Japanese is anything but an easy language to learn, regardless of one’s mother tongue. Still, it is one of the most popular foreign language choices in America and Europe, for two main reasons: the economical importance of Japan and the numerous businesses contracted between Japan and these areas and the fascination for Japanese culture that mainly formed up through modern Western media. Regardless of which reason you want to learn it for, the Japanese language cannot be learnt easily unless you know how it works.
Japanese is spoken by over 130 million people all over the world, obviously most of them being in Japan’s mainland. The Japanese language’s grammar is usually very complex to foreigners because it uses a specific speaker-listener status vocabulary that is unlike anything English or other western languages can offer. Another showstopper when learning Japanese is its writing style, which uses a combination of three alphabets: Chinese characters (also known as Kanji) and two syllabic scripts known as Katakana and Hiragana. In addition, modern Japan uses the Latin alphabet for more and more purposes, which makes it slightly easier for English speakers to grasp this new language than say, a hundred years ago.
Many Japanese learning courses and books start off slowly, in a gradually increasing order of steps. Although this is the correct way to go with any language learning process, it takes a lot of time and you might simply not have that available time to invest in it. For this reason, there are a series of accelerated learning techniques that skip through some of the basics and try to accumulate these fundamentals over more advanced chapters, naturally. Take note that although this is definitely a faster way to learn Japanese, there’s a good chance that someone that takes the “stepwise”, slower technique will almost always speak and write better and more correctly.
One of the most common japanese language accelerated learning techniques is to plunge you head first into some easier texts, as soon as you know the basic alphabet, then provide a translation in English (or your mother tongue) of the same text. This obviously skips a lot of steps such as basic grammatical structure, pronunciation of words, punctuation and so forth. However, this accelerated learning technique has the advantage of building up your vocabulary quickly. Doing several of these translated reading exercises per day, you will soon get some of the grammar and spelling foundations that you’ve skipped in the first place, up and running.
The next step in most Japanese language accelerated learning techniques is to play a tape followed by a translated text. After you’ve built on your Japanese reading and understanding skills, the audio technique is the logical step forward. This will correct any pronunciation problems and will also have a positive effect on your vocabulary gain. There are several sources offering Japanese language accelerated learning techniques, including books and courses. You can find some very useful sources online, on sites dealing with Japanese language learning, Japanese language translations and tests.
Michael Gabrikow
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/japanese-language-accelerated-learning-techniques-70805.html
March 9th, 2010 at 3:50 am
(Oh god not another) TOP COLLEGE "chance me" question?!?
I am a ripe new sophomore in high school; however, I have been keeping college admissions in mind since I was 14.
I’ll cut to the chase. I’m aiming for top schools. Stanford would be Number 1, followed by Ivies, followed by a couple others I can post on request.
Various Important Information:
Current GPA (Weighted): 5.1
Current GPA (Unweighted): 3.85 I think? Around an A- average?
Scored 98% on state exams in middle school
Scored 29-30 (i forgot) on ACT in middle school. Will take ACT again in high school, as well as SAT.
I am 100% white. Irish/German. Nothing special racially. Average income, probably not a lot of reason for financial aid even though I don’t think we can pay for college. I go to New Trier High School near Chicago.
4 Year Plan (this is required at my school, so it is actually on record and not just what I "hope" or "think I can do")
ALL CLASSES are LEVEL 4, besides the obvious like Art and Gym. Level 2 is state average, level 3 is accelerated college prep (kind of like honors I guess? But normal at my school), and level 4 is at college level but does not prepare for AP exam specifically.
Science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, AP TBD (Bio or Chem)
English: English I, English II, AP English III, AP English IV (2 different AP English)
Social Studies: World History, Geography, AP US History, AP Psychology, AP Political Science
Gym: Requirement Fulfilled
Art: Visual Art Studio, Painting and Drawing, Sculpture, AP Art History, AP Art Studio (all are full year courses)
Math: Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II/College Algebra&Trig, Pre-Calc, AP Calc BC
Japanese: Japanese 1, AP Japanese ( I did a lot of self study), Continuing studies/communication practice with tutors and Japanese friends
Pass Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 before graduation. (aka, language equivalent of a Japanese person entering college)
Chinese: This is the shaky subject. I take to languages alarmingly quickly, and was planning on teaching myself basics, take Year 2 in my Junior Year, teach myself some more and enter AP in Senior. Not definite.
All in all 11 Ap courses planned. I am sure I can do at least 8 or 9; however, I am pretty sure I can make all of them work with organization and hard work.
I also have played piano for 10 years. When I graduate, 13 years. I have played in a few contests, and I may go to an intensive summer arts school to work on my technique and enter a contest to play as a soloist with an international high school orchestra.
I have some natural writing ability, so I think with some technique polishing, my essays could be pretty good. I wrote a lot more in middle school, so subsequently, I competed and published my work more back then. I’m not worried about being TOO rusty though.
I was a top 10 state science olympiad competitor freshmen year in Physics and Ecology. I don’t think I have time to continue with science olympiad to go to nationals.
I was a co-head of my school’s Global Activism club. I plan on continuing in Model UN and Amnesty International. I may drop in on International Club and Japan Club just for my own fun.
Finally, I ranked top 3 when I ran Cross Country, however I quit to focus on studies.
I’m unique in a creative way, and in the weird way.
I am a self-motivated person (my parents don’t care if I go to community college or Harvard). I love learning and challenging myself to my limits. The things I have listed (art, piano, writing, languages, studies) are things that I truly enjoy and want to learn.
Oh, and public speaking is fun.
It may sound like I’m "full of myself", and maybe I am. However, I’m just a well-trained, overworked college hopeful. I wrote it in such a way that was completely factual, but would show my good side. Of course I have things I suck at and stories I wouldn’t care to share just like the rest of the world T_T
I really am just a normal person that wants to succeed….
I’m just nervous T_T Amongst my friends I feel stupid sometimes… Sorry….
March 9th, 2010 at 8:52 am
I think you’re full of yourself!
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 8:54 am
I think if you keep your grades and other qualifications where they are and apply to your top 5 schools you will get into at least one of them – Ivies included. However, don’t just think of colleges as places of prestige, really look into their unique characters to find the one that works for you as an individual. You will basically have your pick of the more offbeat places, so run with that.
Don’t rest on your laurels with the writing, though; you may have learned to construct a sentence in middle school, but constructing an argument is another thing entirely.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Okay, colleges look for students that are not only intelligent and logical but that have common sense as well, because lets be obvious common sense is the foundation for intelligence.
With that said, if you are not smart enough to see your own credentials and understand what your chances are compared to who they normally let in, then you lack any kind of common sense. (and with as many AP’s as you claim to be taking, I doubt youre an idiot)
Soooo its OBVIOUS that you only asked thsi question because you have some kind of inferiority complex. STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS
Seriously, its ridiculous when people write "hi, I have a 10.0 and got a perfect score on SAT’s also, Im part of ten clubs, play a sport for my school and am taking everything AP, do you think my chances are good for getting into Harvard? the answer is obvious.
References :