--- In [email protected], aya ashraf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Konnichi wa ,
> I'm Aya, i thought of studying japanese few weeks ago, but i dont
have time to take courses and stuff because of my study in college and
i really like languages.>
In case that you do not already know, Aya is a common name among
Japanese girls.
I can count myself among the would-be linguists of the world. I find
the study of languages to be engrossing and even, at times, liberating.
Language is often a window into the collective soul of a people.
Wouldn't you be better off pursuing a linguistics degree, now that you
mention it?
> Dakara, i would greatfully ask u guys to help in this step, i've
already started all by myself, i know some basics, but i really need
help.
> Sayonara.>
I recommend that you start off by purchasing a Japanese audio course
and sticking with that for the first few weeks. Pimsleur series from
Simon & Schuster Press is my personal favorite; after using it my
learning Japanese became easier. Japanese is primarily a spoken
language, so it pays to learn how to speak it first, then write it.
Besides, learing to write in Japanese takes much longer, but with
practice one can master it. One word of caution with the audio course,
though. DO NOT get the ones with books; reading and listening/speaking
are two different things. Reading out of a phrasebook while pronouncing
a word in a foreign language will eventually result in the listener
speaking the target language with the accent of his mother language,
and that can be very embarrassing! So, if you can get an audio-only
course, that is the best way.
If you wish to learn to write in Japanese as well as speak it, one
starts off by learning kana syllabary (hiragana & katakana), then on to
the first 100 kanji or so. I've been learning Japanese for over 3 years
now, but I still do not know all of the 2000 or so kanji used in a
typical Japanese newspaper. Even so, one can get along with just the
kana and a few kanji. Just remember not to stop there, because in
addition to the kana at least 1000 different kanji are used in daily
Japanese daily magazines and the like. In short, the more kanji you
learn the greater the variety of Japanese-language material that you
will be able to read. To learn kanji, a book such as "Kanji ABC: A
Systematic Approach to Japanese Characters", by Andreas Foerster and
Naoko Tamura, or "Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese", by Florence
Sakade, is convenient. The second one contains a section on writing
hiragana and katakana.
Keep the questions coming.
- Arian I.
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