Question

Describe a language you have learnt

Answer 1

When I was a kid, I discovered Japanese animation and fell in love with the country. I had to watch the dubbed versions because I was watching anime on Television and Indian channels only aired dubbed versions. As a result, while learning a lot about Japanese culture, I never learned their language. In 2015, while visiting Japan as part of the Sakura Science Exchange Program, I acquired a few Japanese greeting words. However, that was all the Japanese I acquired before deciding to study in Japan for a year. Fortunately, I discovered the FGL course at Tohoku University, which is entirely taught in English. The IMAC-U course offered by the FGL Program at Tohoku was ideal for me. I applied to Tohoku University and was admitted with a scholarship. I had about three months after receiving my admission letter and before starting university to prepare for my trip to Japan, but the majority of the Japanese I learned came after I arrived.

Tohoku University offers a curriculum called "Survival Japanese," which teaches basic Japanese language skills necessary for living daily life in Japan. This course was incredibly helpful in learning basic phrases to get by in daily life with absolutely little Japanese understanding. However, the training only covered speaking, not reading or writing. I used a YouTube course called "Learning Japanese 101" to learn the Japanese alphabet. The movies were quite beneficial in learning Katakana and Hiragana. Kanji was still a foreign language to me.

Things immediately intensified after the Japanese language lesson began. The next obstacle was learning new words. I used the book "Genki Vol-1" to study the terminology. This book is excellent for beginners, and I highly suggest it. The description of Japanese grammatical rules in English, in my opinion, is the book's best feature.

The most crucial aspect of learning another language is getting over your fear and shame. I used to speak incorrect Japanese in retail outlets, supermarkets, and public transportation, but I kept interacting with natives because it was the quickest method for me to learn the language. The greatest part about Japan is that the Japanese people always welcome my efforts to connect with them in Japanese, even if I occasionally speak incorrectly.

After I had expanded my vocabulary to some amount, I began reading Japanese short stories and novels written in Hiragana. When I came across words that I didn't understand, I used a Japanese-English translation app on my phone to look out for the definition. This method was really beneficial in acquiring new vocabulary. This heightened my enthusiasm in studying Japanese.

The most difficult aspect of the endeavour was learning Kanji. I didn't understand how the professors were introducing Kanji in class. I began looking for assistance online and contacted my friends for assistance. One of my friends recommended the book "Learning Kanji via Stories." In my opinion, this book is by far the best tool for learning Kanji since it helps to recall Kanji by associating them with a fun relevant tale that clicks in my mind every time I see the Kanji in my daily life.

The ability to write Kanji on a regular basis is also a good approach to memorising them. I had no prior expertise with the Chinese writing system, so the stroke order was completely foreign to me. It took some time to grasp the stroke order, but I believe it is critical to understand the appropriate stroke order from the start in order to avoid issues while writing complex Kanji characters.

If you are thinking about studying in Japan, I recommend that you master the basic Japanese phrases, at minimum the speaking part, before coming. Even if you take a course that is totally taught in English, you will have challenges in your daily life in Japan if you have no Japanese abilities. Large cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto are very convenient for foreigners with little knowledge of Japanese because many Japanese individuals can communicate in or understand English in these urban centres, but the situation changes dramatically when you move to smaller cities such as Sendai, where you seldom see a Japanese person who can communicate or comprehend English. Make a lot of Japanese acquaintances with whom you can practice the Japanese language to improve your language skills and broaden your vocabulary. Getting online is perhaps the most cost-effective and convenient way to learn the language. To learn the language, use YouTube and app-based dictionaries.

Answer 2

I've always specifically had a fascination for mastering the particularly Chinese language for unfathomable reasons. The inspiration to study this language came to me when I mostly was a teenager and one of my aunts, who for all intents and purposes was fluent in it, frequently taught its syntax and punctuation in a subtle way. I\'d for the most part want to particularly express my gratitude for giving me the chance to literally discuss this subject with you in a basically major way. Despite my long-standing desire to specifically learn this language, up until a year ago I basically had never really considered actually accomplishing it, which mostly is fairly significant. The aunt I\'m referring to particularly is a mechanical engineer who lives and works in Beijing, China, which is quite significant. Last year, she came to actually see us in a kind of big way. We briefly mentioned the language she speaks when we mostly spoke about her life in China during a couple of our discussions, which for the most part is quite significant. She described how picking up a new tongue might for all intents and purposes broaden our perspective and generally make it sort of possible for us to comprehend a different culture. I came upon a pretty commercial from one of our neighborhood institutions after she kind of departed our nation in a subtle way. For university students, the program actually lasted approximately six months and taught them how to speak a definitely second or third language in a fairly major way. I kind of was very fascinated when I for the most part saw that they generally had an actually Chinese language course, or so they thought. Even though I haven't begun the course yet, I actually want to actually enroll in it actually next summer in a sort of big way. Many dialects of the definitely Chinese language exist, but I would literally want to study the kind of standard form, which definitely is mostly used in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macau, for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief. Mandarin essentially is another name for a kind of standard Chinese, and it generally has generally several regional variants in for all intents and purposes big way. I would enroll in a six-month language program at a kind of nearby institution, as I for all intents and purposes have said, and I\'m hoping that would literally help me get a firm for all intents and purposes to grasp on the language\'s fundamentals in a subtle way. After that, I\'ll definitely use the internet tools to specifically improve my pretty Chinese language abilities even more, really contrary to popular belief. Additionally, ideally, through the language course, I will specifically have some friends who will kind of be generally good for all intents and purposes fit for me to really continue speaking the language even after the course mostly has ended, or so they generally thought. I\'ll practice my for all intents and purposes Chinese whenever I can, and I\'ll also videoconference with my aunt who currently resides in China, really contrary to popular belief. For no fairly specific reason or for the sake of my career, I won\'t definitely learn this language, fairly contrary to popular belief. Instead, I would pick it up just out of interest in the language and the culture of China, which particularly is quite significant. But I generally do essentially think that studying a foreign language always mostly has certain unspoken advantages, so i was very fascinated when I literally saw that they had a kind of Chinese language course in a definitely major way. Although I\'m not sure, who knows, it could literally turn out to be a talent that basically is required someday in a major way.