A Little Known Fact Regarding 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, and 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 will discover mainly two things that watching anime, movies, TV shows as well as theater can help you with, if 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 as well, 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 sci-fi or fantasy, jot it down and memorize it. The thing about a language that causes it to be tough to learn from just textbooks and old audio CDs, is 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 the fact that there can sometimes be an abundance of different dialects in play. If you already have experience from living in Tokyo, or someplace with a relatively neutral accent, you should be fine. But otherwise, 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 lot of unique expressions and sentence endings, you should be fine. Checking out some countrywide news could be an excellent idea, since they tend to be more likely to speak in the standardized accent. When you are not excited about hyojungoć¨?ćş?čŞ?, the standardized accent, but say Kansaiben,é?˘čĽżĺź you can do some study by watching comedians from Kansai, although you might want to refrain from using all the expressions you hear.
Speech in thai dubbed 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 attempt to be polite by following suit, you might actually wind up 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 being omitted, then focus on the additional parts of the sentence. While 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 subject is usually omitted from Japanese, even in semi-formal writing. But then again, if you omit it too frequently, people will get confused as to what or who you are talking about, and also you have to go back and explain. There's a balance to be found on the flip side, and media can definitely be a step forward within the right direction.
In relation to learning value, some genres are superior to others. I could have to state that for the most part, slice of life can be the best. There are two reasons for that. First off, 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, because the challenges they face are not murderous robots, or vampires, they can be everyday problems. And in the process of coping with them, you learn plenty of more relevant vocabulary and conjugations than you do through most other genres.
Sometimes you may see 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 may help you remember several of the lingo.
Try and only absorb things relevant to your age group. While understanding the terms high school students use might seem a way to remain hip, it's going to only work against you within the long term. If you start slipping in incredibly informal words or conjugations into conversation in a proper context, you are bound to give a bad impression.
If you end up in a position in which you have to learn a great deal of Japanese in a short time period, 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 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, don't treat it as a complete substitute to actual studying. If you find yourself lacking motivation, do not let yourself fall in to the pattern of only watching, and not doing any real work. The top effects will be achieved with a mix of the two, and if you have the opportunity, interaction with others in Japanese also.