Morvavk

I think the biggest difference between perhaps and maybe, is perhaps makes it sound more possible then maybe. Maybe sounds more unsure. Perhaps sounds like someone was handed a new idea, that could possibly happen. Maybe sounds like the same idea, just more unsure.

Ahh , it seems I miss understood the thread. You seem to be talking about how you have to explain to someone that their language is not the one your native to, thus you don't completely understand them. I was talking about a brain fart I get sometimes. Hopefully you can all forgive me and get a laugh from my embarrassment .

Yes, you're correct. Subtitles do feel like cheating, don't they? However, if you're a beginner, you don't really understand what they're saying until you have the subtitles, so this method is appropriate only for those who already have some knowledge of the elementary spoken Japanese. Same goes for manga, really. If you can't read Hiragana, there's no much point in reading manga in Japanese when all you would see would be meaningless symbols. I believe, as a beginner, that it helps a lot when you can follow the story properly. Subtitles are an excellent way to start somewhere. I once watched a cartoon without sound (I was bored). I found that I could follow the story, but I was guessing a lot. It turned out that some of my assumptions were wrong. So yes, we can get some insight by just following the clues they give us while watching, but we need other things as well to have the full picture.

Exactly. If you don't have a basic grasp of japanese, watching no subtitled anime would be like watching them speak in german, and try to learn japanese. It is just meaningless sound unless you have a way to line it up with your native tongue.

Knowing a common second language is almost never useless. If you play mmorpgs, you have probably seen people talk in spanish, portugiese, chinese or even german. If you work in the restaurant business, you might have to learn the language of the nation the recipes came from , say korean or taiwanese, is a good example. Only in the us, are we required to learn the language of people coming to our country. Almost everywhere else, you need to learn their language or your sol. So if you want to travel outside of places that speak your native tongue, you need to their their language at least semi fluently. Don't want to go to france and order a potted plant XD

I would love to learn japanese. I love the way it sounds, I love their idioms , and it would be very useful sense I am an avid anime fan.

The language I would hate to have to learn is english. I am a native speaker, and I could see how it would be extremely difficult to learn. The multiple of man is men, not mans, but the multiple of shoe is shoes. American idioms typically have to do with something historic, for example the Macoys. The term "real macoy" would be confusing to a non native speaker, if they don't know the story. I am a native speaker and I tend to trip over my own tongue XD.

Hello. I am happy to have joined this forum. I really want to learn japanese, spanish and portuguese . Can anyone recommend some sites, or apps, perhaps even a free tutor for any of these languages? I don't really have the money right now to higher a tutor or to buy rosetta stone. Hopefully all of you wonderful people can help me out . Anyone else looking to learn the same languages?

I try to do the same. Though it is not the most efficent way to learn japanese. Specially when you hear the same japanese word, but a different english words was used in its place, than other examples you have seen. For example, "teme", I have seen several different english insults for. I started doing this watching bleach.

Simple : practice practice practice. What I did when I was trying to learn japanese, is I learned the sentence, then I would repeat it in my head at random times. Then I'd look up the video I learned the sentence from, and see if I got it correctly. If I did not, I made myself repeat the sentence until I got it memorized. Worked pretty well .

I got to be honest I do this with English, which is my native language. It just kind of goes in one ear, dodges the brain, then out the other ear. I ask people to repeat themselves. If it keeps missing my brain, I just try to repeat the sentence in my head, and see if it makes sense. I hate it when it happens.

There are apps that help you learn second languages? Why have I never thought to look that up?! It seems so obvious now. As to answer your question, I think everyone takes it seriously when you say "there is an app for everything". An app for learning a new language, an app to quantify a recipe. An app to turn your phone into a flash light. So I guess it makes sense to use an app for learning a new language.