#vietnamese vocabulary

[startedwellthatsentence]

Been studying Chinese this summer (Duolingo) and while some things are still breaking my brain (it’s my first head-final language besides my L1 English and it’s impossible so far to remember not to put the noun first because obviously the noun goes first that’s the only thing that makes sense English and Chinese are equally stupid here)

But by far the hardest thing I’m running into, that will probably take the longest to fix,

Is that in Chinese the Yes/No question particle you put at the end of sentences is “ma”

And in Vietnamese the “no shit Sherlock, isn’t it obvious” particle you can put at the end of the sentence is “mà”

And I know they’re different words with different pronunciations but they’re close enough that when the little character is like “Is that Doctor Li?” (Innocent question, I want to verify this person’s identity)

My brain hears “That’s Doctor Li, duh” (Of course, it’s Doctor Li, this is the obvious conclusion to whatever we were talking about, you should know this already)

And so I can’t hear … questions. I just hear “I’m stating the obvious, don’t you get it???”

[technicalmrr]

Vietnamese language numbers - Learn numbers in vietnamese online

In this video, you will learn about Vietnamese language numbers from 1 to 10. This is one video of my list video: Vietnamese vocabulary lesson. So, if you want to learn about Vietnamese language, this video is for you.

[dreamdolldeveloper]

back to basics

mostly free resources to help you learn the basics that i've gathered for myself so far that i think are cool

everyday

gcfglobal - about the internet, online safety and for kids, life skills like applying for jobs, career planning, resume writing, online learning, today's skills like 3d printing, photoshop, smartphone basics, microsoft office apps, and mac friendly. they have core skills like reading, math, science, language learning - some topics are sparse so hopefully they keep adding things on. great site to start off on learning.

handsonbanking - learn about finances. after highschool, credit, banking, investing, money management, debt, goal setting, loans, cars, small businesses, military, insurance, retirement, etc.

bbc - learning for all ages. primary to adult. arts, history, science, math, reading, english, french, all the way to functional and vocational skills for adults as well, great site!

education.ket - workplace essential skills

general education

mathsgenie - GCSE revision, grade 1-9, math stages 1-14, provides more resources! completely free.

khan academy - pre-k to college, life skills, test prep (sats, mcat, etc), get ready courses, AP, partner courses like NASA, etc. so much more!

aleks - k-12 + higher ed learning program. adapts to each student.

biology4kids - learn biology

cosmos4kids - learn astronomy basics

chem4kids - learn chemistry

physics4kids - learn physics

numbernut - math basics (arithmetic, fractions and decimals, roots and exponents, prealgebra)

education.ket - primary to adult. includes highschool equivalent test prep, the core skills. they have a free resource library and they sell workbooks. they have one on work-life essentials (high demand career sectors + soft skills)

youtube channels

the organic chemistry tutor

khanacademy

crashcourse

tabletclassmath

2minmaths

kevinmathscience

professor leonard

greenemath

mathantics

3blue1brown

literacy

readworks - reading comprehension, build background knowledge, grow your vocabulary, strengthen strategic reading

chompchomp - grammar knowledge

tutors

not the "free resource" part of this post but sometimes we forget we can be tutored especially as an adult. just because we don't have formal education does not mean we can't get 1:1 teaching! please do you research and don't be afraid to try out different tutors. and remember you're not dumb just because someone's teaching style doesn't match up with your learning style.

cambridge coaching - medical school, mba and business, law school, graduate, college academics, high school and college process, middle school and high school admissions

preply - language tutoring. affordable!

revolutionprep - math, science, english, history, computer science (ap, html/css, java, python c++), foreign languages (german, korean, french, italian, spanish, japanese, chinese, esl)

varsity tutors - k-5 subjects, ap, test prep, languages, math, science & engineering, coding, homeschool, college essays, essay editing, etc

chegg - biology, business, engineering/computer science, math, homework help, textbook support, rent and buying books

learn to be - k-12 subjects

for languages

lingq - app. created by steve kaufmann, a polygot (fluent in 20+ languages) an amazing language learning platform that compiles content in 20+ languages like podcasts, graded readers, story times, vlogs, radio, books, the feature to put in your own books! immersion, comprehensible input.

flexiclasses - option to study abroad, resources to learn, mandarin, cantonese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, italian, russian, taiwanese hokkien, shanghainese.

fluentin3months - bootcamp, consultation available, languages: spanish, french, korean, german, chinese, japanese, russian, italian.

fluenz - spanish immersion both online and in person - intensive.

pimsleur - not tutoring** online learning using apps and their method. up to 50 languages, free trial available.

incase time has passed since i last posted this, check on the original post (not the reblogs) to see if i updated link or added new resources. i think i want to add laguage resources at some point too but until then, happy learning!!

[linghxr]

App recommendation: Huayu101

If you're planning a trip soon or want to learn some super practical Mandarin Chinese expressions, I highly recommend the Huayu101 app from Taiwan's Ministry of Education. It provides sample sentences and questions for many useful topics.

It's only available on the Apple app store from what I can tell (looks like it was removed from the Google Play app store). But luckily, you can also find the content online at https://lmit.edu.tw/lc/huayu101/.

Here is a list of the topics:

Greetings 基本問候

Accommodation 住宿

Order 點餐

Shopping 購物

Transportation 交通

Asking for help 急難救助

City tour 城市遊覽

Arts and cultural activities 藝文活動

Call and reservation 電話與預約

Exchange 換鈔

Making friends 認識朋友

Hospital and post office 看病及郵寄

After selecting a topic, you'll see a list of phrases, sentences, and questions. These are very practical things you might need to say or that a waiter, clerk, etc. might say to you.

They even have audio! To me it sounds like real people, not text to speech. Hypothetically, if you can't speak any Mandarin, you could get by by playing the audio to people.

For some sentences/questions, they even provide multiple options, and you can select the word that's applicable to you.

Besides English, the app and website also support Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia.

I think this app is helpful even for upper-intermediate/advanced learners. I know enough vocabulary to make do and be understood, but I'm lacking knowledge of how native speakers would naturally phrase things. This app helps fill those gaps.

[dapurinthos]

so i finally got around to actually reading @dedalvs's the art of language invention for the purposes of its purpose (nine years later. this is why you buy the books, people! that giant pile is going to be read). i have copious highlights and notes on paper and here are some of the replies i had for parts of the book.

(i always get a kick out of when someone positions themselves as the ‘default’ for pronunciations because i have some quirks in my pronunciations, like the absence of the cot-caught (lot-thought, also father-bother which makes me go ??? those aren’t even near the same vowel) merger present in nearly all canadian english (most north american english, really) in my vowels. that was a fun day in linguistics class (everyone else: /kʰɒt/ /kʰɒt/. me: /koːt/ /kɔːt/).)

anyway, select passages behind the cut as to not crowd up your flist dash.

oh hildegard. you would have loved the bardcore version of 'hips don't lie'.

this is the gospel truth. go look at how japanese verbs function. they’re categorized as godan, ichidan, and irregular. how are they categorized? like a nightmare. godan verbs are ones that end with -u and move through the whole fucking vowel row of the hiragana chart, which is why they’re called ‘five-level’ verbs. u want to know where this vowel change takes place? oh it’s not a suffix or a prefix. nooooo it’s in the middle of the word (only the end when it’s the -u form). kikanai > kikimasu > kiku > kikeru > kikou, for the base godan verb bases (negative, polite, dictionary form, potential, volitional conjugations).

ichidan bases are easy in comparison. the -ru ending is the only thing that changes. and then there’s the godan ones that disguise themselves as ichidan verbs.

the irregular ones are fine. they're normal. there are only two of them — suru: 'to make'; and kuru: 'to come'. they're like particles so you get things like kaiten suru: 'to rotate, spin', where it's made up of the noun kaiten: 'revolution, rotation' and my verb friend suru: 'to make', so it's literally 'to make' + 'rotation'.

i took one look at japanese godan and ichidan conjugation, kidnapped the way the irregular verbs work (suru: to do/make/etc, kuru: to come; used like particles, after an action & such, like kaiten suru: to rotate, spin, lit. rotation + to do/to make), and then backed away slowly, not making eye contact. this was the correct choice. i also believe it was why i chose not to go further in my japanese study when i was eleven/twelve-ish. that and it was impossible to study japanese in a 20 000-person town excuse me unincorporated community in southern ontario during the previous millennium.

this poor caribou. i need to work this word into my vocabulary immediately.

i have the opportunity to do something really funny with what the word for the number four will be in taizhan-jen, in the grand tradition of four = death like: sì/sǐ (mandarin), sei3/sei2 (cantonese), shi for both (japanese), tứ/tử (vietnamese), sa for both (korean). like how i decided andobi (the name of a mountain range on ando) was a compound of ando + obi, so obi now means 'mountain', 'fixed/firm' and adding the adjectival suffix gets obi'i: 'steadfast'.

[getoed5725]

"Even so, Gojo's gaze, covered under the white bandages, had always, always, been staring at the shape of Geto's soul" - JJK0 Light novel (Japanese original version)

i feel like a lot don't know about this particular part in the light novel so I might as well share since I got the original Japanese version ^^ I like this part as much as their final moments. This is when Geto finished his war declaration and flew away with his family.

(including spoilers for Shibuya!)

(The thing is my country has released a translated version of the LN but its translation is very... straightforward and loses the poetic feel that the original LN has. It doesn't have the depth anymore, and even though my language (Vietnamese) has rich vocabulary, it doesn't deliver. In this case it cuts off the "soul" part, which in itself is very important considering Gojo's connection to Geto's soul is mentioned again during Shibuya incident. So I hope the official English version can do this part justice!)

I love the way this scene is described in the LN. "Gojo was also silently staring at him. In the distance, the cursed spirit (bird) flapping its wings was getting smaller [...]". It makes you... feel a lot, when you know that Gojo could very well chase after him, stop him, i mean... just anything besides standing there and staring at him. And not even saying that Geto had the students surrounded or anything - Gojo did say at the end that he trusted Geto not to do anything too much to the students and so on. The thing is, after declaring the war, Geto did mention he was gonna take his girls to eat crepes at this new shop on Takeshita street, and if that's not him showing all his cards on the deck then idk what is. He essentially sent Gojo his full address and schedule for the day lol. And Gojo did not do anything about it.

But this sentence? So much longing. So much nolstagia. The scene when he was silently staring at Geto flying away, with his covered eyes, he could only see people in curse energy, but not here: he was looking at Geto's soul with his own. When Gojo said that he could realize Kenjaku at Shibuya was not Geto because "his soul denies" his Six eyes, it has always been like this. Gojo has always looked at Geto's soul, with all his soul in return. The sentence uses the term ずっと, ずっと (zutto, zutto) - meaning always/still, underlining the state of doing something. He has always bared his all in taking Geto in, not just the appearance, not just the smell ("There is no way I will mistake the remmants of Suguru's cursed energy" - by smelling it in the movie), but also his soul. That is why Gojo can always recognize it.

(That is also why Kenjaku knew the plan to capture him could be a 100% success)

I do recommend you guys to buy the original JPese LN in case you want to make sure you don't miss any details on them! (like my case lol)

[squeakygeeky]

600 hours/1 year of Thai

It's just under a year actually and I hit my goal for the year. I've been learning Thai will the 'ALG method' which is all about immersion. I mostly use this channel and I also take 1-2hrs of listening webinars a week. I'm currently on intermediate content. The transition from beginner was okay, but my comprehension levels feel on the lower side and they don't feel like they're improving that noticeably. It could just be that I'm pretty bored of lessons at this point.

I recently tried re-watching Lovely Writer and then He's Coming to Me without subtitles. I'm not sure why, but Lovely Writer felt easier. Maybe because there aren't any voiceovers and the non-romance vocabulary was centered on writing and film, which I'm more familiar with than heart conditions and funerary practices. I guess Lovely Writer also stuck in my head more, even though I had only watched each series one time. There were only a few points where I wished I actually understood, because I couldn't remember exactly what had been said in the scene. With He's Coming to Me I was more lost. Also it had more traffic noise picked up with the dialogue. I do think I will continue re-watching shows for a lot of my input. Even if my comprehension isn't that high, I'm wayyyy more engaged so it's worth it. I do think watching a whole series without subtitles is a ways off and I'd be too confused to get drawn in at all. I do watch a Thai game show with talented kids called Super 10 sometimes and I recommend it to anyone at an intermediate or higher Thai level. It's pretty easy to understand.

I still do watch shows with subtitles and it's with that where I really feel the progress I'm making because sometimes I forget for a minute to put subtitles on until the dialogue gets past basic phrases. However I'm still not logging that as part of my learning hours so the 600 number is really 600+.

I think part of the struggle now is that I don't feel like I'm picking up a lot of new words. Instead I think I'm getting grammar and cadence and the different ways that words I recognized are actually used. The way people talked to each other in terms of pronouns and particles was something I was already interested in and had explicitly learned a bit about, but now it's really obvious and one of my favorite things to pay attention to. The way Gene and Sib talk to each other feels absolutely wild now.

I was going to work on learning the alphabet more, but right now all I can really do is sound something out to see if the word is what I think it is. I may start learning to read more seriously even though it's not recommended by the ALG method to start yet (for accent reasons, which don't really matter given my lack of anyone Thai to talk to lol). I am really curious how I would fare in conversation if I actually tried. I do think I could talk about more than fruit.

There's a part of me that wonders if I should actually just stop, or cut back a lot. I don't need to know Thai, and this was partly an experiment on myself, which I think I can call a success. Meanwhile I actually need and use Spanish and I haven't been making much progress there, and a part of me still wants to learn Vietnamese (or one of about 2-5 other languages depending on my mood). But also, I like Thai and in another year I think I could watch shows without subtitles comfortably, and at that level I could stop trying to learn at all and would probably still improve.

[highlyentropicmind]

Tumblr invents a language, Day 4: Phonology

Summary so far:

Our language will be agglutinative, with free word order and... * sighs * accusative alignment. Today we are choosing the phonology. After this poll is done it may take a while to compile the phonology, so there may not be a poll for a few days

The next few polls will be about features such as grammatical gender, cases, verbal time, aspect and mood, and then I think we can start with vocabulary

Links to previous polls

Day 1: Morphology

Day 2: Primary word order

Day 3: Alignment

[epic-arc]

RWBY 10 Years Later! Part 2

Frost and Gyda were in an aquarium and they were in the section of the seals looking at them smiling.

Frost: Hey wanna know what a seal is called in vietnamese?

Gyda: Hmm what?

Frost: So ''seal'' means ''hai cau'' and if i translate those words from the old sino-vietnamese vocabulary… It would mean a ''seal'' is a ''water dog''!

Gyda heard that fact and would have a smile on her face and the two would look back at seals being cute.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ren was meditating and his son was next to him looking at some flowers until he looked at Ren with a curious expression.

Renkon: Hey, Papa?

Ren: Yes son?

Renkon: When did you start to liking mama?

Ren would remember his childhood and the beacon times and he would blush and sigh and look at his son smiling.

Ren: It was in my childhood my little lotus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaune would come home early holding two cups of coffee and walk into his room where weiss was sleeping so he would leave the two cups of coffee on a small table next to the bed and would sit on the bed and pet weiss.

Jaune: Rise and shine! I bought us coffe!

Weiss: Too soon… get to bed…

Jaune would lay down and hug weiss who would hug him back which would make him blush slightly.

Jaune: The coffe might get cold… But i guess 5 more minutes won't hurt.

Weiss: Let's enjoy it before the kids wake up…

Jaune would giggle and kiss weiss on the forehead and the two enjoy that time together.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[vibinwiththefrogs]

Langblr Reactivation/Introduction

I really want to get more into working on language learning consistently again, so I'm going to try to start posting more about it.

Languages I study (July 2023):

Japanese 🇯🇵 (C1, active) ~ I've studied for about 10 years, thinking about actually studying for the JLPT

Korean 🇰🇷 (B1, active) ~ I've studied for about 5 years, currently working on TOPIK 3-4 vocabulary.

Swedish 🇸🇪 (A1, active) ~ I've studied it off and on throughout the years but never seriously. I really want to learn it to reconnect to my heritage though so I'm trying to focus on it again.

Mandarin Chinese 🇨🇳 (A2) ~ I've been very back and forth with Chinese for about 9 years but never fully stuck with it.

(Mexican) Spanish 🇲🇽 (A2) ~ Similar to Chinese I've been back and forth with it for about 10 years but never stuck with it long term.

German 🇩🇪 (A2) ~ I used to be conversational in German but I let it fall to the wayside. May come back to it one day.

Other languages I've dabbled in but never built a foundation in, but I really want to focus on one day: Tagalog/Filipino 🇵🇭, Vietnamese 🇻🇳, Russian 🇷🇺, Hindi 🇮🇳

Other things I post about:

I'm a little all over the place because I have a lot of hobbies and a major that's completely unrelated to languages. But I'm an agriculture major, and I'm interested in/may post about: US history, US imperialism, world history, ecology, environmental issues, agriculture, etc.

[wormwoodwine]

Can you tell your own accent?

Today, I had a few Aussies over for lunch. They were visiting my cousin. I was told that I had a thick British accent.

What? All I consume is American entertainment (TV shows, sports, Youtuber, etc). I always had many American teachers as a kid and only one Londoner teaching me English. Mind blow.

I told my cousins and they all said the same thing. Apparently, I have a thick British accent with an American vocabulary.

If you read my fanfics, you’ll notice a lot of my vocabulary come from the US. Like pants, not trousers, etc.

All these years, I’ve been deceiving myself? Mind blow.

The same thing happened when I was a kid. I was told that I had Northern accent even though I’m a Southerner through and through. All my family and relatives are southerners. I thought I had southern accent then too. What?! It happens again.

From a confused Vietnamese.

PS: Also, I’m not hating on British accent. I’m just confused about how I have one.

[arcadeyes]

My favourite language learning app for building vocabulary.

Drops has helped me to build my irish vocabulary because of the extensive catagories to choose from i can learn what I want to learn. I also find it helpful because in the free version you can only do five minutes a day. I find that for me it keeps me motivated and makes me pay more attention to the words as occasionally you will have to spell them. I personally find the app helpful for adding vocabulary to my knowledge but it does lack grammar and actual sentences.

Theres many different languages on drops and these are:

ainu, arabic, ASL, bosnian, catalan, chinese (cantonese), chinese (mandarin), croatian, danish, dutch, british and american english,

Esperanto, estonian, finnish, french, galician, german, greek, hawaiian, hindi,

hungarian, icelandic, igbo, indonesian, irish, italian, japanese, korean, norweigan,

persian, polish, brazilian portugues, european portugues, romanian, russian,

samoan, sanskrit, serbian, european spanish, mexican spanish, swahili,

swedish, tagalog, te reo maōri, thai, turkish, ukrainian, vietnamese, yoruba

[loversveil]

compilation of some of my  library displays ive made

[ID: a pinboard made for international womens’ day, with a variety of famous influential women authors arranged on the board. the “for $1 name a woman” meme is placed in the centre, and the text has been edited to say “for $1 name a woman author”. my students have been asked to match the names up with the authors, and they are failing miserably. they have labelled sappho as elizabeth bronte, and angie thomas as mary shelley. end ID]

[ID: a display made for national science week. many of the letters have been made into science themed objects, i.e: the “A” is a ruler, the “I” is a test tube, the “O” is a planet, and the word “science” is covered in green slime. end ID]

[ID: a display made for NAIDOC week (NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Day Observation Committee). the Australian Aboriginal flag is hung in the centre, and the board has paper cutouts of eucalyptus leaves and stars scattered around. end ID]

[ID: a close up on the NAIDOC week board. a map of the australian state of victoria is shown, with the lands labelled with their tradtional owners shown, rather than the colonial names and borders. notable/populated cities are labelled externally with string, showing which Peoples land the city was erected on. end ID]

[ID: a close up on the NAIDOC week board. a small amount of common Woiwurrung vocabulary is shown, with pronunciation guides and translations. Woiwurrung is the language spoken by the indigenous peoples of Narrm (colonially known as melbourne) and its surrounding areas.

full text as follows:

Woiwurrung: (woy-WUH-rung) - The language spoken by the Wurunjderi people, the traditional owners of this land.

Wominjeka: (wommin-JI-ka) - Welcome

Twaganin: (TWUH-ga-NIN) - Farewell

Kirrip: (kir-rip) - Friend

Biik: (bEEk) - Country*

Darrang: (dar-RUNG) - Tree

Narrm: (nar-rm) - The land Melbourne is on

Winmali: (WIN-muh-li) - North

Gurrin: (Gooh-RRIN) - South

Galen bariem: (GAH-len BUH-rri-em) - East

Mumilam: (MOOH-mi-lum) - West

please not that I am not Indigenous, nor do I speak Woiwurrung. I transcribed the pronunciation of these words to the best of my ability from this video by Wurundjeri woman and Woiwurrung language expert Mandy Nicholson.

* Country is the term often used by Aboriginal peoples to describe the lands, waterways and seas to which they are connected. The term contains complex ideas about law, place, custom, language, spiritual belief, cultural practice, material sustenance, family and identity. Source link: AIATSIS

end ID.]

[ID: a pinboard display for valentines day that reads “blind date with a book”. the words are made of pink and red papercut letters, and the letter ‘O’s in the word book are frilly hearts. the display is surrounded by paper cut hearts. end ID.]

[ID: a lunar new year display, centred around a paper bunny. the board is covered in traditional chinese new year decorations, including hongbao and lucky tassels. various messages around the board wish students a happy new lunar year, such as 新年快樂 (chinese), happy new year (english), 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (korean), chúc mừng năm mới! (vietnamese), and Амар байна уу? (mongolian) as these are the some of the most prominent groups of students at this school that celebrate this holiday. end ID]

hope u enjoyed!! I change the displays every week or so, so theres about ~40 other themed displays ive done that i could post if anyones interested ^_^

[maziijapanese]

Conquer Japanese Effectively: Part 2 - All You Need to Know

Japanese, with its complex writing system and diverse grammar, is one of the most challenging yet fascinating languages to learn. In the first part of this series, we explored the basic methods and foundational strategies to begin the journey of mastering Japanese. Continuing from there, in part 2, Mazii will delve into advanced techniques and a rich array of study materials to help you optimize your learning process. Whether you're preparing for the JLPT exam or just aiming to improve your daily communication skills, this article will provide practical and useful suggestions to help you progress further in your Japanese language proficiency. Let’s explore valuable tips and experiences to learn Japanese effectively and sustainably!

5. How to Read Books Effectively

Reading books will help you expand your vocabulary and is also a way to learn Kanji. The biggest tip is: don't read silently! When you start learning Japanese, it's more beneficial to pronounce the sentences and vocabulary out loud rather than reading them silently in your head. Read the vocabulary out loud, clearly articulate small passages in a text, and engage in vocal activities. Write down your responses to these activities rather than just skimming through the words in your mind. Moving the vocabulary from your mind to your mouth is a skill that requires a great deal of practice.

6. Learning Japanese with Flashcards

The key to quick memorization is these "small but mighty" flashcards. Moreover, these cards are very portable, and you can buy them at a very affordable price or create your own. An effective tip for learning Japanese with this method is to write one word or phrase per card, as you can randomly shuffle the positions of the words, and your brain will accurately register what you want to remember rather than just the order of the words written on the card.

7. Learning Through Tapes, Movies, and Music

Japanese has become popular among foreign youth through manga, rock music, and J-Pop. If you are a fan, this is a great opportunity to practice by reading manga/watching movies before translations are available or trying to translate your favorite song lyrics. This will help you understand the use of words in specific contexts, as the language in daily life can be very different from what you learn in textbooks. Additionally, it will help you get used to the speaking speed of native Japanese speakers.

Most books come with tapes guiding the pronunciation of vocabulary and reading passages. Before reading the lesson, listen to it to see how much you understand, write down what you hear, and then compare, so you will remember the lesson longer.

8. Singing Japanese Songs with Lyrics

A useful Japanese learning experience is singing along with song lyrics (karaoke). This helps you recognize Kana, Kanji, and increase your reading speed, and of course, it teaches you how to read Japanese. Culturally and habitually, this is beneficial since karaoke is very popular in Japan, and Japanese people often have a favorable impression of foreigners who can sing their songs (the older the songs, the better). Therefore, practice as soon as possible. Karaoke groups are also a great way to make friends and exchange learning experiences.

9. Find a Japanese-Speaking Friend

This is one of the most effective tips for learning Japanese. Find a Japanese person who wants to improve their Vietnamese (or English). Listening to this person and hearing yourself speak will help you pronounce correctly and encourage them to correct your mistakes. The biggest reward of this practice is that it will help your brain think in Japanese. Textbook dialogues can be predictable, but in reality, no one speaks like that. Learning Japanese in isolation will deprive you of the opportunity to practice conversation. There are many such groups on Meetup.com, or you can find these people in your school or where you live.

10. Be Cautious with Study Programs in Japan

Immersing yourself in a native-speaking environment is the best way to learn any language. However, this is a further step for those with slightly better Japanese skills who want to speak fluently. So, if you haven't mastered the language, don’t rush into applying for study programs in Japan, as it can lead to discouragement if you can't keep up.

11. Choose a Romaji System

Transcribing Japanese words into Romaji can sometimes be confusing as there is not just one formula for writing them. For example, the word "fu," ふ, replaces "hu" in (ha/hi/fu/he/ho), so the verb "fuku" is sometimes written as "huku." The difference in pronunciation is minimal. The word "tsu" (つ) can be written as "tu," "shi" (し) as "si," "dou" (どう) as "doo," etc. Be careful not to confuse these Romaji words as two different words. Choose a Romaji system that you prefer.

12. Visit Japan and Explore the Cities

No matter how many books you read, movies you watch, or people you talk to, you won’t experience the true environment unless you go there. Your conversation and reading skills will significantly improve when you experience Japan firsthand. Don’t forget to review your knowledge when you return home. Large cities have many people who speak both English and Japanese and are willing to practice with you. Don’t forget to go karaoke there!

Learning Japanese is a long journey that requires patience and continuous effort. Hopefully, through the two parts of this article, you have gathered many useful tips and methods to apply to your learning process. From mastering grammar and vocabulary to honing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, every step is important and contributes to your progress. Always maintain your passion and continuously seek opportunities to practice and improve. Remember, every difficulty is an opportunity to learn and grow.

Wishing you success on your journey to mastering Japanese and achieving your learning goals!

[starsbegantofall]

One of my 2024 goals is to get back into learning languages, but my last few attempts had always failed because I genuinely, no joke, need to be attending real life class like university to remember anything successfully and even then, if you don't use it, you lose it... Obviously I don't have the discipline to self-study due to the adhd, and also I feel like I grasp information better via osmosis in the live physical presence of someone who knows the material more than I do lol. My mind would wander in virtual or distance learning classes.

Years ago I paid for a Rosetta Stone account which is a one time purchase that gives you access to dozens of languages, a far superior bargain to any other language learning program. But I don't feel the Rosetta Stone style helps me that much, although it's probably not worse than the average free or subscription app. Currently I'm learning Vietnamese, the only language my parents use to speak to me and my brother. Of course the beginner lessons I'm zipping through because I know all that stuff as a child, the only difference is that the speakers have different pronunciation and a handful of different vocabulary words than my mom who left Vietnam 40 years ago.

Yet if you asked me something basic in Vietnamese right now, I'd be like... I remember nothing. Khong biet!

[squeakygeeky]

Language Learning Check-In: June

Assuming I keep up with this I guess I'll make this a monthly thing. I've loved languages for a long time, but this was the first time in a while where I felt like it was my main hobby. I'm currently very into the idea of 'comprehensible input' which is where things are simplified enough and with enough context that you can understand what's going on, even if you can't understand most of the words, and you naturally start picking up both grammar and vocabulary from exposure. I finally quit Duolingo cold turkey.

Thai: I started seriously studying Thai at the end of last month, starting with learning the alphabet and then immediately abandoning that to do pure listening comprehension only. I've been averaging 2hrs a day, a pace I can probably stick to for the next two months since I can watch videos during work, but not after that. This is not counting time spent watching BL since in that case I'm focusing mainly on reading subtitles, although I'm sure it helps a little. The videos I'm watching have the format of two teachers asking each other basic questions ('Is this a fruit? Do you like to eat this?') with lots of repetition, hand gestures, and doodles to illustrate.

I feel like I've been learning so much but all I can quantify is the hours spent since it's not like I'm making vocab lists or taking tests, I'm just absorbing like a sponge. My favorite part is that it's pretty chill to be a sponge so it's still possible when I'm tired, and until this past week or so I was struggling a lot with my energy levels. I don't really have any fun language facts to share other than that sky blue is its own distinct color category, there's no overall blue in Thai.

Spanish: I'm actually part of an insanely multilingual friend group now and there are a lot of Spanish speakers. This includes the friend I've been calling 'Kdrama Friend' who is actually a Spaniard, although her mother tongue is Catalan, not Castilian. Then there's my Guatemalan neighbor of the Mysterious Doormat Beverage (left on my doormat, not consisting of doormats), and a few other women. Kdrama Friend can translate (and so can some of the others, they mostly speak more English than I speak Spanish) but it's a lot less awkward when she doesn't have to. I do struggle to follow group conversations a lot of times though, so I've been meaning to seriously work on my conversational skills and now I've actually started.

It's easier than with Thai in the sense that I don't have to have visual input, I can understand intermediate to advanced podcasts like the Duolingo podcast and even native podcasts, but it's harder in the sense that I don't feel any progress since my level was already pretty high and I'm just picking up the occasional new word. We'll see how I do at tomorrow's baby shower. To be honest I think a lot of my problems with conversation are more psychological than linguistic and exist even when I'm speaking English, I can just cope better then.

I found a podcast on fashion history which I was able to follow because I'm actually really interested in that. It's the whole comprehensible input thing, I know perfectly well what a toile is and have used them, but someone at my Spanish level who didn't know how to sew clothes might have been lost.

Working on Spanish doesn't feel that exciting but it's useful and important to me for heritage reasons. If you've ever read the Josefina American Girl books, that's exactly one side of my family and my grandma grew up speaking Spanish, but my dad's Spanish is almost nonexistent and I just learned in school.

Vietnamese: You all know I love this language and I've wanted to learn it for a while, but there aren't great resources for it and while I can absolutely pick up certain words and phrases, it still kind of...doesn't sound like a language a lot of the time. Thai already feels more understandable. I think the alphabet similarity is actually hurting me because if I look at a word the way it would sound with English pronunciation interferes too much, and there aren't any videos simple enough to feel comprehensible without any translation. So this is on the back burner.

Korean: Dropped for now, although I did find some comprehensible input videos in case I decide to try learning it later.

My problem is that I now want to learn all the languages, right now, and that is not how it works. Anyway, feel free to ask me about languages any time.