Konnichiha (hello).

Alright so I've said for a while now that I wanted to learn Irish and Japanese. Irish because I am Irish, and Japanese because it would be quite useful for me as a learning game developer to know it for various reasons, not the least of which being the ability to localize games in another country. Besides, Japanese is probably the second most used language in the game industry in design and release.

Anyway, I've officially begun my learning of Japanese as of about an hour ago, and I decided to go ahead and see if anyone out there is interested in learning it with me. This would be beneficial to all involved in different ways.

To list a few:
Beneficial to you because...
•You will get free access to what I learn from reputed premium (paid) professional Japanese instructor's manuals.

•I'll only pass on things to you after I learn them myself, and as such I can offer assistance as needed.

•If you're interested I can pass on audio files of the words to make learning how to pronounce the various words and characters easier.

•If we get enough people involved, I'll continue paying for additional literature and possibly a live tutor once we move beyond all that the literature can teach us.


So essentially anyone who decides to join me will get free access to any premium content that we could need to learn a new language with the exception of my writing materials which I cannot lawfully copy and upload for printing.


Beneficial to me because...
•Community support. It'll make it easier and more rewarding to learn, thus pushing me harder and keeping me from losing interest and giving up.

•One can only become fluent in a language by frequent usage of it. Sorry, watching anime isn't going to make an expert in the Japanese language. So we would hold conversations via private messages and/or chat messages (again, private. Not chat room) in Japanese once we learned enough. We might start with a mix of Japanese and English to supplement for Japanese words that we haven't learned yet. This could be a single message a day, or a full blown conversation everyday, whichever works best for you.

Actually the last "for me" benefit really benefits everyone involved, but I had to list it somewhere, and frankly that's the reason that I thought to share this in the first place, though I do hope it helps someone else who has an interest in the Japanese language for whatever reason.



So if you're interested in learning Japanese and would appreciate free access to what you would normally pay upwards of $100 for (after all courses are exhausted), just let me know in this thread.

I'm stopping this now before it starts sounding any more like an infomercial than it already does. Lol





EDIT:
This lesson thread has been discontinued. The lessons will continue on Discord however. We will have lessons from Beginner through Advanced levels, adding them regularly, as well as resource links and the support of learning with others, just like we have here for two years or so. Below is a link. Anyone wanting to learn is welcome to join us.
https://discord.gg/YQvu9E3

I would be interested. No joking. I really would be interested if I wasn't already "learning" another language at school right now: Spanish. I hate it. My teacher can't teach. Help me.

(Sorry if this post seems kind of random and pointless. Thought I'd express my reply in a unique way since this is "That One Forum".)

Eirinn : Um....you know I was learning Japanese before and stopped. I really do want to go back and relearn and learn more. So I am interested.

I'd be down for learning Japanese. In fact I've always wanted to learn Japanese, among other languages.

Is it possible to do everything digitally btws?

I'm posting just a joke with this: purchase Ohayou! Beginner's Japanese.

You will need a Nintendo Wii U system + an internet connection. Plus US $4.99


Nintendo wants to teach you Japanese, so why are you searching elsewhere lol?

I'm  interested in learning Japanese. I was learning Japanese a few years ago, then stopped and haven't learn since. I would love to try again.

I'd be interested in this. 

Between gaming and a few other entertainment mediums, I've always wanted to learn Japanese (more so than any other language by far). Plus having conversations in a secondary language can be stimulating intellectually, which I'm all for ^^

Lexatom : Yeah that's fine. And actually that's the same thing another friend told me. Spanish is ruining all of the fun. :/ Well hey if you want to learn it during the summer or after you finish Spanish feel free to join in then. I'm looking to get as many people as I can to learn with.


Eniitan : Okay, awesome. I'll add you to the list of people I send things to directly.


ZeroTails : Depends what you mean by do everything digitally. Could you elaborate?


tRIUNE : Shh....don't tell them my secret sources.


xxAriaxx : Added! I'm really glad to see so many people joining in.


Mynamescox44 : Gotta admit, I'm interested in the prospect of being able to play games that weren't translated to English as well. Especially since PlayStation systems aren't region locked. Lol



Alright, this got off to a strong start. Hopefully we can get even more people on board soon, but I'm happy with even this turnout.

what about irish? i'm part irish too, soooooo ;D

Eirinn : I would be willing to join in on this. I've been taking Japanese since the start of this school semester (so basically for the past 3 months) alongside French (which I've been taking for the past few years or so). I know the basics like Hiragana, Katakana, and some vocabulary and grammar. Just through lessons, genki, as well as using the human japanese app (great relatively cheap purchase if you're serious about learning it by the way). I'm learning it because I eventually hope to study Economics and do a year of foreign studies in Japan. Not to mention at this point I pretty much have to take it to get the extra credit I need, in other words not purely out of interest. So there's no risk of me quitting this halfway

A side note however. holding conversations through chat (assuming you mean text chat that is) would probably be difficult since I don't think anyone of us have a Japanese keyboard. We could use romaji, that is writing in Japanese using the English alphabet, but that isn't really proper Japanese or good for practice since no Japanese people actually use that.

Eirinn : Basically like not requiring any shipping of Japanese stuff over xp.

Like, I could do all of the Japanese stuff on a computer or laptop (or paper!) without having to get stuff shipped over to my living area.

That would probably raise questions from my parents XD

SilverHyruler : Duuuuude you're part Irish??? How did I not know this? Dia dhuit, connas atá tú? And I probably butchered that. Lol Irish is definitely going to happen if I can get it at all, but I'll have to learn it next. Unfortunately Japanese is a more pressing matter at current. Most people in Ireland don't even use Irish, so that'll pretty much be something I learn just so I can say that I know it. xD


Zlinqx : True. I can get a proper keyboard for it on mobile, but I hadn't thought of PC users. Romaji may be all we can do for now, sort of a necessary evil until we find a way around it.


ZeroTails : Oh, of course! Yes, it'll all be digital. I couldn't mail things out anyway (ask David: he's been waiting three years on some games I meant to mail him. :/). The audio will be recorded and offered for download, and the written stuff will either be sent via PM or posted here. As for papers, I can post printable character sheets for practicing writing once I get the hang of Kanji Katakana and Hiragana, but I won't be able to photocopy the character sheets due to legal restrictions.
Additionally I may be able to post the characters using my phone's keyboard, but yeah the traceables will have to wait until I get them down well enough to pass along in my own handwriting.

Eirinn : im like a 5% probably. i'm half czech and about basically 5% every other european country aside from spain and france ;D

also, by irish you mean gaelic ye?

I actually understood "dia dhuit", if that earns me any points. I've been kind of interested in learning Japanese and I actually spend a whole uh... two days.... But, I was just doing a lot of reading instead of receiving instruction and I've always been the kind of person that has to be instructed personally so I can ask dumb, newbie questions.

In short, I think it would be really cool to learn it, especially with someone else that's doing the same thing, but I don't wanna commit to anything....

If I had more free time, I'd definitely be interested.

Unfortunately I have no time

SilverHyruler : Man I don't know what I mean anymore. Lol At first I called it Gaelic, then I was told it's Irish Gaelic because Scottish Gaelic is also Gaelic, so Gaelic is a bit ambiguous. Then I started calling it Irish Gaelic and was told not to do that, it's just Irish. Now...I just say whatever. xD Properly it's Irish Gaelic I think, or at least Gaelic, but I'm too confused at this point. lol

Also I'm a mix of all kinds of things, but I'm predominantly Irish and Cherokee. All that shows is Irish. In fact I was told by a woman from Galway that I'd pass for a local.


m0ssb3rg935 : Understanding anything in Irish/Gaelic/Irish Gaelic/whatever the soup it is, is worth at least 500 bonus points. :V

So is that an "I'll join in, but I won't promise that I'll stay in" or an "I'd like to, but I'll pass because I'd probably lose interest anyway"? If it's the former, that's fine. It's confusing how much there is in writing alone (Hiragana, Katakana, and at least 2,000+ Kanji) not to mention the large assortment of gender and role specific titles and suffixes (San, Chan, kun, Senpai, etc) the use of honorifics and familiars, and who knows what else. So I'm sure the likelihood of one of us quitting is high, but it's worth a shot if you're interested. I definitely intend to conquer it all, so there will be no shortage of material and such.


legacyme3 : Understandable man. If you ever manage to find the time to try it, feel free to let me know. I'd love to have as many people on board with this as I can get.



Zlinqx : Also something to look into: apparently there are programs you can download that allow you to type Katakana (and maybe Hiragana) without a Japanese keyboard. In fact it seems some OS come with such a program pre-installed. Not sure how difficult it would be to commit to memory which letters on your keyboard correspond to which Katakana/Hiragana characters, or how functional it would be, but I thought I'd toss it out there.

Eirinn : Thanks big bro lol it means a lot. I think it would be more fun learning with somebody than doing it on your own.

I'm also interested in learning Japanese. I got some advertising of a few sites I could learn it in an anime convention over here, but I admit learning it with some of you would be very special.

Let's hope that my English level is also good enough to keep up with all of you. Maybe it's time to remove the dust on that dictionary I rarely used in school and treasure it with me

Eirinn : i only exist because my mom's side of the family fled to canada to escape the soviets XD

I am interested in learning new languages. I have already learned Japanese and am currently expanding upon it. I can read a bit of it, and learning more as I go on. I would also benefit from having a partner with whom to learn, which would make it all the better. I must admit it is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Learning to speak it is easy; learning to read and write it is just about the only hard part. This is just what I know about the language from experience. I never knew Japanese was so useful in the world. Like I said, this is a difficult language, but I try my hardest, even translating some of it (though not all of it, since I'm clearly not a native of Japan; I've never even been there, so I can't say I'm especially good at it ).