Listening and understanding japanese

[nandemoii]

To put it in a nutshell:
Learning a language is all about EXPOSURE. that is how much NEW text you're able to understand in a unit of time (a minute preferably, muliplied by hours and days).
When you start at the beginner's level your exposure is almost none.

Go to Audioblog, make VERTICAL parallel texts.
私の名前は、美樹（みき）といいます。 わたし の なまえ は、 みき と い います。 Watashi no namae wa, Miki to īmasu. My name is Miki.

It does NOT matter whether you understand each single word, at the beginning concentrate on sentences. The more of them you will hear and see at the same time, the more exposure you will get. Let your brain do the rest.

The layout of the texts to learn is very important.
Sensory memories - visulal (iconic) and auditory - are very short and disappear within a second, so you get lost when you have to look for words, they should CONSTANTLY be within your eyes and ears reach.

The texts at this site are placed too far away from each other, you have to click away and scroll down all the time instead of enjoying what you hear and see.

The pdf format is no good, either. You can't use a pop-up dictionary to check the meaning of particular words and kanjis.
There sould be spaces between words in hiragana trascription as well, otherwise you get a string of meaningless garbage (for the learner of course, not for somebody who already knows it).

Even if you want to only understand the spoken language, use texts written in kanjis too, don't get scared by them. They are a very useful tool to get the meaning and see the boundries between words. In the speech flow you have no boundries, and in the written texts there are no spaces and you get lost too.

If you want to maximize your EXPOSURE:
Use meaningful texts (not words, short sentences).
Don't try to speak (or write) too soon, listening comprehention should be the most important goal.
It is much better to listen to more texts.

And don't do any tests, it is a complete waste of time and a source of appalling number of mistakes.

Sooner or later you will feel you're ready to speak or write, it will come naturally, and it will be easy.

ONE thing at a time.
Remember "The Last Samurai": "Too many minds: mind the sword, mind the people watch. No mind."

PS
As to my English. I'm not a native seapker. I am aware I might sometimes sound too aprupt or patronizing. If so, please forgive me, it was not my intention.

Be happy, go lucky.
Miss Hopper

[kichigaijin]

wow, i actually have that Beginning Japanese book, I got it as part of a huge Barron's Japanese set- the one with tons of cds. A teacher from my university stole a bunch of the cds from me so I never really cracked the book, but I may give it a second look. The romaji in it is seriously ugly though.

Come to think of it, Beginning Japanese is written by Eleanor Harz Jorden, the same lady that wrote the "Japanese: the Spoken Language" series that was used in the Japanese classes at my university and which I despised. hehe I'll still give 'em both a second look.

[Ulver_684]

McCrank-san!

I'm very happy to find another Norigean friend beside Solvi-san!

Please add me on your Mixi or let me know if you need a invitation ok, good luck on your studies!

mixi?

and yeah i need luck. i really want to learn the language but self study is pretty hard. i have to learn like a ton of words and to top it off be able to write them in some totally new writing system where all the characters looks more like drawings than something you make sentences out of.

Mccrank-san!

Just give your e-mail address and I sent a Mixi invitation so you know what I'm talking about ok, I definitive agree with you!