Home Forums The Japanese Language Vocabulary of doom

This topic contains 11 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by  missingno15 12 years, 9 months ago.

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  • #14337

    Kaito
    Member

    Well, the title might be a tad overdone, but I’m really feeling in vocabulary hell right now. And the reason I find this unacceptable is that I’m juggling just around 100 Japanese words in my head.

    I had a little Japanese on my back when I started with Textfugu, but nothing to be proud of. I’m a long time anime fan, and I “work” with a fansub group, so you can imagine what my Japanese was like. “Horrible” doesn’t make it justice :P

    After a few emails with Koichi, I got myself a paid Textfugu account, drove through hiragana, and started working on grammar, kanji, and (*gasp*) vocabulary. It took me all of 2 days to get my head around hiragana, and I have little trouble remembering kanji so far. I’m even picking up the grammar quite fast, and doing a lot of practice. Anki is smokin’ yo. And so is my pen. Cause I like to write down the answers to any questions the text asks me, and then check whether I was right.

    But then I hit vocabulary. Those vocabulary words Koichi laid out in the early chapters, where he doesn’t give you any kanji, but just the hiragana for it. I’m wondering whether I’m just doing it wrong (drilling em in Anki), or missing some trick, or maybe I’m just worried for nothing and should wait for proper kanji learning to dig in with vocabulary.

    Advice, anyone?

    #14342

    thisiskyle
    Member

    For me, kanji has made learning vocabulary much easier than it was when I was trying to learn strictly by hiragana. I’m not saying that you have to learn all the kanji before getting your feet wet with vocab, but don’t stress out about it. I would suggest jumping on the kanji boat pretty quick though. “Remembering the Kanji” is recommended by a lot of people on this forum (and others). You might want to look at the site readthekanji.com as well. I liked it so much I signed up for the pay version. It gives vocabulary and kanji by JLPT level. One downside is that is doesn’t quiz you on any vocabulary without kanji.

    #14345

    missingno15
    Member

    Kaito said: I had a little Japanese on my back when I started with Textfugu, but nothing to be proud of. I’m a long time anime fan, and I “work” with a fansub group, so you can imagine what my Japanese was like. “Horrible” doesn’t make it justice :P

    Which fansubbing group? And I guess when you say “work”, you mean like timing and typsetting which requires no Japanese skill at all

    thisiskyle said: I would suggest jumping on the kanji boat pretty quick though.

    pretty much this

    #14347

    Kaito
    Member

    I “work” with a Spanish group called Inshuheki. They won me over with the name xD I take care of correcting translations (ie, grammar and spelling), and quality control before things get released.

    As for vocab, I think I’m not going to get frustrated over not being able to recall these words right now, and rather save my energies for when serious kanji comes along.

    I’ve already looked at readthekanji, and I’m liking it so far. I just feel that I don’t have enough grammar under my belt to truly benefit from it, but a paid plan is planned for when I’m ready. The free version is good enough for now.

    I *am* learning some Kanji, so it’s not like I’m skipping. I’m following along with textfugu, but not yet quite overachieving, like Koichi keeps suggesting in the chapters. Call me weirdo, but I find Kanji huge fun.

    Thanks for the tips :)

    #14351

    missingno15
    Member

    I see, the QC, which also requires no skill lol I’m QC too

    But glad to know you’re in the subbing business. That sh!t is mad hard. As for me, I’m in the scanlation business

    ↓↓↓
    http://scans.nihongogo.com/index.php

    missingno15=honeysenpai

    Also, go at whatever pace YOU want.

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  missingno15.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  missingno15. Reason: WOW WHATS THE EMBED LINK CODE
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  missingno15.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  missingno15. Reason: NO SERIOUSLY WHATS THE EMBED LINK
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  missingno15. Reason: GIVE UP
    #14358

    Kaito
    Member

    Scanlations get a lot less press than fansubbing groups, and that is sad. I love reading some well-worked manga. Will look at your group.

    And don’t talk my job down :P Most groups don’t care about the quality of their work, and just want to get shit out the door. My group does care, so my position is actually appreciated. Getting good translators is damn hard, but getting people that have a firm grasp of their own language isn’t much easier. I’m just happy I can contribute to the fansubbing scene, tbh.

    It’s not like I’m learning Japanese to translate anime, but that would be a nice plus once I’m at a good level. That, and understanding those crazy Japanese TV shows.

    EDIT: You offer manga download. I just started loving you big time. Can’t stand reading stuff online, it’s just not the same experience. Not to speak of image quality.

    EDIT2: The “link embed code” is regular html. ie Link text

    EDIT3: Thing doesn’t want to actually show html, code. W3C Link Docs. That should do it :P

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Kaito.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Kaito.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Kaito.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Kaito.
    • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Kaito.
    #14384

    missingno15
    Member

    Whoops, well I’m a QC, what the hell am I talking about lol

    I guess what I meant is that it doesn’t really take that much effort. Undoubtedly, it’s just as important as all the other jobs but compared to translation work, typeseting and timing, its not that hard. I guess that’s just me, I think that there really is no reason why you should not have a firm grasp in your own native language…:/

    Also, if you check us out, we are very niche as you can see. We only do one manga. But that may or may not change….

    #14386

    You’re no weirdo – kanji IS fun :D I second Kyle’s suggestion of RTK. A few of us have completed it and it’s worked wonders :) Best thing to do is to get stuck into any sorta kanji resource as soon as you feel ready; it helps more than you’d think haha

    Just stick at Anki for vocab. The first few times you review words, it might seem hopeless. At some point you’ll think “oh, hold on a second, I actually know this one! :D” – happens every time with me, it just takes a while :P

    I don’t know why, but your avatar looks really good :P Quite fitting as a forum avvie somehow haha

    @missingno15: “Honey”? Why don’t you pick a more feminine name?

    #14391

    Kaito
    Member

    I happen to agree about having a firm grasp on your language, but more often than not, people seem to not care. Spanish is quite a bit more complex than English, and it’s very obvious when you don’t know your stuff, especially when writing. And it’s horrible to read that letter-soup too!

    As for my avatar, I grabbed it off someone else on MAL, because I found it quite fitting, being a tea enthusiast and having had long hair at the time. I’ve been told it’s someone from the Eve no Jikan movie.

    By the way, how does one quote someone else’s post here? Guess I’ll have to manually insert Q tags?

    #14423

    thisiskyle
    Member

    Yes, you have to insert the tags manually. This forum is still a bit in the “janky” phase. When I recommended the readthekanji site, I wanted to give credit to the person who pointed it out to me but, alas, the forum has no search function and I couldn’t find the thread.

    #14432

    Sheepy
    Moderator

    Welcome to the forum, I’m not gonna talk down to you lol. Putting it into natural English is one thing, but making sure the language is clean and follows more obscure grammar rules is one thing.

    I appreciate some good QC on my subs/translations ^^

    #14451

    missingno15
    Member

    Do not want

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