Learning Japanese

Hey folks-

I'm planning on taking a trip to Japan in a few months, and i need a crash course in conversational Japanese. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best audio courses there are for effectively learning japanese quickly and easily - and will give me a strong understanding of the language and how to properly use it... preferably something I can pick up at Barnes and Nobles - if not... that's ok too. Amazon's just fine.

I guess I'm just asking what brand of Language Learning CD courses people recommend. I have little experience with CD language courses - so i dont know who to go to for the most accurate, organized, and easy courses.

Thanks for the help
Chris

Pimsleur.

Oh, learning?
Sorry, no help here.

I really think so.

i just got back. depending on where you go most everyone speaks some degree of english. if you go out into the country you might run into problems.

gomen animas-ka - sorry i dont understand.
ikura desu ka - how much for (then point)
hai/iie - yes/no
otearai doko - wheres the head?
eigo ga hanasemasu ka - i only speak english

i'm not 100 per cent on the spelling of these but i spelled them phonetticly.
the nomner "ka" at the end of a term or word will turn it to a negetive.

i got by for a year on little more than the above phrases.

I took Japanese for 4 years in high school.

I remeber how to count to 10. Does that help?

But yeah, Pimsleur has the best crash courses, I think.

I speak fluent Japaneeeze, but I've lived there and studied quite a bit. Learning when you're tossed in the deep end is actually quite fun. Really

For beginners, I recommend a phrasebook and the 'teach yourself' series. I have the one in hungarian and its pretty good, my friends tell me the japanese one is awesome.

Practice, practice. Don't be shy. Insist on using your minimal language skills all the time - it will bring you confidence.

good luck

do you have any friends that speak nihon? are you going alone?

I'll be going alone - part of the idea, like Zofia said, is that i want to just jump right in - imerse myself in the culture and take it from there....... but I'd like a basic understanding of japanese. I did pimsluer french - it seemed pretty good - i wondered what other people had tried.

Drill yourself on the phonetic alphabets. I wouldn't bother buying anything for this, just look for a hiragana and katakana chart on the web and make flash cards. Being able to read and pronounce katakana is one of the most valuable skills you can have for just getting around, mainly because a lot of menus and stuff are written in it, so if you can read it you will at least have some idea fo what's going on. They use a lot of English words that are katakanized, so like you'll got to McDonalds and they'll have "Cheeseburger" on the menu written in English and katakana but if you try to ask for a "cheeseburger" you'll get a blank stare. See, you have to order a cheezubaaagaa or you get nuthin'. You also want to be sure to know how much your beeru costs before hand.

Nick

Wait a second. I studied Japanese for five years, stopped three years ago, but I remember some things. "Ka" at the end of a sentence turns the sentence into a question, not a negative, as far as I've ever heard (as shown by your second sentence) . Your last sentence would mean "do you speak English".

"I only speak English" would be "eigo shika hanasemasen" or "eigo shika wakarimasen". But there's other variations.

I would say "Sorry I don't understand" as "gomen, wakarimasen"

maybe everyone there was so nice they didnt want to correct me. i could be wrong. i never studied it. you did.
i just picked stuff up here and there from 13 monts of living there.

edit to say your right. with everything there are always other variations.

[Edited on Feb 17, 2005 by katiebarthedoor]

I've heard from some folk who have spent extensive time in Japan that a possible clue that a native speaker thinks you're good at the language is when they offer you polite corrections instead of just smiling, nodding, and grimacing when you mince the pronunciation.

Baka na gaijin = stupid foreigner
wakarimasen = I don't understand
mo ichido kudasai = one more time please
kore wa nan desuka = what is this?
nani = what?
doko = where?
kuso = universal curse word

I didn't realise 'head' was slang for toilet, yo. I was confused for a whole .08 seconds there.

Also, I agree with the above, generally a ka on the end of a sentence as well as a correct shift in intonation will be considered a question. But asking someone if they speak english is also a pretty good clue for them that you can't manage in Japanese very well!

Obviously you're not a pirate....It's the nautical term for toilet, not slang.

"Making Out in Japanese" by Todd and Erika Geers is a good phrasebook. It goes beyond the standard pleasantries and common conversation and adds street slang, cursing, and phrases for picking up that Japanese cutie playing a dating sim on her cell phone.

In my travels in Japan, I've found that many people will go out of their way to practice their english with you.
Many Japanese restaraunts have their entire menus either in pictures or wax reproductions in the window. If the words aren't coming to you when out to eat, and your unbeleivably polite server doesn't speak much english, you can always make a simple apology and then get up and point to what you want. (I've done this many times to my embarassment and the entertainment of a roomful of Japanese diners)

I don't know if this is still going on, but when I was there about a year and a half ago there was pretty much no prepaid phone card service in Tokyo because of phone card scams. Just a heads up there

Make sure to visit the Shinjuku and Akahibara districts of Tokyo. Those areas were made for SG'ers

Your'e going to have a fucking blast, and your post gets me even more jumpy for my trip there in July

I studied Japanese for three years, and learnt how to say 'good morning / good day / good evening, my name is Anton. How are you?'

I studied French for six months and learnt how to say 'I am very sorry.' And I only remembered that - je suis desole - because there was a comic with a girl named Desole in it, and it was funny that she was saying Desole. Or maybe her name was Desore.

Anyway, I suck at languages. Have fun in Japan!

Hey, I don't know about audio courses, but I second the phrase book recommendation. Someone gave me one published by the BBC when I first started with Japanese. Look for one with basic introductions to phonetics and the written language as well as good sample phrases.

There's really no way to "cram" any menaingful understanding of Japanese in a couple months, but a foothold on the basics along with a pocket phrase book will get you by in Tokyo. Many things are written in English, like train maps and menus. Plus, most Japanese have taken some English and are eager to help out.

And just to clarify, "ka" at the end of a sentence indicates a question. That's non-negotiable. It can be a concrete interogative or a hypothetical, but there is no situation in standard Japanese where it is not a question marker.

Thank you

Some more advice about the travel itself:

Definately look into getting a one or two week JR rail pass. They may seem expensive, but they easily pay for themselves. (the cost of a one week pass is about the same as one trip from Tokyo to Osaka) Japanese trains are amazingly efficient and all encompassing, but they are also quite expensive. JR (Japan Rail) is the largest rail company in Japan. There are some smaller, private lines in the cities, but they are realtively few and far between.

What you get for your money is unlimited use of all the long distance lines as well as the inner city ones in Tokyo and other major cities. They don't work on the Tokyo subways, but given that the land lines go to all the same places the subway does, it doesn't matter.

You also get the convenience of not having to fuss with complicated rate calculation tables (which are in Japanese). Japanese train and subway fares are not flat rate, they are destination based. With a rail pass, you just show it to the guy at the gate as you leave the station and you are all set.

Also, I'm not loyal to any airline but the last time I went to Tokyo, I flew Continental and it was just about as good as a 12 hour flight could be. Each of the seats had a monitor in the back so you could watch TV and movies. The movies were shown every few hours so you could watch them on your schedule. (more or less) Furthermore, you could also play a variety of basic video games using the pop-out controller under the monitors. It didn't hurt that both there and back I had nobody sitting next to me, making the accomodations a little more accomodating. Given that you are in Detroit, you should have a wide variety of flights to choose from.

If you'd like any more specific tips and tricks, please feel free to contact me. I majored in Japanese in college and I have been there 3 times. Have fun

Thank you

the above post brings up a good point about the train. for me, the absolute most intimidating thing was taking the train to get around speaking only limited nihon. everyone is very polite and helpful but being able to speak and read some will be invaluable. i took a car most of the time. drivers are used to dealing with tourists and can get you where you need to go. i got off work early in the morning and trains dont run in tokyo that early, so a car or hoofing it will be your options till 6 am.

I have Pimsleur's ripped to mp3. I haven't listened to it yet though.

Pimsleur's great. I just need to get a dictionary and grammar guide so I can *see* what I'm saying.