CLAIR Jet Programme Japanese language course

[Antonath]

It's because there are several ways of rendering kana in romaji (which is why you occasionally see JTEs and kids using "si" for し), and the people writing the textbooks picked a dumb one that says to add the mark.

[Guiteau]

What is the point of that?

There are a few words which may become confusing without the '. For example, "konyaku." How do you write that in Hiragana? こんやく or こにゃく? If it's written "kon'yaku," you know the Hiragana must be こんやく.

a dumb one

It's really not that dumb, considering it helps distinguish between every case where a word would have んや or にゃ or んよ or にょ or んゆ or にゅ in it. It's an important distinction.

[darlo]

On a side note, I don't like how they put ' after "n." For example: kyou no ban' gohan'
What is the point of that?

I'm guessing that'd be a way to help distinguish ん from the hiragana on the な line (なにぬねの). (again this would be unnecessary if hiragana was used).
For example 雰囲気 (ふんいんき) could end up being written as funinki (ふにんき 不人気), which is quite a different word. So putting the apostrophe in helps to see the difference.
fun'inki - atmosphere
funinki - unpopular

[darlo]

There are a few words which may become confusing without the '. For example, "konyaku." How do you write that in Hiragana? こんやく or こにゃく? If it's written "kon'yaku," you know the Hiragana must be こんやく.

こにゃく今夜食う？

[bittersweet]

oh, i understand now. thanks!

[traigo12]

I'm glad I'm not the only one completely fed up with the Advanced Course. I'm finishing out of pure stubbornness, and because I do get something out of the listening practice and extensive reading. I wish there was some rhyme or reason to the grammar - it's so much easier to learn these things when they fit together in a system instead of being blasted with specialized, esoteric expressions I might use once in a month if I really try to think of an excuse to.

If you check the back of the book, you'll see it was written entirely by people whose names would suggest that they are all, every one, native Japanese speakers, except for some translation and editing (which I'd have to say was done very poorly). Essentially they decided that they didn't need any input from foreigners or speakers of Japanese as a second language to write a textbook for the Council of Local Authorities for International Relation's[i][/i] to teach Japanese to foreigners as a second language. *sigh* They won't even allow foreigners in on their international relations efforts and they wonder why they get stereotyped as xenophobic. Like I said, I'm going to finish this thing out of spite, but to anyone who hasn't started I'd suggest the frustration isn't worth the man-en you save by getting free textbooks. There's way better material online and at most bookstores. It's stupid on my part, but I'm learning Japanese to communicate with the people around me, but I find I spend so much time on these crazy books that I end up having no time to actually chat with co-workers!

Okay, now that that's out of my system, anyone else having trouble with the web-submission site? We're supposed to be able to submit tests late, but when I went on one day after the submission deadline, the option to submit had vanished and it looks like I just fail the test I just spent two hours writing an essay for. I've had nothing but struggles with this ugly, glitchy site that was supposed to make things more convenient. I don't know how CLAIR managed to find such a clunky, out of date, awful site to host this service (they could have used a number of free survey sites that are far, far better) - it looks like it somehow predates the Internet, and even the copyright at the bottom is from 2008! Okay, enough ranting for one day, but I'm sure I'll be back in, oh, about a month.

[Guiteau]

I'm glad I'm not the only one completely fed up with the Advanced Course. I'm finishing out of pure stubbornness, and because I do get something out of the listening practice and extensive reading. I wish there was some rhyme or reason to the grammar - it's so much easier to learn these things when they fit together in a system instead of being blasted with specialized, esoteric expressions I might use once in a month if I really try to think of an excuse to.

I've generally found the grammar to be fairly useful for listening, though not necessarily for speaking. At the same time, however, as I and many others have mentioned, the explanations are still lacking. For example, one of the test questions for Book 2 was: 今日はとても寒くて、雪が降っていた。　外にいる犬が心配だったのでドアを＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿、犬がすごい速さで家の中に飛び込んできた。
Two of the options are 開けているところ and 開けたところ which, to me, both make sense. "The dog flew indoors just as I was opening the door" versus "The dog flew indoors right after I opened the door." Apparently, they were looking for the latter, for some reason that I really just can't figure out.

Okay, now that that's out of my system, anyone else having trouble with the web-submission site? We're supposed to be able to submit tests late, but when I went on one day after the submission deadline, the option to submit had vanished and it looks like I just fail the test I just spent two hours writing an essay for. I've had nothing but struggles with this ugly, glitchy site that was supposed to make things more convenient. I don't know how CLAIR managed to find such a clunky, out of date, awful site to host this service (they could have used a number of free survey sites that are far, far better) - it looks like it somehow predates the Internet, and even the copyright at the bottom is from 2008! Okay, enough ranting for one day, but I'm sure I'll be back in, oh, about a month.

Seriously. This. They've had me email them the answers to late tests because it's "faster." Seriously, the website must have just been the cheapest option.

[bex]

The suggestion: There are now a lot of people who use Spaced Repetition Software to help their studies of Japanese. ..Is there any way that CLAIR could make such a spreadsheet available to JETs? At the moment I'm just typing the sentences from the textbooks into my Anki deck, but presumably these sentences exist in some sort of electronic document that could be easily transformed into a spreadsheet that contains the sentences and their meanings.

I second this please! I'm following the method of learning Japanese using 'AJATT website' and I'm so far hand-typing all the sentences in to Anki, which takes forever.
If there was any way we could get digital PDF copies of the coursebooks it would be super helpful towards making SRS centered learning less time consuming.

But, I do love the course a lot by the way, people have commented the difference in my Japanese since I started using it.
Thanks to those involved for your continued efforts!

[Lianwen]

I'm glad I'm not the only one completely fed up with the Advanced Course. I'm finishing out of pure stubbornness, and because I do get something out of the listening practice and extensive reading. I wish there was some rhyme or reason to the grammar - it's so much easier to learn these things when they fit together in a system instead of being blasted with specialized, esoteric expressions I might use once in a month if I really try to think of an excuse to.

I've generally found the grammar to be fairly useful for listening, though not necessarily for speaking. At the same time, however, as I and many others have mentioned, the explanations are still lacking. For example, one of the test questions for Book 2 was: 今日はとても寒くて、雪が降っていた。　外にいる犬が心配だったのでドアを＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿、犬がすごい速さで家の中に飛び込んできた。
Two of the options are 開けているところ and 開けたところ which, to me, both make sense. "The dog flew indoors just as I was opening the door" versus "The dog flew indoors right after I opened the door." Apparently, they were looking for the latter, for some reason that I really just can't figure out.

This question gave me so many difficulties. I puzzled over it for a while until I finally asked my JTE for help...and she told me the answer was the former But, that was wrong, lol. I feel like I just can't win with the advance course. I liked the reading and the listening like others have said, but I couldn't find any practical way to use the grammar in conversation or outside of the book.

[Siyris]

Okay, so can anyone help me with this?

I'm taking the advanced course and in the start of the 5th book there is a grammar point:
V(plain form positive or negative) or Nの きらいがある
And the examples they give all use different grammar in the translations. I feel like I almost get it, but my JTE hasn't even heats of that grammar point in Japanese and the Japanese language teacher at my school says that it isn't used hardly at all. Does anyone in here know how to actually use that but of grammar or understand it enough to try and help me out? So far every Japanese person I've asked has either said thy don't know or that it's not used anymore so I shouldn't worry about it. I'd sill like to at least understand it though....
Any help would be appreciated.

[Aigoo]

Guys, this book is a great addition to your studying sessions:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%A9%E3%82 ... 029&sr=1-1

It's a dictionary but gives examples, an English example and how to form the grammar in a much clearer layout than the CLAIR textbook. I think if you used them both together at the same time you would be able to form a clearer idea of what the grammar means etc. and also it will tell you which JLPT level the grammar appears on since the CLAIR books seem to be quite a mixture.

This book has been on my desk for four years, it is my favorite reference book ^^V

[darlo]

Okay, so can anyone help me with this?

I'm taking the advanced course and in the start of the 5th book there is a grammar point:
V(plain form positive or negative) or Nの きらいがある
And the examples they give all use different grammar in the translations. I feel like I almost get it, but my JTE hasn't even heats of that grammar point in Japanese and the Japanese language teacher at my school says that it isn't used hardly at all. Does anyone in here know how to actually use that but of grammar or understand it enough to try and help me out? So far every Japanese person I've asked has either said thy don't know or that it's not used anymore so I shouldn't worry about it. I'd sill like to at least understand it though....
Any help would be appreciated.

It's kinda like がち, where there's a kind of negative tendency. But since I like this book too ....

Guys, this book is a great addition to your studying sessions:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%A9%E3%82 ... 029&sr=1-1

It's a dictionary but gives examples, an English example and how to form the grammar in a much clearer layout than the CLAIR textbook. I think if you used them both together at the same time you would be able to form a clearer idea of what the grammar means etc. and also it will tell you which JLPT level the grammar appears on since the CLAIR books seem to be quite a mixture.

This book has been on my desk for four years, it is my favorite reference book ^^V

... this is the entry on きらいがある, since its explanation is way better than mine (nor the given text book). (I think Aigoo might have a newer version than me as mine doesn't have an English example.

きらいがある 【～の傾向がある, be liable to; be inclined to】 １級
①あの人の話はいつも大げさになるきらいがある。
②中年になると、どうも新しいものに興味を持たなくなるきらいがある。
③人は自分の聞きたくないことは耳に入れないというきらいがある。
④最近の選手では投票率低下のきらいがある。

◎Vる／Nの　＋　きらいがある

１）　自然にそうなりやすいよくない傾向について批判的に言うときに使う。そのときの外見ではなく、本質的な性質に使われる。
２）　「どうも～きらいがある」の形でよく使われる。

1) Criticism expressing that something naturally has a tendency toward a negative condition. Used not for external appearances but for fundamental essence of an issue.
2) Often found in the pattern, どうも～きらいがある.

[Siyris]

Thanks darlo ^__^

[irishjoe]

Did book 6 of the advanced course get sent out yet?

And, when is the last day for the test of number 6? I fell completely behind on the tests, but I want to send them all in before the book 6 due date, which is apparently ok?

[Guiteau]

Did book 6 of the advanced course get sent out yet?

And, when is the last day for the test of number 6? I fell completely behind on the tests, but I want to send them all in before the book 6 due date, which is apparently ok?

Yo, book six got sent out last month. Due date's today. You may want to email someone.