Archive for May, 2009
How old is “too old” to learn Japanese?
Author: Richard
Q: Hi richard! I’ve been watching your videos and checking out your site, and they all contain a considerable amount of awesome. I’d like to ask a couple questions if thats ok.
first question iiiis – how old were you when you first stated learning japanese?
depending on your answer my next question may have allready been answered
question 2 – is 17 years old a little too late for me to start learning japanese?
I already know a couple odd words or phrases (half from your site and videos, and half from watching lots of anime) I was just unsure if its possible for me to become good at speaking fairly fluently, especially considering I got a D in my Spanish GCSE
Thanks 
From David
A: Hi David, glad the awesome factor is still there!
To answer your first question: 22.
To answer your second question: See the answer to the first question!
Although it’s a lot easier to learn a language before you hit 10 years old, and a heck of a lot easier to teach to younger age groups, it’s certainly possible to learn later on in life and become totally fluent. It’s just takes more work and unlike kids who can pick up a native accent effortlessly, adults have to really work on getting rid of your foreign accent, which if you think of friends back home from foreign countries that can sometimes take a lifetime! Luckily the Japanese accent is pretty easy though.
Don’t worry about the GCSE result, all that means is that you had a bad teacher! Have a look at Genki Spanish!
Posted in 
What are the first 100 kanji to learn?
Author: Richard
Q: Hi Richard,
Your method is effective-I have learned a bit more then before- just in two days:-)
I like to know with which kanjis I start,because you tell us that we should begin to write 100 kanjis-which are the most important kanjis? ok, thanks so much:-) – pat
A: Glad the materials are working out and good question!
The first 100 or so kanji are pretty much set as they are the first ones kids learn in school or are used most often. Most books (including the Manga University ones) start off with a smilar list.
You can also find a list of the first 100 from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test here: http://www.jlptstudy.com/4/index.html
Be genki,
Richard
Can you really learn Japanese in 10 days?
Author: Richard
How to say “good” in Japanese
Author: Richard
Q: How do i say “good?” – Emily
A: Good is いい (ii) which you pronounce like the capital letter “E” to rhyme with “tree”. But as it’s such an easy sound to mishear it’s often changed a bit in spoken Japanese. For example you can say “いいね” (i i ne) which means “Isn’t that good!” Or if you want to say “That was good” it changes to “よかった” (yo ka tta) or よかったね (yo ka tta ne) which you hear all the time!
Or you could just say something like いい質問ね ii shi tsu mon ne – what a good question!
Hiragana not used in modern Japan?
Author: Richard
Q: Your vids helped inspire me and reinforce the Japanese i have hammered into my head if I had your vids i would have got this far in a day not weeks. I have one question, i read online that ひらがな / hiragana was not used in modern japan but on the other hand i see in in manga 漫画 all the time and in japanese tv all over the web… was the internet mistaken or is hiragana just used for particles…???- Darlock
A: I think I remember reading that Elvis was an alien and that TVs contain secret tracking devices. Yeah, most of what you read on the net is wrong. We use hiragana all the time, you can’t really write anything in Japanese without it!
Be genki,
Richard
