The Lazy Man s Guide To Watching Anime
This is not some fanatics guide to learning Japanese through only relentlessly watching anime online 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 benefit from watching Japanese popular media, adding to your other studying efforts.
You can find mainly two things that watching anime, movies, TV shows or maybe theater will let you with, if 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 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 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 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 the fact 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 if not, paying attention and not mixing up accents is a wise 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 could be a wise idea, as they tend to be more prone to speak in the standardized accent. If you're not considering hyojungoć¨?ćş?čŞ?, the standardized accent, but say Kansaiben,é?˘čĽżĺź you may do some research by watching comedians from Kansai, although 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 to be polite by following suit, you could actually end up not being understood, or simply make an incredibly weird first impression.
If you have already established some base familiarity with Japanese grammar, you can learn some basic casual speech by studying the form. Or you may identify when particles are now being omitted, then focus on another 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 in which to use it, and after that you simply expand while you see it used in other situations.
One thing to note is the fact that the topic is often omitted from Japanese, even in semi-formal writing. But on the other hand, if you omit it too often, people are certain to get confused as to what or who you are speaking about, and you have to go back and explain. There is a balance to be found alternatively, and media really can be a step forward in the right direction.
On the subject of learning value, some genres are superior to others. I would have to claim that for the most part, slice of life can be the best. You will discover two reasons for that. First of all, there is just simply more conversation involved, even when battle heavy fantasy or sci-fi 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, because the challenges they face are not murderous robots, or vampires, they are everyday problems. And in the process of dealing with them, you learn plenty of more relevant vocabulary and conjugations than you need to do through most other genres.
Sometimes you can discover that you are able to pick material that is perfectly suited for you. If you are going to work, or already work, in a big Japanese company, stories revolving around salarymen or perhaps the corporate world shall help one remember some of the lingo.
Try and only absorb things relevant to how old you are group. While understanding the terms high school students use might seem a way to remain hip, it will only work against you within the long haul. If you start slipping in incredibly informal words or conjugations into conversation in a formal context, you're bound to give a bad impression.
If you discover yourself in a position in which you have to learn a whole lot of Japanese in a short time period, you can 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 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 can find 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 others in Japanese as well.