Learning Japanese due to work and I made a habit of taking at least an hour or two after work to learn a few kanji symbols. It ain’t easy but it sure feels satisfying to be able to understand what I’m reading every once in a while. I think I’m struggling more with grammar and sentence structuring due to how vastly different it is from English and Spanish. My goal is to pass the N5 test this year and I’m confident I’ll be able to at this pace.
What are you doing for conversation listening / speaking?
I’m on WaniKani which is fun, but I don’t feel close to being able to talk to someone.
I listen to Easy Japanese Podcast on YouTube, who release short conversations about any topic each day. I’ve been able to understand them better to the point I can tell you what they’re talking about and what they segway to.
I am not yet able to make conversation, but I’m aware that it’s not a quick process. I began less than a year ago and I think learning the sentence structuring is harder than learning kanji, lol. But that is only my opinion.
For grammar, words, and lexicon, I would recommend Human Japanese, which is a phone/windows app that uses the Genki textbook as it’s basis. They have a demo for the first 3 chapters
I really like C# so far. Im excited to avoid java and expand away from python at the same time.
But C# and java are very similar. I actually dont mind java but i also dont like python all that much.
I’m trying to browse materials in the languages that I wish to learn, and use a translator when I don’t understand them. Feels like cheating…
I live in a country that doesn’t speak english. Trust me when i say it isn’t cheating using a translator. Until you’re conversationally fluent you’re going to confuse or not understand a lot of words/phrases. For me it was best to carry a translator or dictionary until i understood most of what was said. Now i figure stuff out by context or asking questions about the word i don’t know.
I went on an international trip last year, to a Spanish speaking country. Felt incredibly good to be able to actually communicate with people who do not speak English! I didn’t think I really could, as hard as it is to understand natural-speed speech. Turns out conversation w/ patient native speakers is much easier than just listening.
This year, I’m getting back into Japanese more. Caught up on my Anki and SRS stuff, getting back into the habit of watching videos, and starting to dig into the 2nd volume of the textbook.
I’d say it’s going well!
I started learning German🌱
mostly just trying to remember basic phrases🤗
