Comments on: Christmas Immersion

By: Lois (three-legged-cat)

Lois (three-legged-cat) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:00:58 +0000

I think that’s good advice for any language. I know that on my last trip to France (on a school visit) I came away feeling that I hadn’t really used any French at all. Buying a sandwich or cup of coffee isn’t really going to improve my language much.

Think I ought try finding someone to skype with – nice idea!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:35:14 +0000

Thanks for the advice Mike. I’m on Lang-8 already and plan on keeping a journal there over the holidays, but yeah, if I found someone who’d wanna skype that’d be pretty cool too.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:22:08 +0000

shafman4: Just do it now! Quicker you start, quicker books become easy to read, quicker you open a huge amount of awesome content to yourself.

Jamaipaese: Oh yeaaaah. TWO. DAYS!

Andrew: You could try Lang-8 language partners or Skype to practice spoken Japanese?

Jen: Nice idea. I was going to just make a big list for now and carry it with the book :)

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:44:21 +0000

The name thing – I still find it really hard to remember what people are called, and how to read their names, so what I do (when I can be bothered) is to write people’s names with readings on a scrap piece of paper and then tuck it into the front of the book, so that when I come across somebody and can’t remember who they are, I can look and remember. It’s really helpful!!!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:09:39 +0000

Nice post! I didn’t know there was a second season of LIAR GAME. I’m definitely going to check that out once I get home from university for the holidays. Also, now you play as the prosecutor in Phoenix Wright? That’s pretty cool. I’m currently working my way through the second game. I’ve really enjoyed them so far. I think that immersing yourself in the Japanese and becoming active with it IS the only way to fully learn / understand it eventually. I’m finally at a point in my learning where it isn’t too much extra work to start reading some manga meant for kids and such, and just from reading some of those, I feel that I’m getting better at it. I just wish there were more people here in the states that I could converse with in Japanese. :(
Good luck with your stud… err… I mean… have fun enjoying yourself! It sure sounds that way. I’m still jealous that the Japanese will get FFXIII before us. I’d import it, but I just don’t have the cash right now.

By: Jamaipanese

Jamaipanese — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:51:41 +0000

final fantary 13! *feints*

dammit I have to wait til March but it will make an awesome birthday gift to myself.

will look out for Liar game season 2, I kinda liked season 1.

By: shafman4

shafman4 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:02:42 +0000

I’d definitely second the ‘learning Japanese by osmosis’ doesn’t really work sentiment, but you seem to have pretty much every aspect covered between video games, reading and TV. Unfortunately, I’m not at the stage where I can read my favorite Japanese stories/novels in Japanese, or, if I tried it would be incredibly cumbersome though perhaps still worthwhile. Maybe in the New Year…