Any tips for understanding slangish or common talk?

[fine82]

Hello everyone

I have been studying Japanese for a while and understand quite a fair bit but when it comes to casual/slang speech (strangely males are harder to understand than females - it's the way they speak), it sometimes is hard to understand.

For example, two male teenagers are speaking. Some words would be reduced to this hard to decipher mush. Of course the more excited they are, and hence the faster they speak, the more it sounds like gibberish. The way they speak is different from the textbook Japanese that one learns.

Any members have any tips as to how they managed to overcome this and get used to listening to this 'kind' of speech?

Are there any websites out there that specialize on understanding slang speech? Such as common transformations of certain words. For example, when someone says 。。っ言う、 in an everyday enviroment, people would say the word in such a way that it sounds like 。。っゆう。

It would be of great help. Thank you everyone.

[nhk9]

You will recognize slang the more you learn Japanese. A good book on slang to start with called "Making out in Japanese" is one that you may want to look for. There are 2 books in this series.

Most material you will find about slang will be in Japanese, so if you can read Japanese webpages/books, you will find tons of information on them.

[eric]

try japanesepod101

fantastic site

[yukio_michael]

Avoid Making out in Japanese unless you want to learn someone's idea of coloquial Japanese 10 years ago...

Best way to learn colloquial Japanese, baring actually speaking with, and conversing with a native Japanese person is to read manga.

Slang is barely ever usefull--- it's only useful in the context of those who use it--- We pick up slang and use slang around others, and it makes sense in this context, it doesn't make much sense to pick it up and use it any other way.

[fine82]

Hi everyone

Thanks for the responses! I keep confusing others when I say 'slang'. It's not really slang I'm talking about.

Lately, I have found out by watching some drama, that when some people say, って言う、 it will come across as simply sounding like 『っつ』.

(eg. うすだったか？悩みがあっるっつの？) "Were you lying? About having some troubles?"

It is more stuff like that that I would like some tips on. It would be great if anyone could provide some more examples on stuff like that (shortening of words etc.).

Because sometime, if you read a transcript of what they are saying, you may find that you understand all the vocabulary and everything they are saying.
But when a bunch of actors get together and deliver the lines, it may be a different story.

Thanks all.

[yukio_michael]

Again, I learn all of my colloquialisms from conversing with people in Japanese, or through emailing them, etcetera... Unfortunately, time doesn't permit me to be the best pen-pal, but you learn quite a bit directly from Japanese speakers.

Baring that, I recommend (often) these books:

Japanese, Core words & Phrases (http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Core-Words-Phrases-Dictionary/dp/4770027745/sr=8-1/qid=1170729784/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7190216-4994218?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Kazuko Shoji

Japanese, the manga way. (http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Manga-Way-Illustrated-Structure/dp/1880656906/sr=1-1/qid=1170729873/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7190216-4994218?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Wayne P. Lammers, the translation editor for Mangajin Magazine.

Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics I (http://www.amazon.com/Mangajins-Basic-Japanese-Through-Comics/dp/0834804522/sr=1-3/qid=1170729873/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-7190216-4994218?ie=UTF8&s=books)

& Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics II (http://www.amazon.com/Mangajins-Basic-Japanese-Through-Comics/dp/0834804530/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/103-7190216-4994218)

Finally... Mangajin magazine (http://www.mangajin.com/)... where you can still get some of the old issues.

Admittedly some of this material is dated, because it deals with more "classic" manga, but the core idea is to teach natural, spoken Japanese, as this is the way that manga is written.

Combine all of this with the best, I'd say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best translation notes of any Japanese I've ever read, and you can't help but walk away from these learning materials with some extra knowledge.