So you want to learn Japanese eh?

So you want to learn Japanese eh? Great choice! The language is fun, the culture is fascinating, and the food is delicious!

Here's a few tips to get you started.

1. Study everything! Don't look for one or two resources and expect to learn everything from them. When someone asks which book, CD, computer program, or website is best to learn from, I say, "All of them!" I learned something from every Japanese language-related book I've ever read. Study a lot and you'll learn a lot.

2. Start with the basics. The book "Japanese: The Manga Way" by Wayne P. Lammers gives a good, fun overview of the language. So does Tae Kim's "Guide to Japanese" website ( http://www.guidetojapanese.org ) which is very detailed. Kim Allen's "Japanese for the Western Brain" site (http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japan… ) gives an overview while focusing on the differences between Japanese and English, and is very helpful. If you need an online dictionary, jisho.org ( http://www.jisho.org ) is a great site to use.

3. As you continue your study, develop each of the four areas of language learning: Hearing, Speaking, Reading, and Writing
--Hearing: Go to JapanesePod101.com ( http://www.japanesepod101.com ) and sign up for their free podcasts. They range from beginner to advanced and will be a great resource in your study.
--Speaking: Talk to Japanese people every chance you get. Shared Talk (http://www.sharedtalk.com ) has voice chat through which you can talk to Japanese people and they're generally very supportive.
--Reading: Memorize the hiragana ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana ), then the katakana ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana ). After that, you can start memorizing kanji and reading japanese manga (which you can purchase from Amazon -- http://www.amazon.co.jp )
--Writing: Start an online blog at Lang-8 ( http://www.lang-8.com ). When you post, native speakers will correct your sentences. It's a great resource.

4. Take a class. The good thing about taking a Japanese class is that it forces you to study, even if you don't want to. It also provides a nice structure for learning the language, along with someone who can correct your pronunciation.

5. Go to Japan! This is the number one, fastest, easiest, guaranteed-to-work way to learn Japanese. Even if it's just for a visit, being immersed in the language is a huge benefit to study. Japanese people are usually really supportive of foreigners learning their language and their encouragement will be a great boost for you.

6. Never give up! Japanese is a really hard language. It requires a lot of memorization and practice. Don't expect to be fluent even after a few years of study (especially if you're not studying in Japan). Language learning is a life-long pursuit.

7. HAVE FUN! This is the most important tip I could give you. As long as you're having fun learning the language, then you will be successful. Always try to find ways of making the learning enjoyable.

これから頑張ってね!

Learn Any Language in 6 Months

Learn Any Language in 6 Months

Topics: How To, Japan, Language

Read Time: 15 minutes

By utilizing techniques such as spaced repetition, complete immersion, and prioritized learning, I’m confident that anyone can learn any language to conversational fluency in six months or less.  I started learning Japanese in November of 2008 and within two months I had learned the meaning of 2000+ kanji, and within six I was having conversations with strangers at rock concerts (cute Japanese girls!). I’m not trying to glorify myself here either – I’m a particularly weak-willed person and getting motivated for me often involves a literal act of God. Language learning has been put on a golden pedestal for most people, achievable only for the super-intelligent. Because of this false imagery and a bad case of failure-leading-to-lack-of-motivation seen in high school language classes, very few people achieve any real success. But if you are simply willing to put in the time, you too can have interesting conversations with people from distant lands.

Step X: Prepare Your Mind

You can do it.

Believe and have faith, this is the first and most important step. I know it sounds cheesy and motivational, but it’s true. Decide that you want to learn a foreign language and commit yourself to it. Imprint it to your mind and imagine yourself already at the goal. The most successful people are the ones who can best visualize their goals, and they don’t let excuses prevent them from reaching their goals – they find a way get around them. Understand that you’ll encounter barriers preventing and hindering you from reaching the goal, but decide beforehand that you’ll find a way to overcome them.

Step X: Learn the Characters of Your Target Language

For languages with alphabets differing drastically from English (Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Arabic, etc.), learn the alphabet first. This shouldn’t take more than a day or two when using an SRS (I’ll explain what this is in a moment).

For Chinese, Japanese, and languages with characterized written languages, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the meanings of characters before learning their pronunciation. This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but there’s a reason. Essentially there are three parts to a character – meaning, pronunciation, and the written character. By skipping pronunciation you can simplify the learning process and familiarize yourself with characters faster than by trying to memorize two things at once. Check out Charles Heisig’s books – “Remembering the Kanji” or “Remembering the Hanzi” for learning characters and further discourse supporting this method.

Step X: Using an SRS (Spaced Repetition Software), Make Native Sentence Cards

SRS is a flashcard-like computer program which allows you to create digital flash cards and study them in the most efficient manner possible. Basically, our memory works best when we repeat items that we want to learn. Just like when you repeat the chorus of your favorite song twenty times on your iPod, SRS imprints the facts into your mind by repetition. But the problem with conventional flashcards is that you end up studying the difficult cards with the same frequency as the easy ones, wasting your precious time. Using an SRS solves this problem by automatically repeating the cards at the optimum time interval. Difficult cards get seen more often than easy ones, and you learn your language faster.

The SRS I use is called Anki, and I highly recommend it.

Now that we have the right tool for memorization, we need to know how to use it for maximum effect. From personal experience I’ve found that learning complete sentences, even if they are small, is the best way to study a language. Cognitive reasoning is one of our most powerful tools here. The brain easily takes phrases and pieces them together to create sentences and communicate ideas. Don’t study vocabulary by itself as this is a waste of time. All you have to do is fill your mind with example structures of everyday sentences in your target language, and your mind will automatically fill in the necessary vocabulary and verb conjugations.

Example flash card from my Anki deck (you may need Japanese text support enabled):

Front:

映画を見た人は誰？

Back:

えいがをみたひとはだれ？

Who is person who watched movie?

There are a few things to take notice of in this example. First, I didn’t worry about “translating” the sentence into English. As long as I can understand the meaning it doesn’t matter. Second, the sentence is short and simple. Linguist Dr. Stephen Krashen suggests the “i + 1″ method, where you add one new item to your knowledge. Try to never make a card with two new words in it.  Thirdly, the sentence is native. I don’t remember where I got it, but it’s not an English thought translated into Japanese, it’s real Japanese from a native Japanese source. A dictionary with good examples sentences is one of the best sources for word-specific native material.  Thinking in L1 (your mother tongue) and trying to translate to L2 (target language) is detrimental. Learn to think like a native by imitation, just like a baby!

Step X: Complete Immersion: Input Before Output

Another deciding factor for success is immersion. Complete immersion. If you want to learn this langauge, really learn it, then you have to spend every waking moment in it. Most people fail at learning new languages because they simply don’t spend enough time in L2. Taking classes is especially deceptive because they make you feel like you’re learning, when in fact your going at a snail’s pace. I got straight As in my High School Spanish class, but when I took a trip down to Mexico City I realized just how valuable my two years of study were worth: NIL. I was one of the best students in my class, and I still couldn’t handle the most basic Spanish conversations.

Every aspect of your life should be entrenched in your target language. Do you use the internet? Download your internet browser in L2. Do you read the newspaper? Find a way to get it in L2. Do you have a smartphone? Switch the default language to L2. Watch movies in L2. Listen to L2 music exclusively. Every aspect of your life from now on should be done in the language you want to learn. If you want it bad enough you’ll find a way.

“But I don’t live in country X!” “How can I be completely immersed with all this English around me?!” – I feel this is one of the biggest language myths ever. You don’t need to live in France to learn French. You don’t need to live in China to learn Chinese. You don’t need to live in Latin America to learn Latin. Wait a second… that’s not right. Anyway, there are plenty of resources available to you (many for free) where you can get a life-like immersion experience without a 10 hour plane ride. Granted that the real immersion experience is better, but I can surf YouTube for hours and get nearly the same native language exposure as somebody who lives in Japan.

There is no need to worry about understanding the language right away. Complete immersion means you won’t understand everything, and that’s okay. Listen even when you don’t understand. It usually takes babies a year of listening before they start talking, and as adults we have the advantage because we can already think logically and don’t have to figure out our vocal chords.

Don’t force output. It will probably take months of high quality input before you’ll feel comfortable speaking. I feel this is a major flaw in modern teaching methods, and one of many reasons to avoid the classroom. Many college professors expect their students to produce native-like sentences after the first few lessons! Their theory is that you should make mistakes often so that they can be corrected, leading to a better understanding of the language. Bull. Mistakes only create bad habits and confusion. Learn it right the first time and you don’t have to worry about it. Output should feel natural and mistakes should be avoided at all costs; don’t be in a big rush to speak.

Recommended Inputs:

• Listen to free audio-book downloads before going to bed. When was the last time someone read you a bedtime story? It’s incredibly relaxing.
• Always carry an L2 book with you. Everywhere. Audio-books in conjunction with paper books are awesome when you want to learn pronunciation.
• Computer programs with any clout will have a slew of language options. Switch them to your L2.
• Buy an iPod touch or smartphone and download the Anki app and a dictionary. You’ll be able to study your flash cards anywhere.
• Think in L2. Whenever I thought a thought in English, I did my best to rethink it in Japanese.
• Eat your country’s cuisine. Life revolves around food in most countries, so being accustomed to and knowledgeable about native foods will give you an automatic “in” when visiting.
• YouTube
• Movies – but DO NOT use English subtitles! They’re a crutch that prevent you from diving into the language fully.

Step X: Prioritize

A typical unabridged Chinese character dictionary will have more than 40,000 independent entries. It would take a lifetime to familiarize yourself with all of these characters, but thankfully languages follow the rule of 80/20, a.k.a. the Pareto Principle.  What this means is roughly 20% of those characters are used 80% of the time. A well-educated Chinese student will recognize upwards of 7,000 characters, and reading a newspaper may require a working knowledge of 3,000 characters [1]. We can find the same thing in English – “The Reading Teachers Book of Lists claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material [2].” Using an SRS like Anki and a dictionary with good example sentences, the initial effort of memorizing 100 words should take three days at most. Three days for 50% comprehension! I know I know, that number is slightly overstated because many of those 100 words are lemmas (more than one word – like “is” can be “He was”, “I am”, “You are” etc.), but you see the point I’m trying to make right? By learning the common words first, you quickly increase your effective comprehension of the language. Note: You can find the first 3000 common Japanese words in this post.

Step X: Make it Fun; Choose Material Comparable to Your Current Interests

Beyond the first 500 words or so, I suggest learning interest-specific or field-specific vocabulary. Take the things you currently do in L1, and do them in L2. Find a way to make an L2 copy of your current self. Language learning isn’t difficult, but it does take focused effort over a long period of time. If you want to make this endeavor sustainable, and it must be sustainable, it sure as hell better be fun. Like any good drug addiction, you want to keep coming back to it again and again. I treat myself to a cup of coffee or tasty drink every time I do my SRS reps.

When I was studying in Japan, I completed an introductory program for the PA-10 Mitsubishi robotic arm. It involved learning basic robotic arm control, which was comprised of creating a computer program from scratch, solving inverse kinematics problems, and a mother trucker load of questions for my Japanese lab-mates. In order to communicate effectively I had to learn some of the technical jargon associated with robotics. Now I’m pretty confident using words like 逆魚列 (inverse matrix), 再起動 (restart), 軸線 (shaft axis), 運動学 (kinematics), and 機械工学 (Mechanical Engineering). This kind of vocabulary would be useless for anyone else, even most Japanese, but it was essential for me and my situation.

Step X: Goal Setting – Small and Achievable with Consistency

During my most intense period of learning Japanese, I bought this calendar for 100 Yen ($1) at a thrift store and used it as a daily visual reminder of my goal to become fluent. Each day I accomplished my (small) goal, I took a big red marker and made an X on the day. The sense of accomplishment I felt after each X’d day helped to create even more momentum for the next day.

Learning a language takes a lot of effort, so keep your goals small and achievable while finding ways to keep them sustainable over long periods of time. A small effort every day for a month is far more productive than three days of caffeine-induced cramming. After a few days of studying you’ll become more aware of your physical limitations; it’s at that point you want to create a daily goal. Make your goal achievable, but somewhat of a stretch. Too easy and you’ll end up cutting yourself short, too hard and you’ll get disappointed by failure. The key is long-term sustainability.

In contrast to this, don’t put an extended timeline on your goal to become fluent. When you’re first starting out you shouldn’t worry about when you’ll arrive at your goal, or make baseless assumptions about how long it should take you to acquire a 10,000 word vocabulary. Yes I know, the title of this post is “Learn any language in 6 months”,  but it may take some people longer and others shorter. Just start walking the road and have a surprise party when you get to the end.

Step X: Never Stop Learning

I attempt to live my life in such a way that I’m always exposing myself to new ideas and attaining new knowledge. But at the same time, I make an effort to not forget the things I’ve already learned. Learning a new language is an exciting and fulfilling experience, but not quite as fulfilling ten years from now when you’ve forgotten everything you’ve learned. The initial effort of learning is long and tough, but the fun kind of tough, and similar to getting a freight train moving. The power you need to start is immense, but as soon as you’re moving, it’s not too hard to keep going. Many people are willing to put forth the effort to get the train started, but don’t quite realize that the train will eventually come to a slow stop if they don’t keep shoveling the coal.

Step X: Further Reading and Resources

ajatt.com – All Japanese All the Time dot com.  This is the blog that inspired me to pursue fluency in Japanese and provided the resources and ideas that are making it possible.  Purveyor of the 10,000 sentence method: learn 10,000 sentences in an SRS to achieve native-like fluency.  Major props.

antimoon.com – Polish pioneers of the SRS/sentence learning method.  These guys learned English to college level fluency in 3 years using their method.

How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months – Author Tim Ferriss wrote an enlightening article that directly inspired my writing this post.  Hence, credit is due.  Our content is similar in many ways, but disagree with him on some points.  I encourage reading his post also to gain a broader perspective on language learning.

Anki – The free SRS that makes it all possible.  I suggest watching the Intro Videos to get a better understanding of the concept.

Supermemo Articles – Supermemo, the original SRS, was created by Dr. Wozniak who has written not-a-few articles about SRSing, memory, and acquiring knowledge.  Recommended reading: 20 Rules and Memory Myths. Fascinating stuff.

Do you have any language acquisition stories?  Failure/Success stories?  Discussion and idea-sharing are encouraged, so post a comment!

Reinventing Language Education

Reinventing Language Education
I wouldn’t go as far as Seth and say that what is happening in the public school systems in regards to language education is a waste, but I think most of us will agree that if we were to talk to ten friends who sat through two semesters of high school Spanish, most would say they learned very little. Even fewer perhaps could actually speak any Spanish. So while I wouldn’t call it a waste, anecdotal evidence at least would point to something far less than success.

In today’s post then, I want to offer a few of my thoughts as to how we might reinvent the system. I put quite a bit of thought into this but in no way think my ideas are great. They are I hope, a beginning. I would love to see a serious conversation take place, for ideas to be shared, for risks to be taken. I would love to hear what you think. I especially want to hear your thoughts from your own experiences. I write the post about the American system, but would like to hear what my international readers have to say from their experience as well. An outside perspective is always a good one to have. And we need to hear from those of you involved in language education.

Nine Ideas
I am not putting forth ideas to ‘reform’ the present system. I am suggesting that we start over. Not an easy task and not an idea that will be readily accepted. The status quo has a certain power to remain. Change is always hard work but often well worth the risk and the effort. And so today I want to present nine ideas as a starting point for reinventing the language education system in America. They are undeveloped ideas at best, but perhaps can act as a catalyst for conversation.

1 – The Only Goal

The goal of the reinvented language classroom will be this: To see students develop a life long love of language learning that will continue for the rest of their lives. To my mind there is no other goal that is higher than this one. It is not a goal I see communicated clearly to students in our language programs today. When I took German in university, the goal was to learn some German, not to fall in love with the German language and German culture. When the end of the semester came, I wiped my brow, took a deep breath and promptly moved on. So did all but one of my classmates.

2 – Scrap The Way It’s Been Done

I don’t think the status quo can be reformed in any way that will truly lead to a transformation that will affect significant change. Because of this I think that perhaps it is time to scrap the way we’ve done it and start dreaming about new ideas and approaches to introduce young people to the wonderful world of language learning. It won’t be easy and it shouldn’t be a top down, the White House has a new plan sort of change. It starts with a conversation which moves onto action.

3 – No Language Specific Classes

The first thing I would suggest is to do away with language specific language classes. High schools would no longer offer Spanish or French but rather would offer a general class that would introduce students to language learning and would allow students to chose what language they would like to learn. The main goal of this class would be to help kids fall in love with a language and give them the tools and knowledge to become life long students of it. I’ll expand on this later.

4 – Teachers as Coaches

Not having to specialize in a specific language, teachers would move into a coach/mentor role and would work to learn new languages along side students. Teaching would still take place but would focus on teaching students how to learn a new language, presentation of ideas about second language acquisition and instruction on how to access the language on the internet and in the community. The teacher would act as a facilitator, regularly introducing students to new tools and activities for learning and monitoring progress as they empower students to take control of their language learning. Modeling language learning would be an important part of the job and they would work more than anything to help their students become independent, self-directed learners. They would not teach grammar. They would not give grades. They would not need to ‘have arrived’ as a distinguished speaker of a particular language but rather would be a passionate and joy filled traveller on the language learning journey – toward any language(s).

5 – Students Are In Charge

Students in this new system would be placed in charge of their language learning. They would chose which language(s) they want to study and to what level they would like to master them. They could focus on one language or may chose to switch languages every month or two. They would create (with their language coach) a personal language learning program and then chose the daily activities they would work on during class. They would regularly reflect on and self-evaluate both their command of the language and their personal learning program. This will all be a big change from anything they have done before and so teacher/coaches will need to work to empower and equip students to take responsibility.

6 – No Levels

There will no longer be levels in the language program. The first year will be required but after that students will chose whether or not to continue to sign up for the language learning journey. Each year they will pick up where they left off. The end of the year will no longer signal the end of their interaction with the language but rather the opportunity to continue through the summer. Teachers will model the life long learner attitude and invite students to see language not as a “class” to be checked off the list, but an amazing lifestyle into which they can enter. The goal will no longer be to pass level one and improve the GPA.

7 - No Grades

GPA will no longer be important because grades will not be given. Grades are a sacred cow in our education system, but I think we need to do away with them in language education. I am not sure what purpose they serve in actually helping students learn another language but they seem one part of our traditional system that may be preventing students from really entering into a passionate pursuit of learning another language. Grades will always set the bar too low. If a student needs to learn 100 words to get an A, they will inevitably learn 100 words and no more. Students will study for the Final Exam in a crash course cram session after which everything ingested is promptly purged. When grades are no longer the goal, the bar can be raised to something worth shooting for – learning a new language so that they can speak and interact with native speakers confidently.

This is not to say that their should be no assessment of or requirements on students. Just the opposite. Students will engage in high quality self-assessment (guided by their teacher in the beginning) that assesses both their ability to use the language and their language learning program. Teachers will also create certain requirements for students to meet. One of these should be for students to demonstrate that they have created real engagement and friendship with native speakers using the language. Perhaps they will be required to demonstrate 600 minutes of spoken conversation or 10,000 words of written communication. What ever it is, it should be real life stuff.

8 – Internet Is Central

Opportunities for language and cultural learning are available today in ways we could only dream of even ten years ago. Until recently, teachers were the main means for student to receive comprehensible input. This was the reality of the pre-Internet world. With the Internet however, high quality opportunities are more abundant than ever before. Teachers must learn to help their student plug into these and use them as efficiently and effectively as possible. It could very well be that the bulk of a student’s time in this new system then will probably be spent in the computer lab. The Internet is the one tool that will allow us to create near immersion like experiences for our students.

9 – Human Interaction Is More Central

The main reason we learn languages is to communicate with real human beings, beautiful people from all over the globe who speak other languages. Everything that happens in the language classroom should work toward creating human interaction. The Internet is key only in that it is the best tool we have to help students develop the necessary language skills to be able to connect and communicate with native speakers of the languages they are learning. It is a tool and rightly used will allow student to create valuable interaction with students from the target language country.

A Final Thought
I do not offer these nine ideas as an expert in any way. I do not pretend that they are fully developed nor is this intended to be a coherent plan for a new system. They are ideas. Plain and simple. I know that there are some amazing teachers out there whose students are falling in love with the language and who are becoming life long students and so I in no way want to take away from the work that you do. This is in no way intended to be a critique of language teachers but rather ideas for changing the system within which they function.

I was both an ESL teacher and a regular high school English teacher in the states before moving to Turkey and so have some experience in this field. My work and writing now are directed at helping learners become independent and self-directed. It is from these two experiences that I have learned to believe in the power of giving students more choices and more responsibility to direct their own learning.

My goal with this post then is merely to see a conversation take place. I could be way off base and many of you will likely disagree with the above, but I feel like there is some need to consider new and creative ideas for the future of the American language education system.

I look forward to a robust and productive conversation.

Japanize your environment.

So, here is a list of about 10 things to do (and not do), in order to Japanize your environment.

1. Music: Japanese only
Put away the Avril Lavigne. Sell the CDs on EBay; give them to a Japanese friend who’s learning English. Whatever, just get rid of it. Delete the mp3s. Don’t “put aside” your non-Japanese music; that includes the Manu Chao; I don’t care if he sings in English, Spanish *and* French; it’s irrelevant. Destroy it. I know this is harsh, but it’s something you have to do. Why destroy it? Because if you don’t, you will listen to it in a moment of weakness or nostalgia (you’re all: “(sigh) I remember when I understood the lyrics in the songs I listened to, those were the days”); it could lead to weeks of regression, or even destroy your immersion program altogether. Replace it all with Japanese music: music by Japanese *in* Japanese. It’s best not to even “do it in stages”, just go cold turkey. Even if you have so little Japanese music that you have to keep repeating the same song, then that’s a good thing! Repetition is the mother of skill, remember? Let go of the non-Japanese bands; there are plenty of Japanese bands that have the sound and feel you’re looking for.

Not only should you exclude languages other than Japanese from your life, but you should actively include Japanese music with you wherever you go. If you don’t yet have a portable music player, acquire one, and where it around with you *everywhere*. If you are not in an important conversation with someone who does not speak Japanese, then you should be listening to your Japanese music.

2. Movies: Japanese only
Movies that are not in Japanese no longer exist to you. Now, fortunately, you can get Hollywood movies dubbed into Japanese atwww.amazon.jp (be sure to check the item details, especially for movies more than 5-10 years old, since these may be Japanese-subtitled but not dubbed).

Don’t use your significant other as an excuse. “But we have to spend time together”, you say. Bollocks. Take a walk together and hold hands, but make sure to be listening to Japanese music on your portable player; come on, let’s be honest, you don’t really want to hear what they have to say anyhow (joking)! And don’t let your friends or family make fun of you or browbeat you into going along to see the latest mindless flick with them. Don’t let them tell you that you “have to unplug sometimes”; they’re full of crap; they’re only saying that to get you to go along. Don’t let them tell you “you can do it later”. Will they be there for you when your Japanese sucks because you didn’t practice because you were always “going to do it later”? Do your friends know Japanese fluently? Probably not. Because if they did, they would understand why you need to do what you need to do, and they wouldn’t try to dissuade you from it. If they do know Japanese fluently, then they should know better than to attempt to strip you away from the very thing that got them fluent: constant practice.

Be strong. Your friends and family will make fun of you for a while, but just hold on. In the short-term, they may not seem to like you unless you do what they want. But it in the long run, they’ll respect you more than if you’d just given in to their pressure. They may say horrible things to you: “Do you think you’re better than us? Do you value the advice of random people on the Internet more than that of your real world friends and family? Do you think you’re Japanese or something?” to which you may reply under your breath: “actually, I do”.

3. TV: Japanese only
Unless you live in an area with a large Japanese community, there may not be Japanese TV available. But you never know. Check with your local cable/satellite provider. Failing live TV, even if there’s only a small Japanese community, there may be a Japanese store in your area. More likely than not, that store sells/rents tapes of Japanese television, complete with commercials. You want to patronize that store and buy some tapes. Failing that, there’s always Ebay, YouTube and even (shudder) BitTorrent.

One of the cool things about Japanese TV is some of the most popular American TV shows (and even some of the good ones) are dubbed in Japanese, including 24, Monk, CSI (all cities), Friends, Full House (the worst show in human history) and many more.

Whatever your sources, get some Japanese TV arrangement going, and have it playing constantly. Like me, you may not even watch TV. But when it comes to Japanese, and only Japanese, you have the permission to be a couch potato. Or a couch carrot: lighter and leaner than a potato, but still a bit vegetative.

4. Radio: Japanese only
Again, unless you live in an area with a large Japanese community, there may not be Japanese radio available. Not a problem. That’s what the Internet is for. Sometimes, running Japanese TV could be distracting for you. But you can listen to radio and podcasts while you cook. Get some (ask me if you want to know specific places).

In the case of both TV and radio, don’t worry if you can’t understand it all. The point initially is not for you to get everything that’s going on. The point is for you to have it turned on, and playing. At first, you probably won’t understand a single word. Then you’ll start picking up single words. Then you’ll start picking up sentences. Then you’ll start picking up scenes. After some time, you’ll be able to watch and understand it all. It may take a while (many months), but stay patient and let the bright colors, shiny objects and detergent commercials entertain you.

5. Computer/Internet: Japanese only
Do it. Do it now. As far as possible, only visit Japanese websites. Need to check your favorite website? Check the Japanese version instead. Need to check the news? No, you don’t . In addition to original Japanese websites, there are Japanese-language versions of several of the most popular English webpages, including Yahoo, Wired, CNN and Slashdot.

What operating system do you use? Better get the Japanese version.

What’s your browser’s homepage? Better make it a Japanese one.

Tip: enter a JapaneseURL into the box on http://www.hiragana.jp/, and it will add kana pronunciation aids (furigana) to the kanji.

6. Friends: Japanese only
OK, this is as harsh as they get, but you’re going to need to work on your social circle. I’m not saying that you should kick out non-Japanese-speaking people from your life, but you should definitely surround yourself with Japanese speakers.

Sometimes you can’t always be with your real-life Japanese friends, so when you’re alone, your Japanese friends are the singers and actors you watch and listen to.

7. Walls: Japanese only
What is on the walls around you? You need some Japanese posters and signs. If you’re in the kanji-studying phase, then there’s this cool poster of all 2000 odd General Use Kanji; at $24 it isn’t cheap, but in the spirit of “discipline is remembering what you want”, I think it’s a valuable reminder. I had one on my wall. You could also make your own poster by filling in each kanji you acquire. Whatever you do, Japanese the walls of your home.

8. Food: Japanese only
The Japanese restaurants I know of are expensive. Maybe you can visit them only once in a while. You could also visit Japanese food shops, buy the ingredients, and cook your own food. You don’t know how to use the ingredients? Just ask the shopkeepers (or your friends) about what to cook.

Also, whatever kind of food you eat, eat it with chopsticks. I started using only chopsticks years before going to Japan. Don’t be intimidated, they aren’t hard to use. Plus, you can almost eat anything solid with chopsticks: rice, cake, ice-cream. So use them! Again, you may earn the ridicule of those around you, but just grin and bear it. Since moving to Japan, it’s dawned on me that the chopsticks thing wasn’t just a psychological tool and it wasn’t just for getting attention. It really is a social skill; outside of Japan, they may be rare, but in Japan everything comes with chopsticks; you need to know how to use them.

9. Floor and Furniture: Japanese only
This is similar to the chopsticks suggestion. Again, before moving to Japan, I thought I was just being kitsch by doing this, but it turns out (again) that in addition to reminding you of your goal (Japanese fluency) this is actually an important social skill. Japan very much remains a floor-centered society.

Use Japanese-style furnishing in your home. You don’t necessarily need to go out and buy new furniture to do this, and even if you do, it needn’t be expensive. All you need is a low table (zataku, 座卓) to sit at. Low enough that you can sit on the floor with a cushion (seiza, 正座) and use it.

You should also sleep on the floor on a futon; if you don’t have one, you can lay down a duvet/comforter and sleep on that. Anyway, the point is: sleep and work close to the ground. Outside of offices, almost everything in Japan is low, close to the ground (private homes, restaurants, etc.) You’d do well to get used to it sooner rather than later. If you’ve been working high off the ground until now, this may take some getting used to, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. The task doesn’t change; you do.

10. Brain/Thoughts: Japanese only
Last but not least, your brain. You probably have thoughts and some of them might be in words and those words might be in a language that is not Japanese. Well, that won’t do. My method for changing the language of thought, the “inner monologue” if you will, was to carry around a Japanese dictionary (electronic) with me. Whenever I was walking, if I had a non-Japanese thought, I would look up the words in a dictionary, and then re-think the thought in Japanese instead. I now have an inner monologue mostly in Japanese, except when I’m speaking or writing English. Don’t feel silly — it’s worth it. Surrounding yourself with Japanese should eventually Japanize your thoughts anyway, but this forces it to happen sooner.

Anyway, as always, go out and have fun doing Japanese! Take control of what goes into your brain, and your brain will reward you handsomely.

Studying With Japanese Drama: The Step-By-Step Guide

by koichi on JUNE 10, 2011 in HOW TO STUDY, LANGUAGE, TV/MEDIA

Japanese Dorama (drama)? Check. Studying Japanese? Also check. One of the most addicting things in the world is Japanese drama. If I needed to quit cocaine or something like that, this is what I’d use to kick it. Oh, and Japanese drama is a pretty excellent way to study Japanese. Watching it is one thing… but actually actively studying it is another. I will tell you exactly how to do that and get a ton of benefit compared to the time spent.

Kind Of Not For Beginners

Beginners of Japanese, I’m sorry, this method isn’t amazing for you. It’s better than the “Learning Japanese With Subtitles” article I did a few weeks ago, but it’s still not amazing. That being said, if you watch a lot of jdorama anyways, it wouldn’t hurt for beginners to try this out. I’m just saying there’s probably some things you could spend your time on that would be better for you at your current level … I’m not saying this method won’t be beneficial to all levels (just much more beneficial to intermediate / advanced students of Japanese). There are a few reasons for this:

1. Intermediate+ students will have an easier time with the kanji (an important part of this process)
2. Intermediate+ students will have the grammar foundation that will allow them to look up things they don’t know (and then make sense of them).
3. Intermediate+ students should be able to recognize and avoid gendered language / things they shouldn’t actually need to learn (as well as avoid learning how to talk like a girl / boy or something).
4. Intermediate+ students will know when someone is speaking unrealistically in the drama so they won’t end up speaking like that when they try what they’ve learned out in the real world.

Anyways, are you ready? I’m going to start at the beginning and work my way through how you might use a single episode of some Japanese drama to learn a lot of Japanese… and a whole ton of it, too. I’m kind of baffled by how well this works. Thank you internets for making it possible.

Step 1: Choose The Right Drama

I can’t really go into a whole lot of detail on how to acquire the drama… but I can tell youwhat drama to watch. It’s actually kind of important for this, because not all drama will allow you to follow the steps I’m laying out here. Why is that? Because we’re starting with a (Japanese) transcript of the drama first, and not all dramas have this readily available to the world.

There’s a pretty incredible website called どらま・のーと (Drama Note) where someone (or some people?) are transcribing Japanese drama episodes. The site’s all in Japanese (I’ll help make some sense of it in a moment) and it’s even doing current drama series (like right now Jin 2 and BOSS 2 are the ones getting the most attention, it seems).

There’s also a list of previous drama that have been transcribed over here, but the most current stuff is on the main DramaNote website.

Things aren’t particularly well organized, I’d say, so I’m going to keep it pretty simple. I’d use the search feature to try and find what you’re looking for, or take a look at the どらま・のーと(旧) page and see if what you want is on the list. Not every drama is up there, of course, but there’s enough to keep any Japanese student busy for a really really long time. Here’s a list of some of the more popular dramas, at least in my mind (though this guide will mostly focus on BOSS, to keep things simple).

BOSS: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359462-1.html

Jin: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359471-1.html

Buzzer Beat: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359468-1.html

Rookies: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359431-1.html

Hana Yori Dango: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359277-1.html

Hana Yori Dango 2: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359431-1.html

Densha Otoko: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359260-1.html

Gokusen: http://www.dramanote.com/category/7359231-1.html

Pretty nice list, I’d say. One thing that might be confusing is how it lists out episodes. I spent a long time trying to figure out why Boss Episode 1 wasn’t doing what was written in the transcript. Then I realized I was on the wrong season. For example, if you go to the BOSS posts page, you’ll need to go back to the first page to get to Season 1 episode 1 – the ones on the most recent page are from Season 2.

The rest of this guide is going to pretend like you’re watching BOSS, though you can follow along pretty much the same way with any of the other dramas listed above too.

So, if you want to follow along on the live site, you’ll want to go to the BOSS Season 1 Episode 1 page on どらま・のーと.

BOSS Season 1 Episode 1

If you take a look at the Season 1 Episode 1 Page, you’ll see the transcript for that episodes. There’s little notes in there from time to time, but as long as you’re not a total beginner in Japanese you can find where the talking starts. Before getting started, though, I’d recommend downloading Evernote (it’s where I keep all my drama notes, so I can access them anywhere). You can see my Evernote has a 日本語 section where I put these (and other study stuff).

Right now all you can see is Jin and BOSS, because I copied over a ton of the どらま・のーと pages so I’d have access to them for later. Above is my notes for BOSS Season 1 Episode 1 (which is what we’re talking about here). For this guide, all you need to do is copy over the first episode’s content, though.

どらま・のーと doesn’t have the English translation (the image above has my own notes in it), and it doesn’t have times or anything else. All that is up to you (and I think it’s good practice).

Now, once you have the notes copied over, the next step involves some of the actually studying stuff, though how you do it differs depending on if you have English subtitles or not in the version of BOSS you downloaded, er, purchased.

Subtitles Vs. No Subtitles

I’m not going to say one is better than the other, necessarily. I think they both have their benefits and drawbacks. Let me list them out for you:

Subtitles

• Allows you to get through a lot more content more quickly (so you can study more content, but not as intensely)
• Doesn’t give you the opportunity to translate and figure stuff out on your own (which can be a great way to learn)
• Most subtitles, especially fansubs have a good number of mistakes in them, so you should be aware of that possibility.

No Subtitles

• Probably won’t be able to study as much in one sitting (though this depends on your level).
• Will have things you just won’t understand the meaning of (and will have to get someone to help you, which slows you down a bit).
• Overall probably a higher level, so +1 for advanced students and maybe +0 or -1 for intermediate students. Like I said, though, totally depends on you.

I don’t really care which one you choose, I think both can be good. The key, as always, is consistent study over a long period of time, so no matter which one you end up working with, as long as you do it every day you’ll make lots of progress, and that progress will grow exponentially over time.

Step 2: Notes + Dorama

The next step requires you to set your computer up so you can see both the notes and the video (in this guide’s case, BOSS Season 1 Episode 1). Here’s a look at an example setup. Pretty standard. Click on it to make it bigger.

On one side I have my notes (in Evernote) and the other side I have the drama playing. This version of the video happens to have subtitles, so we’ll go through that way. If your video doesn’t have subtitles (or you want to cover them, which is totally good too) you can follow pretty much the same steps, except you’ll have to look up grammar you don’t understand.

As the episode plays, you just follow along, writing the translations in. I’d recommend doing around 10 pieces of dialog at a time. Once you have the translations for all the sentences written down, move on to the next step (don’t worry, the speaking part comes after!).

Step 3: Vocab

Most likely, there’s going to be some vocab that you don’t understand or know yet (if there wasn’t any, then maybe you don’t need to study so much!). My favorite way to study vocabulary is Anki, though you can use whatever you’d like. After you’ve gotten your 10 dialog translations written down, go through and pick out the words you don’t know / don’t know really well, then put them into your flashcard program of choice. Just the act of putting your own words in is good study on its own, and of course you’ll use the flashcard program to study them over time, as well.

After you’ve put the words you don’t know into your flash card program, go through them once to help learn them a bit before moving on to the next step (which will also help you to learn them).

Step 4: Practicing Then Shadowing

The next step is actually two steps. First, you’ll want to go through your Japanese notes and make sure you can read everything. Maybe you won’t be able to (as in, going through your flashcard deck once wasn’t enough… that’s normal), so you’ll have to make sure that you can. Go through line by line and learn how to read everything – once you can read your 10 lines at a decent speed, then you can move on to shadowing, which involves using the video too.

For watching the dramas in this part, I’d recommend VLC. It plays pretty much anything, and it also has a neat little feature that helps a lot with this part. I’m sure it’s something similar on the PC / Linux, but if you hit ALT + COMMAND + ←, it’ll jump back in the video by 10 seconds. That’s perfect for studying a short bit of the video over and over again (until you can do it naturally right along with the video).

Anyways, for this step, you’ll play the video, and just try to speak along with the speaking characters. You’ll try to mimic their accent, and you’ll try to keep up with them in speed (this is why you do a little pre-study beforehand, so it’s easier to get up to their speed more quickly). Approximately ten seconds at a time, you’ll shadow the same bit over and over again, until you feel like you’re really really similar (or exactly the same) as what’s going on in your drama.

Now, this is where a little bit of knowledge comes in handy… people don’t always talk like normal people, so knowing a little bit of Japanese beforehand will help you to avoid studying terrible speech in such detail. Drama’s going to be a little better about this than anime, but that doesn’t mean you won’t run into a weirdo or two on whatever you’re watching. You’ve been warned!

After you’ve gotten the first ten seconds down pat, move on to the next ten seconds, and so on, until you’ve finished your first ten (or so) lines of dialog. Then, it’s repeat and review time!

Step 5: Repeat & Review

There has to be a bit of a mix between repeating and reviewing to make this study method really powerful. If you only study and never review, you won’t learn new words and you just won’t get as much out of it. Sure, review takes up some of your time you could be studying new things, but overall I think it’s definitely way worth it.

Here’s kind of what I’d recommend:

1. Make sure you study your vocab deck every day (Anki will tell you what you need to study and what you don’t need to study, so this is easy).
2. Go through everything you’ve done in the past once via your Evernote notes (read everything there, you don’t necessarily have to do it with the video every time, because that will get really long after a while.
3. Since you’re studying in blocks (as in 10 dialog points) you can mark sections off as “memorized” after a while. Once you’ve come to the point where you’ve memorized a block of dialog, you can probably skip that one and not review it anymore (or as much).
4. Color code things giving you trouble so you know to either look them up or study them more (i.e. use them in your Lang-8 journal entries for practice, or something). Review and work on these things more than things not giving you trouble (the point is to learn new things, after all).
5. Always try to mix in some new stuff too (as in, add 10 lines of dialog every day… or 20 lines, or 30 lines, or whatever you think you can handle while still doing your reviews).
6. Spend some time with each line of dialog and try to replace certain parts of it to make your own (different) sentences. This will help you to not get stuck on only what is said in the dramas you’re watching.

The main thing, though, is to study consistently. I’m always harping on this, but it’s the most important thing of all. Do this everyday (or do something else every day) and you’ll get good, no problem. It’s the consistency that counts, not the 12 hour cram-fests one day a week.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, and I hope it helps a lot of you too! I think it’s a pretty good strategy, and a pretty good way to practice and learn a lot, while still enjoying yourself! So… what drama will you start with?