Japanese Learning Japanese - is it worth it??

My local college offers a part time course in Japanese, at the foundation level it says it takes 2 years to pass the course (it then offers further more advanced courses) Im starting full time college this year and my course takes 2 years, after i pass my course i'd really liek to go to a Japanese University so i wanna learn Japanese, but i know nothing about it so far and I was wondering if 2 years would be enough time to get a decent understanding?

 

If I was in your shoes. I would most sertainly take a Japanese language class. It may be a hard language but its worth it.
NOTE: Japanese Universities are not easy to get into. (Just to tell ya if ya don't know)

 

yeah i probably will give it a try, i jus thought i'd get some other peoples opinions b4 rushing in head first. After all it can't hurt to try! i hope

 

um..yes and no. This depends on your course syllabus and its program. I took 3 years of japanese during high school, and it did hardly anything for me. After those courses, we weren't even able to hold conversations with kindergarten students. Its quite pathetic actually, but that's all they ever taught. I later went on to take a semester at college, but this was an advanced course since i did my own tutoring and i went on exchange. This course was faaaaar better than those I had in high school...however, if it is a beginning course, I DO think that you would get a good foundation, but not necessarily enough to do much. Of course after those two years, I'd really doubt you could survive at a Japanese University. Most Japanese Universities don't accept students who dont pass the JPT level 1, which is extremely hard to acheive.

If you would like to attend a Japanese University, the best way i would recommend would be through your college study abroad program. This would allow them to slowly immerse you into the university and help you alot in understanding the language and culture.

Japanese can be a difficult language to learn, and it would take alot of determination and study to acheive a high level of understanding. Best of Luck!

 

Just two words: Hell yes!!!
IMO

 

taking japanese is worth is i have been taking since i was in the 2nd grade. . .on and off here and there but i speak it pretty well. The only reason i took it tho was becuase i lived in japan (dad's work). Speaking japanese is fun but very chalenging. . you have to be up for it. the main thing is if you are oing to use it and aply is then learn it!! or you can just learn it for fun which is always cool too. ^.~. Go and learn japanese!! I liked it alot.

 

Learning Japanese is really worth the trouble and the hard work. TRUST ME. I've been taking it since the 4th grade, first through the internet then into big books and soon reading japanese books and translating along the way.

Although Japanese schools are blazingly hard to get in to, you could go to Japan for fun and understand what people are saying. (Going to a country where you don't understand the language is the worst! When I was in Costa Rica, I didn't speak much Spanish, *nor do I speak much spanish now!* and I felt like an idiot.)


Work hard, reward yourself along the way for your accomplishments, and HAVE FUN! There are MANY ways to learn a new language. When I was getting a better grasp on English and I couldn't spell, I made little songs out of the words and English grammar to help me remember things. Try games, or songs, or anything you like.

GANBATTE!!

 

That's gambatte

 

Actually... either is a correct romanization... the 'n' kana (looks like a cursive lower case 'h') used for representing that sound in words is pronounced varyingly between an 'n' sound and an 'm' sound, most often somewhere inbetween. Ever heard a Japanese person give an informal 'yes' to a question? (no, not 'hai', that's rather formal comparitively) that 'un' uses the same sound. Same with Genki.

So yes, you're both right in this case. Ganbatte or Gambatte both work just as well.

The Lecture Mod,
-UK

 

You know...once I read on a site (from hiragana) to romaji. It became something like gambatte (most likely, but it could've been ganbatte, though...). I wouldn't write romaji after the pronoun; and I don't. I write it as it's spelled in hiragana...so....

 

Anyway you do it, that particular hiragana (and the katakana equivalent) can be romanized either way.

-UK

 

*grin*
Sou ka...

 

Sou da. Actually, in my experience... (liimited at best, having never been to japan) the 'n' romanization is more used... But I see both, for instance, 'Senpai' or 'Sempai'.

Now, I need to look this up to be sure, but I believe I heard there were actually 4 different, valid ways to romanize japanese. Perhaps we should start a discussion on these.. I know there's a few people who are quite highly opinionated about them.

-UK

 

I think that learning Japanese is worth it no matter what. Of, course it depends what you are planning to do with that learning. For me, I plan on going to Japan and becoming an animator. But if I learn enough, I can become a translator, and go to a part time college. Mostly because those translators make a lot of money.