4 Brilliant Tips About Watching Anime
This is not 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, and in all cases miserable failure was the result. No, these are some pointers as to how you can better benefit from watching Japanese popular media, adding to your other studying efforts.
There are mainly two issues which watching anime, movies, TV shows or perhaps theater shall help one with, should you have little to no previous knowledge. You guessed it, listening right? Well that is one. And the other is vocabulary. You can learn to pick up grammar also, but that can have to be after you recognize some core sentence structures.
Take notes of all of the recurring words that you don't know. If you see the phrase used repeatedly pop over here 20 minutes, and it is not something restricted to the confines of sci-fi 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, will be 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 great deal 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 is often not possible, but usually if you steer clear of the characters using a lot of unique expressions and sentence endings, you should be fine. Checking out some countrywide news could possibly be a good idea, because they will be more likely to speak within the standardized accent. In case you are not thinking 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 usually very casual, and omits elements one might 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 to be polite by following suit, you could actually end up not being understood, or just make an incredibly weird first impression.
Should you have already established some base knowledge of Japanese grammar, you can learn some basic casual speech by studying the form. Or you may identify when particles are increasingly being omitted, then concentrate on another parts of the sentence. When you proceed, you realize some parts of Japanese grammar may be learned almost as vocabulary, you learn the specific context in which to use it, and after that you simply expand while you see it used in other situations.
One thing to note is that the topic is often omitted from Japanese, even in semi-formal writing. But on the flip side, if you omit it too frequently, people can get confused as to what or who you are discussing, and you have to go back and explain. There is a balance to be found on the other hand, and media can actually be a step forward within the right direction.
When it comes to learning value, some genres are superior to others. I would have to claim that for the most part, slice of life can be the most beneficial. There are two reasons for that. First off, there is simply simply more conversation involved, even when battle heavy fantasy or science fiction is usually 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 may be everyday problems. And in the process of coping with them, you learn a great deal of more relevant vocabulary and conjugations than you do through most other genres.
Sometimes you can find that you are able to pick material that is perfectly suited for you. For anyone who is going to work, or already work, in a big Japanese company, stories revolving around salarymen or perhaps the corporate world can assist you remember some of the lingo.
Attempt to only absorb things relevant to your age group. While understanding the terms secondary school students use might seem a way to remain hip, it shall only work against you in the long haul. 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 discover yourself in a position in which you have to learn a great deal of Japanese in a short time-frame, you may substitute all of your normal media consumption with the Japanese equivalent. Locate a band you like, pick out some movies to watch, as opposed to TV watch series relevant to what you'll 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 will discover definitely things you can 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, don't let yourself fall into the pattern of only watching, and not doing any real work. The best effects will be accomplished with a variety of the two, and if you have the opportunity, interaction with other people in Japanese as well.
