I haven’t explored much of the other Japanese sims in Second Life since I’m not confident yet in joining in the conversations or typing in complete Japanese. But this link has many events that are organised by native Japanese in Second Life, so you might be able to find some that’s closer to your timezone. It’s all written in Japanese though, and that’s another reason why I haven’t dare to explore deeper for now.
And just to give a heads up, not all places in Second Life uses Voice Chat, so it might defeat your purpose for speaking practice. However, that could be good for fast paced text-chat style typing practice instead, if that’s part of your learning goal too.
Regarding other audio practice, maybe the resources list below could be of help.
Thank you for your the suggestion with Japanese the Manga Way textbook to Lswan too. I’ve only tried Genki textbook so I don’t have any leverage to compare other textbooks that might be better for others.
Pardon my forgetfulness to link the map to Nihongo Tea Room as at first I worry some might get kicked out automatically for being having an account that’s less than 2 weeks old.
However, that should not be a problem if you’ve made an account earlier, today or tomorrow as it will be exactly 2 weeks by the time it’s the 15th January. So hope to see you there!
You don’t have to worry if your Genki copy hasn’t arrived yet by the 15th or a couple of weekends after (I know deliveries after New Year can lag a little). Yoshi Sensei will have the lessons displayed on a whiteboard anyway so anyone without a textbook could always follow along.
I also think introductions wouldn’t take the whole hour of lesson time and maybe Sensei will start with something light from the start of the textbook. This is so he can gauge each of the learner’s individual weak and strong points, in finding ways on how to tackle them from the next weekend onwards.
Hope that helps. Looking forward to seeing you in Nihongo Tea Room soon!
Tagging for the Important Notice at the top of this Thread (please scroll to the top. Thank you ) @Jorlp@Wildstern@RobSolo
I remember you too because you’re the first person in WaniKani to welcome me! Thanks to your advice, I’m moving along quite well in my slow-but-steady pace of grinding the SRS so far, averaging 1 level per month.
It would be great if you could participate in this activity as well! I hope the learning curve of using Second Life won’t get to you so much and that your computer is able to handle it, because those are the main stumbling blocks, in my opinion.
Crossing fingers to hear from you in Second Life very soon as that would mean you’ve made it there and I’ll get the Nihongo Tea Room owner to add you in the safe list since the start of Genki 2 activity will be this weekend. Hope you are doing well with your studies and your life too!
Ah, I didn’t see this thread until now. I made a Second Life account just now, but I’m basically one day too late to access the first Genki 1 meeting. Do I need to do anything more in order to join the weekend after? (you mentioned contacting you and being added to a safe list?)
You’re right, since your Second Life account will be less than 2 weeks old before the start of Genki 1 class, it would be great if you could send an IM to my account there (Haruka Flores). Then I could give your Second Life username to the Nihongo Tea Room owner so she can add you in a safelist. Or if you prefer, you can share your Second Life account name here under this thread too.
Sorry for the slight hassle in membership screening using the vouch system. I blame the trolls (they usually like to make new disposable accounts) in making everyone’s life a bit harder, lol. Nonetheless, one can also wait for their account to be 2 weeks old naturally and just walk-in later as well. I think it doesn’t matter when one starts as long they are able to catch up with the lessons.
Other than that, there’s nothing much else that you need to do before walking into the class other than what’s already written in my posts above. In my opinion, making yourself familiar with the avatar movements and voice chat controls before the activity would help make your learning experience in Second Life goes more smoothly.
Don’t worry about not being able to make time much for this activity. When I was studying with Genki 1 in Nihongo Tea Room, there were a couple of learners who only popped in once in a while because their schedules are busier on most weekends. But that didn’t disrupt their ongoing Japanese studies as they’ve done some homework and practiced on their own while away.
In fact, I’ve started learning at Nihongo Tea Room half-way through Genki 1 myself. All that matters is as long as one is able to catch up if they’ve done their own revisions. I wouldn’t fret about missing a couple of weekends in a row since Yoshi Sensei gives some light homework every week (announced in a private Group on Facebook by Sunday - you’ll be added after your first attendance) so one is able to know where we’re at whenever they return again to Nihongo Tea Room.
Hope that helps and looking forward to having you both as my virtual classmates soon!
Thank you! I’ll pass your Second Life’s username to the Nihongo Tea Room owner this weekend during my Genki 2 class and you should be able to enter the Genki 1 class without any problems by the 15th January. See you then!
I think you might be lucky that the auto-booter was either deactivated or the new account sensor is only placed in the classroom areas.
According to the Nihongo Tea Room owner, one doesn’t need permission to simply come visit Nihongo Tea Room and play with games like Karuta or Shogi over there. One just needs to pass their Second Life username in advance if they wish to join the classes. Hope that makes sense.
Regarding the schedules displayed, I would take half of them with a grain of salt as some hasn’t been updated in a while. Especially the Google Calendar ones, if I’m not mistaken. The regularly updated ones are from their private Facebook Group updates, which you’ll be added after your first day of attendance in class.
I’ve also just seen Yoshi Sensei’s new updates today on Facebook regarding the Genki 1 and Genki 2 activities. I’ll copy and paste them below and update my first post above too.
BEGINNER JAPANESE 1
January 15, Saturday
9:00 pm (JST)
Break the ice!
Please introduce yourself (Japanese or English).
Let’s practice reading Hiragana together.
Hi! I just found this thread and I’m interested in joining, but since I just created the Second Life account today, it won’t be more than 2 weeks old by the time the first class starts. If you could add me to the “not a troll” list, I would appreciate it
My username is Silversong20 (same as it is here, but with 20)
(I’m not sure my very old computer will actually allow me to run Second Life smoothly, but I’m going to try anyway )
Of course, I’ll give the Nihongo Tea Room owner your username soon and thank you for your interest in joining the study group. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Good luck with the trial using your good old computer! I know the pain of lag in Second Life as my laptop just barely pass for learning purposes too. Sometimes I have to relog a couple of times and usually as long as I sit still and have my screen zoomed-in to the whiteboard, I could follow along the class decently enough, lol.
If all goes well, hope to see you in Nihongo Tea Room soon and I’ll pass along your Second Life username to the owner earlier too!
Thank you too for your interest to join this study group! Especially since I think there are more efficient ways to learn Japanese. The learning curve of using Second Life is steep and can be quite confusing in the beginning as it’s an older virtual platform.
If anything, I’m just helping Yoshi Sensei and the Nihongo Tea Room owner spread the word out after they’ve been helping me and a couple of other learners without requiring any payment. The response for the new study group weren’t that many on Facebook, so I thought this forum will have a better chance.
Hope you’ll benefit from the activity as much as it did for me as well. I’ll make sure to have your username in the safelist and can’t wait to see you soon!
Hi, I would also like to join the Genki 1 Study Group, but of course my account was also only created today, so it would be very nice if you could pass my name along as well.
My account name is Wildstar0
I’m super excited for this. It will probably be really helpful for me. I’m a little bit scared that I will embarass myself at some point like I used to do in english-classes in school, but that will just make me work harder. Luckily the timeslot works really well for me as i am in germany.
I sent you a message already, but I’ll leave my username here as well just in case. It’s lacymm and I’d like to join the Genki 2 group. Thank you for this awesome opportunity!
)
Thanks to your advice, I’m moving along quite well in my slow-but-steady pace of grinding the SRS so far, averaging 1 level per month.
)
