Hi guys! an actual japanese blog translator here =v=b I dunno if u guys know about morning musume, but i translate Takahashi Ai chans blog.

anyway, i had no formal classes whatsoever. dun like to read on books. but just a few tip on learning nihongo.

please google tae kim grammar guide on japanese. the best grammar-based site to learn. also for maggie's japanese lessons, quite a laidback way to learn, they teach u stuff like everyday usual conversation which are pretty much more appealing than just simple -masu stem verbs.. also, like anyone wud do, please try to brush up ur japanese by watching animes/dramas etc.

got questions please feel free to pm me

from a 'feel' perspective i can only say,

saigo is like, "lastly.." or "the last...."

saishuu is more like "in the end, ...."

u don't use saigo for this sentence, "in the end, he end up going home"

最終に、彼は家に帰っちゃう。

if u use saigo, then it will sound like this, "in the last, he end up going home"

its either the 'last' or the 'end'

omg you're so lucky! would die to get a wife like yours who needs to go to japan for studies etc

the only reason people are in japan is to HAVE FUN.

i know dialect sounds a lot more natural, but the first thing japanese will say to a foreigner whenever they speak with accent or not is,

"waaa, nihongo umai ne"

the best and enjoyable way for me is:-

reading blogs of your favorite artists

and install rikaichan on your mozilla firefox.

I read a lot of japanese blogs. While reading I always use Rikaichan(firefox app for translation)

From there I started translating blogs. Bit by bit I could remember kanji patterns without any aid.

The feeling when you can read a whole blog without a translator is so much win.

it comes with passion man.

if you have it, it doesn't matter whatever you do.

definitely can't open a dict and expect to just master every single meaning..

Usually the best thing to do is just enjoy it while learning..

Like, anime, drama, look at the subtitles

then we do it like this..

specific words go look it up..

and eventually when u read subtitles, u know which word belongs to which spoken.

its really up to the individual. to me, if u really love it, then there shouldn't be any problem.

PASSION is really important when learning language

but even for myself, i find myself pausing at most parts of an anime, just to write down the words..

and i take it a step higher when watching movies that has kansai ben in it, u get to learn their slang too .

imagine talking to a native, with slang, sum more kansai ben, they;d be shitting brix

i was drawn to IDOLS.

Heres the first video which really got me into it:-



and then I watched this:-



and followed by this:-



and lastly i got to know about this group, Morning Musume

*this was the generation I started with, now much graduations has passed and only one person from that picture is left*



and their hit song was:-



and that was late 2009.. in 2010 I joined this forum called Hello!Online which centers on idols especially MM.

http://www.hello-online.org/

and my fandom grew larger. I began mixing with foreigners, talking about idols, videos, official member blogs etc.

Early 2010, my interest in nihongo grew larger, due to the drive of one day, I would speak to my favorite member. so i googled much resources, started with random youtube videos and grammar wise improved thru this website:-

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete

I had no one to practice my nihongo with, so i often watch a lot of videos to get a hang of their accent, their style, etc. (well, when nobodys around, I find myself talking alone in japanese like an idiot.)

mid 2010, i decided that with the nihongo i have, I would start translating my favorite members blog.

heres one of her original entries:-

http://ameblo.jp/takahashiai-blog/archive67-201109.html#main

and my translated version:-

http://ameblo.jp/kaitodoraemon/archive1-201109.html

and it goes on and on. Yeah, the first time i started it it was way back when i was still a noob. many people said my trans work was shit. but i didnt care. i just kept translating.

around end of 3rd quarter 2010, i joined a japanese club of my uni, with the hopes to receive some japanese transfer students, and we did. during puasa for 3 weeks. there were about 15 beautiful and cute japanese girls, and i polished my japanese there and then.

following them, many other came as well for a field trip so from there i got the opportunity. heh, even one of them told me directly that my japanese sounded weird, my face turned red, but in the end i just brushed it off. cudnt care much.

So one day it was announced that she was to host this radio show. and i decided id send her a letter nearing the end of the year. and guess what, she picked my letter and read it on the radio show:-



and that was the peak of my fandom. closest ever contact i could ever reach for with an idol.

however, come january next year, a painful news, she announced her graduation from the group and i was heartbroken. but her graduation was on september, so i saved up for that trip and actually flew to japan to watch her graduation concert,



so, trip ended, made lots of japanese and foreign fans, connected together by the same interest. it was a wholesome experience.

so at that point of time, I was pretty much comfortable with my japanese. i could hold a decent conversation with japanese. Often my topic would always be if they knew about the group Morning Musume and if they knew my favorite member. most of them would say yes and from there on we could talk about it.

well.. its a long story.. but i think would suffice how i got into the nihongo thing and how i improved.



This post has been edited by noonies_naruto: Jul 7 2013, 12:42 AM

hey there So you're a fan of Yossie huh? Shes still around in Angry & Hangry (duo unit with Ishikawa Rika). Probably you'd wanna utube to see her progress nowadays

About the blog translation, haha.. no laa.. not that great.. I still remember when a lot of people had to tell me that I translated things wrongly. But its true, its kinda frustrating when nobody is out there to translate ur favorite members blog/show.

damnn sonn, japanese speech contest! u must be a master oh well, those female-only expression thing, had a japanese girl to tell me that i use too many of those I really wanted to bury myself when i heard that lol. but now im a bit more careful.

thanks for the heads up

to me, JLPT benefits only when ur looking for a job in japan. Or to become a translator etc.

if we just have japanese frens that we wanna talk to, i think any form of japanese learning would suffice.

Got many colleagues taking JLPT, but still cant speak

guys, if u using firefox browser, do install rikaichan add on, and go find ur favorite artist blog and read it everyday.

read the comments too, it wud be a plus.

that way, u get the nuance, or in simpler terms, the 'feel' of it.

works for me though. I think its a lot more fun than any kind of serious studying.

doing what u love while gaining something.

tama ni watashitachi no koto oboete ne

EDIT: oops dah ditranslate. ma bad

This post has been edited by noonies_naruto: Sep 20 2016, 12:28 AM