Jdrama and the Japanese Language

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Fully. The only reason I did the JLPT was because I needed motivation to study. When I first came over to Japan, I really had very little motivation to study the language properly, as most things I dealt with daily were in English. But then, I got off my backside, went out and made some Japanese friends, so now I have motivation to study (and learn a lot faster too, by speaking to them) without the test.

Yeh, fluency in Japanese is weird. I don't think a gaijin can ever call themselves fluent. But then, a few Japanese people I know still don't know more than maybe 5000 kanji. A while ago I had to have some medical documents translated into English for me, and the person translating them didn't even know what the words were in Japanese, let alone English. Tongue

Language levels are totally personal. If you feel the only thing you ever want Japanese for is to watch J-drama, then there's no point ever learning kanji, right? I think if you're happy with the level of language you know, then good for you. ^_^

Oh, and I'm here... hmmm... out of the two options - for work. Smile

Sorry, I went waffling on again. Gomen ne! Tongue

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Some times there are written texts also in dramas, that would be nice, and it's also easier to practice japanese when you have the kanji, but if you have a spot you don't HAVE to know kanji..

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:23 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

hi! and i'm a japanese too..
and i really wanna learn kanji.. though i can speak.. i think it would be a problem for me,if i only know of a few kanji in the near future when i go to japan...

could you tell me ways how to study kanji in much easier ways...

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I wished I attempted to learn 10 years ago... when i initally got addicted to anime... I'm starting to attempt it.. not much for doramas, but for my fangirly self... it's hard to watch interviews of my fav. idols without understanding what they are saying...

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 2:22 am Post subject: Give me a break Post Rating: 0

The phrase "give me a break" almost always appears in a J-Drama. I can never quite get the hang of how it's said in Japanese. Anyone know?

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:58 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:36 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Funny ... I got into dorama because I wanted some real spoken language to learn from (I'd had interest in Japanese for long years before but never managed to study regularly) and got hooked.

(Btw I find it easier to learn kanji along with other sources because for me it's easiest to commit words to memory when I read and hear them in different contexts. Only the writing ... I'm too lazy.)

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:18 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Well, I not much into Japanese things but I want to learn Chinese. I'd probably use dramas to help my Chinese but probably not to sub until I'm confident. I think self-teaching is useless as you probably have questions on pronunciation and culture questions, I tried with Korean but it was useless on the correct way to speak. I'm planning on taking a class in September for Mandarin and then maybe in 3 years when I'm in University, I'll start Cantonese for fun.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:33 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

"kanben"
勘弁（かんべん）してよ

I think for most people, you just want to work on Listening, Speaking, and Reading. That alone should make learning Japanese a lot easier since you won't need to memorize how to write a lot of kanji (but you do need to be able to recognize them).

On a total side note:
Grade schoolers (6 years) learn 1006 kanji.
Middle schoolers (3 years) learn 939 kanji.

1945 kanji is the minimum necessary (this number might grow a bit in the future, the government is debating the issue).

But in practice most people know a lot more since 1) most everyone goes to high school (500-1000 more kanji) and many go on to college (# will depend on major), 2) names usually use weird kanji (300 or so).

So knowing 3500-5000 kanji is probably the ballpark estimate for a college educated Japanese these days.