learning japanese

unfinished07

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I will say passive learning is not for everyone. I have watched Japanese drama for almost 20 years and learnt little. Yes vocab is okay but Japanese grammar are intense and only after I started classes then I was able to better understand the language.

After having a certain level of Japanese, you can start to gain more knowledge passively from Anime/Drama.

one more plus point of passive learning, either watching drama/anime/listening to songs is to learn their way of pronunciation/speaking. you can pass JLPT 1, be good in grammar/vocab, but when it comes to speaking, it's another thing.
i have seen many people who have passed their JLPT 1/2 exams but their speaking is still far way off.
 

unfinished07

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Another question that i guess a lot of learners are not sure about...

1) あそこに車を止めてください

vs

2) あそこで車を止めてください

What`s the difference???

Ikoma???
Seems that Ikoma teaches the students like this... =/

no, my Ikoma teacher did not teach me this way

1) あそこに車を止めてください
The point is on "going there: に"
vs

2) あそこで車を止めてください
The point is on "at the location:で"
the action of parking 'there「で」"

We can translate both sentences to "Please park the car there"
but some subtle meaning of the sentence is lost.
and it's hard to get a direct translation of the exact meaning.
 

zhirong

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one more plus point of passive learning, either watching drama/anime/listening to songs is to learn their way of pronunciation/speaking. you can pass JLPT 1, be good in grammar/vocab, but when it comes to speaking, it's another thing.
i have seen many people who have passed their JLPT 1/2 exams but their speaking is still far way off.

That is why I feel it is impt to have a class setting that encourages speaking. Also, join meetup both locally and in Japan that focus on speaking Japanese. I have been to a quite few quality ones where they have a topic and everyone share their views, as well as understand the different approach that different culture have towards the topic.

Ultimately, I feel that you should learn the language holistically, from classes, to immersion, to speaking with natives.
 

unfinished07

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That is why I feel it is impt to have a class setting that encourages speaking. Also, join meetup both locally and in Japan that focus on speaking Japanese. I have been to a quite few quality ones where they have a topic and everyone share their views, as well as understand the different approach that different culture have towards the topic.

Ultimately, I feel that you should learn the language holistically, from classes, to immersion, to speaking with natives.

yeah agree with that.
and also, it would be very good if there is someone who can honestly correct you whenever you make mistakes in either your written or spoken japanese. teachers in schools do that, but mostly only in written cases. and also, the students are "the people who pay their salaries", so sometimes the teacher won't be that straight to the students. even natives whom you speak to, seldom do that. they will just cont the conversation as long as both sides understand each other.

it's nice to have someone to say to u "eh, your pronunciation is very weird leh, and then teach you the correct way" :D
 

dimitri_can

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Answer as per follows:

To help aid the understanding, let`s do a bit of revision on the particle 「で」 and 「に」

食堂昼ご飯を食べます。
Eat lunch at the dining hall.
The 「」 here refers to the place where the action of eating lunch is done.

あそこ車があります。
Over there, lies a car.
The 「」here refers to the location of where the car exists.

Going back to the sentence 「あそこ車を止めてください」,
it means ``please stop the car over there`` (focus is more on location).

「あそこ車を止めてください」means ``please stop the car over there``
(focus is more on doing the action of stopping over there)

For example, a car park owner might say something like this to a person who is trying to park a car…
「ここは駐車禁止ですから、あそこ止めてください。」
``Parking is prohibited here. Please stop/park the car over there (focus on location)

It would be unnatural to say 「あそこ止めてください。」

In Lesson 14 of Minna no Nihongo, Karina-san said to the taxi driver,
「花屋の前止めてください」
Please stop in front of the flower shop (focus on place where action is done: Flower shop)

Please let me know if you still have difficulties understanding this.

Have a good day ahead.

/dimitri_can
 
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dimitri_can

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For those who are interested to not just learn the language, but also understand the culture, food, drama, etc, etc. I recommend you to join this FB that is set up by me and my students.

http://goo.gl/vTl3U9

I am sure you would also learn more. =)
 

Ah_keong

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Ikoma???
Seems that Ikoma teaches the students like this... =/

It depends on the context. there are some stuff that cant be translated using English as the translation language.

Sometimes I find Taiwanese-Japanese books come in handy in such situations where Mandarin would be a better language in teaching Japanese. :D
 

Ah_keong

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That is why I feel it is impt to have a class setting that encourages speaking. Also, join meetup both locally and in Japan that focus on speaking Japanese. I have been to a quite few quality ones where they have a topic and everyone share their views, as well as understand the different approach that different culture have towards the topic.

Ultimately, I feel that you should learn the language holistically, from classes, to immersion, to speaking with natives.

From my experience, I believe that speaking is the toughest to pick up. Another aspect is to learn, relearn and unlearn.

I have seen JLPT 1 / JLPT 2 holders but the accent is totally off/out, making the native listener having a hard time trying to pick up the conversation and thus ending the conversation fast.

many times I see learners able to construct grammatical perfect sentences but the accent is kind of .........

Good luck to all the learners out there! :D
 

dimitri_can

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みなさん、

こんにちは。

今日は、「意向形+思います」と「~つもりです」の違いを説明します。

まず、例文を見ていきましょう。

「日本へ行こうと思います」
I am thinking of going to Japan.

「日本へ行くつもりです」
I intend to go to Japan.

「日本へ行きます」
I am going to Japan.
可能性(かのうせい) からみると (if I see it from the level of possibility), パーセントで表示(ひょうじ)します。

「日本へ行こうと思います」
I am thinking of going to Japan.
60-70%可能性 (60-70% possibility of going)

「日本へ行くつもりです」
I intend to go to Japan.
80-90%可能性 (80-90% possibility of going)

「日本へ行きます」
I am going to Japan.
100%可能性 (100% possibility of going)

じゃ、「日本へ行こうと思います」と「日本語へ行こうと思っています」はどう違いますか。

みんなの日本語第15課 (結婚しています)を思い出してください。

「結婚しています」の「て+います」はある状態が続いているということを表します。

「日本へ行こうと思っています」を使ったら、その考えはずいぶん前からあったということです。それに対して、「日本へ行こうと思います」は聞かれた瞬間で出た考えです。

「日本へ行こうと思っています」indicates that the thought was made quite some time ago whereas 「日本へ行こうと思います」indicates it was a sudden thought when the speaker was being asked.

じゃ、みなさんは日本へ行くつもりですか? (^_^)
 

dimitri_can

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Previous post from Jul 2015. Good for those taking N1/N2
みなさん、

こんばんは。

Today, i had the chance to take N2 with my students. I would like to do some sharing of my analysis of N2 and N1.

Today, for N2 grammar questions, i analyzed that there were 4 N4 questions, 3 N3 questions, 5 N2 questions. After discussing with a few teachers from other countries, we also see that there is a lot of foundation questions that are being tested.

What does this mean? Foundation is very important. Some students that i speak to, they just want to get their N2 or N1, but they never realized what is important is their foundation (N4 and N5). N3,N4,N5 can pass, then when they take N2, they realized it’s a different game altogether. You can try a mock test on the official JLPT website (just Google JLPT)

There is a trend that N2 and N1 exam papers are testing on N4 and N5 stuff. JLPT board changes the questions here and there until you don’t understand
what they are talking about, but it’s actually a N4/N5 grammar question.

As such, i would like to offer a few pointers:

1) Firm up your foundation grammar (minimum must get 85% and above for N4 and N5 mock test paper).

2) Practise your noun-modification (名詞修飾形) , Refer to here , Lesson Summary Chapter 22 done by my student. Last modification on the last page is not correct, but process is correct. You need to know what verb,adjective is modifying which noun.

3) Practise conjugating of forms
 

dimitri_can

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Last call for those who wish to take up my N2/N3 prep class class before it closes.
Guaranteed pass if not 2nd attempt is free (terms and conditions apply)

Feel free to pm me for further details.

Meanwhile, those who wish to download some free materials can visit here
 

dimitri_can

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Dear HWZone friends, Union Book Store will be holding their book fair from 3rd June (tomorrow) to 9th June (next Thurs) from 11am-10pm at Suntec City Convention Centre Level 4 (Hall 401 and 402). This is a good chance to get some cheap Taiwan published Japanese books. I will be going down on Sat 5pm to take a look. Interested members may join me.

EDIT 2: Just went to Union Book store earlier this afternoon. They told me they brought the books down to the book fair. Pls call the book store to check where they brought the books to before heading down... -_-"

Website: http://www.unionbook.com.sg/

Opening Hours:Mon-Sun10.30a.m. – 6.30p.m.
Address:Blk 231 Bain Street, #03-01, Bras Basah Complex, Singapore 180231
Tel: 6338-0696/7, 6337-3733
 
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ekardo

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dimitri..

I might want to start my Japanese language lesson again..

was under the old JLPT scheme and JLPT3 was nothing to me...but JLPT2 was super difficult..

where should I start now?
 

dimitri_can

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pm me to do a level check first to see where u currently stand. remember to include ur email address n tel number.
 

yuukiXkaname

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Hi guys, I got a few questions to ask

I'm currently studying N4 on my own. Planning to take classes for N3 onwards. I recently found some book but don't know how good are they.

Is "Mimi kara Oboeru" good for grammar? I'm currently studying with Genki II, was wondering is Mimi kara Oboeru a good supplement or not. How is Mimi kara Oboeru as compared to Genki and Minna no Nihongo?
 

dimitri_can

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Did a video on 名詞修飾形 / Noun-modifier form (Minna no Nihongo Chapter 22).
Pls give me your comments. =)
This video assumes you know some basics about 名詞修飾形.

辞書形+noun (e.g 買うかばん)
ない-形+noun (e.g 買わないかばん)
た-形+noun (e.g 買ったかばん)
い-adjective+noun (e.g いいかばん)
な-adjective+な+noun (e.g きれいなかばん)
noun+の+noun (e.g 私のかばん)

Part 1:


Part 2:
 
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