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02-24-2010, 07:16 AM
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02-24-2010, 10:13 AM
It's fine that you guys think that using romaji is not a good way to start learning Japanese, but hear me out. Who's coming to my site to learn japanese?
So far, my lessons are for beginners. This means that they will likely not know hiragana 100% and using only hiragana might be too daunting. This leads to them giving up before they even tried. Like someone before mentioned, you have to realize the target audience. If you guys want me to make more intermediate-advanced guides, then I will do that. And no, I am not a Japanese teacher. I'm just a college student who does this on the side. I did not learn Japanese formally, but I think I taught myself well. And to the person who said they changed their speech to meet my foreigner needs: They talk to each other like that when the conversation has nothing to do with me. I know how to recognize cultural awareness in speech. little bit more about myself: I've also been to Taiwan for a summer to learn Chinese. I learn languages as a hobby. I'm of Korean descent. I like cheese on everything. I enjoy karaoke. You guys are a tough crowd :/ I received criticism more than anything, but I don't mind. Feel free to ask a question at my site if you really want to test my knowledge in Japanese that much. I'll see you there!
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02-24-2010, 04:07 PM
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Technically, the Japanese sentence says "As for me, dogs are liked." In this sentence, "dogs" is the subject of the sentence.
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02-24-2010, 04:14 PM
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Next, "the person" (Sashimister) you're talking about in paragraph two is a native Japanese speaker. You should go with what he said. MMM, the other one who addressed the 私 issue, is a professional translator IIRC. I studied at a university in Japan. We're a tough crowd because people come here all the time with "hey check out my Japanese instruction site" that inevitably turns out to be full of horrible, incorrect Japanese. That's why we're always so critical of sites such as yours. I will say that what I saw of yours doesn't raise alarm bells the way others I've seen do. Still, I think your romaji point is weak. In your forum, you have a lesson on comparisons. No one should be at that level of Japanese and not know kana. Period. The only excuse for teaching in romaji is that you're teaching how to say the things a learner would use on day 1 or day 2. No true beginner should be learning comparisons. Someone learning comparisons is at a level where they should have learned kana. In my Japanese class, we learned hiragana before, I think, class three even started. We had basically learned how to say hello, goodbye, good morning, and a few other phrases. That's it. I don't think we'd learned any grammar whatsoever.
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02-24-2010, 05:11 PM
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02-24-2010, 07:18 PM
Yeah, I know what you were trying to say.
To clarify a few things 好き doens't actually mean "to like" or anything like that. It means "liked." So 犬が好きだ literally means "dogs are liked." But that's not the most natural way to say it in English. Also, you can say 犬は好きだ and mean "I like dogs [as opposed to cats]."
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02-24-2010, 10:40 PM
While I agree with you that someone learning comparisons should already have the kanas down I have reasons for having romaji as well as kana.
I've been teaching my college friends Japanese because we do not have a Japanese course here. They are completely new to Japanese and it's hard to force them to learn Kana when there's no grade involved. The only ones who learned kana fully on the first week are the people who are self-motivated. When I decided to make this website, I wanted to teach those "self motivated" people to minimize headaches, but I soon found out that the demographic of people wanting to learn Japanese isn't as professional. There are high school students who wants to learn Japanese, English teachers, travellers, Korean mothers, and all sorts of different kind of people with different schedules. I repeat, I agree that a true linguist always starts by learning to read the language in order for them to go to the source to learn. The only problem is that not everyone claims to be a self-proclaimed linguist. The site is the end result of my contemplation. If it happens so that people want and require a more strict way of teaching, I will agree with their wants and produce my lessons in a different way. At this point, the site is still an experiment. If no one comes and participates with the site, then I am obviously doing something wrong and I will adapt to the situation respectively. I repeat, I am not a Japanese teacher and did not learn Japanese formally. I don't believe in a formal education nor do I think degrees make a person qualified. I look up to a lot of people and most of them have never received a formal education. They fueled their passion with study and produced ground-breaking results. I went to Taiwan for a Chinese school but ended up never going to class and just studying in the library. (yay visa) The school was ready to kick me out of the country but I convinced them otherwise. I'm not saying that being self-taught is the best way. To be honest, it's more of a way to hinder yourself. Quoting Mark Twain - "The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done." It's true. Being self-taught is the downfall of modern-day education. Everyone needs a general education to survive and act in the modern world. But, I believe that being self-taught is the most natural way of learning. It's fine to imitate your father as you grow up, but I believe that finding your own way is a valid way to learn. As far as the criticisms go, I am not ignoring it. I will take everyone's opinion into consideration and make my next lessons to suit everyone's tastes. I'm sorry for this long rant but I feel strongly that being self-educated is my goal. (Though my boss probably won't think so) Thanks for reading this wall of text.
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02-25-2010, 12:26 AM
If someone can't be arsed to learn kana on their own, they will never learn Japanese so you are wasting your time. (To be blunt about it.)
Seriously, Japanese is a decade-long process. And they can't be arsed to learn hiragana?!?
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02-25-2010, 12:32 AM
It's good that you hold your own opinion, but believe it or not, teachers deal with this everyday. You can't expect everyone in the class to be completely motivated. But, what you can do is nudge them the right way and hope for them to be interested.
general education is forced education. If I can get one person interested in Japanese without them having to dedicate a couple of hours learning kana, then I did my job.
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02-25-2010, 12:47 AM
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You can't learn Japanese WITHOUT learning kana, and once one learns kana it gets easier, not harder to learn. It is much easier to read よろしくお願いします then it is yoroshikuonegaishimasu.
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