I have studied japanese for about 1 year now. All of the material i have used (except for one highschool introduction book) have been on english. I will say i am fluent in english, except for some problems of spelling right. I have realised especially with WaniKani that there are some english words i only know when they are in a context, and there are some words i feel are synonyms, when WaniKani clearly mark them as different english words. I have an especially hard time with some of the verbs, since i often write walk instead of to walk, or words that donât exist in my native language (even though i know the meaning of the english word it correlates to). There are also some words i have to add my own usual mistakes, since i can write the same spelling mistake multiple times and get a word from master to apprentice since i spell the english word wrong multiple times.
Do anyone here have any experience on learning japanese solely through english even though it is not your native language? Have you had any problems or challenges because of it, or do you just see it as a way to explore both the japanese and english language?
Same for me! I am a French-speaking Belgian and sometimes, my answers in Wanikani are not accepted because of the âtoâ in front of the verb. For example, with "ćŒăâ, I first wrote âto pullâ and it was refused. If I write, âpullâ, it is accepted! If I remember properly, it was the same with "æąâ for which I hesitated between to stop and stop.
For words, I am sometimes getting confused too like for example, with ârice paddyâ in the radical section and ârice fieldâ in the kanji section or âkidâ and âchildâ. But as you said, I see it as an opportunity to increase my vocabulary in English and also as a memory training (what does WK expect in this caseâŠ).
Talking about confusion, I am also confused with the onâyomi and kunâyomi readings. I thought that in the âvocabularyâ section, WK would expect the kunâyomi and in the âkanjiâ section, the onâyomi one. But it does not seem to be the rule all the timeâŠSo sometimes, it adds to the confusion. But again, I see it as a memory training and try to remember what the programme expects!
Iâm not a native speaker, so yeah definitely. Besides WaniKani I also use Heisigâs Remembering the Kanji to study the meanings (about 940 kanji in right now) and that book uses a unique keyword for every kanji, even if theyâre pretty much synonymous, so every now and then Iâll come across really obscure words that donât really get used anymore. Sometimes it feels like I have to keep an English dictionary near me when studying Japanese, which is kind of ironic.Though expanding your English vocabulary canât hurt, so I wonât complain
Keep in mind that singular kanji will never be a verb! Also, verbs will (as far as I know, maybe there are exceptions) always end with an âuâ sound as well, so thatâs a good way to remember whether youâre dealing with a verb.
Also about the onâyomi and kunâyomi thing, there actually is logic to it, though itâs not uncommon to see that logic thrown out of the window. If a word consists of multiple kanji in a row, itâs very likely that it will use onâyomi readings for those kanji. This generally does not apply for things like names of people and cities, as theyâre inherently Japanese (kunâyomi = Japanese reading).
If the word has any hiragana in it, it is very likely it will use kunâyomi reading, these are often verbs as you will soon find out. I hope that helped you a bit
I know what you mean, i had to use the Oxford dictionary today. I kept typing anybody insted og somebody and was unshure if they ment the same thing so i could use it as a synonym guilt free
I learned English well in my teenage years and have been using it non stop for the past 20 years. I have added some synonyms in Spanish but I mostly stick with the default WaniKani ones.
English is my second language but I feel like Iâm on par with native English speakers from being on the internet so much. I havenât had any problems like the ones you mentioned while using WK. Thanks, The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Canât Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too Internet!
I only use my native language when speaking with fellow locals, and mostly English everywhere (when speaking in formal presentations or with professors, writing resumes and reports, or when I simply walk in the town, its all in English and not in my local language. Trust me, thereâs a lot issue of nationality here, but thatâs not the point )
So learning Japanese through English, I never had issues. Although when a certain onyomi or kunyomi is very similar on how it is spoken in our local language, I take advantage of it. I never added synonyms based on local language, though.
Spanish and French native speaker here.
I have been studying Japanese for a year as well thru a language school in Mexico City so classes are in Japanese and Spanish.
As it has already been mentioned you can add the equivalent definition in your native language and at your next review it will be accepted as correct.
I do keep a spanish english dictionary around since from time to time I come up with a word I did not know in english. The neat thing is that you can build your own memnomic when the reading of the kanji sounds like a word in your own language.
Oh yeah, i will use memnomics in norwegian (or sometimes spanish) if i think the english one is too far from the japanese speiling or sound.
I have so far tried to learn the english words insted of using norwegian, and when i have written a norwegian transelation out of frustration i am too stubborn to use it. Lets just say that canope and triceratops took a while
Maybe we should open another subject to talk about onâyomi and kunâyomiâŠJust a remark on what you said, PosturelessHobo:
in fact, there is a logic but it looks like it is not always consistent. If you look at level 2, the kanji for "æâ. Wanikani expects that we answer to be âteâ, which is the kunâyomi, while in the same section for "ç«âăit does not ask for âhiâ but for âkaâ. So, from my point of view, this is not logical.
Another example is for "æŻâăit should be âboâ, if we follow the same logic but it is âhahaâ. So, I think it is Ok but it is confusingâŠEither, in a section, you only ask for âkunâyomiâ or for âonâyomiâ but going from one to the other is confusing, I think.
By the time i started do wanikani and learn japanese, i was comfortable with english for what was it worth it and werenât striving to learn english specifically, considering such.
Although, i do check dictionary to check defition of words, synonyms, examples to articulate messages more precisily and appealing, now i think about.
And i never practiced talking, although, i feel like i can do this, but, around me, there are nobody who know english at comfortable level as far, as i know with whom i could do some practice. Which is sad, looking now in hindsight, i would probably tremendeously improved my english ability all around at this point if i have some quntity english speaking people around me.
And lyrics of some song could be problematic for me to understand too if i didnât read text and donât it infront of me.
Howerer, wanikani have rather rare english words, as far as i can tell for mnemonics(at least older version of mnemonics) - opinion, which was shared between some native english speaking people, from what i saw in their post around here.
Oh yeah, if you mean it in the sense of how WaniKani asks for on-/kunâyomi then yeah I can agree that it can be confusing. I think this might have to do with the frequency of a reading compared to the alternate reading, though for kanji like âæâ âshuâ (onâyomi) is not an uncommon reading either. Maybe itâs just the way WaniKani prefers to structure their lessons, Iâm not sure.
Luckily you wonât get it wrong when you enter the onâyomi reading when the kunâyomi reading is being asked, it will let you know which one it is asking. I assume you are aware of this though.
)