I started trying to learn after my first trip there (finally) in 2018. Then, went back in 2019 with friends. Was supposed to go back for a farming stay the day lockdowns started in 2020. By the time 2 weeks turned into 2 years, I put it on the back burner. Just getting back into my studies now. I can still say a few things, but still struggle to understand/hear sentence construction.
Bob, this is a great read, someone who started before me! lol
I came across Japanese in 1983, through a combination of the original Shogun drama on The BBC (check out Shogun Channel on YouTube for the Japanese lessons by Mariko for Anjin-san, that we wish we all had!) and a beautifully titled book called simply 'Teach Yourself Japanese' by C J Dunn S Yanada, which I found in my local library.
I started learning formally at a university evening class, with a lovely, lovely teacher, to rival Shimada Yoko, so my motivation stayed high. After an initial sortie to Japan in 83, I came back to the UK and quit my job to get really stuck into the language at university level. The UK was way behind the US on the materials front, and besides a home made grammar book made by my University lecturer, we basically did lots of translations J-E from newspapers, novels and other random works available.
We were armed with a Nelson Kanji Dictionary, and two Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionaries, the small one which was edited by my lecturer Martin Collick, and the very big one, which together was a heavy load to carry to uni!
Nelson was/is still a great piece of work (considering the guy was a medical doctor!) and we would often spend time after classes just looking through it for all the amazing Kanji and compounds contained in there. The other half of my double degree was (Japanese) linguistics so Martin, Yoko McClain and Kazuko Inoue (Chomsky grammar) were our staple go to references, tough love!
I too also used the transcription method you describe here, something which surprisingly none of my other classmates did. I would write out the sentences with 3 lines spaces, so I could write in the readings of the Kanji based words below and on the next line a translation (with notes).
How I wish I had kept those notes like you, a great reminder of just how much time we put in during those intense study days/month/years.
Thanks for the reminder of how it was back in the day...
Your post brought back so many memories. It also awakened some long-dormant PTSD symptoms.
I took Roy’s fourth-year Japanese class in 1977 at the University of Washington. He was a very kind man. He was also quite a character. As fate would have it, I returned to the UW in 1983, after getting a PhD in Japanese history, and taught there for three years. Roy loved to talk about the linguistic connection between Japanese and the Altaic languages. I do remember that, if little else.
Is there any chance you might have used the Howard Hibbett textbooks? Looking back, how strange it seems to learn Japanese with handwritten kanji/kana using very arcane materials. A different world for sure.
I have a very fuzzy memory of the Hibbett & Itasaka book. The cover rings a bell. I remember poring over the stacks at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku looking for good books for learning Japanese and would be surprised if I hadn't picked up that one.
I often wonder how my Japanese journey would have evolved if I had had the privilege of working with or studying under one of the great teachers of that day who might have helped me take a more wide-ranging, balanced, insightful approach to Japanese.
I hope you've recovered, Richard. My best friend from high school studied medicine at Sheffield. Those were the "Full Monty" days--at least the opening scene of the city, anyway.
Not sure I have recovered at all mike, I am still working with Japanese language and the Nelson dictionary is still on my shelf!
When I entered Sheffield in 1984 it was at the height of the Thatcher vs Miners conflict, literally fighting in the streets .. not very conducive to Kanji study, but kept my head down. It was indeed the Full Monty in every respect.
Thanks for sharing! I am currently learning Japanese at the University. I have always thought that writing is one of the best way to learn Kanji. I’m hoping my vocabulary and grammar will improve in third year Japanese next year so I can start taking notes and writing journals in Japanese!
I am also “dokugaku” and I have so many of these same kanji painstakingly written out in my N4 kanji workbook!! I always wonder what it would be like to be in japan before Google translate and other language apps. I still finding real paper books the best way for me to better my reading and writing skills though 📚
We spent an immense amount of time thumbing through Nelson and J-E dictionaries, which I guess was sort of fun in its own way. There is no question the landscape has changed dramatically, especially in the last three years.
I started trying to learn after my first trip there (finally) in 2018. Then, went back in 2019 with friends. Was supposed to go back for a farming stay the day lockdowns started in 2020. By the time 2 weeks turned into 2 years, I put it on the back burner. Just getting back into my studies now. I can still say a few things, but still struggle to understand/hear sentence construction.
That 考 is so cute 😍
Very impressive! You have neat handwriting. Imagine if you had come up with the forerunner of DuoLingo back in the day!
Bob, this is a great read, someone who started before me! lol
I came across Japanese in 1983, through a combination of the original Shogun drama on The BBC (check out Shogun Channel on YouTube for the Japanese lessons by Mariko for Anjin-san, that we wish we all had!) and a beautifully titled book called simply 'Teach Yourself Japanese' by C J Dunn S Yanada, which I found in my local library.
I started learning formally at a university evening class, with a lovely, lovely teacher, to rival Shimada Yoko, so my motivation stayed high. After an initial sortie to Japan in 83, I came back to the UK and quit my job to get really stuck into the language at university level. The UK was way behind the US on the materials front, and besides a home made grammar book made by my University lecturer, we basically did lots of translations J-E from newspapers, novels and other random works available.
We were armed with a Nelson Kanji Dictionary, and two Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionaries, the small one which was edited by my lecturer Martin Collick, and the very big one, which together was a heavy load to carry to uni!
Nelson was/is still a great piece of work (considering the guy was a medical doctor!) and we would often spend time after classes just looking through it for all the amazing Kanji and compounds contained in there. The other half of my double degree was (Japanese) linguistics so Martin, Yoko McClain and Kazuko Inoue (Chomsky grammar) were our staple go to references, tough love!
I too also used the transcription method you describe here, something which surprisingly none of my other classmates did. I would write out the sentences with 3 lines spaces, so I could write in the readings of the Kanji based words below and on the next line a translation (with notes).
How I wish I had kept those notes like you, a great reminder of just how much time we put in during those intense study days/month/years.
Thanks for the reminder of how it was back in the day...
Your post brought back so many memories. It also awakened some long-dormant PTSD symptoms.
I took Roy’s fourth-year Japanese class in 1977 at the University of Washington. He was a very kind man. He was also quite a character. As fate would have it, I returned to the UW in 1983, after getting a PhD in Japanese history, and taught there for three years. Roy loved to talk about the linguistic connection between Japanese and the Altaic languages. I do remember that, if little else.
Is there any chance you might have used the Howard Hibbett textbooks? Looking back, how strange it seems to learn Japanese with handwritten kanji/kana using very arcane materials. A different world for sure.
Thank you for sharing your memory.
I have a very fuzzy memory of the Hibbett & Itasaka book. The cover rings a bell. I remember poring over the stacks at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku looking for good books for learning Japanese and would be surprised if I hadn't picked up that one.
I often wonder how my Japanese journey would have evolved if I had had the privilege of working with or studying under one of the great teachers of that day who might have helped me take a more wide-ranging, balanced, insightful approach to Japanese.
Mike
You just jogged my memory, we used the Hibbet and Itasaka books at Sheffield Uni too!
I hope you've recovered, Richard. My best friend from high school studied medicine at Sheffield. Those were the "Full Monty" days--at least the opening scene of the city, anyway.
Not sure I have recovered at all mike, I am still working with Japanese language and the Nelson dictionary is still on my shelf!
When I entered Sheffield in 1984 it was at the height of the Thatcher vs Miners conflict, literally fighting in the streets .. not very conducive to Kanji study, but kept my head down. It was indeed the Full Monty in every respect.
Thanks for sharing! I am currently learning Japanese at the University. I have always thought that writing is one of the best way to learn Kanji. I’m hoping my vocabulary and grammar will improve in third year Japanese next year so I can start taking notes and writing journals in Japanese!
I am also “dokugaku” and I have so many of these same kanji painstakingly written out in my N4 kanji workbook!! I always wonder what it would be like to be in japan before Google translate and other language apps. I still finding real paper books the best way for me to better my reading and writing skills though 📚
We spent an immense amount of time thumbing through Nelson and J-E dictionaries, which I guess was sort of fun in its own way. There is no question the landscape has changed dramatically, especially in the last three years.