Pro-active JPod Listeners!!

[markystar]

one of the things i've taken upon myself as a sort of personal crusade, is to get all of us more involved. i've definitely seen the community active surge in the last year and i really love interacting with you guys. we're growing together, so it's not just exciting, it's rewarding!

my dream for 2008 is to see this same enthusiasm just fly off the charts! we've got
momentum, so let's go crazy!

日本語のユーザー名
i've recently made a pitch on the main site that for people to use their katakana name or if they want, a japanese name or anything as long as they use japanese characters. of course the main reason is it's more fun, but i think there is a secondary benefit, ie: you'll become more familiar with japanese writing and your reading skill will improve.

a few people have already made the switch and i encourage everyone to do so!!
i think this is step one into becoming a more proactive learner and it's fun!

try out new vocab/grammar in the lesson threads.
some people already do this, and i see a lot of japanese used in the comments for miki's blog. max is pretty consistent about this, i noticed.

an example,
this saturday's sights & sounds lesson used the word だらけ
it would be great if everyone tried out a sentence using it (especially if you heard the review track we had some great sample sentences using だらけ). so this will give you a chance to test drive your new vocab or grammar. if you make a mistake or have a question, some listeners will chime in or sometimes our japanese staff! it can't hurt to try it and definitely is good practice, especially for those of you who don't have the opportunity to speak japanese daily.


what do you guys think?
good ideas? bad ideas?
anyone else interested in playing along?


マーキー

[kc8ufv]

日本語のユーザー名
i've recently made a pitch on the main site that for people to use their katakana name or if they want, a japanese name or anything as long as they use japanese characters. of course the main reason is it's more fun, but i think there is a secondary benefit, ie: you'll become more familiar with japanese writing and your reading skill will improve.

a few people have already made the switch and i encourage everyone to do so!!
i think this is step one into becoming a more proactive learner and it's fun!

I agree. Everyone, PLEASE JOIN US. Change your names in the lesson comments.

クリストファー・ハート

[Ulver_684]

Marky-san!

Ｓｉｎｄｙシンディー

[jemstone]

はい！　まもるです！

[Psy]

はい！　高山是真と申します。「高山」が選んだ理由は、私の英語の名前の意味から直接に和訳したら、「高い山の人」の意味の近くになることです。「是真」は、江戸時代の有名な芸術家の名前の意味も響きも気に入れていることです。

[stuu]

Markystar, I have to disagree and today's Newbie lesson is a good example why. It's designed for people who are still learning what 'doko' means yet kanji is being used in the comments section, result...all Newbies and many beginners (who are possibly the majority here) are automatically excluded. For example, how many newbie/beginners can the read the first and last lines of jpod's opening post? None, yet it's their lesson. A person still confused over, say, え and に may feel reluctant to post a question about it if they find the board a little intimidating, despite the great community here. Personally, it's frustrating when I'm unable to read some posts, who knows what I'm missing out on (yours for example, I know it had something to do about rivers but.....?) and there must be others thinking the same. It makes replying a little difficult too. It's a tricky one, I'm not advocating English only or for people to dumb down or anything like that but, people simply can't join in if they don't know what's going on and sometimes us less skilled readers would like to. I don't think an increase in written Japanese is going to encourage others.
Sorry to be negative as jpod101 does kick serious ass, just a minor quibble.

[Psy]

Personally, I say the more Japanese the merrier. Anyone who has spent any time here should realize that none of us mind being asked questions, so if one doesn't understand something, the answer is merely a post away. Usage of kanji is the reality of the language-- there's no getting by it-- and I think it's a good thing that even the newbies get exposed to it.

By the by, ミズーリ州 means "the state of Missouri." state (州) looks like river (川) but has little islands in it. Kinda hard to tell at the smaller font sizes, but there you go.

[markystar]

yeah, the idea is not to intimidate but to encourage and challenge!

by the way, do you have rikai-chan installed? it might be a great help when you see some words you can't read. even as you get better and better, it's still a useful resource!

[kc8ufv]

yeah, the idea is not to intimidate but to encourage and challenge!

by the way, do you have rikai-chan installed? it might be a great help when you see some words you can't read. even as you get better and better, it's still a useful resource!

Definately. Rikai-chan or Perapera-kun are NECESSITIES. (either one or the other. They do the same thing.) Perhaps it should be added to the helpful links.

[maxiewawa]

I have to say that I understand where stuu is coming from, but I agree with マーキー星 on the second point.

I agree that it's intimidating seeing all that Japanese (I'm going through the same thing over at KoreanClass101.com) but it's always good having the language coming at you relentlessly... I think the reason that people want to enter a language environment is precisely because you are forced to learn, and the message boards are just a microcosm of that. Every time I go to KoreanClass and see an entire page of 한글, or see people at EnglishPod101.com commenting in Japanese it's like someone issuing me a challenge... throwing down the gauntlet... someone slapping me in the face and daring me to fire up Rikaichan and climb that mountain.

Wow, that sounds a bit sappy, but I just get really excited by language learning.

I have to say with all honesty I'm not keen on the カタカナ name spelling thing. I can see how it would be nice to totally enter the Japanese language environment, but if there's one thing I've learnt from Japanese is that writing something in a different alphabet changes its meaning in a subtle way. お宅 and オタク aren't the same thing, and I just feel uncomfortable because I feel that I'm changing my name. And although maxiewawa isn't my real name, I am known as maxiewawa in every single place online that I go to, and マクシワーワー just isn't the same. I wouldn't change my name just for no reason, and that's how I feel about spelling my name out in カタカナ.

On the other hand, I have a real, proper 漢字 name, that I'll use, if we want to liberate ourselves from Romaji. I don't mind at all, it's my real, proper Chinese name, 羅子傑.

If anyone wants a 漢字 name, I'd be glad to give you one. I've already made some up for some people, I hope you don't mind. They're kinda word games. Who do you suppose 印い星 is? 箱い八？

I recommend everyone try to use the Japanese taught in each lesson in the message boards. And if you're really brave, make a video!

And most importantly, 頑張ってください！

[プチクレア]

I agree with マーキースターさん on the comment part. Writing in japanese is very, very frightening, because the language is alien to most of us, and at least at the beginning you get very afraid of offending someone, or not understanding whaterever full-japanese answer you might get to your comment. However taking this step is a huge bonus in term of learning to use the language. I've been studying japanese for more than ten years now, first at school and then by myself, and made a lot more progress once I've started interacting with japanese speakers on a frequent basis. Most people (ie every body outside of Japan) may not have access to a lot of japanese material in every day life, and there's such complexity to the language that I find you can't really learn the intricacies if you only study passively, be it textbooks or Jpod (which is far closer to "real" japanese than any textbook I've come across). Getting involved is the only way to learn such a language. And besides, people here are friendly !!! So there's not much risk in trying out your japanese here. Once you've done that, switching to Mixi and such seems less daunting.

As for the カタカナ names, it's something I used to do in English class and German class in junior high school (funnily enough, my japanese teacher never had us take a japanese name for class practice); besides, none of my japanese friends ever pronounced Claire correctly, so the カタカナis quite handy.

[stuu]

Markystar, I totally understand you're out to encourage but I still maintain that a newbie who is pleased with themselves for finally remembering how to count to ten is going to be put off by a comments page full of kanji. It is daunting to people at that level, not a challenge and they will be scared of looking dumb if they post. (Generalising here of course.)If that's not partly the reason why so few newbies are posting questions about the relevant lessons I'd be a little surprised. (Shame they're not posting here either, I could use some support!) I imagine there are plenty of jpod members still looking at a list of kana and wondering how they'll ever remember all that so sure, it's essential everyone be exposed to kanji but little by little eh? And I'm not a newbie myself it's just that although I listen to jpod so much at work I think my DNA has become part Galante my reading is poor due to time restraints so this is not so much a personal gripe but I do wonder about those new to the language and whether they feel left out or see it as a challenge. And yes I do use rikai, but not yet rikai-chan, I have no excuse except I don't get time to read much anyway you see, but , you're from St Louis Missouri but now you live in Tokyo right? Ok I admit, I learnt something from your post after all! And thanks for the kanji tip Psy, learnt something from you too.

[markystar]

hahaha, you learn something every day!

It is daunting to people at that level, not a challenge and they will be scared of looking dumb if they post.

it's true that it's daunting. but you have to start somewhere.
but i don't think anybody looks dumb for trying. as you get better you'll actually see people make lots of mistakes (myself included), but they're having fun! actually, i'd venture to say the only people not making mistakes are our japanese staff.

but yeah, i understand where you're coming from.

btw - hyunwoo from kclass101 posts on here in japanese and he always includes an english translation with his comments. might be nice everyone translated their stuff. that might be a little more welcoming.