So, I’m taking it up again. Second time.
As I remember grammar of Japanese language is fairly simple, compared to slavic languages (my native) and English (my second). Simple in terms of having structured and standard sentences.
Therefore I have a question – is most of the learning process is building a vocabulary (both words and kanji/their readings) ? And not studying grammar structures, like you do with European languages.
Is it good way to refresh my knowledge of grammar, and just start practicing tons of words after it ? Does following some sort of workbook makes sense dong it alone (not in a position to visit courses right now), because it makes it impossible to do many tasks from it (at least from my experience with marugoto).
Hope this for not violate rule 3.
7 comments
I’m taking intro Japanese classes in college atm and I can definitely tell you vocabulary quizzes are kicking my ass way more than grammar and sentence structure are. Though vocabulary is a big part, it’s not all of it. I think the reason I’ve struggled with it is because the class focuses more on grammar and sentence structure than vocabulary
Yes, basically. I don’t know if the grammar is relatively difficult or not, but I know I only spent a fraction of the time studying it as I have vocabulary, and there still feels like an endless amount of vocab out there I could learn. It’s just a difference in scale.
I’m Japanese. Between Japanese language and English have a lot of difference. So, I’m often troubled with studying English grammar. Even if you were speaking Japanese in the wrong grammar, I would understand what you want to say. The most important thing in communication is that you have a lot of vocabulary. Of course, if you need to read Japanese contents, you need to have a lot of knowledge of kanji. But, in the case of communicating with Japanese, I think that a lot of vocabulary is most important.
However, I’m grad to hear you want to try study Japanese. Actually, I was in the university, I have studied Russian. But, I forget almost how to use grammar and vocabulary. Slavic must be difficult. So, I’m proud of you.
There’s only so much grammar that a person can learn. Almost certainly nowhere near the minimum 10,000 recommended vocabulary to know in order to be able to start reading anything with zero preparations or prior knowledge.
I think vocabulary is best. Especially since many sentences only require a noun, and verb.
For speaking with Japanese people, I would say that some basic grammar is important, but after that, vocab. But I wouldn’t say Japanese grammar is simple compared with other languages, just very different. I have found that using simple grammar and keeping the flow of speech going, is better than trying to use the complex grammar I have learnt in class (and stumbling, or getting it wrong). However, you do need to be aware of the grammar to understand what other people are saying and to read Japanese.
I personally would study grammar before vocabulary. And that’s because there is so much less of it. It also depends on what you consider grammar vs. vocabulary.
E.g., is keigo grammar or vocabulary? I would consider it grammar, but I can see the argument that it’s vocabulary.
Effectively, if you have all the grammatical structures down, then when you listen to Japanese, you might be able to learn words strictly from context, and at worst you can simply ask what a word means. But if you don’t know the grammar but more vocabulary, you have to take a string of words and figure out what it means. (And that’s not always very easy to do, in any language.)