Learning Japanese
Okay! I know this might sounds crazy and I know I may not be able to make much progress, but I am going to give it a try. Mind you I have tried to learn a new language as an adult, Spanish (!), and I couldn't make enough progress and sort of given up lately. That doesn't mean, I won't try it back up again, but right now that is the status. I have been interested in Japanese culture for a long time (yeah Pokemon, Anime, Studio Ghibli etc). However, I started reading a lot of Japanese literature (English translations) during the pandemic. So finally I thought I am going to give it try, knowing that it is not an easy language to muster. I am multi-lingual though (I am fluent in three, English, Hindi, and Bengali), I am told that always helps: who knows!
Image Created by Leonardo
Language learning is nothing new in my family. This is mostly because of our day job in oil & gas. My wife has Duolingo on her phone for a long time, and also Babbel. She can speak and read passable French, Russian and Arabic, all of that she self taught herself. It is mostly for survival (perhaps immersive a little bit), however, I haven't been so fortunate. Back in the days, I was mostly working in countries that read and writes English, as least as the official language. So I didn't have that need. Now, I am finding I do need to pick up on my language skills mostly for hobby and not work. Let me start with Japanese!
Resources
These days free resources are plentiful and overwhelming. After just a bit of search I quickly landed on some excellent resources.
NHK World is a great place to start, I am told by multiple people, community and message boards. It is free, and Japanese national broadcasting agency (I know about NHK for a very long time), so I am sure there is certain level of quality there. After spending about an hour on the site, I am already familiar with the first concept that Japanese language has three different types of characters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Wow! That is going to be easy!!
Next is Japanpod101 website. This is extensive, and partly free to the best of my initial understanding. I am really enjoying this 4 hours long YouTube video!
Don't worry, there are chapter to navigate, and they are typically 10-15 min long each, and you can go back to it.
Next is the Kana iphone App to practice the letters on your phone. I also have paper and pencil, and I am practicing the characters.
There is also a conventional text book that a lot of people are talking about. It is called Genki. I have downloaded the text book, and associated companion audio app. However, I haven't spend any time on it.
In addition to all that, I also have Duolingo, but I am not sure how much I am going to gain from it. My point is, this is already a lot of resources, and they are all rather good. The question obviously is how quickly I will be able to absorb some of that.
Wish me luck!
