All Japanese All The Time

[Kurasho]

Hi guys.
Well I've recently come across this guy called Katz who provides the ideal way of achieving fluency in japanese (and all other languages).

A guy called Sam in Youtube had an conversation with him about his opinion in achieving fluency. Here are the links;

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J34i9lr94pI

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9wUEiSHtqU

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CikSHzrAZI

His website : http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about

------------------------------------

I think his method is ideal. So what does everyone think?

[nukemarine]

Best not to use the word "ideal" as you're going to start a nice argument that'll go nowhere. I subscribe to the training concepts personally, but calling it ideal here is like saying Heisig in the best way to learn Kanji.

The youtube links unfortunately are from an off the cuff interview. There is strong language (NSFW?) and the interviewer, well, comes off as a moron in my opinion. Probably a nice, intelligent guy in real life though.

[furrykef]

I think his method is certainly not a bad one, but I don't think it's the One True Way. It may well be one of the fastest ways, but it's also one of the most difficult (not counting totally wrongheaded methods like learning kanji by writing each one 1000 times), so there's a definite tradeoff there.

[nukemarine]

Should be safe for work. Here's Khatzumoto, author of the AJATT blog, discussing learning Japanese in Japanese.

http://de.youtube.com/user/Khatzumoto

Since he never bothered to learn grammar nor took a class about Japanese, I guess the level of Japanese is JLPT 4.

[furrykef]

Since he never bothered to learn grammar nor took a class about Japanese, I guess the level of Japanese is JLPT 4.

...huh?

[nukemarine]

Since he never bothered to learn grammar nor took a class about Japanese, I guess the level of Japanese is JLPT 4.

...huh?

Sarcastic commentary on arguments about the importance of learning grammar above all else.

[Garappachi]

http://de.youtube.com/user/Khatzumoto

As for the video, I think that he is at least a top-notch speaker of Japanese in casual conversations.
如何にも今時の若者らしい会話です。好感が持てました。^O^

[keatonatron]

Sarcastic commentary on arguments about the importance of learning grammar above all else.

Obviously he did learn grammar, because he's not trying to say things like 私好き日本でも言葉難しいだ。

Even if he didn't sit down and read through a book on Japanese grammar, he did learn grammar--even to a point where he can tell you what is correct grammar and what isn't. In fact, I'm sure his practical knowledge of grammar is much stronger than his knowledge of kanji and perhaps even stronger than his listening comprehension.

[furrykef]

Sarcastic commentary on arguments about the importance of learning grammar above all else.

Very dry sarcasm is always very obvious online.

[Sairana]

I'm afraid I don't understand the purpose of the sarcasm, nor the cause for it.

To my knowledge, no one here has ever said the AJATT method wouldn't work. The only thing that gets hostility here is RTK.

[richvh]

The only gripe I have about AJATT is that he overuses kanji in his lessons - stuff like 居る, 此れ, and 其れ aren't normally in kanji.

[two_heads_talking]

Sarcastic commentary on arguments about the importance of learning grammar above all else.

Very dry sarcasm is always very obvious online.

I'm guilty of dry sarcasm all the time and it certainly doesn't translate online, believe me. (I notice your smiley....)

[nukemarine]

The only gripe I have about AJATT is that he overuses kanji in his lessons - stuff like 居る, 此れ, and 其れ aren't normally in kanji.

To be fair, his site doesn't really do Japanese lessons anyway. People begged him for some sample sentences, and he provided maybe 60 and that was over a 18 months ago I think. This probably stems from his theory that you "teach" yourself by experiencing real Japanese all the time.

Also to be fair, I'm seeing random use of Kanji (as in sometimes in kana, sometimes not) in native material (blogs, songs, TV subtitles) which may mean even the argument "overuses" can be losing steam. Granted, it's been posted here previously this may be due to the ease of the IME. Japanese people don't need to know how to write a kanji now to use it. So 10 years ago it was very valid, but as time goes on more Japanese start using more and more of their kanji. Maybe more so as the kanji offers context.

So, is he overusing kanji or just replicating what he sees on the Japanese websites and blogs? Way above my pay grade to really say. Rich, what have you been noticing on the Japanese blogs and websites concerning this?

[Yudan Taiteki]

In my experience, 居る is somewhat common, 此れ and 其れ are quite rare. A lot of it has to do with what automatically comes up when you hit spacebar in the IME.

[richvh]

It's the Dick and Jane episodes I'm referring to; I don't know about you, but I'd call them lessons.

I read light novels more than blogs, but I'd say 居る was uncommon, and 其れ and 此れ extremely rare.