Hajimemasho! – My Japanese learning journey – Part 1
Hajimemasho! – My Japanese learning
journey – Part 1
For years, I’ve put off learning
Japanese.
I was a full-blown otaku by my
teens, scrimping off any bits of undubbed anime I could—this was before the
time of cable TV and internet-streaming, mind you. Even though I loved how
lyrical and expressive the language was, there was also some excuse. Too much
studies, not enough free time, it’s too expensive, I’m already failing
Mandarin, what makes me think that I could do any better with Japanese, etc
etc.
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| My name in Japanese. It looks like a warning label, for some reason. -_- |
On Saturday, I had my first lesson.
I’m documenting this for two reasons: one, I hope that by chronicling my
journey here (biweekly, I hope, if life doesn’t screw me over), that I’m
sharing something worthwhile with you guys who are thinking of studying; and
two, I’ve seriously run out of topics to share. I’m counting on you to motivate
me! >_<
In Singapore, there’s a few schools
to choose from. Bunka, Ikoma, and the Japanese Cultural Society Japanese Language School are amongst
the better known. Neighbourhood schools such as the Hougang Japanese Language School
also exists. When selecting a school, consider your circumstance carefully.
Things like location, cost, timing, availability and sizes of classes, will
impact on your decision. (I’m choosing not to disclose which school I attend,
because I selected it for personal reasons like convenience, timing and
recommendations by friends. I’m not advertising for the school.)
 |
| Some of the common greetings. How many do you know? |
My teacher is a native Japanese,
and the lesson was purely immersive. I don’t know if this is common, but a
friend who attends a different school says that admin staff tend to bi, if not,
trilingual, while the teachers are Japanese. For starters, my sensei (lit.
teacher. Learn with this noob!) spoke completely in Japanese, which meant
kick-starting our brains to process the language as much as possible. He is not
to be underestimated: he could clearly tell if we were translating his
instructions correctly when we repeated in English, and if we couldn’t
understand, he would interject English adjectives. I had to bring all my anime
prowess to the forefront, so some basic understanding, or vast consumption of
Japanese media would be helpful.
Note: look out for class sizes (mine happened to have 18 students, not a bad number), arrangement of makeup lessons, registration and study material cost. These are sometimes hidden potholes that you might not be aware of. If you are planning on taking Japanese-Language Proficiency Test for whatever reason, some schools also offer tutoring or registration services for your convenience.
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| Japanese borrows a great deal from Chinese, though naturally, the meaning has also changed along the way. |
As an introduction to Japanese,
some of the basics we learnt ranged from greetings – Ohayo gozaimasu (lit. good
morning) to introducing yourself – Hajimemashite. Dozo yoroshiku (lit. it is
the first time meeting you [nice to meet you], please take care of me) ¬and
even the Japanese pronunciation of countries. Phonically, Singapore is
pronounced as Sh-in-ga-po-ru in Japanese. Ironically, we couldn’t get Indonesia
right, but we managed to get China (Chugoku) and England (Igirisu) right!
I was also given my first
introduction into the Japanese Hiragana—where nightmares of failed Mandarin
lessons and horrible witches of Chinese teachers surfaced in my memories for a
moment. Besides learning how to write the a and Ka vowels, we were also given a
prelim idea into how to pair them up. For example, aoi (lit. blue) is made up
of three characters in the a phonology. Therefore, aoi can be written as あおい.
 |
| Don't judge my handwriting. I know it's terrible. |
For those of you who happen to have
a background in Chinese, Japanese might come to you more easily. Much of the
language, especially kanji (lit. 漢字)
is borrowed from the Chinese language, so often times, I could translate text
if it used kanji extensively. Memorising the Hiragana and Katakana would
definitely help. Even by the end of the three-hour class, I could only
recognise あ.
Also, for goodness sake, bring
plenty of pencils and pens—erasable pens are an even better idea. I stupidly
brought only one pen, and a liquid ink one at that! It bled out like crazy all
over my pages and my character strokes ended up looking like tear-stained
mistakes (not that far from the truth, really).
So that concludes my first lesson.
I hope that by writing this series, it might give you guys something to think
about if you really wanna learn Japanese. Or just feel free to laugh at my
pain, you heartless creatures!
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