More compostion lines

[leonl]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the previous thread. I have a few more lines I would like to have reviewed


1. In order to become good at Japanese I need to study it

Nihongo jozu ni naru tame ni benkyoosuru koto ga irimasu


2. Lots of Japanese people live in seattle so I want to become good at japanese

shiatoru de takusan nihonjion ga attara nihiongo ga jozu ni naritai

3 I watch a lot of anime and want to understand it
Anime wo miru ga ooii...... Wakarukoto ga ??
(this was a complete shot in the dark I have no idea how to make this sentence)

In-case I haven't mentioned I am a second year Japanese student

[NileCat]

1. Nihongo ga jouzu ni naru tame niwa benkyou suru koto ga hitsuyou desu.

2. Shiatoru niwa takusan no nihonjin ga iru node nihongo ga jouzu ni naritai desu.

3. Anime wo takusan miru node nihongo ga wakaru you ni naritai desu.

From my experience, try to make the core sentence first, like S+V+O.
And study how to add something like "because" or "in order to" to the simple sentence.
Then, find the way how to make one sentence consists of two sentences.

There are some useful patterns, like math formula or equation.
I recommend to read last year's grammar book again. Maybe you can find new things that you didn't realize last year.
The big difference from English is, you can't improve yourself without knowing concrete basic grammar. Don't care about vocab that much before you understand basic usage of particles completely. It's a common mistake. You'll find it years after. Enough vocab, poor grammar...It's typical foreigner's feature living in Japan.

Watashi-hosii-ne-sore-ne. Sore-kitanai-dakedo-takai. u-n, yasui-nara-kau. takai-nara-iranai. mata-kuru-ne. Bye.
In fact, it's ok. It makes sense.Not that bad. You can get by.
But, once you get used to this pattern, I bet you can never improve. Because it's easy. It's like a pitfall. Some African-American guy who seems to be very famous on the internet also has this charasteristic feature.

I know grammar is boring. But believe me. When you are a beginner, it will make you amazingly improved in shorter period.

[leonl]

Thank you for your help,

I think your advice is spot on. I am reviewing last years materials, but I am focusing on kanji, not grammar since my teacher at the school i went to last year didnt teach kanji for whatever reason. My professor this year however is the complete opposite. We hit the ground running first day, all lectures except for grammar are Japanese, Shes already given us our major project for the quarter which is to read a salary man senryu and give a speech in Japanese about why it is funny to the Japanese people, basically explain the humor to our classmates. Thanks again for your help. Your english is really good. If my Japanese were half as good as your english I dont think I would need to ask so many questions

[coco]

1. In order to become good at Japanese I need to study it

Nihongo jozu ni naru tame ni benkyoosuru koto ga irimasu

In this sentence, using こと properly is the point, and you did it very well.

To recognize the difference between 必要です and い(要)ります is hard. But すること tends to be used with 必要です rather than いります.

[NileCat]

leonl, I think you're doing very good.
There are tons of different methods to study a foreign language. So I'm not insisting anything. The most important thing is that you can make it as enjoyable as possible.
I find this forum is excellent.There are many people who are better than me with Japanese. And they are wonderful people and serious with their study. I don't know any other website like this.
Feel free to ask any question. I'm always happy to help anyone of you. Because although I or coco-san are minority here, I think we can provide some helpful information that could be indiginous to Japan because we are native speakers. Of course that doesn't mean I'm always right. But I believe someone will correct me when I made a mistake.
Enjoy your study!

[Sairana]

Some African-American guy who seems to be very famous on the internet also has this charasteristic feature.

Do you mean Khazumoto of AJATT fame? Interesting to hear such a critique, since so many other people just gush about his superior language ability in Japanese. It's good to hear his method isn't quite as perfect as he'd like people to think it is.

[furrykef]

Sounds to me like you've got a case of schadenfreude, Sairana.

[Sairana]

Sounds to me like you've got a case of schadenfreude, Sairana.

^_^ Maybe... but I don't think it's really severe enough to warrant the term. I have a general thing against things like get rich quick schemes, MLMs, and Miraculous Solutions to All Life's Problems; the last of which includes claims like "Take this pill and be a supermodel" or "Just surround yourself with Japanese media and memorize sentences and you'll be fluent in Japanese."

[NileCat]

Haha...well, I think I have to add something about the guy. For I was a bit careless when I wrote that. Sorry.
Please don't get me wrong. His Japanese is bloody good. I didn't mean to be critical about him. I like him and I respect his effort. Besides, he owns vast knowledge about grammar as well.
What interested me was that I found many Japanese learners (especially beginners) blindly adore him and try to mimic him because he doesn't look like one of those boring "academic teachers". Yeah, that's true and not bad at all. In addition to that, he has...what do you call it...charisma.
So try his method if you like. I'm not against that at all. That's a very good method too.

I just wanted to offer another point of view.
I sometimes analyze someone's way of speaking just for fun like...Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, or Sherlock Holmes. (Yes, I'm a kind of geek in terms of Japanese colloquialism. For it has something to do with my profession) And noticed that there was a common pitfall for whom studying Japanese. The guy of course is aware of it by himself. But maybe many beginners can't realize it. Which is --- there is a way to speak Japanese (seemingly fluently) without really trying to study the grammar. The knack is, to get rid of all the particles and add some words like -ne and -dane and -dayo. (Again, I'm not saying that the guy is only speaking like that.)
Try to listen to his speech again thinking of that. He uses mind-bogglingly fantastic techniques with that. And it seems to me that textbook grammar is much easier than his linguistic techniques even if the "normal" study is boring!