xShimusx

Another reason is for jobs. Jobs everywhere these days will take bilingual or better people way ahead of average joe A on the street. The culture barrier helps too, as well the general feel-good of knowing you could converse at any time with someone around someones head (kidding.) Other than that, it always helps if you learn the language of the places you want to go on vacation, etc too - once again culture barrier. It'll make your stay more enjoyable.

Spring has treasures told Gently birthed from the first rain Dandelion Gold Summer Sensations Promising Pastel Colors Cozy Carnations Couple of the ones about flowers I enjoy. Hana of many iro.

Couple more: "Common Sense is not that Common" - Voltaire "Not all those who wander are lost. - J.R.R. Tolkien" --J. R. R. Tolkien from the book The Hobbit

Jaime Lannister in "A Song of Ice and Fire" "So many vows ... they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or the other."

Why put an "or" in there? Some of my favorite shows and books involving monsters are also a very psychological romp through the thriller portion of the show. A good example of this if you like anime is "Parayste - The Maxim" about parasites who come down from the sky and burrow into humans, taking them over. They coexist with us and feed on us like livestock. It makes you think, and you experience the gamut of the feeling spectrum.

Jon Snow, A Song of Ice and Fire book series (More commonly known as HBO's "A Game of Thrones") He was a bastard child, left to fend for himself. He takes a pledge and heads up into the wintery hellhole that is "The Wall" where he's berated and cut down until eventually through testing, trials, he becomes the Lord Commander there. It's a nice story of how even lowborn people can rise to a high station if well respected.

For English classes in High School, I loved "Lord of the Flies" For my personal reading, anything by George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire series - more commonly known as HBO's "A Game of Thrones") and Michael Moorcock's "Elric Of Melnibone"

I think people find it easier because writing it down you can see the letters (or symbols) that make certain sounds. Then your brain recognizes this fact and puts two and two together when you're reading. Then you may just happen to lose confidence when speaking it because you don't have the paper to look at and your brain isn't coping with the information as much as you can speak it. Could be wrong. Maybe someone else knows?

I learned simple Japanese phrases by watching anime, and listening to how they phonetically pronounce everything and with my limited understanding of Romaji, I was able to talk and sing in Japanese perfectly. I've even gotten stared at a couple times. I may not understand the entirety of what I'm singing, but I can almost perfectly mimic syllables and pronunciations for different words down.

Hey Robert. I'm Shane. I'm an America who is just fat and lazy who is deciding to learn another language to bolster my ability to speak in Bilingual if not higher translations. I always thought it'd be fun to learn and just learn so many different cultures and how to speak Japanese. Nice to meet you Hope to see you around the forums some.

Why? Because it was my heritage. I felt I should put some effort to learn the language where my ancestors came from (at least 50% of them, anyways). There's even a town/river in Germany named "Dahle" which is my last name. I soon after taking two years in high school switched. They're much too harsh on proper sentence structure and after speaking it and writing it for such a short time I couldn't really put phrases together anyways, but I could understand it if it was being spoken.

Less of a "Manga" and more of a "Light Novel" I loved To Aru Majustsu no Index and the concept of the kids having ranked level powers. Also, Spice and Wolf is another fantastic example from a Light Novel. For Manga itself, I concur with Bakuman. Who can't like one of the writers at least. I'm a sucker for a good story. Another one I was reading was a Korean Manwha named "Noblesse" (Vampires and such but done well). I enjoy reading manga, manwha, and light novels. It helps accentuate my breaks between gaming and anime and trying to work and learn Japanese.

Definitely true. This is one of the smallest cities I've currently lived in (Edinboro, PA) but the diversity the college brings in is really unique. From the Koreans and Japanese to various other Asian Ethnicities and then right next to them the Mexican minorities. In a very redneck northern PA town. Like farmers type rednecks. It's interesting to see how we all coexist and learn from each other. And I just don't mean the different restaurants, either. I mean wholesome good education.

That's essentially what I've done. I've played so many Japanese betas (with no translation patches) that I have to puzzle out which katakana/hirogana in it in relation to what stats (Str, Dex, etc) and then when they fully voice it, and it's not subbed I feel I can understand the generals of the conversation. Don't ask me to respond, however. That's still a bit beyond me But yeah, I've been touching up with some vocab words and pounding the Romaji into my head for how to spell certain ways.

Since we're a melting pot, the language gap and barrier is huge. I would say very huge. But in small towns, even though change is feared outside minorities have a better time making it. We're more apt to sit down and try to have a full conversation because these are people we will keep dealing with. It won't be immediate but if two cultures mix for any extended periods of time, naturally the barrier will become weaker by proximity and being able to pick up what other nationalities are saying.

A serious attempt at Japanese. Not this kids level stuff, but actual well informed Japanese sentences and the ability to able to hold simple conversations at the very least. I have a firm grasp and understand of some of their words and how they mean what they mean, but if you asked me to write in the language aside from Romaji I would fail, and still probably get the sentences wrong. But if it's spoken to me, and slowly, without a heavy accent I can understand it fairly well. I've always loved Japanese but was too scared it would be too difficult to learn. But you only live once, right? Might as well try to learn it.

Thanks for that explanation. I always wondered why "kedo" was always followed by a negative or unfortunate statement. And ga was used always a comma. Now it all makes sense. Man, depending on their mode of speaking and writing I think the Japanese have like 100 meanings for one word. It's a truly complex and beautiful language.

To learn it primarily? No. Never use social media, no matter if subtitles or not, for in-depth sentence structure and forming. Did it help? Definitely. And it's what sparked my interest of the whole thing and researching their ways of life and culture. I especially find Archery Club and Kendo Club to be awesome, and I would have did them in my school if they were offered. We only did silly stuff here. From the anime though, I've definitely learned to UNDERSTAND the language, when it's being spoken to me. Sometimes I read in Romaji though to get a firm grasp on how to say words and where the accent on the syllables lie. It will not help you LEARN it, however. That takes time. Dedication.

Honestly, their culture intrigued me. Then I dove into anime and I've become an otaku. I can't even lie or hide it. I started to play fully Japanese beta games that would have no translated patches. I started to understand what symbols meant what and after years of anime I could understand the base spoken form of Japanese. I wouldn't say I could right it, but I can read Romaji just fine. I think it's a lovely language, and very very complex. There are so many ways to say different things with the same words. I won't say English is different, but Japanese has so many layers with Hirogana and Katakanathat Romaji is the easiest way for me to understand it. Calligraphy is something else, as well. Their brush strokes are art in and of themselves.

It appears as if she doesn't want to go the extra mile and she fails to comprehend the full scope of what it means to learn a language. A couple phrases helps, to be certain, but making complete sentence structure and still making sense while speaking it is two different ideas altogether. I'd tell her to take it nice and slow and start repeating certain phrases over and over until her English word becomes associated with the Japanese version. I won't lie; I've been watching anime. I've heard it for 10 years now, all the time in Japanese with subtitles. I've started to pick up how they talk, where to stress vowels and syllables and where the action part of a sentence goes. It takes effort and a willingness to remember it all.

Greetings and salutations fellow language learning associates. My name is Shimus, or Shane in real life. I live near Northwest Pennsylvania, in the Erie region. My hobby as of late around here is the Japanese language and all its complexities and Keigo (polite speak) and understand all honorifics enough to put them into sentence form and not sound like a complete novie. I do not do write in Japanese, but rather focus on the Romaji, or roman-style writing for their letters. I have a limited understand of sentence structure. I'd love to learn from somebody who could help me understand basics that most Nihonjin would know in their "elementary" or "Grade" schools. My other interests include Anime (not scared to admit it, I love dark shows especially), reading (George R.R. Martin in Particular), and 90's grunge music (Ranging from Nirvana to Staind and Tool) I'm generally easy going and will discuss mostly any topic and have friendly debates if I feel I'm right to get my point across. Nice to meet you all