Does watching Anime/Drama improve your jap skillz?

[SmRandmAzn]

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Do you think watching Anime or Jap drama improve at all? Obviously it won't improve writing, but how about conversational skills?

[uhawww]

Well of course it does.

You're constantly listening to it/seeing it in use. That can only help.

[SmRandmAzn]

But is it efficient? As in, would you learn as much as you learn from anime/drama far faster from a textbook?

[uhawww]

Oh, well no... it's a compliment. As you study from a textbook, it can be highly efficient to watch dramas (or anime) as you'll start to see a lot of what you are learning put to use, and be able to pick up on things and start to understand stuff without the subtitles. You'll pick up a lot of vocab as well.

You'll definitely need to use a textbook to start learning, just watch stuff at the same time.

[moshi]

the extra vocab will help, just don't copy the grammatical structures - and don't go practice speaking in plain form either!

[uhawww]

Originally Posted by moshi

the extra vocab will help, just don't copy the grammatical structures - and don't go practice speaking in plain form either!

Why? If you want to learn to converse in Japanese it only makes sense to learn casual forms.

Of course, do not dare to use them in your exams/interaction tests if you are learning it in school. But ultimately the goal of learning Japanese is.. to be able to speak Japanese. When I talk to my Japanese friends it's only ever casual... if I didn't pick up how to do that I probably wouldn't be able to understand them or respond as easily.

[moshi]

Originally Posted by uhawww

Why? If you want to learn to converse in Japanese it only makes sense to learn casual forms.

Of course, do not dare to use them in your exams/interaction tests if you are learning it in school. But ultimately the goal of learning Japanese is.. to be able to speak Japanese. When I talk to my Japanese friends it's only ever casual... if I didn't pick up how to do that I probably wouldn't be able to understand them or respond as easily.

well you wouldn't want to accidentally end up speaking to the examiners in plain form, would you? you'd be marked down heaps, so that's what i meant.

[bawd]

Originally Posted by SmRandmAzn

Do you think watching Anime or Jap drama improve at all? Obviously it won't improve writing, but how about conversational skills?

Yes, and no. It helps with developing a native accent, but does not significantly improve your vocabulary, especially since they are usually targeted at a young audience (shoujo, shonen, seinen etc. although Japanese adults do watch anime as a form of past time). Perhaps watching good Japanese movies would assist, as you experience the formation of culture and a higher modalityof Japanese.

Of course, this varies for different people and some people (including myself ) find it great help to watch anime to boost up Japanese skills (or just use that excuse to watch it, lol), whilst others find it does not help at all.

[chochang]

Of course!
I love watching Japanese dramas as well as listening to Japanese songs!
ARASHI!

[shinji]

Originally Posted by chochang

Of course!
I love watching Japanese dramas as well as listening to Japanese songs!
ARASHI!

Hanayori dango addict?

[xgrimmx]

I watch a lot of anime and drama but its only really helped my accent (i pick up maybe 1 or 2 words per SERIES XD) Some people have teh ability to learn through this kind of expossure though so i guess it depends on the person

[just1of4]

Originally Posted by shinji

Hanayori dango addict?

lol. well, i'll say i'm guilty of that.

this year i-

went to japan
listened to j-pop
was a home host for a japanese student
watched j-dorama
paid a shitload for private lessons before particular speaking task sacs
tried to meet up with japanese people including families, friends of friends, and while working(suupa de), guessing who was a nihonjin and saying 'irashaimase' in a futile attempt to establish a 2 minute dialogue.

all for the sake of improving my japanese.

it was really embarrasing when they weren't actually japanese...just kind of did alot of coughing to cover it up. and i also read manga(but in english) so it doesn't really count.

Watching drama/anime wasn't that helpful cos its not really relevant to the course. It's fun and entertaining, but i still have to sit down and revise grammar once every week. but...ARASHI? no way

so yeah, sometimes its just a distraction, instead of being actually helpful.

I memorised 2 japanese songs: sukiyaki, kimi wo toshite(or somethiing) and some ayumi hamasaki song....i don't know what they mean though, so yeah, again, unless you can be bothered looking up every vocab urself and not relying on english translations...

[SmRandmAzn]

wow...hardcore Jap learner. Did you do well?

[seori]

Being a French learner, I really have no place in this conversation.

However.
I do watch Naruto (French-dubbed). It helps, but only after a certain point in time. There aren't many French-dub animes online, so I went from nothing to full-French dub, no subs. Subbed... didn't help without dubs. I suppose you could get Jap-dub-subs, but it's really a question of how much you know. Grammar is a must, and vocabulary - the more the better. BUT you won't learn many words just listening to them. It's more about understanding the words that you already know and putting them in context (seeing them in the "real world"), and that helps when you've got listening tests. (The good thing is that the voices on tape are much slower than voices in animes and dramas. Makes comprehension so much easier.)

So: Japanese anime/drama-watching?
Yes, if you can understand more than 50% without subs. Your comprehension will eventually improve. Start with animes first - they're much easier to understand.

Predicted effects: You'll literally start hearing much more. After 160 episodes of Naruto I understand everything my teacher says, and I can speak more quickly because I speak more fluently. Basically, I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I found French opened up my ears and helped me speak it a lot more fluently. Being Naruto, I learnt phrases like (loosely translated) "Let's go!" and "Let's get down to things". Not only do colloquial phrases help, they make you sound like you know what you're talking about. However - no slang, only colloqualisms. Idioms are adored, and too much jargon will confuse the listener.

I hope this helps. ^^

Edit // Just realised this was in 2008. Ah well, hope this helps any other language learner.

[drowning_pocoyo]

yes. it helps a lot