Learning a language? Come share your progress here!

[Legend]

I'm learning Japanese now! Brother is learning it so I figured this would be a good opportunity. It's my first time learning a language with a unique script so that's fun.

Also seems like Dernebel is learning it too!

[the-pi-guy]

I'm learning Japanese now! Brother is learning it so I figured this would be a good opportunity. It's my first time learning a language with a unique script so that's fun.

Also seems like Dernebel is learning it too!

What are you using to learn?  
The script is a lot of fun.  

[Legend]

What are you using to learn?  
The script is a lot of fun.  

Duolingo to start. It worked pretty well when I learned Dutch.

[DerNebel]

I'm learning Japanese now! Brother is learning it so I figured this would be a good opportunity. It's my first time learning a language with a unique script so that's fun.

Also seems like Dernebel is learning it too!

I'm not starting until late April.  

Also I'm just doing a 3 month beginners course for starters, see how much I like it and how much I'm struggling with it.

[the-pi-guy]

Duolingo to start. It worked pretty well when I learned Dutch.

Duolingo is expanding their Japanese.  

A lot of people complain that Duolingo isn't as good for Japanese.  They recommend LingoDeer usually.  

I am here to talk Japanese!   And I can answer some types of questions.

I'm not starting until late April.  

Also I'm just doing a 3 month beginners course for starters, see how much I like it and how much I'm struggling with it.

It's not horribly difficult.  

- Use an app to memorize the Hiragana and Katakana.  You can comfortably learn each in about an hour, and that'll make a massive difference.  I had a classmate who was still struggling with those after a semester.  Really just spend an hour getting those, and you'll be on a great start.

- Aside from that, the most difficult thing is to just keep yourself on track with remembering what you're supposed to.  Just spend 20 minutes a day writing characters, and words.  

[Legend]

Duolingo is expanding their Japanese.  

A lot of people complain that Duolingo isn't as good for Japanese.  They recommend LingoDeer usually.  

I am here to talk Japanese!   And I can answer some types of questions.
It's not horribly difficult.  

- Use an app to memorize the Hiragana and Katakana.  You can comfortably learn each in about an hour, and that'll make a massive difference.  I had a classmate who was still struggling with those after a semester.  Really just spend an hour getting those, and you'll be on a great start.

- Aside from that, the most difficult thing is to just keep yourself on track with remembering what you're supposed to.  Just spend 20 minutes a day writing characters, and words.  

It works out since by the time I reach the end of the current course, they should have the expanded version right around the corner.

It's also kinda funny but Japanese has a lot of similarities with my conlang from VizionEck Adventure. So far at least that is helping me learn.


It's also making me want to revisit my conlang and learn it better. At the very least I should finish up my text editor for the language.



1 hour each? Oops lol I'm not there yet.

[the-pi-guy]

It works out since by the time I reach the end of the current course, they should have the expanded version right around the corner.
It's also kinda funny but Japanese has a lot of similarities with my conlang from VizionEck Adventure. So far at least that is helping me learn.
It's also making me want to revisit my conlang and learn it better. At the very least I should finish up my text editor for the language.

I figured it would! 

1 hour each? Oops lol I'm not there yet.

Well, less is doable. 

Just an estimate on how long it takes to memorize this and recognize them without having to think about it:


わたしはにほんごをべんきょうします。

[Legend]

わたしはにほんごをべんきょうします。

I needed google translate for this.  


Duolingo is weird since for the longest time it feels like you are just learning how to play the app instead of actually learning. I'm really looking forward to when I can have NHK on and start picking up on some things.

[the-pi-guy]

In about 8 weeks, I'm going all in on Japanese again.  

A lot to relearn and learn...  

.

マイク = maiku = Mike
This makes it more fun than Spanish for me.  

[Legend]

In about 8 weeks, I'm going all in on Japanese again.  

A lot to relearn and learn...  
マイク = maiku = Mike
This makes it more fun than Spanish for me.  

Is spanish the only other language you've learned?

[the-pi-guy]

Is spanish the only other language you've learned?

Languages I "know"  
English>>>>>>Japanese>Chinese>>>Spanish

I've forgotten almost all of my Spanish, actually.  
I know very little Japanese/Chinese, but I know enough that I could get around.  


I just remember being irritated with my spanish classes, that required us to pick random Spanish names.  

[Legend]

Languages I "know"  
English>>>>>>Japanese>Chinese>>>Spanish

I've forgotten almost all of my Spanish, actually.  
I know very little Japanese/Chinese, but I know enough that I could get around.  


I just remember being irritated with my spanish classes, that required us to pick random Spanish names.  

Haha my Spanish classes did that too. I was Miguel for all my classes except one year the teacher forced me to use a different name.


English>>>>>>Spanish>>Dutch>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Japanese

[the-pi-guy]

A couple of things that Duolingo might not teach:

The 'u' sound, a lot of times gets dropped, if it's between certain consonants or at the end of an utterance.  Sasuke gets pronounced like Sah-skay (which might not be helpful)  If it's a u between s, t, or k (there might be some other cases I'm forgetting), it doesn't usually get pronounced.  

Although that's somewhat regional.  So it won't hurt understanding, if you don't drop those.  


A couple of characters get pronounced differently when they are used as particles.  

は、へ
ha,  he are pronounced as wa, e when they are particles. When they are part of a word, they are pronounced as usual.  The exception are:

konnichiwa, konbanwa are written with a "ha".  The reason is because the literal meanings of these words are "this day is...", "this afternoon is".  But now they are used to say hello.  

[Legend]

Japanese is going good. I'm getting a hang of how very basic sayings work.

日本

[the-pi-guy]

Japanese is going good. I'm getting a hang of how very basic sayings work.

日本

いいですね。