ASCULTA cît mai multa japoneza pentru a trece pragul durerii

One part of AJATT is to listen to as much Japanese as possible be it music, TV, or anime. Basically, always listen to something even if it is white noise. I had a talk with someone over instant messenger about this. They were having the same problems I had when I started trying the whole 24 hours of Japanese audio. It hurt after a while. When I was starting I literally got headaches after listening to a couple of hours of Japanese because it wasn’t white noise yet. I was actively trying to listen and do other things.

One thing we can do with our native language is listen for hours without actually hearing what is being said. That is the goal with turning Japanese to white noise. However, it does come with some difficulties because at first we aren’t used to hearing it so it really messes with our brains when it is pure words. Music is fairly easy for our brain to process as white noise since it is rhythmic. Conversation and narration on the other hand is hard and coarse so we need to ease into it.

I can now listen to Japanese conversation with little to no problems keeping it as white noise with no ill effects. Here is some of what I did to do that.

Watch anime while doing other stuff – This sucked to some degree because I kept wanting to watch the anime, but it had an interesting side effect. I would tune in and out of the show allowing my brain to force the Japanese to white noise. Gradually over time this helped train my brain that it is okay to have Japanese as white noise.

Learning Japanese Podcasts – Podcasts like JapanesePod101 really helped too because they will speak both English and Japanese during the show so it is another way to help your brain make the transition to allowing Japanese be white noise. Key is you have to listen to the show as white noise.

Brute Force – At the end of the day the goal is hearing Japanese and putting it as white noise so another thing I did was short sessions of audio. I would launch a conversation rich J-Drama and minimize it while programming, and when the episode was over turn on some music. That way it gives bursts of conversation and speech, but not so much it would give me headaches.

LOTS of Active Listening – This kind of goes against the grain, but when trying to build a tolerance to something; you need A LOT of whatever it is. In this case we need to hear a LOT of Japanese. So the best way is to do so is to watch a lot of anime and j-drama to get used to hearing it more and more and more, and in context. Then use the above methods to let your brain know that is ok for it to be white noise while you aren’t paying attention.

These are things that worked for me. Hopefully if you are having trouble like I did this will help you or maybe parts of it will help you. If you have had a similar problem how were able to get past it?

ASCULTA c

One part of AJATT is to listen to as much Japanese as possible be it music, TV, or anime. Basically, always listen to something even if it is white noise. I had a talk with someone over instant messenger about this. They were having the same problems I had when I started trying the whole 24 hours of Japanese audio. It hurt after a while. When I was starting I literally got headaches after listening to a couple of hours of Japanese because it wasn’t white noise yet. I was actively trying to listen and do other things.

One thing we can do with our native language is listen for hours without actually hearing what is being said. That is the goal with turning Japanese to white noise. However, it does come with some difficulties because at first we aren’t used to hearing it so it really messes with our brains when it is pure words. Music is fairly easy for our brain to process as white noise since it is rhythmic. Conversation and narration on the other hand is hard and coarse so we need to ease into it.

I can now listen to Japanese conversation with little to no problems keeping it as white noise with no ill effects. Here is some of what I did to do that.

Watch anime while doing other stuff – This sucked to some degree because I kept wanting to watch the anime, but it had an interesting side effect. I would tune in and out of the show allowing my brain to force the Japanese to white noise. Gradually over time this helped train my brain that it is okay to have Japanese as white noise.

Learning Japanese Podcasts – Podcasts like JapanesePod101 really helped too because they will speak both English and Japanese during the show so it is another way to help your brain make the transition to allowing Japanese be white noise. Key is you have to listen to the show as white noise.

Brute Force – At the end of the day the goal is hearing Japanese and putting it as white noise so another thing I did was short sessions of audio. I would launch a conversation rich J-Drama and minimize it while programming, and when the episode was over turn on some music. That way it gives bursts of conversation and speech, but not so much it would give me headaches.

LOTS of Active Listening – This kind of goes against the grain, but when trying to build a tolerance to something; you need A LOT of whatever it is. In this case we need to hear a LOT of Japanese. So the best way is to do so is to watch a lot of anime and j-drama to get used to hearing it more and more and more, and in context. Then use the above methods to let your brain know that is ok for it to be white noise while you aren’t paying attention.

These are things that worked for me. Hopefully if you are having trouble like I did this will help you or maybe parts of it will help you. If you have had a similar problem how were able to get past it?

Învaţam japoneza folosind subtitrarea filmelor

First, lets get something out of they way. A lot of people say to better learn Japanese you MUST turn off subtitles when watching anime or J-Drama’s. I partially agree with this, but only to a point. I say this because while listening to conversations far above your head help you to get tones and eventually remember words; it sucks because you have no idea what is going on. It gets frustrating. At Tokyo in Tulsa I watched the first disc of Ai Yori Aoshi in raw Japanese no subtitles since I was doing late night in the Anime rooms and no one was there. Its depressing to only know bits an pieces of the conversation, and basic conversations at that. In short watching anime and J-Drama without subtitles can help, but it sucks. I do recommend it, but not all the time. I mean we Otaku, Americanized reference, want to enjoy what Japan has to offer and understand it.

That all being said here are 5 simple ways, from experience, subtitles help you learn.

Correcting the Subtitles – Often times we get speed subs of stuff to watch so the translations aren’t all that great, even some non-speed subs are bad. This leads to an excellent opportunity to listen to what is being said while watching and reading the subtitles, and correct them. Basically watch what is happening, listen to tones and words, and read the subtitles (easier than it sounds). At this point you can start to tell what is being meant by the tones, which helps in Japanese conversation, and by words, which helps in comprehension. Those are the two keys after that pick up the vocabulary and you will start to notice times when the subtitles could be a bit better or how they are off just a bit, or completely. Its okay if they are because YOU have now found out they are, and that means you are learning Japanese.
Word Recognition – When studying we learn a lot of words and can somewhat keep track of what words we do know. While I watch anime I will read the subtitles, and when I read a word in the subtitles that has been said and I do know the Japanese counterpart I’ll make sure I hear it. I suggest you do the same. If you don’t hear the word you read in the subtitles rewind and try to find it. If you can’t then it might be an opportunity for #1 above or you need to work on the word a bit, as long as it is not a word in a different dialect. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t hear the word you will eventually.
Speed Recognition – If there is one thing to be learned it is that Japanese is a FAST language. it can be read and spoken fast. This leaves us at a disadvantage because English isn’t really a fast language it takes a while to read in comparison and with some of the most complex sentence structures available it doesn’t leave room to consistent speed talking. So how do subtitles help with this? well it helps us tune our ears to start reading the subtitles faster, but also trying to pick up the phrases too. Sometimes I have caught myself reading half the subs and picking up the other half by listening to dialog.
Sentence Structure – This one is a tad bit harder to really follow unless you geek out a bit on grammar, both English and Japanese. When the subtitles are good subtitles and it is a leisurely show you can concentrate on what is being said and make out the differences between English and Japanese. This may not be important or even notable to most people, but it can help when learning general sentence structure in spoken language which can differ quite far sometimes from written. Again this can only really be done when it is a leisurely anime and you are paying attention, but it has helped while in speaking situations at my Japanese language club.
Enjoyment – This might seem to be a cop-out point, but I really believe that if you don’t enjoy doing any of this then you aren’t going to get any benefit from it. I tend to do the above naturally, but I also do it as a fun exercise. After all learning Japanese should be fun and not a chore so finding fun ways of doing it is important. Too many people in my Japanese class aren’t actually enjoying the experience and having fun with it so they don’t get very far. Every time they mess with Japanese is it a chore so things like this ruin their experience of Anime or J-Dramas. So don’t do any of this if you aren’t going to enjoy it.
In the end learning Japanese is what you make of it. Nothing more nothing less. This is a way for you to maybe get more out of what you do, and also maybe gives you another way to look at study habits when dealing with media.

Have you found ways to effectively use subtitles to help you learn?

Steps to Start Learning Japanese

Define Your Goals
Learn About Learning AJATT is a Good Place to Start
Start Listening to Japanese
Learn Katakana and Hiragana
Try to Forget Romaji
Start Learning Kanji
Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
Get a Good Book
Vocab Is A Key
Be Aware
Note: During this whole process you should be trying to read and learn vocab

Define your Goals
One of the most important things for people to realize is why they are doing something. So the first step is to figure out why you are learning Japanese so you can stay motivated to continue. Write down your goal on a post-it, and post it somewhere you will see it everyday. Every time you get another reason add it to another post-it note next to the last one. That should help to keep you focused.

Learn About Learning – AJATT is a good place to start
Everyone always talks about learning something new, but often people don’t realize knowing “how to learn” is almost as important as learning. So I recommend visiting the AJATT (All Japanese All The Time) site and reading his site to learn more about learning. You can maybe also pick up a few pointers on where to start learning Japanese

Start Listening to Japanese
If you aren’t watching Anime, Japanese Dramas or listening to Japanese Music it is recommended to start, now. Start surrounding yourself with Japanese video, audio, and as much culture as you can. The more you hear Japanese the more learning new Japanese will be easier for you. For example during a local Language club meeting people will use phrases I hear all the time or say things with specific tones and I’ll recognize them because I hear them a lot in Anime or J-Dramas, so it makes figuring out the language easier. I recommend first just start listing to Japanese Music by finding some Japanese radio stations.

Learn Katakana and Hiragana
One of the most important steps to learning Japanese is learning the writing systems. There are 3 to learn (hiragana, katakana, and kanji) the first 2 are the easiest, and can get you started quite well. It is very important to learn Hiragana and Katakana over romaji since it is native to Japan and you wont go to Japan or to Japanese sites and see romaji. I also made a post about how to Learn Katakana and Hiragana in 2 weeks, please feel free to check it out and give it a shot.

Try to FORGET Romaji
Romaji is the devil, Waterboy reference there. One of the biggest problems is too many people rely on romaji. It hinders not only their reading of Japanese, but also their speaking. I expand a lot more on this in a post on Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back. Suffice it to say remove romaji from your daily use as quick as possible.

Start Learning Kanji
I used to fight Kanji a lot, still do at times. I always felt like some drunk Chinese dude sat down one day and said “Hey, I am going to make a screwed up writing system just to mess with foreigners”, still do feel that way at times. Some of the kanji just makes you go “What?”. However, as I learn more and more Kanji I understand the importance of kanji, and that kanji makes japanese easy, believe it or not.

I recommend to at least start learning Kanji from the Hesig book “Remembering the Kanji“. It is an easy book to follow and gets you started down the path of learning some of the most important Kanji to learn. The book teaches 2047 in total.

Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
This I think is one of the most important aspects of learning Japanese. If you can’t share it with anyone then what is the point in learning it. So either start looking for friends who are Japanese or others learning Japanese, or both. For in person local friends checkout Meetup.com. It is how I found our local city based Language group, maybe even start one if there isn’t one. Also here are some online ways to connect with others too.

Smart.fm
Twitter – Follow Me
Lang-8
EduFire
Get a Good Book
One of the things I disagree with the AJATT method on is how to learn grammar. While it is entirely possible to learn proper grammar from finding patterns, have done it a bit. I personally feel it takes a bit too long, plus I like to be a bit nerdy and learn grammar. So I recommend finding a good solid text book to follow. Remember the link above,Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back, when selecting your book. There are 2 textbooks I recommend you choose between Elementary Japanese and/or Genki. I plan to do a review on both of them in the future as to why I recommend them specifically.

Vocabulary Is A Key
I analogize this to golf. One thing you hear all the time in golf is “Work on the short game”. My problem for the longest is if I can’t get off the tee-box close enough to the green to use my short game, the short game doesn’t matter. You can learn grammar, writing system, culture, everything, but if you don’t have a vocabulary then it is all useless. The biggest hindrance for a lot of people is knowing enough words to understand what is going on around you. So learn vocab and keep at it.

Be Aware
Finally, be aware of your learning and your progress. How you study, habits, and your personal life change over time. As you learn newer and better ways to do things you will tweak things in your life. The key thing is to be aware of these changes and the changes around you and to adjust your learning accordingly. Also be sure to pay attention to your goals of why you are learning Japanese. Many times our goals and reasons for learning new things change. It isn’t bad to change, but it is important to realize the importance of ever changing goals. So just be aware, and go with the flow. most of all have fun.

Conclusion
A lot of the time when people want to learn something new they aren’t sure where to start. Hopefully these 10 steps provide you the starting point to at least get far enough to know where the next step is in learning Japanese is. Just remember this is a place to start and isn’t a definitive guide.

If you have any recommendations or questions please leave a comment. Especially if you disagree let me know why and where.

Hiragana Song