learning japanese

[joy883]

Our level of Japanese lang is different, thus may be hard to study together although I approve of this idea as well.

BTW, saying of O shigoto wa....? can be said in English as "What is your occupation"? Because I have read somewhere & it was translate as "your job....?"

Ikoma gd? Considering tt too... the teacher can speak eng? wat i learn O shigoto wa is askin wats ur occupation. direct translation i not sure...

 

[PingJun]

Ikoma gd? Considering tt too... the teacher can speak eng? wat i learn O shigoto wa is askin wats ur occupation. direct translation i not sure...

I think it is quite good. For my sensei (at least), he is not that good at English. Thus, have some problem asking question.

Thanks for your translation. Need not direct translation. I just need to know its meaning roughly.

 

[crazy777]

おしごとはなんですか

I hope that helps. That is the formal form when asking a person's occupation.

 

[ShougunX]

oshigoto wa literary means 'job is?' for direct translation. U can also ask in another way, 'doko de hataraiteimasu ka' -- 'whr u work at?'

studying together is a gd idea if ur time can be met. The higher levels one can help out the lower levels ones n the lower levels ones can prompt a recap for higher level ones.

 

[crazy777]

I am taking the Level 4 this coming december

 

[JoySakurai]

yup

so shogunx wanna help us?
lolx..
=X

doko de hataraiteimasu ka? she will learn that abit later.
when learning -iteimasu.

-iteimasu form is actually sth like -ing.
work-ing.
sth of that sort lah.. abit fuzzy to me liao..
damn.. i need to buck up!
><

 

[PingJun]

Thanks everybody for your advise / translation.

For seniors studying in Ikoma, when do you start learning Katakana? For 1 term (10 lessons), is it possible to learn the whole hiragana (including ja, ju & jo)?

 

[crazy777]

Thanks everybody for your advise / translation.

For seniors studying in Ikoma, when do you start learning Katakana? For 1 term (10 lessons), is it possible to learn the whole hiragana (including ja, ju & jo)?

If I can still remember, we started learning katakana during Basic 2
We learnt all the hiragana during Basic 1

 

[surfuz]

Joy, I don't have the luxury of studying there full time forever although it will be a great idea. If plans goes well, maybe study the whole of the Jap basic full time first before switching to part time for the intermediate. So next year aim 3 only.

Pingjun, I am currently at the 11th lesson. My sensei said we will learn katakana tomorrow, last week. I'll see if that really happens. We finished the hiragana by the 9th lesson but till now I am still struggling to remember the byo, bya blah blah and how it is written. How it is read and written differs greatly sometimes and it is giving me a headache.

How come your term 1 only 10 lessons? Isn't it 12? But since basic part timers are taught at a closer pace than full timers, you might need to wait till basic 1 term 2 to learn katakana. By the way, do you pay for the whole of basic 1 first or pay basic term1 then basic term 2? And do term2 start immediately after term 1? These info will be useful for me next year. Thanks.

I must practice more on my own before joining a study group. Because I can't even organise a proper sentence now (still get the "wa" and "no" confused sometimes) but a study group is a great idea. I'll be happy to join if it happens

Regarding speaking...I only practice speaking by myself (no choice lor) and watch anime/ drama etc for listening. For writing, I write many times on my own. That's how I survive so far la. How about you people? Share some tips?

ShogunX, ask you something. Is it more difficult for you to learn speaking or writing? Speaking wise, I am ok except for the occassional hiccup using "wa" and "no" but writing wise, it is a big mess.

 

[ShougunX]

joysakura>> haha i knew this is coming, but sorrie, work has become very bz nowadays. In fact, i just reached home. So dun tink can study with u guys although i wud very much like to. haha. but nvr, u can still pose questions in this thread. I'll answer them if i can.

ya te-imasu basically means present perfect or u are still doing. it is not really complicated. Wait till u get to the transitive n intransitive...the 他動詞 &　自動詞, i spent a longgg time getting it right. Even now i'll still make mistakes every now n then.

surfz>> speaking is more difficult for me. sure, writting can be rather difficult. but speaking...well, it's this accent tat is hard to acquire. i'm still learning

wa n no? normalli it's the ga particle tat is the most confusing.

 

[crazy777]

て form is the beginning.
So far we have learnt up how to apply the て、ない、じしょ、たform.

You'll know when you learn up to Lesson 25

 

[PingJun]

Joy, I don't have the luxury of studying there full time forever although it will be a great idea. If plans goes well, maybe study the whole of the Jap basic full time first before switching to part time for the intermediate. So next year aim 3 only.

Pingjun, I am currently at the 11th lesson. My sensei said we will learn katakana tomorrow, last week. I'll see if that really happens. We finished the hiragana by the 9th lesson but till now I am still struggling to remember the byo, bya blah blah and how it is written. How it is read and written differs greatly sometimes and it is giving me a headache.

How come your term 1 only 10 lessons? Isn't it 12? But since basic part timers are taught at a closer pace than full timers, you might need to wait till basic 1 term 2 to learn katakana. By the way, do you pay for the whole of basic 1 first or pay basic term1 then basic term 2? And do term2 start immediately after term 1? These info will be useful for me next year. Thanks.

I must practice more on my own before joining a study group. Because I can't even organise a proper sentence now (still get the "wa" and "no" confused sometimes) but a study group is a great idea. I'll be happy to join if it happens

Regarding speaking...I only practice speaking by myself (no choice lor) and watch anime/ drama etc for listening. For writing, I write many times on my own. That's how I survive so far la. How about you people? Share some tips?

ShogunX, ask you something. Is it more difficult for you to learn speaking or writing? Speaking wise, I am ok except for the occassional hiccup using "wa" and "no" but writing wise, it is a big mess.

Yup, my term has 10 lessons. There are also classes where the term has 12 lessons. The difference is the duration of the class. 3 hrs & 2.5 hrs per lesson respectively. But each term will have a total of 30 hrs.

When I 1st learned Hiragana & Katagana, I also found quite difficult to remember. I would also mixed up with "a" & "o" word. You know the essay paper for Chinese? Well, I buy that kind of paper & keep practising don't know how many times (> 10 times, I believe) before I can memorize hiragana & perhaps 50 - 70% of katagana. Also, I would also memorize them through words. E.G. For newspaper, it is called "shibun". From there, I learnt how to write in Hiragana. I think it is very important to know how the characters are written & pronounce.

"wa" & "no" is easy to differentiate. "no" means "de" in Chinese or " 's " in English Language.
"wa" (Pronounced in wa but is actually the "ha" word") means "am / is / are".

E.G. Sore wa watashi no hon desu.

It means "That is my book." (Learnt this on last night lesson).

As for speaking, I must say I still CMI. And I also cannot catch what sensei says unless he says quite slowly, pronouncing the word.

 

[crazy777]

For me easiest is Katakana followed by Hiragana and finally followed by the toughest of all Kanji.

 

[PingJun]

At 1st, I thought Katagana is quite easy compared to Hiragana. However, I can actually remember & read some Japanese words through hiragana rather than Katagana. Have not learned Kanji.

 

[WillieTan]

just to verify, JCS per course is $300?
How about Bunka? i understand that JCS tend to be a larger group in a class.. hence harder..

 

[PingJun]

just to verify, JCS per course is $300?
How about Bunka? i understand that JCS tend to be a larger group in a class.. hence harder..

IIRC, for JCS, the fees for basic is $4xx (Can't remember, can only recall is in this range).

I am unsure whether this includes the textbook fee & registration fees as well.

 

[PingJun]

Seniors, for Kanji, do you all use Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese Word?

 

[JoySakurai]

surfuz > yeah, i tot that way too when i started basic in Ikoma.
But I liked my teacher so much, i decided i really wanted to stay.. coz i went for make-up classes in other classes before, n talked to my friends teachers before too, and i found that my teacher was very good and well, din wanna change.
my friends who were in the basic class with me and changed classes later on also regretted because they say their new teachers are nothing like my teacher.. hehe..
so yeah.. ^^;;
and JCS has bigger classes, so the attention span of the teacher spent on you is less..

Sho > haha.. last time when i posted in this tread before [or during my basic lvl] you were also here answering qns.. =P
But its ok, we'll like, post mass qns for u here.. wahahaha.. jking.. ^^;;;;

Neway, I just paid for my JLPT3 prep class.. T-T
so x..
got the book, but is 2004 de. I think they'll prolly use 2005 for mock test?
mayb.. hehe..
But wahlao.. i flip the book open only, i see all the chinese words!
i dunno how to read kanji!!!!
T_____________T
kanji is seriously gonna pull me down alot..
arghhhhhh..

oh yeah, my 1 term = 7 lessons only..
hehe..
and 1 term = 2.5weeks.
Coz im in the 2ce a week class, 3hrs/lesson.
quite tiring..

 

[PingJun]

I also find that my class is very intresting. Thus, I may also study in Ikoma for my intermediate, although I may also study in JCS as well.....

JoySakurai, how come when change class, the teacher also change? For my case, the course has 3 days in a week, mainly on Mon, Thurs & Sat. And these classes are taught by the same teacher. And I have chosen Mon for my lesson day. If I really cannot make it on mon, I can change my course to either Thurs or Sat. And the sensei & contents of the lesson will still be the same.

BTW, when do you all learn Kanji?

 

[JoySakurai]

cause theres only 2 classes in Ikoma that have 2ce a week classes and started at the same time.
one class is conducted by my teacher, the other is by another teacher.
so when we miss a lesson, we can choose to have a 30min make up before the next lesson, or to go to the other class [but in advance, coz the other class is a day before].
but now i just take the 30min make up. hehe..

teacher starts writing in kanji [with hiragana on top] in intermediate i think..
but we don't really learn it like how we learn hiragana and stuff..
i guess they see that the whole class is made of mostly chinese, they expect us to somewat know how to write the words or sth?
haha..