First time here. My wife is Japanese and after six years of procrastinating I’m finally serious and motivated to learn her language. I’ve already come some way thanks to having Japanese TV in my home via satellite and I’m comfortable just listening to the sounds even though I don’t know what it means. I can also read both kana and some kanji.
Anyway after listening to Steve’s podcasts on Youtube I thought I’d sign up and start at the beginning so as to learn LingQ. I have just opened the first “Who is She” lesson (hiragana version) and find the writing a bit strange and hard to understand.
Why is “nanika” written and highlighted as three words? Why is “futari” written and highlighted as two words?
Is there a reason for this that I am missing that has to do with the lingQ method?
@Scotchpie - The problem is that the texts written in hiragana don’t work properly with our word splitting algorithm and with our dictionaries. We have a bit of trouble identifying hiragana and romaji words properly. You can hide the spacing but the words won’t be recognized properly. You are better off to study the Kanji version and then use the Kana conversion in the Resources tab to see the Hiragana version. I notice that those conversions are not shown in those lessons. We will add them shortly. I have used a converter and added them for part 1 of Who is She, Who is She?-1 - お 会い できて 嬉しい です
Once you get into Kanji texts you will have this problem much less. If you do want to save some of the words you mention in hiragana, you can highlight them and create a LingQ for them from the newly highlighted word. You should hide the spacing to make this more efficient.
Im like you Scotchpie. Im married to a Japanese and after many years have decided to study and my first lesson was the same as yours except it was in kanji, but it still gave me the same frustrations. For example, mine split the kanji for futari into 2 kanji but I prefer it to be one since it is one word, but for help I could look at each part of the kanji. The reason I prefer this is my Japanese is very basic. I know enough to understand the kanji for futari but more difficult kanji I do not know and if they are broken into 2 kanji I will not know the reading to use since there are many readings based on kanji combinations. Also I find the conversation to be odd. For example, the conversation begins "Hi, whats your job?" "Its good to meet you, Im Mariko". I know enough Japanese to know this is not a normal way to talk so Im concerned about more advanced lessons where I am completely at the mercy of the lesson to learn proper Japanese and to learn normal flows in conversation. I am wondering if this one lesson is flawed or is this is the way all the lessons will be. Im also wondering where the material comes from? I dont mean this as a complaint because its free so naturally I have to be grateful, but I am wondering if I should press forward using this method. I want something I can trust that gives me good, polite, natural Japanese conversation as opposed to just sentences that dont necessarily go together. Any help from an experienced person who has used this program would be appreciated.
I just went back to the lesson and part of my problem is completely solved. Before goyou was translated as business or work, but someone put in a better translation today as “May I help you?” which makes much more sense. Plus, I was able to figure out how to listen to the audio and the Japanese is really lovely so I intend on sticking with it! I think perhaps both of us just need to get comfortable with and used to the system and then it wont feel so "strange". Im still sort of stumbling through since this is my second day and my first day was rather frustrating. But you have been with it for a couple of weeks now so I hope that means you are finding things much smoother now.
PJT,
I’m glad you finally understand the exact meaning of the first sentence in Who is she? I have left a comment about this in previous message thread. http://tinyurl.com/23daz8f
If you find other strange expression in Japanese lessons, feel free to post your questions on the forum. There are many Japanese active LingQ members here (including me), someone will give you an answer or a hint.
Not only learning with this LingQ system (creating LingQs and reviewing it), but also native speaking members help learning members here at forums or on the skype conversation. This is a advantage for us.
I know that sometimes the newcomers who study Japanese frustrate about the word splitting. The more you learn kanji, the more you feel comfortable to use LingQ. I know it’s hard work, but don’t give up.