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Possible to learn a language by yourself?


UrusaiSenpai

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So. i had this thought for a long time that i should start learning japanese.
I have been playing and watching anime for almost 2 years now, but recently there is a lot of virtual novels that i also want to read but sadly can't.
I have also been talking with an friend that we want to visit japan next year.

So i took the first step few months ago and downloaded some free but also bought some App on my phone that i should help me memorizing Hiragana & Katakana first.

Since i'm getting closer and closer to memorizing all these symbols
i got a copy of "Genki course I & II" (to them that don't know what that this. it is Textbooks that should help with learning japanese)

I will soon start on that, but before i start i wanted to ask you guys
is it possible to learn a language by your own or should i just sign up for a language course and get professionel help?

(By the way the reason i'm not signing up for that the language course instantly it is because it's pretty far away)
 

dmronny

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

It's possible to learn on your own at least when it comes to reading and writing. Learning to speak would be a lot more difficult without some kind of instruction however.

Getting a head start on your own by learning the alphabet and how to read an write before getting actual instruction isn't a bad idea. When I learned Korean in the army we started off by learning all those more basic skills before actually being put into a class with native instructors. Listening and actually speaking with either native speakers or an instructor is pretty much a necessity to really learn the language in my personal experience however.
 

Zepheral

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

Not without others to correct you, It's like learning English. Without someone to correct you or give the Japanese version of sesame street, it's gonna be hard. You can learn it by yourself but you might make mistakes, so have a buddy to teach you the language or go to a class that will help. In my situation my parents speak Spanish ,so if my Spanish is sub par they'll point it out and I teach them English. Its a win win :D
 

Chibichibi

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

There's a great app that helps with pronunciation called duo lingo. idk if it has japanese but I'm gonna start teaching myself spanish using it
 

hellotoko

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

It's possible, you just have to know how to study.. You need to be learning, not just listening to stuff and hoping that some day it all will make sense.. Try to understante sentences and words, look for free youtube videos teaching some things... You can do it
 

noman

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

So. i had this thought for a long time that i should start learning japanese.
I have been playing and watching anime for almost 2 years now, but recently there is a lot of virtual novels that i also want to read but sadly can't.
I have also been talking with an friend that we want to visit japan next year.

So i took the first step few months ago and downloaded some free but also bought some App on my phone that i should help me memorizing Hiragana & Katakana first.

Since i'm getting closer and closer to memorizing all these symbols
i got a copy of "Genki course I & II" (to them that don't know what that this. it is Textbooks that should help with learning japanese)

I will soon start on that, but before i start i wanted to ask you guys
is it possible to learn a language by your own or should i just sign up for a language course and get professionel help?

(By the way the reason i'm not signing up for that the language course instantly it is because it's pretty far away)
I have used those books before. They should be enough to teach you some basic reading skills, to the point that you should be able to understand the plot and instructions of the game. If you try to communicate with someone else in Japanese they should be able to grasp your meaning, but your grammar will be horribly broken.
 

Pervy

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

What, no one giving a witty answer?

It's possible to learn a language all by yourself, just as its possible to carry a cupboard all by yourself. It just takes longer and is a lot more painful.

I tried teaching japanese to myself, actually, and after having an actual teacher afterwards.. that teaching myself was a mistake. You just get stuff done faster if you have someone around that can do it.

Thing is, you shouldn't just learn japanese in vocabulary and writing, but.. more the spirit. Everyone can hammer a Hiragana and Katakana into their head, but few books can tell you the subtle social differences in greetings and suffixes.

I'm ranting. My advice is to get a good teacher to teach you the basic structure, you can fill out the writing yourself, and stuff like vocabulary, accents and colloquialisms, advanced Kanji and the culture you have to learn by immersion anywhoo.
 

Aurani

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

An actual teacher, be it professional or a native-speaking friend helps immensely when learning a new language. It's possible to learn the basics and a few simple phrases with self-studies, but past that you pretty much need assistance unless you're some kinda prodigy.
I took a year of Japanese back when I was in high school and I learned most of the Hiragana and Katakana alphabet, a very limited amount of Kanji, as well as some phrases, learning a new language takes years, so never give up, there's always room for improvement.
It's a shame that I haven't been able to put this into practice in real life on a regular basis so my knowledge is pretty rusty and I make mistakes constantly.
 

Pervy

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

learning a new language takes years
I disagree. Learning it takes months, MASTERING It.. that takes years and years.
 

Phildalt

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

Well I did learn english by myself, so yes I think it's possible.
 

Architect

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

Yes it is, as long as you remember to ground yourself in the four fundamentals of learning a language:

- Speaking
- Listening
- Writing
- Reading

Each of these must be covered. You can't just cover one of them - if you focus too much on only some aspects, you'll end up illiterate, at best (can speak/listen, can't read/write).

If English (a Germanic language) is your first language, the difficulty in learning Japanese (an East Asian language) is quite marked. Also, without an actual teacher or a class environment, it's hard for you to learn to speak properly most of all.

If you work hard at it, though, it's entirely possible.
 

K84

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

I think so. I was working in France for 3 months and during that time I learned a lot more than 2 years of study at the Institute. I needed this to see the tv, :D
 

PinkTea

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

In my experience studying a language accompanied by regular practice and reviews of what you've been learning is the best way to learn.

Just cos you have chance to speak to someone in that language doesn't always mean you'll be learning anything. Like the other guy said. You can live abroad for months/years without picking a basic grasp of the local language, if you don't make any effort to study.
 

MuffinCrumb

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

Learning a language comes from understanding.

Watching anime and manga for a long time can help you understand bits and pieces and maybe some culture but classes and professional teaching software go a long way toward completely learning a language.

I know about enough in Japanese to have a conversation and not be dreadfully lost but I owe it to weeks of Rosetta Stone and then listening to the language without subtites.

Always try to become more learned. When watching anime listen and understand the words, when reading imagine what they would be saying in Japanese.

I say this much but I'm terribly hopeless at writing the language.
 

Joe007

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

Well not sure if it counts as 'learning' but I did manage to learn quite a bit of 'Dutch' but that is only because I originally know about a language called 'Afrikaans' and that is really simiiar to dutch that it is quite scary. I think of it as a slang type of dutch.
 

zen9o

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

To understand i think its moderately easy to do by yourself but to read/write requires some sort of education. I've watched anime with subtitles for a long time and there are many phrases that i recognize/understand without noticing. From my experience learning Finnish, i think its a easier language to write/read/ than Japanese, i could never be asked to memorize all those kanji/katakana/hiragana. Ultimate to hold a comfortable conversation the best tactic is to immerse yourself in the language where everyone speaks it around you. also learning language that are related is super easy, if you know English, Swedish is not that hard.
 

FlynnFlann

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

4chan's "daily japanese thread" over on /a/ used to actually be a really good resource for learning Japanese actually.
I think it's kill now unfortunately.

Nama-sensei is also a name to check out, he has a couple of videos on youtube which serve as a good place to start- though you'll need to find other resources to move onto things like Kanji.

Services like wanikani are pretty good for learning kanji through flashcards, which... well, you're going to have to do at one point in order to read properly.
 

hoofiewoofie

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Re: Possible to learn a language by yourself?

WALL OF TEXT

First of all, my main focus for learning Japanese is in reading, not speaking (or even writing :O), so my resources focus mostly on learning how to read while the other aspects are lower priority. Additionally, I intentionally committed myself to a slow track so that I wouldn't burn myself out trying to learn too quickly (whilst saving money :p).

I first started by memorizing hiragana and katakana. If you don't have those, you can't really do much in the reading department... Next, I used wanikani, which has a substantial beginner's amount of kanji for free that is presented in a far more engaging fashion than looking at a dictionary.

At the same time, I found that looking up translations for any J-Pop that falls into my library and spending 10 minutes to actively read the romaji and the translation line by line helped a lot with associating words between the languages. Once you're able to read hiragana at least, you can start looking at the kanji lyrics as well and trying to connect all three written forms. I find myself much more interested in reading lyrics than, say, trying to read a newspaper :/ (which really does sound like it will work though). Additionally, you don't really need any inspiration to keep going at this, because music just falls into your lap anyway regardless of whether you're studying Japanese or not ;). Additionally, for songs I really like (i.e. want to learn the lyrics and sing them), I either write them down or into my iPhone in Japanese. I'm sure you've heard about how physically copying notes down and such helps with memory and whatnot. Do note that it takes like half an hour for a song when you're a beginner, though -_-.

After gaining some more confidence ("I know 30 super-basic Kanji now! Yay!"), you can try to surf the internet and look up RAW mangas in conjunction with the english scanslations. I used To-Love Ru Darkness, myself, for this. Unfortunately, I'm stuck on a 1366x768px laptop with no external monitor, so this quickly fell out of favor for me :(. It's pretty hard to find RAWs though. You should probably grab Web of Trust just in case.

However, just knowing Kanji isn't enough! Grammar is important, too! For a while, I didn't focus on grammar at all, I just kind of absorbed it from the above methods. What that resulted in was a passive understanding of basic Japanese sentences, but beyond that I usually got confused as to "so, did character X just die because a depressed fox with a sword stabbed him, or was X depressed because the fox stabbed his friend with a sword before the fox died of its wounds, or some other permutation..." The two sources I've found really helpful are and Tae Kim's guide, which is a free iPhone app. The first is one of the only sources I've bookmarked that I visit with any frequency (it has a ton of examples for each topic), while the latter is really dense... but it's mobile! It's great for when you're waiting for something IRL but you can't connect to the internet b/c you're in a basement -_-.

And then the most recent step was picking up a project, i.e. Rune's Pharmacy :D, which of course accounts for 80% of my present knowledge. I'm a project-centered individual, so I knew that I could keep my inspiration going as long as I still had work to do on it. As I said, I intentionally paced myself as a turtle, so it's been about 4 years since I first started learning Hiragana and started translating Rune's Pharmacy.

For me, watching anime wasn't a conscious effort to learn Japanese by the way. I'm not an auditory learner, so I actually didn't get too much out of it except for a subconscious foundation of some sort. It does help for learning a lot of anime-type colloquialisms, especially conventional translations for phrases that don't translate easily to English, as well as culture (which doesn't sound like it should be related to language, but it is). The main issue, as it is with any language, is that you can't parse what foreigners say in realtime unless you already know a substantial amount of what they're saying, so I regard anime as a learning tool as a later step in the learning process.

Hope this helps for whoever reads it!
 
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