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Akya

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  • Currently studying
    Italian
  • Native tongue
    English
  • Fluent in
    English, Japanese

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  1. When you're trying to learn a third language and you blurt things out in your second language.
  2. I've translated English from Japanese a few times so I have a few tips especially if you want to start doing translating. It's very important you have a stong understanding of both languages and cultures and spoken language. Don't focus on accuracy of word by word but by feeling - you can shorten sentences as long as the audience understands the main points. Try and learn the culture enough to be able to translate a joke that would relate to the audience you're tanslating for. Don't focus on the words you don't know! Keep it flowing and maybe explain it if you can't find the right word. If the speaker says I, my etc in their language, don't start saying their or that person's name. It's more natural to say I, my cos the audience knows you're translating for them. If they have a partner they refer to in their speech, you can maybe mention their relationship if the general audience doesn't know. If you have any questions or want to add your own tips, please do! I only did casual translations at an international church but it was important to be accurate for people who weren't bilingual.
  3. Living in Japan, dating an Italian man and my mother is Filipino, I don't particularly care so much about 100% correct grammar since it's more important to be able to communicate. I use the best grammar to my Australian knowledge but sometimes I have to make it extremely simple to explain my point to my family in the Phillippines or to Japanese people that want to practice their (broken) English with me. On the other hand, it's disappointing to find grammar mistakes talking to native speakers of English.
  4. I want to share a few things I found successful! I have a student who's about 13 and she find's it hard to focus. I've done find a words and crosswords and they seem to be very helpful and fun for her to learn vocab from a short story she reads. I also do a bit of comprehension on the story as well and help her with her pronunciation. Anyone else have tips for other people? I find this age group one of the more stubborn and difficult groups to teach.
  5. I've tried teaching English conversation ESL classes in Japan and just found it really stressful and difficult. My students often cancelled due to business trips and I couldn't reschedule to a different day so some months I made a lot less than I was expecting. Unfortunately I had to quit but my company encouraged me to keep one student cos her mother was really strict on what type of teacher and I apparently I was most suitable. I actually work at Starbucks now (in Japanese)
  6. I used to use a plugin on Firefox that lets you right click a page and all the furigana will come up above the Kanji. This was also very helpful when I started learning. I don't remember what the plug in was call though, sorry!
  7. I found this website with a funny but really easy to understand comic! Definitely something to motivate more people to study Korean! http://ryanestradadotcom.tumblr.com/post/20461267965/learn-to-read-korean-in-15-minutes
  8. I'm actually dating a wonderful Italian man, and he can speak perfect English but his parents can't. His friends can't communicate much English either but I know it's more important if I can communicate with his family. His grandfather can only speak Venetian and that might be a dialect I end up learning as well but I'm gonna focus general Italian first
  9. My mother is Filipina and I never learnt Tagalog. My father doesn't know Tagalog either but we can get the gist of things when my mum talks with friends leaving us out of the conversation. It is disappointing that Tagalog is a dying language since most youth speak Taglish though.
  10. There aren't many other proficiency exams but one that often gets over looked is the BJT. This test is about business proficiency but there are still many companies that don't consider or ask for this qualification. Are there any other exams you know of that tests Japanese skills? Within your own country or within Japan. BJT Website: http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/english/
  11. It depends on what visa you're coming on and what job you wish to do. Most college graduate level jobs require JLPT N1 pass and TOIEC (english) helps a lot. Those companies will also need to sponsor your visa in Japan. I'm here on a college visa and I didn't need to pass any exams to work at Starbucks. I had to get a stamp in my passport to be permitted to work and pass the interview with the store manager though! I know there are some compnaies that require very minimal Japanese skill. Most of these companies however, are based in a different company (eg Philippines) and they have a branch in Japan and employ Filipinos to work there on contracts.
  12. I'm still not married yet (or engaged) but I'm currently serious with my boyfriend. We have discussed kids a few times and we both say we want to raise our kids from a young age in several languages. His native language (Italian), my native language (English) and my second language (Japanese)! It'll definitely be hard but I guess kids books and kids shows are going to be our main resource. Also word games etc...
  13. My school had compulsory Japanese classes in grade 5-7 and then we could choose Japanese or French in year 8 (13 years old). I continued Japanese in 8, 9 and went to Japan on a 3 month student exchange in year 10. Returning to my hometown, I took Japanese in year 11 and 12, moved to Japan the year after and went to a Japanese language school. After that I entered a Japanese university where I still am today! My biggest fluency turning point was when I first went to Japan at 15 in year 10 where I got a lot of my basic Japanese into solid foundation. Now I'm a few months into learning my third language, Italian!
  14. There's so many! And there's even more within dialects!! (Kansai-ben for me, where more than half the conversation can be madeup with these) I sometimes make mine up sometimes and people end up understanding me.
  15. Moshi moshi comes from the keigo/polite Japanese for "I'm speaking". The neutral form is "iimasu" and the polite form is "moushimasu". It's basically like "I'm speaking I'm speaking". I don't know how 100% accurate this is but this is how I learned it three years ago in Japanese language school from the Japanese teacher. If you want a more similar English version, it's like when we say "Hello? Hello?" on the phone.
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