Live Japanese chat session overview - #NihongoChat

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#NihongoChat is live Japanese chat session held on Nihongo Master where attendants can ask any study related question to native Japanese

instructor or any product question to chat host.

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#NihongoChat Session Overview

Key notes:

• Date held: 12th March 2015.

• Host: Vladimir Beštić

• Japanese nstructor: Masako Hashikawa

• Special attendee: Taylor Dondich (Nihongo Master founder)

This presentation will include overview of the session and questions & answers.



Q & A

• Question: “Masako sensiei what is the biggest challenge for you when teaching students Japanese?”

• Answer: “I think the particles can be tricky for many learners. And, as a native speaker of Japanese, sometimes I don't know how to explain them because I use them naturally in my daily life.”



Q & A

• Question: Could you explain the usage of the pronounces "ni, to, de, no and o"? (And if there's more)

• Answer: “I don't think I can explain all of the particles here. But, basically, "ni" is used to indicate a location, "to" is usually used to connect and list up multiple items, "de" is used to mark the location of an action, "no" is for apposition. You'd better learn them in sentences”.



Q & A

• Question: “The usage of particles is a pretty vast topic. is there a specific aspect you're having trouble with?”

• Answer: “Yes, it is a vast topic. It is difficult to explain the particles without example sentences because some particles can function in a different way depending on the situation”.



Q & A

• Question: “My big question is.. Effective study, and anyone can answer this.. I do good with "logical" things. Ie: katakana, and phrases and such.. but I can not seem to retain vocab.. like blue, sky, stuff like that.. some stick some don’t.. wondered if there was a trick to that..”

• Answer: “I think you need to be "forced" to use them. It would be best if you can have a chance to talk to native speakers of Japanese, but that's not always possible. I learned Portuguese but I haven't used it for a while. I try to keep it by talking to my "imaginary" friends sometimes! Just make sure nobody's around^^”



Q & A

• Question: “Do you think having a native teacher helps to learn Japanese if immersion isn't possible? I studied online alone for 5 years before getting a Japanese teacher in real life so I am curious what others think”.

• Answer: “I think it would be great to have a real teacher with you if it's possible. The more you learn, the more tricky questions you may have”.



Q & A• Question: “Masako sensei, I know repetition and using words in

context is probably the best way to do that, but I was wondering: there're many words that are either pronounced the same way, or that are written with the same kanji combination, but read in a different way. What would you recommend besides tons of practice to retain which reading means what and the contextual particle about the meaning of identically sounding words?

• Answer: “I would say that you need to learn kanji for those words that are pronounced in the same way. There aren't so many words which are written with the same kanji, but read in a different way”.



Q & A

• Question: “Another question... since typing is becoming more common than handwriting Japanese, is it more important to familiarise yourself with kanji and read/recognize than actually being able to write them?”

• Answer: “Good question!! I think you're right. Nowadays, even native sepakers of Japanese don't handwrite kanji so often, and we have trouble in writing them! It's up to you, but as long as you can read and recongnize the kanji correctly, handwriting is not that important anymore. (My grandma who used to teach calligraphy would be mad at me if she were here!)”



Q & A

• Question: “Qestion for everyone, what do you find are the best steps to take to effective learn this language? I know the hiragana and katakana... but what should I concentrate on learning next?”.

• Answer: “Basic grammars. Some people want to skip grammar, but having a correct grammar is crucial in the long term. Japanese grammar is not that bad!”



Q & A

• Question: “This is a quite basic question, but it's about the right usage of katakana for foreign words. So like, there's words and letters that doesn't exists in Japanese, like "L" or "C" or "V". How do you use them right. Like my name is Emil, is the correct katakana エミル then? I just need to know how you correctly bend the letters”.

• Answer: “Yes, エミル sounds good. In general, "L" and "R" sounds become ラリルレロ in katakana, and "C" can be pronounced as シ, and "V" can be ヴァ・ヴィ・ヴ・ヴェ・ヴォ”.



Q & A• Question: “I have a question: Is it true that sometimes there are no

direct translations of sentences from English to Japanese? I'm seeing a video where the guy says: “You can say in English: Have you ever been to Disney land” and the Japanese equivalent could be like: “Do you have the experience of having ever been to Disney land?”.

• Answer: “There are some words and expressions that are difficult to translate. But in the case you mentioned, it looks like the translaterjust tried to modify the sentence a little bit so that it can sound more natural in Japanese. People are still much better than the machines, such as google translation, in terms of "naturalness," I believe^^”.



Q & A• Question: “I have a question. I have a problem with stress. If I come

across a word I don't know, I attempt to read it, but then when I learn how it's really pronounced, I realize I'm saying it all wrong. Any suggestions?”

• Answer: “You may want to try an on-line accent dictionary. For example, this one is good if you already know hiragana and katakana. "OJAD オンライン日本語アクセント辞書" ”.



Q & A

• Question: “Ok, a silly one but I'm curious: While playing “Osu tatakaeouendan” I wondered...does really exist in japan this kind of male cheerleaders?”

• Answer: “Hmm, good question! It looks like there still are that kind of male cheerleaders! But I don't think they have that strict vertical relationship ("Senpai" and "Kohai") nowadays”.



Q & A

• Question: “Is it possible to get by in Japan without knowing any Japanese?”

• Answer: “I think it is! Not so many Japanese people are fluent in English, but most of them understand English to some extent, and most of them are very kind to foreigners. Please visit my home country!”.



Q & A

• Question: “Masako, how many years have you been teaching japanese?”

• Answer: “Thank you for asking! I have taught the language in a variety of places by now. First, I taught it in Brazil for three years, and 1 year in Japan, and about 2 year in the US before I started NihongoMaster. So, including this site, I have taught the language for more than 7 years! I love my job!”.



Q & A

• Question: “I have another question! with the n/m character in Japanese... how do you recognize whether to read it as a n or m? or is it just through recognizing the word and other characters?”

• Answer: “Do you mean ん by "the n/m character"? If so, we don't distinguish the difference”.



Q & A

• Question: “Hello there! I have just started learning kanji, but sometimes I get confused whether to use kun-reading or on-reading. For example: 日よう日 or 木よう日 (on-kun), 女の小 or 女の人 (kun-kun), 生活 or 先生 (on-on). Are there any rules which one and where to use, or should we just remember it on per-case basis?”

• Answer: “Yes, I would say that you'd better learn them per-case basis. We, the native speakers of Japanese, hardly think about on-kun when we use kanji in our daily life”.



Q & A

• Question: “Has anyone been in other prefectures to compare the ability to go by with just English? I'm going to Kyushu this may and probably will move to Miyazaki next year and I know from a friend, that in the bigger cities it's fine and relatively easy to find someone willing to speak English, but in the smaller ones it's a bit of a pain if you don't speak any Japanese at all. Any second opinions on that?”

• Answer: “It's possible. In rural area, you may meet more elder people, and they're not as familiar with English as younger Japanese. But let's think that in a positive way! If nobody speaks English to you, you'll learn Japanese much better for sure!”



Q & A

• Question: “Masako sensei one more question before I leave what is the best possible advice you can give someone when it comes to learning Japanese?”

• Answer: “Hmm, difficult question. Some people say Japanese is one of the most difficult languages in the world. But I don't think so! It really is difficult to learn all the kanji, but in terms of conversation, it is one of the easiest languages. Please don't think you're doing a tough task. Learning a new language should be fun^^”



Q & A

• Question: “When reading Japanese, it all seems to come in one big block? How do you distinguish one word from the other?”

• Answer: “If everything is written in hiragana or katakana, it can be so difficult. That's why we have kanji, too. For those who just started to learn Japanse, many textbooks are written like this (It's called wakachigaki) わたしのなまえはまさこです。”



Q & A

• Question: “I need advice for memorizing all of the hirigana. Does anyone have any good tips/ strategies?”

• Answer: “Hmm, can anybody help? Only thing I can think about is to write them as many times as possible. There should be a better way”



Q & A

• Question: “How much vocabulary could be good enough before thinking of trying to have a basic conversation with a native speaker?”

• Answer: “To pass the JLPT N4, it is said you need to know around 800 vocabularies. So, to have a basic conversation, you may need around that number of vocabularies. Keep going^^”



Q & A

• Question: “I have a silly question about word order. would something like: つまらないなえいがをみまして would it be correct word order?”

• Answer: “Did you mean "I watched a boring movie"? Then, just drop な and replace the final て with た. つまらないえいがをみました。is the perfect sentence. The word order was good!”



Q & A• Question: “Thank you =) My teacher said that there are dots (。)

missing in my homework, though he hasn't stated where. How do we use そして in the written language? Can we use it to connect 2 sentences together or each sentence should be terminated with a dot? たいていごぜん８じにおきます。あさごはんはごはんとやきにくをたべますそしてコーヒーをのみます。いえから大学までじてんしゃでいきます、でもいまはあるいていきます、ゆきがたくさんふりますから。ひるやすみに大学のしょくどうでひるごはんをたべます。じゅぎょうのあとですぐうちにかえりますそしてばんごはんをたべます。まいばんしゅくだいをしますそして日本ごをべんきょうします。ときどきテレビをみます。まいにちごご１１じにねます。”

• Answer is on the next slide



Q & A• Answer to the question from the previous slide:

• “たいていごぜん８じにおきます。あさごはんはごはんとやきにくをたべます。そして、コーヒーをのみます。いえから大学までじてんしゃでいきます。でもいまはあるいていきます。ゆきがたくさんふりますから。ひるやすみに大学のしょくどうでひるごはんをたべます。じゅぎょうのあとですぐうちにかえります。そしてばんごはんをたべます。まいばんしゅくだいをします。そして日本ごをべんきょうします。ときどきテレビをみます。まいにちごご１１じにねます。Please compare with your original sentences. I added some dots (。) そして is used to connect sentences, so usually it's used to start a new sentence after a dot(。) Great job!”



Q & A

• Question: “How would you go about learning kanji? I read an in depth book (well part of the book), that you should learn the meaning of the kanji (through mnemonics) not the kun/on'yomi readings first. After that you learn kanji readings in context within a sentence (words and such). Is this method good or bad?”

• Answer: “I think that's a great method! Knowing the meanings of each kanji is more important than knowing to distinguish kun/on readings. そのちょうし、がんばって!”



That’s it for the questions!

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