keeping it in your head

[kidrock12xp]

I am taking Japanese at my college and I was curious what other students or learners of the language did to keep all the knowledge in their head in between semesters (for me that is about 4 months). My friend who is taking Swahili suggested the Rosetta Stone program or getting a pen pal type thing going. The Rosetta Stone program costs too much in my opinion and the pen pal sites I been to all wanted money for you to actually contact anybody.

Is there other methods that are cheaper and or possibly better? Thanks for your time and helping me in this too.

- Scott

[hundefar]

I recommend that you translate a book during break. It is great practice. watch japanese movies and dramas (if you can stand them).
If you are looking for japanese penpals join Mixi, there are plenty of people there you can write with and also a Skype group for language exchange, if you want to talk to people online. If you don't have a Mixi profile and would like an invite, send me a message.

[kamome]

If there is a Japan Club at your school, see if there are any members who are native Japanese people and try to arrange a language exchange with one of them. Or you can try to form your own Japan Club/Japanese Speaking Society at your school if one doesn't exist.

I also recommend making flashcards for kanji and vocabulary review. The very act of making the flashcards is a good exercise in learning, plus you then have a study tool that you can carry with you. You can review the flashcards in your spare time, even during the commercial breaks while you watch TV.

Finally, hunderfar is right that translation of text can be a great study aid. Magazines and newspapers are really good. Certain manga would be good too because you can correlate the conversation to a visualization of the social situation in which the conversation occurs (but stay away from the real slangy manga and stick to the more reality-based manga that are out there).

[Charles]

... reality-based manga...

I've had this argument with otaku many times. They gush about how they've gained so much insight into Japanese culture by reading Manga XYZ. I say, no, you've gained insight into the mind of ONE AUTHOR, who may or (more likely) may NOT be a good representative of Japanese culture and society.

I personally recommend against manga as study aids, as it is spoken language presented in written form. That gives you weird ideas about both written and spoken forms. IMHO it's better to study spoken words as audio content (videos, tapes etc) and not scribbles in speech bubbles in manga.

[Gilligan]

Another possible way to find someone to set up a language exchange is to find a native Japanese speaker who is at your college studying English (assuming that your school has some sort of English language program affiliated with it).

[kidrock12xp]

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions. I'll try checking out that Mixi site and make flash cards for sure. The only thing that's got me going against the translating a book or magazine is I'm only going to have completed Beginning Japanese 1, so I'm not to sure that it would be on my same level so to speak. I will bring up the idea near the end of the semester about maybe setting up a club thing and see if there's any interest in it.

[kusai Jijii]

Another possible way to find someone to set up a language exchange is to find a native Japanese speaker who is at your college studying English (assuming that your school has some sort of English language program affiliated with it).

What Gilligan is really refering to here is the 'sleeping dictionary' that the G-man is constantly upgrading...

[TennoChinko]

I am taking Japanese at my college and I was curious what other students or learners of the language did to keep all the knowledge in their head in between semesters (for me that is about 4 months). My friend who is taking Swahili suggested the Rosetta Stone program or getting a pen pal type thing going. The Rosetta Stone program costs too much in my opinion and the pen pal sites I been to all wanted money for you to actually contact anybody.

Is there other methods that are cheaper and or possibly better? Thanks for your time and helping me in this too.

- Scott

Unless you opt for the PDF files, almost all of the content on http://www.japanesepod101.com is for free. If you opt for the fee-based content though - it's worth it. A few of my friends swear by it.

[Greji]

[quote="kusai Jijii"]What Gilligan is really refering to here is the 'sleeping dictionary' that the G-man is constantly upgrading...]

Just like all sports, you start at the lowest levels and have to work your way up....Not all dictionaries may have what you need, you have
to keep the hunt up for that perfect one that can do everything for you, although I have been know to drop down a notch or two in my expectations, after a long evening of study, or close to closing time when all the good ones have been already checked out....

[kamome]

:rofl:

I've had this argument with otaku many times. They gush about how they've gained so much insight into Japanese culture by reading Manga XYZ. I say, no, you've gained insight into the mind of ONE AUTHOR, who may or (more likely) may NOT be a good representative of Japanese culture and society.

I personally recommend against manga as study aids, as it is spoken language presented in written form. That gives you weird ideas about both written and spoken forms. IMHO it's better to study spoken words as audio content (videos, tapes etc) and not scribbles in speech bubbles in manga.

I knew you would jump on this. We've argued about it before at some point. I believe it is a great way to perceive how spoken Japanese works in a particular setting and to learn kanji on the fly. Also, the pictures and story serve as a motivation to learn the characters and the grammar so that you know what is happening. So what you are doing is learning spoken Japanese while reading it and learning the kanji simultaneously.

Manga certainly shouldn't be the only study aid you use, but the original poster said that he needed something to keep Japanese in his head during the summer. Reading manga is one entertaining and helpful way to do that and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand like you're doing.

[ttjereth]

I knew you would jump on this. We've argued about it before at some point. I believe it is a great way to perceive how spoken Japanese works in a particular setting and to learn kanji on the fly. Also, the pictures and story serve as a motivation to learn the characters and the grammar so that you know what is happening. So what you are doing is learning spoken Japanese while reading it and learning the kanji simultaneously.

Manga certainly shouldn't be the only study aid you use, but the original poster said that he needed something to keep Japanese in his head during the summer. Reading manga is one entertaining and helpful way to do that and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand like you're doing.

I partially agree with Charles, in that the Japanese used in manga isn't even really normal "spoken" Japanese. It is manga Japanese and can lead to some weird and bad habits/misconceptions that are hard to break later (my wife, who is a certified Japanese teacher, always enjoys when I translate any manga or anime. I can ask a seemingly innocuous question about a phrase or word and she'll know right away I am translating anime or manga because it's something that isn't generally used elsewhere).

That being said however, the benefit of it is that if you are interested in it, you are more likely to keep up with it and actually be interested in looking up/researching the bits you don't understand, whereas you might not be quite so motivated to say write the same kanji 500 times a day for practice.

[Charles]

I knew you would jump on this. We've argued about it before at some point. I believe it is a great way to perceive how spoken Japanese works in a particular setting and to learn kanji on the fly. Also, the pictures and story serve as a motivation to learn the characters and the grammar so that you know what is happening. So what you are doing is learning spoken Japanese while reading it and learning the kanji simultaneously.

Manga certainly shouldn't be the only study aid you use, but the original poster said that he needed something to keep Japanese in his head during the summer. Reading manga is one entertaining and helpful way to do that and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand like you're doing.

Well if you have enough experience in the spoken language to get beyond the speech-as-written problems, I suppose it would be OK. But I've seen too many people go astray on this, I didn't just make this theory up, I observed the problem and tried to see what was going wrong for some students.
There are plenty of other reasons I don't like manga for study material but I won't belabor the point here. I personally like newspapers and online news video for practice listening and reading study. But then I'm a news junkie.

[kamome]

Well if you have enough experience in the spoken language to get beyond the speech-as-written problems, I suppose it would be OK.

Yes, I totally agree with you on this point. It does require some prior experience to discern what is "bad" spoken/written Japanese and what is proper Japanese. Newbies and otaku who go straight for the comics to learn their Japanese are going about it the wrong way because they don't have the sophistication in the language to discern what is proper.

Looking back at kidrock12xp's post, it seems that he's only had 1 year of Japanese, so manga could be a misleading study tool for him. On the other hand, he might learn some good kanji this way.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I've had this argument with otaku many times. They gush about how they've gained so much insight into Japanese culture by reading Manga XYZ. I say, no, you've gained insight into the mind of ONE AUTHOR, who may or (more likely) may NOT be a good representative of Japanese culture and society.

I'm no advocate of manga for study, but your argument is pretty weak because the same could be said of a novel, a history book, or a news paper article.

[Charles]

I'm no advocate of manga for study, but your argument is pretty weak because the same could be said of a novel, a history book, or a news paper article.

True, but we generally read our native language materials that we already know the background. Not so for foreign language materials, we can't readily judge whether it's accurate, maybe it's exaggerated for effect, we may not even know the cultural references.

A silly example today. My Scottish buddy phoned me today to ask what was funny about this bad joke (excuse me if I retell it badly)
"A guy goes to a fancy dress party. The host asks him about his costume. 'It represents my love life.' The host asks why he's dressed like Abraham Lincoln. The guy says 'Yeah, that's the last time I saw my love life, Four Score and Seven Years Ago.'"

OK, so every school kid in the US knows the cultural reference, but this Scot didn't get it or the joke. He asked me "What's this 87 years thing?"

[pixie.styx16]

I managed to find the rosetta stone Japanese version ... Also, if you're wanting to study from anime, I recommend azumanga daioh.

[kamome]

Also, if you're wanting to study from anime, I recommend azumanga daioh.

Don't study from anime.

[prolly]

Don't study from anime.

that needs to be tattooed across the foreheads of anyone who like japanese pop culture

[Western All Stars]

[American Oyaji]

Don't study from anime.

I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. I would say not STUDY, but watch a lot of it. It gets one used to HEARING how the language works and provides a quick relevance on what is being said.

[Samurai_Jerk]

True, but we generally read our native language materials that we already know the background. Not so for foreign language materials, we can't readily judge whether it's accurate, maybe it's exaggerated for effect, we may not even know the cultural references.

A silly example today. My Scottish buddy phoned me today to ask what was funny about this bad joke (excuse me if I retell it badly)
"A guy goes to a fancy dress party. The host asks him about his costume. 'It represents my love life.' The host asks why he's dressed like Abraham Lincoln. The guy says 'Yeah, that's the last time I saw my love life, Four Score and Seven Years Ago.'"

OK, so every school kid in the US knows the cultural reference, but this Scot didn't get it or the joke. He asked me "What's this 87 years thing?"

I missed this when you first posted it, but I really have no clue what you're trying to say as it relates to your argument.