Learning Asian Languages
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:21 pm
I was looking for a thread about learning Japanese/Korean/any other eastern language here today and couldn't find one. I did manage to find that wonderful thread posted by Ben-B with the learning Japanese videos.
Have you ever tried to learn an eastern language, or any second language? I learned French throughout my K-12 education, but most of the finer points of it have more or less faded now, and, although I can still speak the language coherently, it doesn't sound very 'cool'. I mention Japanese not just because of LiT, but because I have quite a few anime friends who are taking introductory Japanese as part of their university curriculum. Most of them can't really speak any Japanese, whereas I find after just the first one or two of those instructional videos, anyone should be able to form a basic sentence.
Is learning this way destructive? Every lesson in Hiragana I have ever seen has strongly suggested using mnemonics to learn them more effectively. I did not, and was still able to learn them all with reasonable recall speed in just a few weeks. What has your experience been like?
Have you ever tried to learn an eastern language, or any second language? I learned French throughout my K-12 education, but most of the finer points of it have more or less faded now, and, although I can still speak the language coherently, it doesn't sound very 'cool'. I mention Japanese not just because of LiT, but because I have quite a few anime friends who are taking introductory Japanese as part of their university curriculum. Most of them can't really speak any Japanese, whereas I find after just the first one or two of those instructional videos, anyone should be able to form a basic sentence.
Is learning this way destructive? Every lesson in Hiragana I have ever seen has strongly suggested using mnemonics to learn them more effectively. I did not, and was still able to learn them all with reasonable recall speed in just a few weeks. What has your experience been like?