Give Me 5 Minutes I ll Give You The Truth About Anime
This isn't some fanatics guide to learning Japanese through only relentlessly watching anime, and not doing any work at all, a feat that I have seen attempted, as well as in all cases miserable failure was the result. No, they are some pointers as to how you can better take advantage of watching Japanese popular media, adding to your other studying efforts.
You will find mainly two issues which watching anime, movies, TV shows as well as theater shall help one with, if you have little to no previous knowledge. You guessed it, listening right? Well that is one. And also the other is vocabulary. You may learn to pick up grammar also, but that can have to be after you recognize some core sentence structures.
Take notes of all the recurring words that you do not know. If you see the term used repeatedly over 20 minutes, and it is not something limited by the confines of science fiction or fantasy, jot it down and memorize it. The thing about a language that makes it hard to learn from just textbooks and old audio CDs, is the fact that languages don't stay the same. They change with time, and sometimes keeping up to date with popular media, is the only way to have an up-to-date vocabulary, short of actually living and breathing the language.
One thing about anime, or movies, or TV shows, is that there can sometimes be a good amount of different dialects in play. If you already have experience from living in Tokyo, or somewhere with a relatively neutral accent, you should be fine. But otherwise, paying attention and not mixing up accents is an excellent idea. Identify where the different characters are from, in anime this really is often not possible, but usually if you steer clear of the characters using a great deal of unique expressions and sentence endings, you should be fine. Checking out some countrywide news might be an excellent idea, as they will be more more likely to speak within the standardized accent. For anyone who is not enthusiastic about hyojungoć¨?ćş?čŞ?, the standardized accent, but say Kansaiben,é?˘čĽżĺź you may do some research by watching comedians from Kansai, even though you might want to refrain from using all the expressions you hear.
Speech in anime, or movies for that matter, is often very casual, and omits elements one would have to use in normal or formal speech. On the opposite side of the spectrum, in samurai themed animes or movies, the grammar is riddled with old conjugations, as well as the vocabulary is archaic. If you try and be polite by following suit, you might actually find yourself not being understood, or simply make an incredibly weird first impression.
If you have already established some base knowledge of Japanese grammar, you can learn some basic casual speech by studying the form. Or you can identify when particles are increasingly being omitted, then focus on another parts of the sentence. When you proceed, you realize some parts of Japanese grammar can be learned almost as vocabulary, you learn the specific context through which to use it, and after that you simply expand while you see it utilized in other situations.
One thing to note is the fact that the topic is often omitted from Japanese, even in semi-formal writing. But conversely, if you omit it too frequently, people can get confused as to what or who you are speaking about, and also you have to go back and explain. There's a balance to be found in contrast, and media can actually be a step forward within the right direction.
In relation to learning value, some genres are superior to others. I might have to state that for the most part, slice of life may be the most appropriate. You will find two reasons for that. First of all, there will be simply more conversation involved, even if battle heavy fantasy or science fiction is often riddled with crazy monologues, there is actual dialogue. Dialogue made to portray actual conversations between people, from our world.
Then perhaps more importantly, since the challenges they face are not murderous robots, or vampires, they're everyday problems. As well as in the process of working with them, you learn a lot of more relevant vocabulary and conjugations than you do through most other genres.
Sometimes you may discover that you're able to pick material that is perfectly suited for you. In case you are going to work, or already work, in a big Japanese company, stories revolving around salarymen or even the corporate world will help you remember several of the lingo.
Try and only absorb things relevant to how old you are group. While knowing the terms secondary school students use might seem a way to remain hip, it will only work against you within the long run. If you start slipping in incredibly informal words or conjugations into conversation in a proper context, you're bound to give a bad impression.
If you find yourself in a position where you have to learn a great deal of Japanese in a short time period, you may substitute all your normal media consumption with the Japanese equivalent. Locate a band you like, pick out some movies to watch, in place of TV watch anime series relevant to what you may need the Japanese for. This is especially effective in between study sessions, as it provides a necessary break, while not completely losing focus of the task at hand.
While you can find definitely things you may do to benefit more from simply consuming popular media, do not treat it as a complete substitute to actual studying. If you find yourself lacking motivation, do not let yourself fall into the pattern of only watching, and not doing any real work. The very best effects will be achieved with a combination of the 2, and if you have the opportunity, interaction with others in Japanese also.