Japanese blog#2: Little things

Since my last post I managed to keep watching anime in Japanese (with either English or Spanish sub) and trying not to read the subtitles and now it feels kind of weird to watch anime in other languages, which seems to be a little odd. Anyways, I have had a busy schedule, but now that I quit my job and basically have no job propositions whatsoever, I think I'm gonna have more time to watch Japanese anime. 

I'm watching Sailor moon, Hell girl, and a yaoi anime named Junjou Romantica, to whom it might concerned. Anyhow, lately, I came to realize that that little vowel "う" represents double vowels; which may sound pretty lame to someone who already knows the language, but it's a very important discovery for me, since before this "breakthrough" I used to pronounce the word " よう" (you) as yoh.oo. singing along some anime karaokes. Now I laugh just thinking about it. And so, words containing that "diphthong" such as ありがとう ("arigatou" as transcribed in some anime karaokes) or さようならwere very confusing to me because the pronunciation was different from the spelling. 

Also, I've come to the realization that hiragana writing can be done in various styles (again, pretty lame discovery to people who already know the language well) and it's not that strict or rigid, which means that I have to use my memory even more. As far as learning kanji is concerned, I've decided to take one word at a time, for that's how we normally learn things in languages: I've settled to learn those freaking symbols kanji only in the context of a word, that is to say, no memorization of individual kanji, which wouldn't make much sense to me since I don't know the language well.

In addition to this, I've come to appreciate that in order to learn a language, one needs a lot of motivation. It didn't seem obvious to me in English because the whole process happened in stages, so to speak. So, I remained "fooled" in the early stages because I thought I was approaching native-like command. However, It wasn't until I was in the midst of it, that I learned that I still have a long way to go. It's like I thought I was very close to my goal, only to discover later that there was still a lot of details to polish. 

On the other hand, it's not the same with Japanese. I know that If I want to be good, I'll have to spend years exposing myself intensively to the language and learning how to write it. Anyway, it's not that I want to come off as a whinny baby but, I feel like I'm at the base of a mountain and that I still have a long way up. 

Also, I couldn't find any reasonable way of installing a "Japanese spelling software" on my computer so I chose to download a program which allows me to type in Japanese and then I copy and paste it wherever I need it, which was basically what I had to do to write this post. I'm open to suggestions. 

PS: to anyone who reads this, please, if you have any recommendations about which anime I should watch, don't be afraid of leaving a comment, in the comment section below. さようなら。 

Japanese blog #1: Greetings and a little bit of history.

So, I took the idea of writing a blog about my language learning process with Japanese from a website. And I think the first thing that I have to say is that this is not the first time I try to learn a foreign language. Actually, my first language is Spanish and my second language is English so if you come across a grammar mistake somewhere in these pages, you now know why.

In fact, I have to admit that I feel pretty comfortable with English, so comfortable, that I actually have the guts to write a Japanese blog in English. I chose English because it's pretty much the most common second language in the world and this is actually an opportunity to practice my writing skills. So here it is: I've learned a language and I managed to remain conscious the whole process. It wasn't the same case with Spanish with which I don't have any recollection of learning it. Just a few words here and there, such as "cuadra" (block) and the expression "tienes razón" which is Spanish for "you're right".

But with English, it is a struggle and I have to admit that I'm not done yet: I make grammatical mistakes from time to time, I don't have a perfect pronunciation and my vocabulary is not as vast as in Spanish which, after all, it's my mother tongue. However, I do have to say that my comprehension is near to 90% and If I'm not "there" yet (and by "there" I mean, native-like pronunciation, grammar and oral comprehension) I feel closer now than never before. It has taken me 8 years or so to reach this level in English.

Anyway, the real star of this story is Japanese so, to sum it up, I have to say that now, with the experience I've gotten trying to cram English words and grammar formulas into my head, I've realized that the best learning method you can use is raw, extensive and intensive exposure. I know some of you may say that you also need grammar lessons and all that and I agree, because they teach you the grammar rules (or tendencies) explicitly but don't neglect the context which in this case is the raw and pure exposure part.

I've come to wonder why is it that it took me so long to learn the grammar constrains of English and why was the process of acquiring vocabulary so unreasonably slow. The only answer I can come up with is that I rarely exposed myself to English. I mean, I meant to do that several times but by the minute I started watching my favorite TV show and not understanding anything of it and getting bored and hopeless, I started to read the subtitles.

It was too hard and now I regret it so much. Anyhow, now I tried to apply my new knowledge to Japanese. I've heard some words here and there and still don't know what they mean. But I keep listening to Japanese no matter how much I want to read the subtitles and  figure out who's who in Full-metal Alchemist. So far, I've learned the word Arigatō ありがとう, Nīsan兄さん (very common word in Fullmetal Alchemist since Alfonse is always calling his brother "Nīsan" and I happened to have watched most of the episodes in Spanish 4 years ago). Other words are: Gomen'nasai ごめんなさい, Kon'nichiwa こんにちは and that's all. Although, I keep hearing the expresion "shimashita" all the time and I still don't know what it means. I wish you guys could tell me any method you use to learn Kanji or if you just used plain memorization.