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I am currently teaching myself Japanese and a friend online has started posting her classes she is taking so I decided to back track and talk about the apps I am using and their lessons in order.  I have gotten through the Easy part, I am now on the more difficult concepts.  

This is Day 1 the rest will be blog entries at the bottom.

Duolingo first module review

Hiragana:

San  3 さん  

ichi  1  いち

ni  2  に

chi  ち

n  ん

I  い

sa  さ

yo よ

Mondly languages

This one throws pictures and kanji at you for 7-9 “lessons” not as useful and I don’t use it every day

Lesson one Teaches you sister as Imoto when more correct would be younger sister, haha for mother, Ototo for brother (younger brother), and chi chi

Konichiwa. (こんにちは)-hello

This is my mother. 之女は私の母です

this is my father. 之 は私の父です

this is my (younger)sister. 之 は私の妹です

This is my (younger) brother 之は私の弟です

 

Ok great you taught me stuff more advanced than my brain could grasp in lesson one..thanks app. (But because of this app elementary kanji level 1 was a bit easier)

Memrise

Koこ  nん niに chiち ha;waは  sa さ yoよ uう naな raら soそ

Hello- こんにちは

welcome ようこそ

good byeさようなら

This one is a good beginner app too as it starts with hiragana AND it adds “sounds of the natives” where a sound clip of someone actually speaking what you learned comes on and you have to chose what they said.  It is good reinforcement..

Lingo deer Lesson 1 (Apparently I Did the Alphabets with this one too, but since I am reviewing it says I don't need to do that)

Nationality:  You get 4 pictures ..chose American

Katakana

Choices are -アメリカ人 (uncle sam top hat), 日本人(kimono), イギリス人(beefeater hat), and 中国人 (t-shirt with dragon waving red flag)

American, Japanese, British and Chinese.

人 the end indicates person not country and in this instance the 人 symbol is pronounced “Jin”(other times it sounds like hito (hee-toe) but thats much much later)

So we choose American because that’s what it wants. And then do the same for Japanese and American again.

Next is listening skill

It says "nihonjin" and I am to chose out of the same choices as previously given 日本人 this time I am given the hiragana to compare にほんじん

Pictures again and I am to chose British イギリス人 and then Chinese 中国人

It repeats with pictures and sound only then for the last 4 it has you pick from character cards and you build the 4 words.

Drops


shows you pictures for 5 minutes and tell you the word…only issue with this is its not just the word, it adds things to the word for example “my” is taught as watashino. Which is correct but watashi is polite and female I while the “no” is the indicator of possession like an English “ ‘s”.  It bothers me a little

First lesson was

Hiragana alphabet: (so this would be good to pair with duolingo in the beginning) gives you the pronunciation with the character

あいうえおかきくけこ

A あ   Iい   uう   eえ   oお   kaか   kiき   kuく   keけ   koこ

I also us an app “ Hiragana and Katakana” lets you chose how many to learn at a time and it is multiple choice /flash card style.  It has everything in it to burn 2 of the three  sets of “lettering” The Japanese use.

 

Write it- Japanese” teaches you stroke order and you can use any touch screen to use this and practice.

Last but definitely not least is “Kanji study

80 for elementary 1, 160 for elementary 2, and 200 for elementary 3 (I am barely on 3).

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