Forum - View topicGood anime for learning Japanese?
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RDespair
 Posts: 264 Location: California |
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I guess I was a little vague. The term is a perfectly legible Chinese word, but it's awkward sounding and I don't think anyone would actually use it in Chinese. If my Taiwanese students are any indication, they would just say ChaoJiRen (literally Super Person) or maybe even shorten it down to just ChaoRen. It's like English; you could say ESPer or you could just say psychic and have people actually understand you.
Fluency is a tricky word. I consider myself fluent in Chinese: I can perform everyday tasks in Chinese, I can play Chinese computer games and follow over 95% of the text (and what I don't get is usually just names that I can guess anyway), I pick up the latest volume of Naruto and have no problems, and I can usually make myself understood although I'm sure I don't sound very eloquent doing so. On the other hand, give me a newspaper or an adult novel in Chinese and I'd have serious troubles following it. There are many fields of which I'm mostly clueless (business, politics, medicine), however I'd still consider myself fluent in the language. Though there is much that I don't know, I know enough for my needs & wants for the most part. Although knowing how to communicate with people is an important part of becoming fluent of any language, it's not my focus, because, well, although I'd like to go teach English over there for a few months to see what the country's like and to work on my language, I have no intention of becoming a permanent resident of Japan. Outside of a college setting, I've never personally come across an instance where being able to speak Japanese would be useful in the US. Listening comprehension and especially reading comprehension is what I'm most interested in because that's the sort of Japanese I can use (or at least enjoy) in the States. And with that rant out of the way, I agree that watching a Japanese drama or two could be beneficial. Any suggestions? I'm guessing Gokusen doesn't count. 
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I can guarentee you: no one would say that. 
At >80% occassions, 超人 is reserved for the original Superman. The other 20% is when the phrase is used as an adjective, much like "superhuman" or "supernatural." |
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Count on it. I'm addicted. - abunai |
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Assassin_
Posts: 154 Location: Manchester, England |
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Yeh As for dual subtitles, nobody here could help you by naming an anime, that would depend on the subber.
Care to provide hiragana, or maybe romanji? I recognise the second kanji, but not the first one ¬_¬ |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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It's not terribly complex: choujin, "super person" -- chou is a word that you'd do well to learn the kanji for. It's a standard emphasis word. For example, watch Comic Party or its sequels, and you'll often hear Ooba Eimi exclaim that she is chou mukatsuku ("super irritated" = "pissed off"). There are also a lot of homonyms for chou, making it excellent pun material, often with 蝶 (chou, "butterfly"). - abunai |
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RDespair
Posts: 264 Location: California |
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I thought it had wider use than just the one and only Superman. Oh well, since you live in Xinzhu and seem to know your stuff, I'll take your word for it. Not the first time that I've messed something up in Chinese. I know! I'll try 超能力者 on some students this week (I'm teaching English here in Taiwan) and see if anyone understands it.
Good to see there's another Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya fan here. The second it's possible, I'll be preordering the US box set. Would something like My Neighbor Totoro be good for studying or is the language there too dumbed down? |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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They'll probably think you've gone off your rocker. Meanwhile, I ought to mention that, obviously, the Japanese title of Shaw's classic "Man and Super-Man" is 人と超人.
Get the novels. Even if your Japanese is so-so, I presume you can read Chinese, and they're available in Chinese translation. I'm working my way through the Japanese editions, right now.
Hmm. Nothing wrong with the dialogue there is, but the film isn't really overloaded with dialogue. You may find the pickings rather slim. - abunai |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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I think "Slice of Life" type animes that take place in Japan rather than its own world are easier to view (probably better for learning Japanese). I watched Kashimashi without subtitles the other day, and found that I could understand well over half of what they were saying. Then, confident in my Japanese skills (I have taken 2 years of Japanese in school), I watched an episode of Twelve Kingdoms (without subtitles), only to realize i couldn't understand very much at all. Since Twelve Kingdoms takes place in its own world with its own set of rules, it has a lot of special jargon unique to it.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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According to people at Kadokawa Media (Taiwan), all volumes of 涼宮春日的憂鬱 are now with exceptionally high demand. Most bookstores have them sold out and restocking. Strangely enough that it ranks only #7 among Kadokawa light novels, behind SHANA, Kino, Ma no, Junai, Alison, and Iriya -- probably because the anime was available much later than SHANA and only skyrocketed after its fansub became available. Kadokawa should thank fansubbers for advertising for them. 
Click here. |
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RDespair
Posts: 264 Location: California |
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Well, apparently none of the bookstores in Dongshi are selling The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I'll be sure to look for it next time I'm in Fengyuan or Taichung. I hope I'm able to find some copies despite its recent surge in popularity. And while I'm going off topic, are any of those other series that you listed worth checking out?
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Space_cowboy64
 Posts: 337 Location: Great Britain...not all that great |
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I know this may be a bit off topic but I haven’t found any anime that actually teaches me a little Japanese. But if it’s learning Japanese in some form of the media then I would recommend the TV series Shogun. Set in the Edo period in Japan and stars the legend that is Toshiro Mifune best known in his roles in Akira Kurosawa film's "seven samurai", "Yojimbo" and "Thrown of blood". The series has a long period of episodes where they actually teach the main character Japanese, and I picked up a few words just from watching it, toughly recommended this truly classic series.
Sorry for going off topic but I felt it had to be recommended. Space |
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Toucanbird
Posts: 126 Location: Winona, Minnesota |
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That's funny. I kind of had a similar question because I'm going to be taking Japanese next semester. So far, I've been watching a ton of subbed animes and I've already learned quite a few words.
Speaking the language isn't really going to scare me but I think learning all the characters might become a pain. |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Heh. Before taking a class of Japanese, I picked up around 10-20 words from watching anime, and it felt really awesome doing so. Then, after one year of taking a Japanese course, it occured to me: "how could I have been proud of THAT?" I find that watching anime helps my Japanese quite a bit, especially as I am taking a course. When we learn new vocabulary or grammar in the course, I suddenly start hearing them in anime (because i now know of its existence), and it sort of reinforces my learning of it. Also, I find that it dulls down my accent quite a bit. |
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morsmaestro
 Posts: 172 Location: Sacramento |
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Found something. Not much, and probably won't help at all, but...
In Samurai Champloo episode 6 "Stranger Searching" a few european guys are speaking what I could have sworn was German, and it shows subtitles for both english and japanese. A few sentences, thats all. Maybe other anime with a lot of a foreign language (other than japanese and english) have both of those subtitles. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Dutch. For a long time, when Japan had closed its borders, the Dutch were the only foreigners allowed to trade in Japan -- and even then, only under very limited circumstances. They were restricted to the artificial island of Deshima by Nagasaki (yes, the very same place that we see being used as a refugee ghetto in GITS:SAC 2nd GIG). - abunai |
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