Every Saturday I study Nihongo (Japanese language) for five hours at TAFE. Eek! Five hours seems like a very long time but it is actually extremely rewarding and word is that my Japanese is improving. Yay! It's an amazing class. It goes for 6 months and costs only $250. My sweet teacher Tomi Sensei makes up little songs to help us to remember things like how to transform verbs.
If you can't dedicate five hours every Saturday to Japanese study but still want to learn Japanese, I think the next best thing is signing up to Japanese Pod 101. Here you can download podcasts, translation notes, kanji worksheets and cultural notes. Or sign up for daily Japanese emails on Yookoso.
Another good tip is to make yourself some good flash cards. The above pics are some verb cards I made when I first started learning Japanese in 2004. The girl in the cards is meant to be me! Oh dear my hiragana was so terrible in those days - Gomen! (Sorry!)
Ganbatte ne! (Good luck)
That is such dedication. I lived in Vietnam as a volunteer in 2000 and winged it. I've always been OK at picking up language and was helped to find a Vietnamese teacher. I wish, though, I was a little closer to a city centre so I could keep going with lessons. I was just getting a handle on basics - you know, could do the groceries and get around and do the polite chit chat thing. Unfortunately where I live has no dedicated intensive language courses on offer, and I need to hear and chat in the language to get it.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks for all your lovely comments! They really made me smile. :)
ReplyDeleteI studied Japanese my first year of university and loved the classes. Since then I've always been meaning to pick it up again! Thanks for the extra motivation! xx
Do you have a link for the Tafe courses? Do you know if they run Mandarin as well?
ReplyDeleteGanbatte ne Ebo-chan! I'm sure you're killing it at Nihongo. I accidentally tuned in to Japanese news yesterday night on the radio and listened for a while...wow, I understand absolutely nothing. Ganbatte, Elo.
ReplyDeletegood for you! i wish i had the patience and time to learn japanese.
ReplyDeletei've found this site enormously helpful when studying french, and i know they have a japanese portion. http://www.languageguide.org/
Katie cracker nuts! wow! Vietnam! how cool! Oh I bet you are amazing at another language! What were you volunteering for? It sounds very interesting xxx
ReplyDeleteWindy Days! your blog is very special and I am so happy that you made contact! Wow you studied Japanese! amazing! Ow we should have Japanese conversation classes together! xxx
Rebecca, I have a feeling that you might have to wait until next session to enrol in Japanese at TAFE again.
Please click here for Mandarin information:
http://www.sit.nsw.edu.au/courses/search.php?searchvalue=mandarin&Media_Index_ID=169&area=courses§ion=&location%5B%5D=-1
Elo-chan you cutie! Arigatou for our lovely afternoon tea outing on the weekend! Ha ha! Don't worry! I also struggle watching the 5:25am Japanese news! I wish you were still in class with me! onegaishimasu!
Josephine! Thank you so much for visiting Hello Sandwich. Wow you studied French! amazing! I will look at the site! Thanks so much for the tip!
Love love
Hello Sandwich
xxx
haha!
ReplyDeleteべんきょします!
がんばてね~!!
:-)