The Truth About Watching Anime In 3 Little Words
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, these are some pointers as to the way you can better take advantage of watching Japanese popular media, adding to your other studying efforts.
You can find mainly two things that watching anime, movies, TV shows as well as theater will help you with, should you have little to no previous knowledge. You guessed it, listening right? Well that is one. As well as the other is vocabulary. You can learn to pick up grammar also, but that will have to be after you recognize some core sentence structures.
Take notes of all the recurring words that you don't know. If you see the word used repeatedly over 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 can make it challenging to learn from just textbooks and old audio CDs, is that languages do not stay the exact same. They change with time, and sometimes staying in touch 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 an abundance 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 if not, paying attention and not mixing up accents is a good 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 whole lot of unique expressions and sentence endings, you should be fine. Checking out some countrywide news might be a good idea, since they are more likely to speak in the standardized accent. In case you are not thinking about hyojungoć¨?ćş?čŞ?, the standardized accent, but say Kansaiben,é?˘čĽżĺź you can do some study 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 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, and also the vocabulary is archaic. If you try and be polite by following suit, you might actually wind up not being understood, or simply make an incredibly weird first impression.
Should you have already established some base familiarity with Japanese grammar, you may learn some basic casual speech by studying the form. Or you can identify when particles are going to be omitted, then concentrate on the other parts of the sentence. As you proceed, you realize some parts of Japanese grammar may be learned almost as vocabulary, you learn the specific context through which to use it, and after that you simply expand when you see it utilized in other situations.
One thing to note is that the topic is usually omitted from Japanese, even in semi-formal writing. But on the other hand, if you omit it too often, people can get confused as to what or who you are speaking about, and you have to go back and explain. There's a balance to be found alternatively, and media will surely be a step forward in the right direction.
In regards to learning value, some genres are superior to others. I might have to say that for the most part, slice of life may be the best. You can find two reasons for that. First of all, there will be 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, because the challenges they face are not murderous robots, or vampires, they are everyday problems. As well as in the process of going through them, you learn a lot of more relevant vocabulary and conjugations than you need to do through most other genres.
Sometimes you may see that you are able to pick material that's 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 can assist you remember some of the lingo.
Try to only absorb things relevant to your actual age 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 term. If you start slipping in incredibly informal words or conjugations into conversation in a formal context, you are bound to give a bad impression.
If you end up in a position where you have to learn a whole lot of Japanese in a short time frame, you can 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 will 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 more yourself lacking motivation, don't let yourself fall in to the pattern of only watching, and not doing any real work. The best effects will be achieved with a combination of the 2, and if you have the opportunity, interaction with other people in Japanese also.