Japanese Study Group

vijayjohn
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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-13, 4:54

księżycowy wrote:I think I'll either go back to my shrimp story

What "shrimp story"? (If you mean this story, AFAICT it's about eels, not shrimp).
EDIT: That reminds me, Vijay, how helpful do you find the video dialogues to MnN?

I love those videos and find them really helpful! They seem a lot better than I was hoping for. (In one of my Chinese courses, we had videos accompanying our textbook, and those videos were awful. The acting was overdramatic, the sound quality made it nearly impossible to understand, background music was frequently way too loud, and the video quality was dismal). I love how all the foreign men look so awkward in them somehow despite speaking perfect Japanese. :P

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-13, 9:53

This shrimp story.

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-13, 12:30

I'm afraid I don't really get this concept of "translation practice" or have much interest to offer in trying to translate things that have already been translated right in front of my eyes. :? If I'm going to make the effort of translating something, it better be something I don't already have a translation readily available for.

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-13, 12:42

Where is there a translation of it? I mean, aside from the section I've already translated.

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-14, 5:58

Oh, sorry, I didn't read that thread very carefully or see that there was more to the story than what you translated. :lol: Okay, in that case, I can do that with you! :D

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-15, 7:44

Also, I just tried to go through chapters 5-6 in Minna no Nihongo, too. I have no idea why they suddenly introduce the names of foods in chapter 6 in the English version of the book. :P I tried to go through chapter 5 relatively carefully because I didn't know some of the transport-specific vocabulary (in particular, 'platform', 'rapid', 'local', and 'express').

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-24, 21:02

I definitely need to review my numbers. MnN does not do a really good job teaching the numbers (they are just an appendix in the back).

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-24, 22:50

vijayjohn wrote:I love those videos and find them really helpful! [...] I love how all the foreign men look so awkward in them somehow despite speaking perfect Japanese. :P

I just got the videos for the 2nd edition, and they amuse me. The one white guy who plays Mike Miller has weird hair and is totally awkward, and the one women who plays Maria kinda give the impression of "why the fuck am I in this video series?" :lol: :P

I don't know if it's the same people or not to the first edition videos.

ceid donn
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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby ceid donn » 2018-07-28, 19:28

My update 8-)

Earlier in the week I was having trouble focusing on Japanese so I moistly just blundered through some practices on Memrise and Duolingo. It's hard for me to work on Japanese unless I'm feeling in the OK-to-good range, but it's so hot and I am having so many health problems right now, it's difficult at times because I don't want to be stuck at A1 for ever. I don't feel like I'm making a ton of progress, but in actuality, things are slowing coming together for me. I guess baby steps is better than nothing.

In Colloquial Japanese, I'm on Unit 5. I'm not quite done with everything in the unit as I've been spending some time practicing telling time in Japanese.

Some related vocabulary I've learned:

午前 (ごぜん) — AM
午後 (ごご) — PM
秒 (びょう) — second
分 (ふん or ぷん) — minute
時 (とじ) — hour
半 (はん) — half
時間 (じかん) — time
今(いま) — now, at the present
今今 — right now


Ok, let's see if I can do this correctly. :D

今は何時ですか。
今は一時半です。or 午後一時半です。

I am not sure if this is correct, though: 今は午後一時半です -- it is now 1:30 PM.

I've memorized that 分 is pronounced ふん for 2,5,7 and 9 although don't expect me to get that perfect in speech. :lol:

I looked at different webpages about telling time and some say, "Don't worry about learning the kanji for numbers--Japanese just use Arabic numbers now," or that Japanese people use a 24-clock so don't to worry about saying AM or PM. I'm pretty sure I should learn the kanji (I more or less already know them by sight at least) but is it preferred to use the 24-hour clock or is saying AM or PM OK in some contexts?

I'm workings through the Duolingo lessons on time to try to get in repetition. At least in the lessons on time they use some of the kanji. I also watched the Unit Four videos for MnN on NihonGoal's YT page and did the corresponding lesson in the user-created MnN Memrise course.

On Netflix, I watched a couple episodes of Mobpsycho 100, which is an incredibly silly show, and a little of Fate/Extra Last Encore.

I've listened to this song so many times that I nearly have it memorized, phonically. :lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otScR1A3Xek

That reminds me, I had pre-ordered the anniversary blu-ray for Grave of the Fireflies and it's suppose ship at the end of July, which is like, very soon! :whistle:

It's actually good for me to be able to sing a little in Japanese, as that's a method for learning languages that I excel at, so I found some children's songs (that aren't just ridiculously silly) to work on, like this one, 七つの子:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZoBPck1e0

Goals for the coming week:

--Complete CJ Unit 5
--Update my kanji list in my SAC journal
--If my copy arrives, watch Grave of the Fireflies
--Work on memorizing the song 七つの子
--Write a small paragraph using vocabulary, kanji and grammar I've learned so far

Additional goals, in progress and to be ongoing:

--Start the Memrise Japanese 2 course for real this time
--Finish all the Duolingo lessons on time and try to get to the next checkpoint in the tree
--Continue watching the MnN videos on NihonGoal and doing the MnN Memrise course
--practice pronunciation with 50languages audio files
--watch 2-3 hours of Japanese language media
Last edited by ceid donn on 2018-08-10, 3:11, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby ceid donn » 2018-07-30, 3:53

That reminds me, I had pre-ordered the anniversary blu-ray for Grave of the Fireflies and it's suppose ship at the end of July, which is like, very soon! :whistle:


Oh, I see, so, no one here is a GotF fan. OK, fiiiiiiiine. :lol:

I am not sure if this is correct, though: 今は午後一時半です -- it is now 1:30 PM.


OK, I think I've answered my own question. In the lesson Time 3 in the Duolingo Japanese course, this is exactly how they write this kind of sentence.

A few more things about telling time that I've learned:

ちょうど chōdo - just, precisely--used when telling time to say the equivalent of "it's X sharp"

ex. 九時半ちょうどです。 It's 9:30 sharp.

ごろ goro - around

exs. 午前九時ごろ。 Around 9 AM. ; 午後十二時ごろに食べます。I eat around 12 PM.

零 (れい) rei - zero

ex. 今は午前時です。 It is now midnight/12 A.M. (零時 lit. zero hour)

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-31, 22:56

Sorry for the late responses!

ceid donn wrote:
That reminds me, I had pre-ordered the anniversary blu-ray for Grave of the Fireflies and it's suppose ship at the end of July, which is like, very soon! :whistle:


Oh, I see, so, no one here is a GotF fan. OK, fiiiiiiiine. :lol:

I haven't seen it, so I guess I'm not. :P

I am not sure if this is correct, though: 今は午後一時半です -- it is now 1:30 PM.


OK, I think I've answered my own question. In the lesson Time 3 in the Duolingo Japanese course, this is exactly how they write this kind of sentence.

A few more things about telling time that I've learned:

ちょうど chōdo - just, precisely--used when telling time to say the equivalent of "it's X sharp"

ex. 九時半ちょうどです。 It's 9:30 sharp.

ごろ goro - around

exs. 午前九時ごろ。 Around 9 AM. ; 午後十二時ごろに食べます。I eat around 12 PM.

零 (れい) rei - zero

ex. 今は午前時です。 It is now midnight/12 A.M. (零時 lit. zero hour)

It looks right to me (I just started reviewing telling time in MnN :lol:). I can't remember where gogo and gozen go, but I think your right.

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-08-04, 16:50

Ok, so for this week, I'm going to try remembering where I felt off in MnN and review at least two lessons. :lol:

I'd also like to get this translation project with Vijay going, and I'd also like to try to challenge myself with (bi?)weekly writing assignments.

We can probably just use my personal Japanese thread for the translation, Vijay. I might also use if for writing stuff, or I might open up a new one.

vijayjohn
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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-08-09, 3:48

I got up to Chapter 6 (i.e. haven't started Chapter 7 yet). I'm also trying to see whether I can learn some of the uses of some of these kanji in Kodansha that I was unfamiliar with, and maybe see whether I can help you learn those kanji, too. That's a lot of stuff to remember, though, especially when you're not already pretty advanced!

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-08-12, 1:54

Okay, this isn't about studying per se, but I recently started eating lunch every day with a jolly bunch of friendly Japanese people who are always chatting away in Japanese (but switch to English presumably when they're more inclined to include more ignorant gaijin such as myself in the conversation). :) One of them told me a few days ago that since あおい (青い, alternatively 蒼い) means both 'blue' and 'green', his husband gets annoyed when they're stopped at a traffic light and he tells him in English that the light is blue. :lol:

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-10-29, 15:48

So, what do we want to do to breathe some life back into this study group?

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-10-29, 15:50

Try picking up where we left off with Minna no Nihongo and Kodansha?

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-10-29, 15:54

I wish I could find the second edition of the grammar book for you. But sure, let's review lessons 1-3.

I do have the updated second edition textbook if you want. Though I'm curious what differences there are between the two (if many at all).

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-10-29, 16:43

I'm sure we'll be fine. :)

Learning all those kanji and all their uses in Kodansha is way harder than MnN, though. :P

księżycowy

Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-10-29, 16:49

I hadn't even considered Kodansha yet. Let's get MnN going again for a week or two and take it from there.

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Re: Japanese Study Group

Postby ceid donn » 2018-10-29, 17:15

I don't have a copy of the book for MnN, but I have been working through the videos on Nihon Goal's channel. I've gotten to chapter 12 with the grammar and vocabulary, although I'm a little behind with watching the corresponding kanji videos. Where are you guys at now?


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