Different paths for a language
On the previous post, I said that my parents came to Japan to visit (and travel). I also said they can speak Japanese.
We learned Japanese in different ways: I knew very little Japanese (only few words and short sentences known to most Japanese descendents) until high school. Then I studied Japanese in Japanese language schools in Brazil. I continued studying during university, but not nearly as much as in high school until I first went to Japan.
Until that point, my Japanese was mainly focused on grammar while conversational skills were poor. My JLPT 3-kyu score reflects that well: listening was the part I scored less, while I scored high in kanji and grammar.
After arriving in Japan (Himeji), it took some time until I became able to fully understand people around me (in part because of the Kansai dialect) and a while longer to express myself in a satisfactory way. My Japanese level declined after I returned to Brazil, but it didn't take long to recover after I returned to Japan (Kyoto).
From that point, I focused much more on conversation than grammar as my JLPT 2-kyu score suggests: listening became the part I scored higher; kanji and vocabulary became my weak points. And, finally, I started to study "keigo" - Japanese honorifics - more seriously.
My parents went to a Japanese language school for a short time when they were kids. Nevertheless, most of their Japanese ability comes from talking to my grandparents and other Japanese speakers in their neighborhood. (And from reading comics in my mother's case.)
And I was told more than once that my parents sound more "natural" in Japanese than me. They sound more like Japanese people, while I still sound like a foreigner.
Guess our roots still show even after years in Japan: my Japanese is classroom-based; my parents have a basic (in terms of vocabulary and kanji we all agree that currently I'm better) but natural Japanese (with even some expressions that I have never heard Japanese people using).
That difference in method of learning is something I'd like to analyse further...
We learned Japanese in different ways: I knew very little Japanese (only few words and short sentences known to most Japanese descendents) until high school. Then I studied Japanese in Japanese language schools in Brazil. I continued studying during university, but not nearly as much as in high school until I first went to Japan.
Until that point, my Japanese was mainly focused on grammar while conversational skills were poor. My JLPT 3-kyu score reflects that well: listening was the part I scored less, while I scored high in kanji and grammar.
After arriving in Japan (Himeji), it took some time until I became able to fully understand people around me (in part because of the Kansai dialect) and a while longer to express myself in a satisfactory way. My Japanese level declined after I returned to Brazil, but it didn't take long to recover after I returned to Japan (Kyoto).
From that point, I focused much more on conversation than grammar as my JLPT 2-kyu score suggests: listening became the part I scored higher; kanji and vocabulary became my weak points. And, finally, I started to study "keigo" - Japanese honorifics - more seriously.
My parents went to a Japanese language school for a short time when they were kids. Nevertheless, most of their Japanese ability comes from talking to my grandparents and other Japanese speakers in their neighborhood. (And from reading comics in my mother's case.)
And I was told more than once that my parents sound more "natural" in Japanese than me. They sound more like Japanese people, while I still sound like a foreigner.
Guess our roots still show even after years in Japan: my Japanese is classroom-based; my parents have a basic (in terms of vocabulary and kanji we all agree that currently I'm better) but natural Japanese (with even some expressions that I have never heard Japanese people using).
That difference in method of learning is something I'd like to analyse further...
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