I decided to learn Japanese a while ago, but never really got around to doing so. Then I heard that the Genki books were pretty good for those aspiring to learn the language, which resulted in my purchasing of them.
I got the Textbook 1, Workbook 1, Answer Key, and Student CD 1. The latter two items were added on since I would be self-learning it and they seemed useful.
An insert in the textbook says going through the material should take roughly 200 hours for the 23 lessons. Seems like I have to somehow make time to go through a lesson a week.
So when I was in high school, they didn’t offer Japanese courses at my school. This resulted in me continuing from my 1 year in Spanish courses in middle school to have taken a total of 4 years in Spanish (3 in high school). Then the school decides to expand its horizons and offer Japanese courses the year after I graduate. I still can’t believe it. At least I learned Spanish, although I would have preferred Japanese.
Anyways, anyone else learning or want to learn Japanese? It’s always useful to add more languages to your repertoire.
Japanese Lisp Manga
Japanese Fangirl Meeting the Harry Potter Trio
Video Games Backlog Dilemma
I avoided taking Japanese for reasons of sheer laziness: Though I was interested, I didn’t want to take the required tests to get in.
Now… Well, I wrote a little about it, actually. It’s a few entries back, called “A Personal Note #2.” Check it out if you’d like. Good luck with Genki.
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I’m a Japanese major and we used Genki. They’re great books for starting out and laying the foundation, I think. The first book is a little lame since you won’t really be able to read much Japanese yet.
Also you should probably learn more Kanji on the side than what the book gives you.
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I think a good percentage of otaku at least dabble casually in learning Japanese even if they never actually pursue it seriously. I’m toeing the line myself, unsure how much I want to plunge into it. I make a point to continually pick up new vocabulary from just watching anime, but grammar and learning my kana has been a lot slower. I don’t really have any study materials beyond My Japanese Coach for the DS, which is really a laughable tool, but again, not sure how serious I want to be able it yet.
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@2DT: Thanks, yeah laziness is hard to beat. I’ll check out your entries.
@Koji Oe: Nice, Japanese major – an expert on the subject! I’ll keep your advice in mind and try to learn more Kanji from other sources.
@Kiri: Yeah, watching large amounts of anime is bound to make someone interested in Japanese. I think it wouldn’t hurt to try pursuing it seriously since it would be awesome to know another language, but time is a factor.
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I started to learn Japanese by my own, but I find myself with limited time for study. I should take more seriously learning japanese.
Entonces, sabes español?
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Reltair Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Ganbatte!
Pues, sé un poco español. >_>
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My school offered Japanese, but I was misguided and stuck to learning Spanish since I started it in middle school. I have rarely used Spanish in the past few years, while Japanese would have come in handy.
It’s tough to learn a language on your own though, it requires more motivation that I have. Good luck!
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Reltair Reply:
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Thanks, starting Spanish in middle school was a big factor for me as well to sticking with it in high school. =/
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