How can you go from Simple Japanese Grammar to more Complex constructions?

Question

And by this i mean in speaking.

For example, I studied the language for 4 years and the basic construction i use
always is "Subject OBject Verb" With some stuff in between and then also GA, SHIKASHI, SORE KARA, and all that. But it seems really simple compared to the Japanese that native speakers use.

Sometimes there's constructions that i hear and can't even get a sense of no matter how much i try. Seems that they swich things around or insert lots of voocabularyand verbs that modify another word and it starts getting unmanageable. Sure i have studied all this before but sometimes using it or understanding it on the spot is kind of difficult.

I dont' have japanese friends but i do listen to Japanese TV or podcasts and i'm left so confused so it doesn't really help

Answer 1

S-O-V is a basic structure of Japanese. In Japanese, the order is not so important compared to English. "jyoshi", a particle placed at the end of a noun decides whether it is S or V.

For instance, you can say either of these though the meanings are a bit different from each other.

watashi wa ringo wo tabe mashita. ( I ate an apple. )
watashi wa tabe mashita ringo wo.
ringo wo tabe mashita watashi ga.
ringo wo watashi ga tabe mashita.
tabe mashita ringo wo watashi ga.
tabe mashita watashi ga ringo wo.

Answer 2

It's good to watch TV and listen to podcasts. The more that you understand, the more information about Japanese grammar will get into your brain, and it just might "click" someday.

Daily use of Japanese in some way might be helpful -- reading, listening, speaking.

I'm wondering about the Japanese classes that you took before that they didn't explain or help you practice the more complex grammar. Maybe you need a different teacher. Look for someone who has a Master's degree in Linguistics, if possible. You want someone who is trained to be a language teacher, not just someone who knows how to speak Japanese.

If that doesn't work, you might want to get a Japanese grammar book and study it. Sometimes studying something explicitly can help you with the very complex constructions. E-mail me if you need to and I can get some recommendations for you -- my officemate is a non-native speaker of Japanese and I'm sure she can recommend some good books.

Basically, keep doing what you're doing and give yourself enough exposure to Japanese and enough time. And then a little explicit knowledge might push you over the hump.

Answer 3

Compound After is introducing a (noun) word right here, now not a clause. Complex sentences have subordinate clauses. (The change is that a clause has each a discipline and a verb, a word does not have each.) "After an extended and tiresome debate" is an adverbial prepositional word. I stated sensible earlier than however it seems that it is compound since it has a compound discipline (Jenna and Greg). Must determine extra. @Bunny Lover. Keep your vacuous feedback to your self. There are 2 definitions of "compound sentence", one that I (and others, for illustration Bunny Lover I count on) discovered in tuition and which I stated earlier earlier than I edited my reply--a sentence with 2 unbiased clauses. This appears to be the American definition. The Oxford definition (the only I had checked out among my first answer and my first edit and which clearly certified me as an fool via anybody who have to experience rabbit stew up to I do) is that any sentence with a compound discipline or a compound predicate is a compound sentence, and a "sentence" with 2 unbiased clauses is truthfully 2 sentences. "To take separate holidays" is, of path, now not a clause, since it has no discipline. It's a verb word.

Answer 4

Practice makes perfect, but watching television =/= much practice at all.

The only way to get better and to advance yourself is by making attempts at copying what you hear/see and having someone explain to you when it's seriously wrong. Basic, formal Japanese is "S-O-V" but informal often goes awry to crazy places that your professor never told you it could go.

Just because you don't have Japanese friends doesn't mean there's no one for you to speak to. There are tons of websites out there that cater to the English-speaker learning Japanese and the Japanese-speaker learning English. Both parties are (normally) very willing to help, but you have to show ferocity in you wanting to learn more from that person because, otherwise, you'll be stuck speaking your native tongue and getting nothing out of the transaction.

Buy a microphone and you can find plenty of people on Skype to talk to. Or just Google for Japanese chatrooms. http://www.sharedtalk.com certainly has one.

Everyone makes mistakes and becomes confused when speaking to people of a foreign language. Just learn how to say, "I don't understand" or "Can you explain this to me?" or something along those lines and you'll become more skillful than any classroom could give you.