's for your time

[Leo Lakio]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Anybody out there have any advice?

Yeah - don't sweat it after one class.

The Alpha Female began studying Japanese (in Hawai`i) when she was in junior-high. Her father just started classes in the past year, in his mid-60s. It's not an easy language, by any definition. Stick with it.

I'd like to learn it myself (more than the handful of words and phrases I've learned in self-defense, that is).

Lastly - think about the trip you'll take to Japan in a few years (you know you will), and how good it will feel to be immersed in the language, and the level of understanding you will have reached.

[TATTRAT]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Holy Moley! What an undertaking! I applaud you, and look forward to hearing about the journey!

When I was on Oahu, I found that the Spanish I knew for back on the mainland meant NOTHING on O'ahu, lol...I had to learn Japanese, and right when I was getting a feel for it, I had to leave?! Bummer!

We plan on moving to japan in 2 years, and I have gotten some reading material and looking into Rosseta Stone, but from the little I know, it is gonna be HARD, lol.

[Random]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

When I was on Oahu, I found that the Spanish I knew for back on the mainland meant NOTHING on O'ahu, lol...I had to learn Japanese, and right when I was getting a feel for it, I had to leave?! Bummer!

Yeah, you should've learned Ilocano (Spanish-influenced Filipino language).

[bittersweet]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

I've taken japanese classes in 3 parts.
Part 1) Japanese school from Kindergarten to 3rd grade. Pretty much included singing japanese songs, learning how to make origami & learning to dance at Bon Dances.

Part 2) High school: This was fairly easy since I remembered a lot of vocabulary & basic hiragana. It was easy up until my sophomore year, where Kanji hit me! uhh...wakarimasen! Then I started taking both Japanese & Spanish in Junior year. That really screwed me up! I kept switching languages in the middle of a sentence! lol

Part 3) College: YES, I figured I knew enough Japanese to get me an easy A. And for the most part, it worked the first 2 years. I definitely breezed through 101, and just got lazy in 102. But I have to say, I really applauded the students who started 101 with no knowledge of the language at all. They always seemed like those students truly wanted to learn the language & immersed themselves in the class completely.

But I definitely think learning Japanese is more difficult than learning spanish! In Japanese, not only do you have to learn how to pronounce/speak the language, you have to learn 3 different ways of writing (Hiragana, Katakana, & Kanji!). And you also have to learn ways to say the same word...but to different hierarchy of people! Like when you speak to a friend, an elder, or to your boss! And you can't just count....there are different ways to count based on the shape of the item!

Anywho...good luck on learning Japanese! Stick with it!

[Vanguard]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

And for some wierd reason, my brain was busy trying to translate English into Spanish, while my mouth was trying to recite Japanese!!!

Japanese is the second language I studied (if English counts as #1!), and when I learned a 3rd, sometimes I would think of a Japanese word when trying to think of the equivalent word from another language, so yes, this is quite normal!

If this is a college course, yes, you'll probably meet students who are a bit overqualified for that particular course level. I wouldn't worry at all unless the course is completely curved or if the professor sets the bar at the skill level of the average overqualified student (I've only seen that once in a language course, and the professor was an inexperienced adjunct -- again, unlikely). If you're taking Japanese at UHM, I am curious, are you taking JPN 100? Because that's a beginner class that's quite accelerated. I think it's more advanced than some intermediate courses at mainland universities! But I would have rather started Japanese in Hawaii or Japan than anywhere else.

Anyway, just hang in there! Try to supplement your learning by watching some subtitled Japanese films or television shows. Find friends who are fluent in Japanese. Not to use as tutors, but if you practice with them with just a few words a day or even if you just listen to them speak Japanese with other fluent speakers, that helps a lot. As long as you don't tune it out, your accent will improve little by little.

Please keep us posted concerning your studies!

[sansei]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

hi this is sansei and i self taught myself to read,write and later speak conversational japanese and it wasnt easy only i went to the library and borrowed book's on first writing japanese hiragana and then katakana and then kanji which wasnt easy only my friend's and cousin in the country enjoyed reading my japanese and then i did my koseki which mean's to trace your family history and i learned on my father's side,my great great great grandfather was born in japan in the 1800's and then came down to his son's and their grandson's and then to my great grandfather and my father and my mom's side,i went to only my grandfather's,father born in the 1800's in okinawa so im half okinawan and half japanese so i thought to share this with everyone.

well thank's for your time

[Jim75]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Turtlegirl, do you get the basic cable TV channels? There's a channel that's pretty much all Japanese. Maybe entirely. I haven't been watching much TV lately, but it's fun to tune in and see what's on. There's this high-drama, Samarai soap opera and a show where they go into the homes of everyday people and see what their life is like. It'd be like a semi-immersion deal.

I have a Japanese friend named Keiko. She told me that in Japan the sound of a barking dog is Wah Wah, as opposed to Woof Woof. Sometimes when I'd see her, I'd say Wah Wah. She'd laugh.

You could also watch Kurosawa films. I like "Dreams".

[Honoruru]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Turtlegirl, your experience is similar, in many ways, to my own experience. I took Intro Japanese at UH in my freshman year. I thought it would be easy since I’m Japanese (actually, I’m Okinawan) and both my parents spoke Japanese and English. What I hadn’t anticipated was that most of my classmates had already taken Japanese (for years and years). This was back in the days when most local Japanese kids went to Japanese School after regular school hours (Elementary, Middle and even High School). A lot of my friends went to Japanese School, but I did not.

Anyway, most of my UH classmates had already taken years of Japanese, including writing. That was a distinct disadvantage for me. I related more to the gaijin (haole) classmates who were really interested in learning Japanese but were immediately years behind in class (like me). I thought that was unfair. It was a requirement for any Arts and Sciences degree at that time, and I fought for getting rid of that requirement. It was finally dropped, but only after I graduated. Too late.

But I still think learning a foreign language (any language) is beneficial, so I encourage you to keep at it. What I didn’t like back then was the inequities that came into play, especially in Japanese. BTW, I finally passed French, after having tried to pass (in addition to Japanese) Spanish and Hawaiian. Foreign language is ... well, foreign to me. I suck.

[Kalalau]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

A friend and I signed up for 1st year Japanese at the local adult night school, the teacher was a Japanese-Hawaiian from Honolulu and a lot of fun! A smoker, a convivial drinker, she took our class to Little Tokyo near downtown LA for the annual Japanese festival which was excellent, informative, fun, educational. When time came for second year there weren't enough students so we just took year 1 again. Same thing next year, so we really got basic Japanese drilled into our heads. She said that when she visited Japan within a minute of being in the taxi at the Tokyo airport the driver recognized from her accent and language that she was not native Japanese. And now students of language like to study Japanese as its spoken by Hawa'i Japanese residents because the style usually goes back about 100 years to the style spoken in the Hiroshima area.

[turtlegirl]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Aaaarghhh!! My class is moving way too fast!! I don't think that the teacher even cares if we comprehend the material, she is barging right thru her lesson plan as though this is a race!! Today is only the 3rd day, yet we are supposed to have learned and understand Katakana by now?! Yeah right!!

95% of my classmates already know Japanese!! Why are they there??? I studied for 3 hours yesterday and 4 hours monday, plus 3 hours Sunday! All my homework is done for the whole week. But she's moving toooooo fast, especially with the Katakana. Today the instructor even made a JOKE about how nobody really has to study!! WHAAAT??!

I want to send her an email to find out what's going on here, but I'm so angry right now, I think that I'd just spit on the keyboard and then hit 'send'. What! Is! Going! On! Here!!!?

I don't even care what grade I get, I just want to learn this!! It's the instructor's responsibility to teach us, and if I, the total newbie, totally fail, well then she failed miserably as a teacher! Aaargh!!

[Vanguard]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

95% of my classmates already know Japanese!! Why are they there???

GPA padding?

Did they even go over hiragana and katakana in class, or were you expected to study it and perfect it at home?

[Jim75]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Aaaarghhh!! My class is moving way too fast!! I don't think that the teacher even cares if we comprehend the material, she is barging right thru her lesson plan as though this is a race!! Today is only the 3rd day, yet we are supposed to have learned and understand Katakana by now?! Yeah right!!

95% of my classmates already know Japanese!! Why are they there??? I studied for 3 hours yesterday and 4 hours monday, plus 3 hours Sunday! All my homework is done for the whole week. But she's moving toooooo fast, especially with the Katakana. Today the instructor even made a JOKE about how nobody really has to study!! WHAAAT??!

I want to send her an email to find out what's going on here, but I'm so angry right now, I think that I'd just spit on the keyboard and then hit 'send'. What! Is! Going! On! Here!!!?

I don't even care what grade I get, I just want to learn this!! It's the instructor's responsibility to teach us, and if I, the total newbie, totally fail, well then she failed miserably as a teacher! Aaargh!!

Maybe you could approach the instructor and tell her what your experience is and ask if she thinks this is normal/expected or if you are in a class that is too advanced. If the instructor is teaching to the level of the students who have prior learning of Japanese, it would be helpful for you to know that. I would ask these questions. There is almost certainly an expectation of significant out-of-class study, since it's a language course. Were there any pre-requisites?

In this circumstance, the vast majority of the instructors I had in college would have been helpful and understanding. At a minimum, they would have offered useful guidance.

[acousticlady]

Re: I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

Maybe you could approach the instructor and tell her what your experience is and ask if she thinks this is normal/expected or if you are in a class that is too advanced. If the instructor is teaching to the level of the students who have prior learning of Japanese, it would be helpful for you to know that. I would ask these questions. There is almost certainly an expectation of significant out-of-class study, since it's a language course. Were there any pre-requisites?

In this circumstance, the vast majority of the instructors I had in college would have been helpful and understanding. At a minimum, they would have offered useful guidance.

I have to agree with Jim75. From my experience (not in Japanese of course) most students think they are the only ones who don't understand. It is very rarely the case. I'll bet if you start talking to the others in the class, you'll find others who are thinking the same thing as you. And don't assume that because some have had classes in high school that they will be getting an easy A. Do you know how many students have had prior math courses and get to college and flounder? Sometimes not having the prior experience can actually be helpful in the end! So hang in there and go with the flow.