Assalamualaikum and very good day to all.
I only started to learn Japanese formally during my first year at the university. However, I have been learning it informally from various sources on the internet (watching, reading and listening to various materials in Japanese language) since my high school days. Thus, I am exposed to various ways of learning Japanese and I would like to share some with you.
First and foremost, I believe the most important thing factor that drives us to learn anything is our ‘interest’. This applies to learning Japanese as well. In order to learn efficiently, we will first need to know where our interest lies. For instance, if you like music and songs, you can start by listening to Japanese songs and try to understand the lyrics of the songs. If you can start to learn Japanese from things you love, then I believe you are on the right track. The key to learning is not only hard work and talents but also consistency and efficiency in the endeavor.
Next, I would like to highlight is the ‘vocabulary’ (or words). This is my personal opinion from my experiences in learning various foreign languages. Think of language learning as a cooking process whereby the vocabulary is the ingredients and the grammar is the cooking tools. The sentences you create is the final dish decorated according to your skills, creativity and equipment. Hence, I believe the most important part is the ingredients that you have to manipulate, namely the vocabulary, its range and perceive various sentences to interact in the language. On how to increase your vocabulary, I believe that it varies with people and my advice is to center the learning around your interest and do your best.
I hope that you would find my personal opinion useful. If you have similar thoughts or otherwise, do share with us here. Hope you guys enjoy the festival and learn some valuable things from it. ありがとうございました。
PROFILE
Name : Iskandar
Occupation : a 3rd year engineering student at MJIIT.
Hobby : Learning and creative works
You touched on a very important aspect in language learning, ie focusing on the use of the target language rather than the mechanics of that language. I remember when I first started learning the language. Whenever my seniors brought me to visit the Japanese at their homes for a chat, I always hide behind my seniors' backs refusing to talk to the Japanese directly. I just didn't know what to say or how to say. However, that changed when a coursemate brought me along to a Japanese family on weekends. He taught the children English, while I just chatted with their mother and updated each other on the happenings in Malaysia and Japan. One day, while I was playing a game…