I'm thinking about taking a course this fall in Japanese at the college. I've got two free elective spots (I'm a music major, so this is rare), and I can't think of anything else that would be an option to fill a spot, especially since most other people have already filled the popular classes. But anyway, I have about two weeks left to decide on this.

I just don't want to end up in the class if I'm going to be totally lost or flop my chances at getting an A.... :unsure: I did very well with Spanish in HS (skipped from Spanish II to Spanish IV my senior year and passed the AP test :D) and have always loved languages, especially ones that sound different and you don't always find someone able to speak.

Anyone have advice? Has anyone here ever experienced taking a course in or trying to learn Japanese? I've gone through eighteen years of English (eighteen and a half, actually :P) and three years of Spanish, but I want to try something unique. The other Romance languages don't much catch my eye, and Japanese culture is so fascinating -- therefore, why not take the language?

Well, i haven't taken a course in Japanese, but have been starting to write in Japanese. I write hiragami a form of Japanese writing, its preety cool to write in Japanese. Its like drawing swoops and swurves in random places like symbols, and they even look the letter it represents. But it does take some time to master each type of letter and group of letters. Its fun, but i only remember a few letters, though.

Indeed, pianocrazy90, I always did think they used interesting alphabet characters. I think it would be fun -- their form of writing seems a lot more artistic and calligraphic than our boring Latin characters. :P

Yeah it is. And its fun to write in the language once you get the hang of the writing. Its funny you know like in my class at school during study hall im practicing my hiragami and everybody's like what are you writing. Its just fun to be able to write in some other language, and the others that are around you can't. But yeah its depressing to know when that you write something or say something in Japanese that your friend doesn't understand or doesn't get
what your saying.

Well, i haven't taken a course in Japanese, but have been starting to write in Japanese. I write hiragami a form of Japanese writing, its preety cool to write in Japanese. Its like drawing swoops and swurves in random places like symbols, and they even look the letter it represents. But it does take some time to master each type of letter and group of letters. Its fun, but i only remember a few letters, though.
:P not the be anal or anything or mean but i believe it's spelled hiragana not hiragami

yeah i'm studying some japanese (self study...haven't found a class yet)
currently 1/2 done with the hiragana and katakana (memorized 30 of each...there's 46 of each mind you) and know (IMO) a good bit of japanese

also...if you want a little prep before going to the class consider an audio lesson like pimsleur so you can learn a little bit before the class and you have a better chance of snagging the A

:P not the be anal or anything or mean but i believe it's spelled hiragana not hiragami

yeah i'm studying some japanese (self study...haven't found a class yet)
currently 1/2 done with the hiragana and katakana (memorized 30 of each...there's 46 of each mind you) and know (IMO) a good bit of japanese

also...if you want a little prep before going to the class consider an audio lesson like pimsleur so you can learn a little bit before the class and you have a better chance of snagging the A

Yeah, your right aznanimedude, thats what I meant to say I've just sorta got mixed up but yeah it is spelled hiragana.

Don't they go a chapter a day in college for any subject? Anyways japanese in general will be very hard to learn for most westerns just because of its grammer. It goes by noun,adjective, verb. As for the alphabet its kinda easy untill you get to kanji.

Don't they go a chapter a day in college for any subject? Anyways japanese in general will be very hard to learn for most westerns just because of its grammer. It goes by noun,adjective, verb. As for the alphabet its kinda easy untill you get to kanji.


Yeah its writing like that too, because yeah as you said the sentences go from subject, adjective, verb, and not to mention every other part of the sentence too. Yeah its odd for us, but for people who live in the far east it makes sense. It was odd for me at first, but im sorta getting used to it.

yeah the japanese put others before themselves (sort of) so they have all the important stuff at the end...like the verbs and stuff so if u want to actually understand what someone is saying...you kinda have to pay attention to the whole sentence...but it's jsut a matter of taking the time to get used to it...it just gets natural after awhile

Do it for fun, you won't be able to learn proper Japanese from a side course next to your normal subjects (in your case music).

Maybe you'll learn kana and some grammar, and a good amount of words but then there's still the kanji. So as long as you don't want to learn "proper" Japanese (as in being able to speak fluent Japanese) you could follow one of those courses.

To learn proper Japanese you'll need at least 10+ hours a week, for 3 or 4 years.

By the way, learning Hiragana and Katakana is easy, should be able to learn them within two weeks.

So you guys don't think I'd be too overwhelmed to be able to earn an A? I mean, I am a hard worker when it comes to school, and I was by far the most eager to participate in my Spanish courses in HS. My only worry is that I will feel like I'm drowning in new phrases/words/pronunciations/etc. since college courses move so quickly. (Then again, I could always drop the course if it's not for me....) I'm very tempted to sign up for it, and these replies are very encouraging. I don't expect "to speak fluent Japanese" at all, as Angelic pointed out, but this ought to be a fun experience for me. :)

Gnomish, you will get an A, and as you read this, think back on all that you have achieved and accomplished in music, you know that you can do it, wouldn't you agree?

So you guys don't think I'd be too overwhelmed to be able to earn an A? I mean, I am a hard worker when it comes to school, and I was by far the most eager to participate in my Spanish courses in HS. My only worry is that I will feel like I'm drowning in new phrases/words/pronunciations/etc. since college courses move so quickly. (Then again, I could always drop the course if it's not for me....) I'm very tempted to sign up for it, and these replies are very encouraging. I don't expect "to speak fluent Japanese" at all, as Angelic pointed out, but this ought to be a fun experience for me. :)

As long as you stick to the "It'll be fun and maybe usefull if I ever go to Japan" and don't expect "I'll be fluent and be able to have complete conversations in Japanese" then you'll be fine. It might look scary because of the kana, the kanji en totally new grammar and all, but if your course is aimed at beginners then it shouldn't all be impossible, they'll have taken into account that you are a beginner. Work hard and you'll be fine ;)

Oh, and learn kana (hiragana+katakana) before starting, kind of gives you a headstart :)

http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/hiragana_chart.html

http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/katakana_chart.html

Oh, and check this thread:
http://forums.ichigos.com/showthread.php?t=6037

oh wow...didn't even realize there was a thread dedicated to japanese XD tnx angelic

yeah and it's always a good idea to learn the written language...if you want

Do It. I took it when i was a freshman in high school. It helps me soooo much when i play my NTSC-J PS2 games.

hi...i really think you should try to pick up a japanese class. my suggestion, memorize kana first, both hiragana and katakana, it might help.

aw man, lots of people are taking Japanese classes...! Get a Japanese dictionary with kanji, hiragana, katakana, and the romaji. It makes it a lot easier. I also advise you to listen to Japanese music, look at the translations (take the original Japanese lyrics, attempt to translate it to English, look at the real translation and see how close you get. Its a quick way to learn), and watch Japanese tv shows. Watch anime in Japanese with the subtitles! It helps you get a feel for the language and the accent.
I acutally haven't taken any Japanese classes, I've been teaching myself, so its not that bad. What's hard is the sentence structure, not the words.
NOTE! The Japanese accent is almost exactly like the Spanish accent.

on the side: I took the AP test in Spanish too. I got a 5. What did you get?