East Asian Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
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Xelian
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:19 pm
Location: Seattle
Languages: English (N)

Studying actively:
日本語 (B2)

Studying off and on:
한국어 (A2)
svenska (B1)
中文 (A1)
Tiếng Việt
Deutsch (beginner)

On the back burner:
Español (A2)
ASL (A1)
العَرَبِيَّة

Maybe some other time:
Български (A1)

Interested in:
Arabic (Egyptian, Yemeni), Hindi, Turkish, Thai, Tibetan, Nepali, Bengali, Urdu, Russian, Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Farsi
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17163
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Xelian » Mon Feb 13, 2017 2:24 am

I'm not sure if the "textbook" section of the resources page includes websites, but I just came across this really great Japanese website, Imabi, http://www.imabi.net/ which has tons of beginner-advanced grammar, kanji, etc. So excited about finding this one!!!

It doesn't seem as well known as Tae-Kim's Guide to Japanese http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/, but this is another good resource for Japanese learning.

Just thought I'd mention these, as they're really helpful for supplementing my Japanese grammar!!
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: 84 / 1000 Japanese Pages Read

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arthaey
Brown Belt
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:11 pm
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Languages: :
EN (native);
ES (adv receptive, int productive);
FR (false beginner);
DE (lapsed beg);
ASL (lapsed beg);
HU (tourist)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3864&view=unread#unread
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby arthaey » Sat Feb 18, 2017 11:28 pm

ロータス wrote:The reason I think my Japanese is so basic is because I kept moving around from one resource to the next and would like to not do that with Korean.

I've been coming to that conclusion myself. It's so hard not to flit from resource to shiny new resource, but I think you're right: sticking with a resource to the end is really more helpful.
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Posts in: FrenchGermanHungarianSpanish
NaNoWriMo: 10,000 words
Corrections welcome in any language; I prefer an informal register.

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rustygecko
White Belt
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:26 pm
Languages: English (N), Mandarin (HSK 4), Greek (beginner), Georgian (beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5144
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby rustygecko » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:08 pm

A last-minute entry for the February challenge, with 爱的箴言, which literally-translated is something like 'Love's Exhortation'. I've seen the English title given as 'Love Is' in one translation, which sounds rather better. I believe it is originally by Teresa Teng, but I heard the version by the rock group 黑豹乐队 (Hei Bao / Black Panther) first, and much prefer it.

Was it easy to understand?
I was able to understand some parts without looking them up, which is quite an achievement for me. :lol: I still had to look a lot of it up though.

Which parts are your favourite?
I like the chorus, both for the melody and for the fact that I could understand the first (爱是没有人能了解的东西) and last (爱曾经是我也是你) lines without recourse to Baidu. It’s easier to enjoy a song if you can figure out at least some of it as you’re listening to it.

When did you first hear this song?
I probably heard it when I spent a year in China, as I found it on my computer with music I acquired at that time, but I don’t remember it from then. I (re-)discovered it a few months ago when I put a load of that music on my Chinese-specific mp3 player. (I recommend having language-specific mp3 players, btw – it’s much easier to listen to something in your target language when you can’t just go to the menu and select something in your native language instead.)

There is a decent translation of the lyrics here, but note that the pinyin for 了 is repeatedly given as ‘le’ when it should be ‘liao’.
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Komma
Orange Belt
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:00 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: German (N); learning actively: Japanese (beginner); learning passively: English (probably C1/2), French (false beginner); on halt: Spanish (beginner)
Language Log: http://how-to-learn-any-language.org/vi ... =15&t=1067
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Komma » Sat Mar 04, 2017 10:56 am

hello there,
I'd like to join with Japanese. I just started learning it and my first goal is to learn to read and write the hiragana characters. At the moment I try to tackle 5 new ones every day. But I already did some a few months ago, when I dabbled in the language. That way, I plan to finish learning the Hiragana characters in the mid of this months. Let's see how that works out. If it's getting too confusing, I will slow down.

There were many reasons I started learning Japanese.
1. I wanted to learn a new language. I studied French on and off before, but somehow hadn't the motivation, because there was no hook. I just started it at school and didn't want my effort then to be a waste of time. Something new is always more exciting, but that alone would not be enough I guess :mrgreen:
2. I am fascinated by any kind of other alphabet or writing system and Japanese has 3 :o I enjoy writing with pen and paper and learning another writing system is very appealing to me. I was torn between Chinese and Japanese, but chose Japanese in the end for the following reasons.
3. A friend of mine is quite into Japanese from the Manga and Anime side and so I thought we could motivate each other better, when we would learn the same language. Though she lives a few hours away from me. But apart from chatting via Skype it would also be an opportunity to exchange letters and maybe write some Japanese in between..
4. I have some Japanese people in my sports club, so I could practice/ talk to them or first at least try to understand some of what they talk to each other.. I'm rather shy when it comes to practice something in presence of other people, which you have to do when practicing languages with others. Maybe I just practice on my own and when I am sure of something, I talk to them...
5. I also do like Manga and Anime. I know they don't use 'normal' language there, but since I am someone who doesn't really goes out to talk to people in another language for practice anyway, understanding Anime is a reasonable goal for me.
6. I want to learn about Asian culture/ history in general and one way is including learning the language as well. I chose that path.

So, my overall goal is probably not to speak fluently, but more to understand the language written and spoken in various forms (Anime/Manga, everday language etc). And also to learn about the culture and history. Which I think is easier when one studies the language as well. Especially in a language like this with all those characters who themselves consist of a combination of characters. It's interesting to know what some characters also contain and how to interpret that etc.
Maybe talking to Japanese people will be a future goal, but for now it's not my focus.


I do have a question about the group: I've read somewhere that there won't be any TAC this year. But in the first posts there is a lot of writing about a challenge. So is this actually a TAC team? Or just a permanent study group and the challenge mentions were concerning the monthly challenges?
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: 38 / 113 Assimil French - passive
: 5 / 40 Language Transfer
: 20 / 81 Le petit Prince
: 0 / 52 Grammaire progressive - intermédiaire
: 0 / 28 Vocabulaire progressf - débutant

Komma
Orange Belt
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:00 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: German (N); learning actively: Japanese (beginner); learning passively: English (probably C1/2), French (false beginner); on halt: Spanish (beginner)
Language Log: http://how-to-learn-any-language.org/vi ... =15&t=1067
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Komma » Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:57 am

Thank you, ロータス :)

I will start reading all those posts then, so I am up to date :mrgreen:

I'm also quite on track with my Hiragana studies. I already worked through 25 characters (vovels, k, s, t, n). There are a few, that I sometimes confuse or just can't remember, but with further revision that should be fine, I hope.
0 x
: 38 / 113 Assimil French - passive
: 5 / 40 Language Transfer
: 20 / 81 Le petit Prince
: 0 / 52 Grammaire progressive - intermédiaire
: 0 / 28 Vocabulaire progressf - débutant

Woodsei
Yellow Belt
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:23 am
Location: United States
Languages: English (N), Arabic (N), Japanese (intermediatish)
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Woodsei » Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:51 am

Hi All,

It's been a long time since I visited the forum. Grad school. Can I still sign up? It's for Japanese. I need the motivation to do a little something everyday amidst school, and it's easier being part of a group. I mostly may be irregular in my updates but I will update, and follow others.

Thank you!

EDIT: Here's the link to my log http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1430&p=12346#p12346
It starts second post, page 2.
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Tadoku: 1 / 1000

Kuro
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2017 10:53 pm
Languages: English (N)
Japanese (JLPT N5)
French (A2)
Greek (beginner)

Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Kuro » Sat Mar 18, 2017 11:11 pm

I may as well give it a go.

I'm Kuro, 14 years old, learning Japanese since June 2016. I have a pretty good understanding of the language and I can communicate on a basic level. I used to practice every day but around October-December I started to slip when my sister was born.
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cathrynm
Orange Belt
Posts: 246
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:11 am
Location: Berkeley, California
Languages: Japanese(JLPT N3), Finnish(beginner), English(native)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=721
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby cathrynm » Sun Mar 19, 2017 5:52 am

Was there a March challenge?
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Sc27
White Belt
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:19 am
Languages: English (N), Korean (?, not a beginner for sure)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=5526
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Sc27 » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:31 am

Hey, I'd like to give this a try. :)

I hope to improve a lot by this year so little challenges might be good for me as well.
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: East Asian Team - 2017~

Postby Zireael » Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:34 am

Can I join with Japanese?
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