nataliedujour

Japanese music was a huge help when I started self-studying! One of my favorite ways to practice kana, in particular, was to look up the romanized lyrics to my favorite songs, and then write the lyrics down by hand in kana. I think I got pretty good at it for a while! I'm out of practice now, though, but I can still recognize most kana when asked. I think music also helped hugely with my pronunciation and learning the "flow" of the language. Things like knowing which syllables to stress and when.

I've heard such wonderful things about the Genki series! I'm pretty sure I saw workbooks for them as well, right? I tend to learn best with things like that to accompany the text. I saw some people online talking about Human Japanese before, too... I'll have to give that a shot if you recommend it!

Great point on using the theme songs to learn the flow of the language! That's exactly what did it for me, and I feel like my pronunciation and pacing are better as a result. On a related note... that's also where I first started to learn hiragana/katakana. I would find the romanized lyrics to my favorite themes, and then challenge myself to write them down in kana!

Good evening (or morning, whatever your timezone may be)! I'm Natalie, and I've been attempting to self-study (primarily spoken) Japanese for around 5 years. I like to think my pronunciation is pretty good, and for a while I could write in hiragana/katakana with about as much skill as your average native Japanese-speaking preschooler. I tend to get a little overwhelmed when attempting to study kanji, though. My significant other has studied French for around 3 years, and I've picked up a few words here and there as a result. Once I get the hang of one (or both!) of those, I hope to become as much of a polyglot as I've seen some of you are on this forum! On the non-language side of things, I currently study psychology in college (albeit very slowly...), and spend every other waking minute of my day watching hockey! I'm a little obsessed to say the least. Say... maybe I could learn Russian or Swedish and hang out with some pro hockey players! I look forward to getting to know some new friends on this forum!