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Learning right???

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gaghl641295
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 38
Joined: November 30th, 2011 4:19 am

Learning right???

Postby gaghl641295 » March 7th, 2012 9:22 pm

I'm going through the newbie series and all I'm picking up is vocab, simple phrases, and some grammar here and there.
Is it ok If I can't make sentences yet?

mmmason8967
Expert on Something
Posts: 758
Joined: January 7th, 2012 12:24 pm

Re: Learning right???

Postby mmmason8967 » March 8th, 2012 11:51 pm

gaghl641295 wrote:I'm going through the newbie series and all I'm picking up is vocab, simple phrases, and some grammar here and there.
Is it ok If I can't make sentences yet?

I am also a beginner and in a similar situation but I think that it's probably OK.

When you begin to learn Japanese, you quickly notice that the language works in a very different way to English and that there is very little that translates in a straightforward way from English to Japanese or vice versa. Even something as simple as "I like it" ends up in Japanese with no "I", no "it" and no equivalent of the verb "to like". You'd never figure it out if you had an English-Japanese dictionary but no knowledge of Japanese.

So I think initially we're stuck with learning basic sentence patterns and acquiring vocabulary that can be slotted into those sentence patterns. Once you know how to say "I like it" you can figure out how to say "I hate it", "I love it" or even "I'm not really that keen on it", so you can get quite good mileage out of a simple sentence pattern. OK, it doesn't make for sparkling conversation, but it is so much better than not being able to say anything at all!

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gaghl641295
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 38
Joined: November 30th, 2011 4:19 am

Postby gaghl641295 » March 12th, 2012 1:56 am

Thanks, that really helps me understand the situation :D

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