A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
guidetojapanese.org
A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#2This is the reference I wish I had when I was learning Japanese. I tend to learn natural languages a lot like I learn programming languages: I get a lot faster at learning once someone explains the underlying rules and how they combine and interact.
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#3Thanks mbrubeck, great reference.
I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Step-Innovative-Approach-Spea... as another excellent resource. Written by an engineer for engineers, with detailed flow charts for the various conjugation rules and other aspects of the grammar.
The book lists the various common sentence structures then teaches you how to expand the various fragments to construct more complex sentences. Somewhat similar to learning via a CFG and deriving a parse tree. if you want to absolutely nail your Japanese grammar, this is a solid logical way to go about it.
Book's biggest drawback is that it is rather dry. You will need to complement it with a book that focuses on vocabulary, idioms, and colloquialisms so that you don't sound like a robot.
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#4Brilliant! Where was this all my life?
I only wish he would deconstruct Kanji and the resulting combinatorial explosion in the same way...
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#5Brilliant! Where was this all my life? I only wish he would deconstruct Kanji and the resulting combinatorial explosion in the same way...
Use this: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Ch...
And this: http://kanji.koohii.com/
The problem becomes tractable, and maybe even a little friendly.
Fwiw, the explosion isn't really combinatorial. It'd better if it was, because at least that would be predictable. No, it's best though of as entirely irregular combinations of a medium-sized number of components. But the aforementioned resources help you deal with it.
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#6Reminds me of Japanese: The Spoken Language, which is what I used to learn Japanese. It's quite challenging at first but I can't think of a better way for an adult to learn the language well.
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#7Brilliant! Where was this all my life? I only wish he would deconstruct Kanji and the resulting combinatorial explosion in the same way...
Use this: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Ch... And this: http://kanji.koohii.com/ The problem becomes tractable, and maybe even a little friendly. Fwiw, the explosion isn't really combinatorial. It'd better if it was, because at least that would be predictable. No, it's best though of as entirely irregular combinations of a medium-sized number of components. But the aforementioned resources…
I can't upvote this enough. I went from 200-300 Kanji characters that I acquired painfully to now 2053 Kanji characters using RTK in about four months. I use Anki (http://ichi2.net/anki/) to do reviews, but the Kanji koohii site is awesome for stories and has a nice active forum. I keep track of my progress here: http://kd7yhr.blogspot.com/
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use this: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Ch... And this: http://kanji.koohii.com/ The problem becomes tractable, and maybe even a little friendly. Fwiw, the explosion isn't really combinatorial. It'd better if it was, because at least that would be predictable. No, it's best though of as entirely irregular combinations of a medium-sized number of components. But the aforementioned resources…
I can't upvote this enough. I went from 200-300 Kanji characters that I acquired painfully to now 2053 Kanji characters using RTK in about four months. I use Anki ( http://ichi2.net/anki/ ) to do reviews, but the Kanji koohii site is awesome for stories and has a nice active forum. I keep track of my progress here: http://kd7yhr.blogspot.com/
I actually use Anki now as well. Fantastic software, that.
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#9Reminds me of Japanese: The Spoken Language, which is what I used to learn Japanese. It's quite challenging at first but I can't think of a better way for an adult to learn the language well.
I am going to knock this because I used it. Problem: the written part of Japanese. You read this book and learn how to talk a bit, take a plane to Japan, then bam - surrounded by the visually amazing, but daunting Kanji. The Jorden school of thought totally disregards the written and focuses on the spoken. That is fine, but the wrong path to real Japanese fluency. The best way to start learning Japanese is to get into the writing system (hiragana), Kanji (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji), grammar and start reading real Japanese. がんばって！
Re: A Japanese language guide for analytical thinkers
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use this: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Ch... And this: http://kanji.koohii.com/ The problem becomes tractable, and maybe even a little friendly. Fwiw, the explosion isn't really combinatorial. It'd better if it was, because at least that would be predictable. No, it's best though of as entirely irregular combinations of a medium-sized number of components. But the aforementioned resources…
I can't upvote this enough. I went from 200-300 Kanji characters that I acquired painfully to now 2053 Kanji characters using RTK in about four months. I use Anki ( http://ichi2.net/anki/ ) to do reviews, but the Kanji koohii site is awesome for stories and has a nice active forum. I keep track of my progress here: http://kd7yhr.blogspot.com/
Are you learning just the meanings, or the meanings, kunyomi, and onyomi?
I ask, because I'm somewhere in between ２級 and １級 with the JLPT, and since I've only spent a collective six months in Japan, it's a bit of a struggle sometimes to retain vocabulary.
I'm finding that I have a very easy time with the meanings, and so I can figure out new compounds pretty easily. For example, in the novel I'm reading last night, 脱皮 came up, and although I figured out the meaning (a snake shedding its skin, a crab moulting, etc.), I still had to look at the dictionary because I couldn't remember the onyomi for the first character, even though it's very common.
Reading out loud has helped a lot, and I'm going to start blogging in Japanese about starting a company, but I'm always looking for tips on improving. :)
Newspapers still send me running for the dictionary, but I think that's because I read a lot of articles about politics and business, which are very kanji-heavy.