【LV1-5】Survey #1: What do you think about "Japanese Only (Beginners)"?

Hello everyone. It’s been a month and 10 days since the Japanese Only (Beginners) post started.
Do you mind telling me what you like about it and what not (if any)?
Are there any requests for future topics or suggestions about things to be improved?
You can answer either in Japanese or English (or both). Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

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This separated thread for beginner is much better than the previous one. I often wanted to reply in Japanese but didn’t because I often couldn’t express myself in Japanese. In this thread, although I was often corrected, and I’m always happy learning this way, at least I’m not nervous in expressing myself all in Japanese. I’m a slow learner in Grammar using BunPro and other Japanese Grammar resources. Slower than adding Kanji on WaniKani. Thank you for your patience guiding us, Sensei. I hope an important asset like you as a native Japanese, you’ll always be here for us :sob: どうもありがとうございます!

Rambling

I wish one day I’ll be able to speak Japanese (and many other foreign language I learn) fluently, as fluent as when @rumade speaks English because English is her native language. Yes, I read out loud Sensei’s Japanese sentences no matter how weird I could be in the eyes of local people around me.

He-is-very-shy

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I absolutely love it.
It has helped me getting out of my safe shell, where I did not write anything in Japanese because I was afraid it was going to be very bad. But in the end, I was pretty ok!
Also, this lower bar makes it easier to make that first step.
Thank you for starting my little flame of confidence! I now trust myself to start reading in the near future. :blush::blush::blush:

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It’s really interesting and fun, but it’s also hard to express myself in Japanese. In the end, learning is what is important :slightly_smiling_face:

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While I don’t reply in the threads I still read through them. I think it is nice to see people using Japanese on here that isn’t the intermediate thread which I have a hard time reading at times. I probably need to participate in these threads though…

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I rarely participate in the threads (or on the forums at all anymore, really… work has been busy :cry:) but I think they’ve been fantastic! I do occasionally read through them and I think between the templates, active interaction, and easy to understand corrections via quoting, it’s certainly a great way for people to practice without feeling overwhelmed, and without building bad habits by not having mistakes pointed out.

Keep up the great work! I genuinely think it’s a great addition to the Japanese Only section of the forums :smile:

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I love the threads! I have learnt a lot through participating in them, reading other people’s responses, and getting corrected and helped by @mamimumason. I found myself sometimes taking 30 minutes to write a few sentences, but that’s a really good thing because it meant I was learning new things. :smiley:

I think these threads hit a sweet spot for most WKers on here:

  1. Beginners who just want to practise typing in Japanese/making simple sentences can do so without being intimidated by a wall of kanji they don’t understand.

  2. Intermediate/Advanced users can still participate using hiragana/furigana for L6+ kanji

  3. People of any level who want to challenge themselves to make sentences outside of their comfort zone and/or just have a conversation with @mamimumason (and other WKers) can do so.

The only improvement I can recommend is to do them more! :smiley:

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Love love love, love love love. Making Japanese come out of my brain is the hardest part of learning, and it’s nice to have a beginner-friendly space. <3

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I really appreciate those threads. They are interesting, simple and easy to understand. Templates sugested also are really helpful, so everyone can participate. Also, after replying the main question (theme), you ask more things related to it, so it becomes a conversation. I feel encouraged to practice more. I feel like “Wow! I really wrote something in japanese. Yeah, I made some mistakes, but sensei pointed them and taught me how to say it properly”

ひまがあったら、あたらしい話題わだい調しらべますね。初級しょきゅうに日本語だけの話題わだい大好だいすきですよ。
おしえてくれて、どうもありがとうございます、先生。

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日本語でこたえようします。「Japanese Only (Beginners)」が大好だいすきです。

最近さいきん、日本語をまなはじめました。しかし、クラスをける時間じかんがありません。これらの質問しつもんは、日本語で自分じぶんあらわ方法ほうほうについてかんがえるのに役立やくだちます。私は日本語をおそいて、少し弱虫よわむしです。ことため、よくこたえません。それでも、多いことを学びます。みんなのこたえにたいするフィードバックは素晴すばらしいです。どうもありがとございます。

Since I’ve probably completely mangled the Japanese (ごめんなさい :fearful:), what I really want to say is: I absolutely love these threads for all the reasons everyone else has said. I’m not really able to take formal language classes anymore, but being able to answer questions that aren’t what I normally see in textbooks (at least at my current level) is beyond helpful (obviously, it’s important to be able to say what time it is, but it doesn’t really get me thinking more deeply about how to express myself in a language…) I do feel weird about just using the templates (they’re a great starting point; I just want to push myself to say something in addition to the more “textbook-like” response!), so it takes me a looong time to construct my answers—and then I usually get distracted and/or just chicken out and don’t post them. But I’ve still found that just thinking about them and trying to come up with a response has helped me immeasurably.

I also don’t think I can fully express in either language how amazing I think it is that you read, ask questions about, and correct (if necessary) all of the responses. It is seriously amazing, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the time and effort that must take, but it is also so, so, incredibly helpful to get that feedback. どうもありがとうございます。

Ok, sorry for the wall of text—overly gushing response (mostly) over now… I love these, and I hope you will keep them coming in the future. I’ll try to get braver/faster about responding :thinking: And for everything you do to help us here: ありがとうございます。

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Can I just jump randomly in to say I very much appreciate your good use of em-dashes instead of hyphens.

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Why, thank you for noticing! I’m a big fan of the oft-neglected em-dash :wink:

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最近忙しくてこのスレあんまり参加しないけど、たのしかったです! マミさんはすごく優しいし、私たちの文法問題にもすごくきがながい。マミさんありがとうございます!:blush:

質問の方がたまに変ですけどね :rofl:

I’ve been busy recently, so I don’t participate in this thread that much, but it was fun! Mami-san is really kind and is very patient with our grammar problems. Mami-san, thank you! :blush:

Although sometimes the questions were strange :rofl:

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I didn’t notice it until about a week ago… I would like to participate but don’t feel like I have the time. Also not really sure where my [Grammar] level is, to be honest - especially since I’m out of practice.

Love the IDEA behind the section, though. Totally improves upon the old one we’d started that was only a thread… For ばかs… XD

So thank you for starting this section.

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Whatever could you mean? The questions are all totally normal…

(I’ll be right back… I just need to go measure the size of my ears… for, um, reasons… :rofl: In all seriousness, though, I do enjoy reading some of clever responses people come up with for the weirder ones :woman_shrugging:)

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It allowed me to safely break the ice that was preventing me from making any meaningful Japanese conversation, and rid myself of my fear of making mistakes and looking foolish (which is sort of the point, I realized much later on in learning), while receiving meaningful feedback from Mami先生.

After I felt comfortable with sharing a few posts here, I started to participate more in other language groups I’d been participating in. Although my grammar and vocabulary have a long way to go yet, the fact that I’m understood by natives (at least in writing) has been a tremendous encouragement.

The questions are, in typical WK fashion, sometimes very weird. However, this isn’t really a bad thing in my eyes. Obviously not all of these questions are questions you’d be asked IRL (…maybe?), but due to their strangeness, you’re given the opportunity to answer in… unusual, unique ways. I feel that’s very supplemental in flexing your “writing muscle.”

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I have to follow the general trend with praising the idea and attention given on these threads. I use many different sources for Japanese learning, but nothing has had the same effect as actually trying to express my ideas in Japanese and then receive feedback that both corrects it (often with explanations), gives me vocab, and then a reply that continues the conversation. All in an environment where you can learn from other people’s posts and mistakes, too.

It’s the perfect way to begin using the language. I hope this continues, though I cannot image the amount of work you must have to go through with all threads pilling up, simultaneously.

頑張ってよ、ありがとうございました!

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This is my situation as well. I love reading the questions and replies but haven’t started to participate myself … yet. Please keep them going!! One day I’ll get organised and have enough time.

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Yep, I read when I can but I’m too burned out after SRS to attempt a contribution. Trying to slow down (even more) on WK though, so maybe sometime soon.

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I think it’s great, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to opt in to the paid up version of WaniKani.

To answer your question - I like it that the topics and questions are simple and accessible to all. Future topics - more of the same really - a balance of simple questions and topics that give a little insight into Japanese culture and society.

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