Japanese lessons?

Seion

This forum doesn't seem to get much activity, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Does anyone know is it possible to take courses in conversational Japanese in Dublin?

Alex

Kenshin

You can do a course in Trinity college... I did the introductory course this year, and it was interesting enough, if you are into it.

I'd give you a link to the website for it, but the TCD network is screwed up at the moment.

Seion

Thanks for your reply. One point though - I'm not interested in an academic qualification, just in the ability to stumble through a conversation in Japan. Is the Trinity course, a full-on programme, or a 12 week conversational course?

Is it expensive?

Alex

Kenshin

It's actually not a full-on degree course, just evening classes once a week that anyone can apply for.

Anyway, now that TCD's network is fine again, here are some links:

Introduction to Japanese Language and Culture
Post-beginners' Japanese
Intermediate Japanese

Cake Fiend

I believe Lex_Diamonds took that course, if he sees this thread maybe he'll drop in and give some details about it.

Lex_Diamonds

Yeah I did indeed take it, was good, seems like what your looking for Seion. Kenshin has posted the links there, all you need to get started.

Seion

Much to my extreme annoyance, I am actually flying out to Japan on the day the course starts! It looks like I am back to wandering around Tokyo with a range of usefull phrases scribbled on napkins . . .

Thanks to those that went to the trouble of posting info and links.

Domo Arigato,

Alex

Seion

Hi all,

With another trip to Japan on the horizon, and the frustrating memory of the last one still fresh, I finally got around to signing up for a course in Japanese. The Sandford Language Institute has a 14 week course starting in the next few weeks that suits me perfectly, as it finishes in May and I'm off again in June for two weeks in Tokyo.

I will happily admit to some mild trepidation - I was dreadful at languages in school, but I have a real vested interest this time, and a real use for the skill, so perhaps it will be different.

Alex

casper-

Please let us know how the course goes ... I was looking at their website and it seems decent, but it's always better to hear first-hand about the experience

Gleanndún

if ne1 wants a japanese conversation partner ive been taking japanese for 6 years now and i would b happy 2 give help 2 ne1 who wants it. good practice;)

yorosiku onegaisima~su!

nadir

I might be moving ot dubllin for work, that would be cool, could get night classes, cant see anything in galweh unfortunately .

Seion

I'm a couple of weeks into this course and it seems to be very good. The teacher is a native speaker and is a professional teacher of Japanese, so she knows her stuff. The class is small which is also good and I'm finding it challenging but interesting!

All I need to do now is start memorising Katakana and Hiragana!

krankykitty

All I need to do now is start memorising Katakana and Hiragana!

Any good resources for learning Katakana and Hirgana?
I'm trying to learn Kanji at the moment but don't know whether I'd be better off learning the other two first...

Dont be at yourself

You're better off learning hiragana and katakana first. A week or two of solid learning and you'll have learnt them - its simply a matter of writing them out a few hundred times. Then, when you're learning kanji, write the kunyomis in hiragana and the onyomis in katakana. This'll both reinforce the hiragana and katakana, but also make the readings of kanjis easier to remember.

Seaman

hows it goin. i was wonderin if any of ye could help me with a small question. i'm doin my LC in june & i've put international languages for communication in japanese at DCU first as i have an interest in the culture and language and feel i would make a good interpreter!
i was just wonderin if anyone here has done or is doing this course now and could tell me about it & more importantly the year abroad in japan from a students perspective.
i've gotten all the imformation i can off the college but they leave a lot of gaps and i don't know anyone in the course.
anybody able to help me out??

Dont be at yourself

I'm a first year in that course at the moment.

In first year, you do Japanese at beginners level and one other language (from Spanish, German or, in my case, French) at intermediate level. The course breaks down to 7 hours of Japanese, 4 hours of second language and 2 hours of culture (culture in general, not strictly related to Japan - that comes in subsequent years).

The Japanese course moves very quickly, apparently it overtakes the Leaving Cert course in around 6 weeks. The material, so far, isn't particularly hard, but it does require an awful lot of learning in your own time (good thing it's a 13 hour week!).

As for the year abroad, I can't tell you anything more than you already know, probably. Have you read the .pdf on the DCU website in relation to the year abroad?

The second language module can be a bit of a drag, if you're solely interested in the Japanese aspect. Most of my classmates, myself included, are incredibly apatethic towards french, and it can be difficult to motivate yourself to get your ass in to the 9 o clock lectures. But, you drop it after first year, so its not the end of the world.

Hope that helped, if you've any specific questions you want answered, fire away. I'll do my best to help, or put you in contact with someone who can.

Seaman

Thanks for the reply man, appreciate it! and yeah i've seen the .pdf on the DCU website and that did help a lot.
i have a few other questions.
how much learning is required in your own time do ya think, like is it a lot of study when you're not in college?!
do ya happen to know what the drop out rate is like?
are you left with long gaps between lectures, say one early in the morning and one mid afternoon, so that you're left with nothing to do & nowhere to go in between?!
but most important of all, is it good craic in DCU, and how much is a guinness at the bar?!

cheers!

Dont be at yourself

how much learning is required in your own time do ya think, like is it a lot of study when you're not in college?!

As long as you keep up with the homework, you won't really need to do extra study for the grammar, at least not until a week or two before the exams. Kanji is a pain the balls, and requires a fair bit of study, probably looking at an hour or two each night, for three or four nights a week. Of course, that's what you're supposed to do. What will most likely happen is you'll let it all build up and have to devote your Christmas holidays to studying it.

do ya happen to know what the drop out rate is like?

I don't have any figures, but I would imagine its not that high. Two people left in the first few weeks and another switched from Japanese to Spanish, but, according to my lecturer, if you survive your Semester 1 exams then there's no reason you'll fail the others.

are you left with long gaps between lectures, say one early in the morning and one mid afternoon, so that you're left with nothing to do & nowhere to go in between?!

Depends. In semester 1, I had four 9 o clock starts a week! But on the plus side, I finished college early each day (I think the latest I was in was 3, and had two half days as well). This semester is a bit more spread out, but there's always something to do in between. We've become addicted to Rikki Lake and Hi-5, for example

Oh, and I've had Fridays off for both semesters. Which is fantastic, what with Thursday night being student night and all that

but most important of all, is it good craic in DCU, and how much is a guinness at the bar?!

Yeah, its good craic. Certainly in my year, there are a load of crazy people in the LIC courses. You'll probably spend much of the first couple of weeks perpetually drunk, and there's always events organised by the college or clubs/socs. Guinness in the bar? Haven't a clue, but a pint of Bulmers is €4, and the wonderful Vodka Cruisers are €3.

Seaman

again thanks for your help buddy & provided I get the points and the C3 in french, ill probably be seein ya in september!

ehraz

I moved to Japan last July and I did those classes in Sandford Language Institute this time last year. I found them very useful. I really liked the teacher. Although I don't think 14 weeks is enough time, it does give you the basics, and a little confidence.
They definitely helped when I arrived over here.

Lantis

Yeah, I'm aiming for the DCU course too. I've been studying it for nigh on 6 years, and I work in some anime/manga translation groups, so I'm hoping for a little slacking off time. x.x

Couple questions: How's the time divided? Like, lectures, conversation, stuff like that. And do you learn everything at one time, like vocab and grammar, or are there separate lessons for separate things?

blondie83

I did a Japenese level1 course in UCD this year. It was an option for ppl in my year if they wanted to do it, and was just basic conversational Japanese. Was a good course though, easy to learn - and I was never good at languages! I'd recomend it to anyone that has the option next year. I'm definitely going to be doing the level2 one!:ninja:

Dont be at yourself

Originally posted by Lantis
Yeah, I'm aiming for the DCU course too. I've been studying it for nigh on 6 years, and I work in some anime/manga translation groups, so I'm hoping for a little slacking off time. x.x

Couple questions: How's the time divided? Like, lectures, conversation, stuff like that. And do you learn everything at one time, like vocab and grammar, or are there separate lessons for separate things?

You'll get a little slack of time - but we do cover the grammar quite quickly! You'll be able to ignore kanji (we've learned the first 300 so far) for a while though.

Time divided like so: 7 hours of Japanese, 4 hours of French, 2 hours of Culture. Of the 7 hours of Japanese, its 4 hours of grammar and 3 hours of kanji. No conversation class as such, but the lecturers use as much japanese as they can.

krankykitty

What methods do they use to teach Kanji?
I'm learning them VERY slowly using Flashcards

Dont be at yourself

We basically just go through the stroke order and readings in the class, as well as a few compounds to help remember the onyomis. After that, it's a matter of writing them out again and again and again and again....

(Got a test on about 350 kanji in a little over an hour, wish me luck!)

Seion

Man, I'm still on hiragana and finding that difficult. I'd hate to think how hard systematically learning kanji would be. I'm meant to have learned about 25 kana by know, but of course, I really know about four. As for kanji, I have an interesting repetoire of about 20, however their usefullness is somewhat curtailed as they all relate to martial arts training!

krankykitty

I have gone through about 80 kanji, id say I have retained possibly 50 - however I am lost once they start putting them together to make other meanings

I am possibly doing things ar$e about face here as I am studying kanji before even learning any Japanese words - I just find them interesting personally and therefore easier to learn than the actual words/prononciations themselves