Well, I've had quite a busy week. Concerts weddings, vacations, ahahah. I've come to the realization that Daily Japanese is going to be quite difficult for the time being, so I think it's going to transform into the all-new and exciting WEEKLY JAPANESE!
I'll try to update with a new and interesting phrase or knowledge to add to your repertoire of Japanese every Thursday or Friday (not sure on the day yet). Outside of that, I'll try to keep updating as usual with all kinds of things. Here are some things you can look forward to in the coming week or two:
- Japanese sentence structure made easy (for intermediate/advanced learners)
- A look at the three different "types" of sentences (for beginners)
- Review of a cool online tool for kanji studies and how to use it most effectively
- How to use WWWJDIC sites effectively (for beginners)
- A gaming review of a game that allows you to practice almost everything!
And after I get a bit more of the "beginner" articles down, I might start with "lesson" articles that detail more basic structures and concepts that help in getting a solid foundation in Japanese.
Since this blog doesn't have very many readers yet, I hope you can pass the word along to help me out. I'd love to get some feedback to help create a great center for advice and learning for beginners and self-studiers and anyone looking to learn Japanese :)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Gaming Japanese: Learn Japanese with Super Smash Bros.!
Hello everyone, and welcome to another blog about learning Japanese through gaming. Last time I talked about the ability to use Pocket Monsters to practice kana reading and recognition in a natural setting. Today we will talk about a game that you can actually pick up in the United States easily.
It's a fairly famous game, and you may know it already. This game is Super Smash Bros. Melee. It's the second game in the Super Smash Bros. series, made for the Nintendo Gamecube console. Since it's a Gamecube game, you can also play it on your Wii (but you will need Gamecube controllers to play!)
The game is a party-platformer-fighting game (it's hard to describe, really!) in which you play as a cast of Nintendo characters from many popular game series. In addition to this, you collect "trophies" (called "figures" in Japanese) as you play that give you information about various characters, objects, and worlds from all kinds of Nintendo games. There are hundreds of these to collect and read!
They look like this:
And you may notice that picture has Japanese text, and there's a lot there to read. Imagine hundreds of these little trophies with interesting trivia about your favorite games, all there ready for you to practice Japanese while you play a fun game.
Well, here's the exciting part, you can actually buy the Japanese version in the North American region, without needing a Japanese Wii or Gamecube to play! That's because the Japanese version is actually included in the North American release!
Within the game's options menu, you have the ability to change the game into Japanese. All of the text and voices will now be their Japanese counterparts! Be warned that once you do this, even the menus will be in Japanese, so if you don't know Japanese well at all, make sure you memorize the menus or have a dictionary handy so you can figure out how to change it back and navigate your way through the game.
There is a lot of reading and interesting trivia to be read in this game. And you can buy it on Amazon.com easily for under $20. Because the game is old now, you might have trouble finding a new copy, but used copies are abundant since it was a huge hit and sold millions of copies.
This game is great for seeing Japanese written naturally for a native audience, and it's on an interesting subject. Also, because it's often about game characters and worlds, there will be a lot of words in katakana, so you can practice your reading of kana in a natural setting. Over the kanji there are furigana (little characters that show you the reading), so you can look up kanji very easily (without having to look up radicals and stuff) or recognize words that you may know that you didn't know the kanji for. All of this while learning all about your favorite games, even down to obscure characters from obscure games that you may have never heard of before. There is a ton of content in this game, so it can keep you entertained for a long time, and it can let you practice Japanese all the while. The more you play, the more trophies you unlock to read and practice with.
I think it's a great game to play just for fun, and it has a lot of Japanese to read, too. And since a lot of people have a Gamecube or Wii, and the game is cheap and can be easily bought in the US, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up for under $20 with no extra costs to play. That's pretty cheap and easy to get your hands on a Japanese game :)
It's a fairly famous game, and you may know it already. This game is Super Smash Bros. Melee. It's the second game in the Super Smash Bros. series, made for the Nintendo Gamecube console. Since it's a Gamecube game, you can also play it on your Wii (but you will need Gamecube controllers to play!)
The game is a party-platformer-fighting game (it's hard to describe, really!) in which you play as a cast of Nintendo characters from many popular game series. In addition to this, you collect "trophies" (called "figures" in Japanese) as you play that give you information about various characters, objects, and worlds from all kinds of Nintendo games. There are hundreds of these to collect and read!
They look like this:
And you may notice that picture has Japanese text, and there's a lot there to read. Imagine hundreds of these little trophies with interesting trivia about your favorite games, all there ready for you to practice Japanese while you play a fun game.
Well, here's the exciting part, you can actually buy the Japanese version in the North American region, without needing a Japanese Wii or Gamecube to play! That's because the Japanese version is actually included in the North American release!
Within the game's options menu, you have the ability to change the game into Japanese. All of the text and voices will now be their Japanese counterparts! Be warned that once you do this, even the menus will be in Japanese, so if you don't know Japanese well at all, make sure you memorize the menus or have a dictionary handy so you can figure out how to change it back and navigate your way through the game.
There is a lot of reading and interesting trivia to be read in this game. And you can buy it on Amazon.com easily for under $20. Because the game is old now, you might have trouble finding a new copy, but used copies are abundant since it was a huge hit and sold millions of copies.
This game is great for seeing Japanese written naturally for a native audience, and it's on an interesting subject. Also, because it's often about game characters and worlds, there will be a lot of words in katakana, so you can practice your reading of kana in a natural setting. Over the kanji there are furigana (little characters that show you the reading), so you can look up kanji very easily (without having to look up radicals and stuff) or recognize words that you may know that you didn't know the kanji for. All of this while learning all about your favorite games, even down to obscure characters from obscure games that you may have never heard of before. There is a ton of content in this game, so it can keep you entertained for a long time, and it can let you practice Japanese all the while. The more you play, the more trophies you unlock to read and practice with.
I think it's a great game to play just for fun, and it has a lot of Japanese to read, too. And since a lot of people have a Gamecube or Wii, and the game is cheap and can be easily bought in the US, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up for under $20 with no extra costs to play. That's pretty cheap and easy to get your hands on a Japanese game :)
Daily Japanese: April 10, 2011 - "I don't know."
Hi again, everyone, and welcome to today's daily Japanese. Today we're going to learn about an important word that you will be using in everyday Japanese.
分かる wakaru
If you're studying on your own, chances are you've heard this word plenty. Often it translates to things like "to understand." Let's learn a little bit more of this word.
First, look at the kanji that is used to write it: 分
Now, kanji are not pictograms, and you shouldn't look at them as pictures most of the time, but the kanji used in wakaru is literally a 刀 katana (Japanese war sword) cutting through something (see the split wood above the "sword"?)
Of course, wakaru doesn't mean to cut through things, but this kanji is also used to mean things like "divide." The idea behind wakaru is that, in your head, you are "cutting up" or dividing information into understandable parts -- you are making your brain able to comprehend information.
The reason I'm bringing up this word is because its dictionary definition can be misleading. It's always better to pick up words by hearing their usage rather than seeing a translation and assuming they are used the same way.
I was inspired to write this post again after playing UNLIMITED:Saga and realized this a mistake a lot of beginners and self-study students can make.
A lot of times, when you want to say "I don't know," you will use 分からない wakaranai. If you were to use a dictionary, you would probably come up with 知らない siranai/shiranai; however, often it is a lot more natural to use wakaranai instead.
In the opening of U:Sg (Laura's quest), Laura is asking Henri why there are people after him, who they are, if they are bandits or hired, etc. To her questions, he answers simply 分かりません wakarimasen each time. He's saying this not because he's claiming not to understand her questions, but he's saying that he doesn't know the answers -- he doesn't understand the meaning behind his chasers' actions.
But it's used in all kinds of situations. Usually if someone is asking you "how" or "why," even if in English you would answer "I don't know," you would answer wakaranai in Japanese.
The dictionary translation of "to know," 知る siru/shiru, is about knowing in the sense of being familiar with things. Like how you "know" a person, "know" of a place, or "know" a fact. It's used for that kind of "know." Of course, in the case where someone asks you a question about how or why and you absolutely don't know the answer, you can say siranai/shiranai, but if you're not using it with someone who knows you well or you are casual with, it can have a nuance of something like "I don't know (and I really don't care)." unless you say it just right. Often, it's what little kids will say when their 1st grade teacher asks them a question and they don't want to answer because they don't feel like being in school. It's like "Why would you even ask me that? How could I possibly know?" That kind of feeling is carried in siranai/shiranai.
When you're talking about knowing someone or knowing a fact, you can use siru/shiru, but when you're talking about "knowing" anything else, I'd say it's safe to say wakaru first.
Even still, though, in a lot of situations, people still will use wakaru to state that they don't know something.
A lot of times when I see people asking for the title of a song (like, they've heard a song but don't know the name), they will state their request by saying 曲名が分かりません kyoukumei ga wakarimasen, meaning "I don't know the (song) title."
When you want to say you don't know Korean, you would say 韓国語がわからない kankokugo ga wakaranai, which means by a dictionary that you don't "understand" Korean, but it's the same way that you would say you don't understand/speak/know Korean. If someone is speaking Japanese to you, but you aren't good enough to understand them, you can say すみません、日本語分かりません。 Sumimasen, nihongo wakarimasen. This would mean "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese." A lot of people who were using a dictionary would try to say something like 話せない hanasenai, but this isn't very natural (and you're talking about understanding their speech in your apology, not your ability to speak... although it is true that you're not able to speak back. But if you're saying your response in Japanese, even if that's all you know, you do technically have that ability to speak, so it would be weird to say that.)
Check out these Google instructions that teach you how to look up the spelling of words when you don't know the spelling. 分からない単語の正しいスペル wakaranai tango no tadasii/tadashii superu is a phrase that refers to not knowing the spelling of a word, not that you don't understand the word, even though a dictionary would translate wakaranai to "don't understand."
The main point here is that wakaru, although a dictionary will say "to understand," is used to mean "know" in the sense that we use it in English, among many other things, and it's important to listen out for it and pick it up this way. A lot of times when you want to use what we would say as "know" in English, it's better to use wakaru instead of siru/shiru or other words.
And since we're talking about the word, another important use of wakaru is receiving directions or information. When someone has explained something to you or told you to do something, you can say 分かった wakatta to confirm that you understood what was said. It means kind of like "got it" or "ok," though literally means "understood." But you will hear this a lot, so listen for it, too.
分かる wakaru
If you're studying on your own, chances are you've heard this word plenty. Often it translates to things like "to understand." Let's learn a little bit more of this word.
First, look at the kanji that is used to write it: 分
Now, kanji are not pictograms, and you shouldn't look at them as pictures most of the time, but the kanji used in wakaru is literally a 刀 katana (Japanese war sword) cutting through something (see the split wood above the "sword"?)
Of course, wakaru doesn't mean to cut through things, but this kanji is also used to mean things like "divide." The idea behind wakaru is that, in your head, you are "cutting up" or dividing information into understandable parts -- you are making your brain able to comprehend information.
The reason I'm bringing up this word is because its dictionary definition can be misleading. It's always better to pick up words by hearing their usage rather than seeing a translation and assuming they are used the same way.
I was inspired to write this post again after playing UNLIMITED:Saga and realized this a mistake a lot of beginners and self-study students can make.
A lot of times, when you want to say "I don't know," you will use 分からない wakaranai. If you were to use a dictionary, you would probably come up with 知らない siranai/shiranai; however, often it is a lot more natural to use wakaranai instead.
In the opening of U:Sg (Laura's quest), Laura is asking Henri why there are people after him, who they are, if they are bandits or hired, etc. To her questions, he answers simply 分かりません wakarimasen each time. He's saying this not because he's claiming not to understand her questions, but he's saying that he doesn't know the answers -- he doesn't understand the meaning behind his chasers' actions.
But it's used in all kinds of situations. Usually if someone is asking you "how" or "why," even if in English you would answer "I don't know," you would answer wakaranai in Japanese.
The dictionary translation of "to know," 知る siru/shiru, is about knowing in the sense of being familiar with things. Like how you "know" a person, "know" of a place, or "know" a fact. It's used for that kind of "know." Of course, in the case where someone asks you a question about how or why and you absolutely don't know the answer, you can say siranai/shiranai, but if you're not using it with someone who knows you well or you are casual with, it can have a nuance of something like "I don't know (and I really don't care)." unless you say it just right. Often, it's what little kids will say when their 1st grade teacher asks them a question and they don't want to answer because they don't feel like being in school. It's like "Why would you even ask me that? How could I possibly know?" That kind of feeling is carried in siranai/shiranai.
When you're talking about knowing someone or knowing a fact, you can use siru/shiru, but when you're talking about "knowing" anything else, I'd say it's safe to say wakaru first.
Even still, though, in a lot of situations, people still will use wakaru to state that they don't know something.
A lot of times when I see people asking for the title of a song (like, they've heard a song but don't know the name), they will state their request by saying 曲名が分かりません kyoukumei ga wakarimasen, meaning "I don't know the (song) title."
When you want to say you don't know Korean, you would say 韓国語がわからない kankokugo ga wakaranai, which means by a dictionary that you don't "understand" Korean, but it's the same way that you would say you don't understand/speak/know Korean. If someone is speaking Japanese to you, but you aren't good enough to understand them, you can say すみません、日本語分かりません。 Sumimasen, nihongo wakarimasen. This would mean "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese." A lot of people who were using a dictionary would try to say something like 話せない hanasenai, but this isn't very natural (and you're talking about understanding their speech in your apology, not your ability to speak... although it is true that you're not able to speak back. But if you're saying your response in Japanese, even if that's all you know, you do technically have that ability to speak, so it would be weird to say that.)
Check out these Google instructions that teach you how to look up the spelling of words when you don't know the spelling. 分からない単語の正しいスペル wakaranai tango no tadasii/tadashii superu is a phrase that refers to not knowing the spelling of a word, not that you don't understand the word, even though a dictionary would translate wakaranai to "don't understand."
The main point here is that wakaru, although a dictionary will say "to understand," is used to mean "know" in the sense that we use it in English, among many other things, and it's important to listen out for it and pick it up this way. A lot of times when you want to use what we would say as "know" in English, it's better to use wakaru instead of siru/shiru or other words.
And since we're talking about the word, another important use of wakaru is receiving directions or information. When someone has explained something to you or told you to do something, you can say 分かった wakatta to confirm that you understood what was said. It means kind of like "got it" or "ok," though literally means "understood." But you will hear this a lot, so listen for it, too.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Daily Japanese: April 08, 2011 - Yes & No
Hello, friends! Welcome to another daily helping of random Japanese stuff that you can incorporate into your Japanese right away naturally :)
Today we're going to talk about various ways to say yes and no. You'd be surprised that it's not as simple as it seems, but it's also not that difficult.
Let's start out with what you will usually see in a dictionary:
はい hai is the proper word for "Yes."
いいえ iie is the proper word for "No."
I say "proper" because they are more formal words. While you can certainly use them in casual situations, too, they definitely sound more polite and stiff than their casual counterparts. Consider how it sounds when someone says "Yes." instead of "Yeah." in English. It is a good idea to use these forms when you are talking to someone of a higher position than you (boss, teacher, senior, etc.) or when you are writing formally.
ええ ee is a more casual form of "Yes." (like "Yeah.")
いや iya is a more casual form of "No."
These are used a lot more often casually in everday speech than their polite counterparts. You can use them politely, as well. You can use them in polite situations and with strangers and things. They are probably the most commonly used in regular speech.
うん written un is said like an "nn" or "mm" sound. It is even more casual than ee.
ううん written uun is said like two nn sounds back to back. The first one is higher pitched.
These are very casual, a lot like saying "uh-huh" in English to mean "yes."
These are the most common ways that people say yes and no in Japanese. There are all kinds away you can affirm and negate, of course, but these are simple "yes" and "no" phrases that you can use exactly like you would use them in English, as a type of interjection-like word.
One thing to note is that when asked questions, Japanese people always answer yes or no based on the question asked. So if someone asked "Are there no drinks left in the fridge?" a proper reply would be "Yes, there are no drinks." The "yes" part means "Yes, you are right." If you say "No, there are no drinks." It would not make any sense in Japanese and would be confusing.
Another thing you will notice is that people say "yes" in Japanese to signify that they are listening and understand you. It is not uncommon for a Japanese person to answer "Yes" to any question you ask before giving their answer. When they do this, it means that they followed what you said, but they're not actually answering "Yes" to anything. In fact, even if the answer is "No," someone may say "Yes" before the "No" to show that they understood the question. It would be natural for you to practice doing this as well.
You may also notice that Japanese people may constantly say ee and un while listening. They are not trying to interrupt you; this is a way to show that they are following what you're saying as you say it.
I think the best way to learn these is to pick them up through listening to natural speech. Try watching talk shows and things like that to see people talking naturally rather than following a script.
Here's a video of the music talk show "Utaban." In this show, the hosts interview various musical acts. In this episode, they talk to a very large girl group with many memebers. Notice the uses of all three hai, ee, and un in their speech. Notice how the hosts often go un un un as they listen and follow the girls. Note how the young girl interviewed first in this clip answers the question about her school grade with ee. See what other instances of the "yes words" you can find.
Try to listen for them everywhere, and try to incorporate them into your own Japanese. It will sound very natural and native-like if you copy those kinds of examples :)
Also note there may not be a Daily Japanese tomorrow because my band is giving a concert :)
Today we're going to talk about various ways to say yes and no. You'd be surprised that it's not as simple as it seems, but it's also not that difficult.
Let's start out with what you will usually see in a dictionary:
はい hai is the proper word for "Yes."
いいえ iie is the proper word for "No."
I say "proper" because they are more formal words. While you can certainly use them in casual situations, too, they definitely sound more polite and stiff than their casual counterparts. Consider how it sounds when someone says "Yes." instead of "Yeah." in English. It is a good idea to use these forms when you are talking to someone of a higher position than you (boss, teacher, senior, etc.) or when you are writing formally.
ええ ee is a more casual form of "Yes." (like "Yeah.")
いや iya is a more casual form of "No."
These are used a lot more often casually in everday speech than their polite counterparts. You can use them politely, as well. You can use them in polite situations and with strangers and things. They are probably the most commonly used in regular speech.
うん written un is said like an "nn" or "mm" sound. It is even more casual than ee.
ううん written uun is said like two nn sounds back to back. The first one is higher pitched.
These are very casual, a lot like saying "uh-huh" in English to mean "yes."
These are the most common ways that people say yes and no in Japanese. There are all kinds away you can affirm and negate, of course, but these are simple "yes" and "no" phrases that you can use exactly like you would use them in English, as a type of interjection-like word.
One thing to note is that when asked questions, Japanese people always answer yes or no based on the question asked. So if someone asked "Are there no drinks left in the fridge?" a proper reply would be "Yes, there are no drinks." The "yes" part means "Yes, you are right." If you say "No, there are no drinks." It would not make any sense in Japanese and would be confusing.
Another thing you will notice is that people say "yes" in Japanese to signify that they are listening and understand you. It is not uncommon for a Japanese person to answer "Yes" to any question you ask before giving their answer. When they do this, it means that they followed what you said, but they're not actually answering "Yes" to anything. In fact, even if the answer is "No," someone may say "Yes" before the "No" to show that they understood the question. It would be natural for you to practice doing this as well.
You may also notice that Japanese people may constantly say ee and un while listening. They are not trying to interrupt you; this is a way to show that they are following what you're saying as you say it.
I think the best way to learn these is to pick them up through listening to natural speech. Try watching talk shows and things like that to see people talking naturally rather than following a script.
Here's a video of the music talk show "Utaban." In this show, the hosts interview various musical acts. In this episode, they talk to a very large girl group with many memebers. Notice the uses of all three hai, ee, and un in their speech. Notice how the hosts often go un un un as they listen and follow the girls. Note how the young girl interviewed first in this clip answers the question about her school grade with ee. See what other instances of the "yes words" you can find.
Try to listen for them everywhere, and try to incorporate them into your own Japanese. It will sound very natural and native-like if you copy those kinds of examples :)
Also note there may not be a Daily Japanese tomorrow because my band is giving a concert :)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Gaming Japanese: Learn Japanese with Pokémon!
Hello, friends! How are your Japanese studies going? For those of you in self-study, you've probably found that sometimes practice can be hard to come by, especially if you don't know any friends studying Japanese (or at least not as seriously as you).
So I'm going to start a feature on this blog that deals with my favorite self-study practice method: playing games! Now, playing games is not going to help you practice your speaking skills (well, most of the time, at least), but it will help you practice your reading, listening, and comprehension! Pretty much everything except speaking (you'll have to talk to yourself or your game if you want to practice that while gaming, ahaha).
Anyway, I want to start off with a game I recommended to my classmates when we were beginners in college. I went into my university studies already knowing how to read and write both kana scripts and a small handful of kanji. But a lot of students were only vaguely familiar with it or even trying to read and write it for the very first time. Since I already had a couple of Japanese games for my Game Boy, I decided to loan one to my classmate (who later became my friend and roommate) to help him practice his reading and recognizing the kana. It really helped him a lot, and he started bringing it to class and everyone was talking about it and getting their own copies.
This game is ポケットモンスター poketto monsutaa. "Pocket Monsters," or better known as "Pokémon" in the west.
Why Pokémon? Pokémon is a children's game, which means that it's written at a kids' reading level. The game does not use ANY kanji, and there are spaces between the words. This makes it easy to see where words begin and end, and you don't have to look up any kanji. The game is also heavily text-based, so there are words on the screen all the time. This means you're constantly looking at kana, and often you need to read it to get by.
The game is also easy and simple enough that even if you don't understand the words or grammar, you can still push yourself through the game without knowing what you're doing (Especially if you've played before in English). This way you're just practicing reading kana and recognizing which is which. In a way, it's like flashcards, but disguised as a game.
Then when you get a better vocabulary and grammar, you can revisit the game and actually understand what they're saying without having to worry about kanji you haven't learned yet.
The best thing to do when playing this kind of game is to try to read every character aloud as you play. Even if you don't know what you're saying, remember you're just practicing recognizing characters. I think the best practice really comes from reading words you know, but in the beginning, you won't really know that many words. You can also practice by reading the words in the game, then using a dictionary to look the words up. Even if you don't remember the words you're looking up, you can still see if you're reading them right this way. If you use Jim Breen's, you'll be able to catch when you're looking up conjugated words (which wouldn't appear in a normal dictionary).
Right now, the seven newest versions of the game for the DS that are easy to find in-stock in stores include (with links to where you can buy them):
Pokémon Black
Pokémon White
Pokémon Heart Gold
Pokémon Soul Silver
Pokémon Diamond
Pokémon Pearl
Pokémon Platinum
Of course, you might not be wanting to shell away $50 for a new game for your DSi unless you're a big fan already. You can try finding them on e-bay as well, though beware of getting fakes that may not even work, may be in Chinese, etc. You can often find older Japanese versions for cheap on there (but it's really easy to run into Chinese versions and fakes claiming to be official Japanese copies).
You can also look around in nearby stores if you live in an area where Japanese games might be sold. When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, there was a game store by the Japanese restaurant Akai Hana that sold Japanese games.
Also, if you are visiting Japan or know someone living in Japan, Japanese used game stores will easily have these games, and they will be much cheaper than buying online. Plus, Japanese used condition is very good. Unlike in the US where used game stores are full of beat up games with scratches often missing their box and manual, Japanese used games are in like-new condition with all their components, sometimes even re-wrapped in plastic. It's like getting a new game for a cheaper price!
Your last option to buy Japanese games if you can't buy online or go to Japan is to try at anime and game conventions. Especially the bigger ones you will find game vendors. But even at smaller ones, it seems that games are sold sometimes. If you visit these kinds of events normally, you can go to the dealer's room and try to find some games. Pokémon is popular, so there's a good chance you'll find it if they are selling games. If you don't normally go to these places, note that you often have to buy an event ticket just to get into the room with the shops (which will usually run you a good deal of money unless you pre-order). Also note that games tend to be VERY expensive at these events. I remember going to one and seeing Legendary Starfy 2 for $70, when I bought it at Play-Asia.com for $15 while it was on sale (they're always having sales and stuff). I remember I asked the guy at the booth why everything was so expensive, and he said "This is the cheapest you can find it." I told him about shopping online and he said I was lying O_o I guess they just really want you to buy the games at a high price there. It makes sense, since if they don't sell them, they lose a LOT of money from buying them themselves.
Anyway, if you do get your hands on a Pocket Monsters game from Japan, have fun playing it and use it to study well :) It can really help you practice Japanese before you get a high reading level. Some other games like this include the Mother series and ChoroQ HG series.
So I'm going to start a feature on this blog that deals with my favorite self-study practice method: playing games! Now, playing games is not going to help you practice your speaking skills (well, most of the time, at least), but it will help you practice your reading, listening, and comprehension! Pretty much everything except speaking (you'll have to talk to yourself or your game if you want to practice that while gaming, ahaha).
Anyway, I want to start off with a game I recommended to my classmates when we were beginners in college. I went into my university studies already knowing how to read and write both kana scripts and a small handful of kanji. But a lot of students were only vaguely familiar with it or even trying to read and write it for the very first time. Since I already had a couple of Japanese games for my Game Boy, I decided to loan one to my classmate (who later became my friend and roommate) to help him practice his reading and recognizing the kana. It really helped him a lot, and he started bringing it to class and everyone was talking about it and getting their own copies.
This game is ポケットモンスター poketto monsutaa. "Pocket Monsters," or better known as "Pokémon" in the west.
Why Pokémon? Pokémon is a children's game, which means that it's written at a kids' reading level. The game does not use ANY kanji, and there are spaces between the words. This makes it easy to see where words begin and end, and you don't have to look up any kanji. The game is also heavily text-based, so there are words on the screen all the time. This means you're constantly looking at kana, and often you need to read it to get by.
The game is also easy and simple enough that even if you don't understand the words or grammar, you can still push yourself through the game without knowing what you're doing (Especially if you've played before in English). This way you're just practicing reading kana and recognizing which is which. In a way, it's like flashcards, but disguised as a game.
Then when you get a better vocabulary and grammar, you can revisit the game and actually understand what they're saying without having to worry about kanji you haven't learned yet.
The best thing to do when playing this kind of game is to try to read every character aloud as you play. Even if you don't know what you're saying, remember you're just practicing recognizing characters. I think the best practice really comes from reading words you know, but in the beginning, you won't really know that many words. You can also practice by reading the words in the game, then using a dictionary to look the words up. Even if you don't remember the words you're looking up, you can still see if you're reading them right this way. If you use Jim Breen's, you'll be able to catch when you're looking up conjugated words (which wouldn't appear in a normal dictionary).
Right now, the seven newest versions of the game for the DS that are easy to find in-stock in stores include (with links to where you can buy them):
Pokémon Black
Pokémon White
Pokémon Heart Gold
Pokémon Soul Silver
Pokémon Diamond
Pokémon Pearl
Pokémon Platinum
Of course, you might not be wanting to shell away $50 for a new game for your DSi unless you're a big fan already. You can try finding them on e-bay as well, though beware of getting fakes that may not even work, may be in Chinese, etc. You can often find older Japanese versions for cheap on there (but it's really easy to run into Chinese versions and fakes claiming to be official Japanese copies).
You can also look around in nearby stores if you live in an area where Japanese games might be sold. When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, there was a game store by the Japanese restaurant Akai Hana that sold Japanese games.
Also, if you are visiting Japan or know someone living in Japan, Japanese used game stores will easily have these games, and they will be much cheaper than buying online. Plus, Japanese used condition is very good. Unlike in the US where used game stores are full of beat up games with scratches often missing their box and manual, Japanese used games are in like-new condition with all their components, sometimes even re-wrapped in plastic. It's like getting a new game for a cheaper price!
Your last option to buy Japanese games if you can't buy online or go to Japan is to try at anime and game conventions. Especially the bigger ones you will find game vendors. But even at smaller ones, it seems that games are sold sometimes. If you visit these kinds of events normally, you can go to the dealer's room and try to find some games. Pokémon is popular, so there's a good chance you'll find it if they are selling games. If you don't normally go to these places, note that you often have to buy an event ticket just to get into the room with the shops (which will usually run you a good deal of money unless you pre-order). Also note that games tend to be VERY expensive at these events. I remember going to one and seeing Legendary Starfy 2 for $70, when I bought it at Play-Asia.com for $15 while it was on sale (they're always having sales and stuff). I remember I asked the guy at the booth why everything was so expensive, and he said "This is the cheapest you can find it." I told him about shopping online and he said I was lying O_o I guess they just really want you to buy the games at a high price there. It makes sense, since if they don't sell them, they lose a LOT of money from buying them themselves.
Anyway, if you do get your hands on a Pocket Monsters game from Japan, have fun playing it and use it to study well :) It can really help you practice Japanese before you get a high reading level. Some other games like this include the Mother series and ChoroQ HG series.
Pace yourself...
When trying to teach yourself Japanese, there's an important question that arises fast: How much should I be trying to learn every day?
Pacing your self-study seems daunting, especially if you're an organized person who likes to have a syllabus or guideline. But I think what's important is to not look at it as a structured thing. Instead, learn what you need to until you've learned it.
I know that sounds weird, but it works a lot better that way. Just learn what you're working on now, and once you've got it down, move on. This will keep you from messing up in the future. There's nothing more frustrating than getting to a point where you realize you don't really know what you're doing and everything is a big, confused mess in your head, and it seems that all you ever do is look up stuff in books and on websites to try to learn what you're supposed to already know.
So do it like this:
1. Learn one thing at a time.
2. Practice the one thing you've learned until you feel like you can do it "without thinking," or naturally.
3. Start learning something new, but incorporate what you already know into it so you don't forget or lose it.
4. Keep practicing using everything you know until it's all natural...
5. Go back to 3.
This is as far as learning things like new structures and grammars and ways of thinking. As far as how many words you should be learning, or how many kanjis you should be writing, I think it's really up to you. Keep studying and reviewing, and make sure you're not learning so many that you keep forgetting. I think it's better to just learn them as it feels comfortable, so that it just feels like you're satisfying your curiosity, and not that you're forcing them in like what you normally think of "study." It's better when it feels like you're just discovering and picking up words and stuff. If you keep yourself at that comfort level, I think you have a good pace.
What's most important is never to overwhelm yourself or cram stuff in. Make sure you're having fun! If a concept is hard for you to get down, take it more slowly. If something comes natural to you, you can move on more quickly
And as for daily use, spend a lot of time PRACTICING. Even if it means just talking to yourself as you go throughout your day (I've found the best practice you can do on your own is to just think in Japanese). You want to practice more than you sit and learn new stuff. Just like learning an instrument, you can look at a new piece and see how it goes, but you can't play it well or be good at it until you've practiced a lot. And if you just play through it once and then move on and never look at it again, you'll never really be able to play it well. Don't expect to go to a concert like that! And using Japanese naturally is your "concert," so you need to get in all the rehearsal you can :)
Pacing your self-study seems daunting, especially if you're an organized person who likes to have a syllabus or guideline. But I think what's important is to not look at it as a structured thing. Instead, learn what you need to until you've learned it.
I know that sounds weird, but it works a lot better that way. Just learn what you're working on now, and once you've got it down, move on. This will keep you from messing up in the future. There's nothing more frustrating than getting to a point where you realize you don't really know what you're doing and everything is a big, confused mess in your head, and it seems that all you ever do is look up stuff in books and on websites to try to learn what you're supposed to already know.
So do it like this:
1. Learn one thing at a time.
2. Practice the one thing you've learned until you feel like you can do it "without thinking," or naturally.
3. Start learning something new, but incorporate what you already know into it so you don't forget or lose it.
4. Keep practicing using everything you know until it's all natural...
5. Go back to 3.
This is as far as learning things like new structures and grammars and ways of thinking. As far as how many words you should be learning, or how many kanjis you should be writing, I think it's really up to you. Keep studying and reviewing, and make sure you're not learning so many that you keep forgetting. I think it's better to just learn them as it feels comfortable, so that it just feels like you're satisfying your curiosity, and not that you're forcing them in like what you normally think of "study." It's better when it feels like you're just discovering and picking up words and stuff. If you keep yourself at that comfort level, I think you have a good pace.
What's most important is never to overwhelm yourself or cram stuff in. Make sure you're having fun! If a concept is hard for you to get down, take it more slowly. If something comes natural to you, you can move on more quickly
And as for daily use, spend a lot of time PRACTICING. Even if it means just talking to yourself as you go throughout your day (I've found the best practice you can do on your own is to just think in Japanese). You want to practice more than you sit and learn new stuff. Just like learning an instrument, you can look at a new piece and see how it goes, but you can't play it well or be good at it until you've practiced a lot. And if you just play through it once and then move on and never look at it again, you'll never really be able to play it well. Don't expect to go to a concert like that! And using Japanese naturally is your "concert," so you need to get in all the rehearsal you can :)
Make your first Japanese sentence! The easy way!
So, you know a bunch of words in Japanese now, but you don't know how to actually use them to make comprehensive Japanese. How do you do it? Easy, you make a sentence!
Japanese sentence structure and grammar looks really scary. I've seen plenty of Japanese teaching websites and even textbooks that try to explain it in a very complicated way. This is often because they try to teach you using complicated sentences from the start.
You may think a sentence like "John baked a cake." is simple because it doesn't have very many words in it, but that's not true! Look at all these things we have to think about:
We have two objects being referenced (John and cake!)
We have a person performing an action.
We have an object receiving an action.
We have a certain timeframe in which the action has to be completed (in the past, "baked").
Each of these things requires a different rule than in English. So let's not try to do something so complicated.
I think it's a lot easier to learn how to make sentences in Japanese if you start from the ground up -- from the very most basic sentence you can possibly have. And it's very very easy because it's only a single word!
In Japanese, you can make a sentence with only a single word. You don't need to have any kind of object or subject or anything like that. You simply need to have an action or description. I am going to call this part of the sentence the "predicate," but you can call it whatever you want. It is the meat of the sentence, and it's all you need!
There are different types of word classes in Japanese, and each one forms a predicate in a slightly different way. But I will get into predicate types later. For now, we'll just use some simple words so you can be on your way to making Japanese sentences in a matter of seconds.
Think of all the Japanese words you've learned. Do you know any that end in い i and can be used to describe something else? If you are an anime fan, you probably know words like kawaii and sugoi. If not, you may have studied some things like color words akai, aoi, and the like.
You can use these words to make a complete sentence right now! I'm going to use the word うれしい uresii/ureshii. It is often translated as "happy."
In Japanese, you don't need to use a subject unless it's necessary. If it's obvious who or what you're talking about, you should just drop that part of the sentence. In English, we would say things like "I am happy." But in Japanese, you don't need to say all of those words.
So here is my sentence:
うれしい。
Uresii. / Ureshii.
Yes, that's it. One word. This sentence means "I am happy." or "I feel happy." It's a complete, full, proper sentence in Japanese! It actually sounds clunky and awkward if you add the "I am" part and specify that you're talking about yourself. Sometimes, it's okay, but most of the time, you should not add things that aren't needed and stick to smaller sentences like this when talking about yourself.
Now, let's see you are shopping and you and your friend see a cute bag. You and your friend are standing over it... You can say this sentence now:
可愛い！
Kawaii!
And you've just said "This is so cute!" In Japanese, you don't need to have all those words in there like in English, but it still means the same thing, and it's a whole sentence. You're not cutting anything out or leaving parts off or simplifying it. That's a good sentence.
I know a lot of people who use Japanese because they like anime get harped on for using this word like this... but that's 100% proper, natural Japanese! And it's a full, complete sentence! If you say it, you're using Japanese like a native. Don't let people make fun of you if you're wanting to use Japanese and say this... because you're doing it right :) Sure, you might sound like an anime nerd if you just say kawaii all the time and nothing else, but it's still good for your first steps.
Now, as you learn more words and structure, you'll be able to add more to your sentences to be more specific when you need to be. But when you're expressing a simple thought that doesn't need you to point out anything else (like, if you were looking at the bag, obviously you are talking about the bag!) then you can use single words like this, and it will be perfectly natural and proper to do so.
EVERY complete sentence in Japanese is essentially one of these one-word sentences, just with more tacked onto it to be more descriptive when it needs it (you can use other words in your "predicate" as well, but for now I'm only using this one type of word). If you think of Japanese sentences like that, and not as a big list of words with a bunch of rules you need to use, it will be a lot easier to understand. Just start with this very most basic type of sentence, and learn how to add things to it little by little.
If you do this, you will always learn everything you can fully understand. If you use the type of sentence I talked about in this post, you are saying a sentence and you understand every last word in it fully. As you learn to make your sentences more complicated, learn one step at a time. Like "How do I add a subject to talk about a specific thing?" or "How do I add an object of the action I want to talk about?" Then learn how to add those things to your sentence. Then once you do, you'll completely understand the sentences you are making.
This is a lot different from starting from a bigger sentence and trying to learn all the parts at once. This way, you always know exactly what you're doing in Japanese! You're not going to learn the whole language overnight, so I think a pacing like this where you always fully understand what you're saying can work really well. This way you don't practice saying things that are actually bad Japanese that don't make sense. And I feel that when you're not trying to overcomplicate things, you can learn faster, too.
Practice making simple sentences like the ones I taught you for now. Look for these describing words that end in い i and use them by themselves and you'll be saying complete sentences in Japanese, naturally and properly!
Seriously, just take a day thinking of sentences as only one word. Think of places when you can use a single word to describe something without having to specify what you're talking about. Here are some full sentences and examples of when it would be natural to use them:
面白い。 Omosiroi. / Omoshiroi.
1. You're watching a TV show and you think it's funny. If you just say "funny" here, it's obvious you're talking about the show.
おかしい。 Okasii. / Okashii.
2. Someone does something strange and you say "strange." If you just say "strange" here, it's obvious you're talking about the person's action.
おいしい Oisii. / Oishii.
3. You just tried octopus ball (a Japanese food) for the first time and you like it. If you said "tasty" here, it's obvious you're talking about the food.
Try to come up with your own examples. As you spend the rest of the day today, think of descriptive words to talk about what you're doing, tasting, seeing, hearing, experiencing... if you know a Japanese word that fits that, try saying it. If you can look it up, try it and see what you find. You're making whole sentences now!
And it will be so easy to build on them, because this is the core of every Japanese sentence. So get out there and try it!
Japanese sentence structure and grammar looks really scary. I've seen plenty of Japanese teaching websites and even textbooks that try to explain it in a very complicated way. This is often because they try to teach you using complicated sentences from the start.
You may think a sentence like "John baked a cake." is simple because it doesn't have very many words in it, but that's not true! Look at all these things we have to think about:
We have two objects being referenced (John and cake!)
We have a person performing an action.
We have an object receiving an action.
We have a certain timeframe in which the action has to be completed (in the past, "baked").
Each of these things requires a different rule than in English. So let's not try to do something so complicated.
I think it's a lot easier to learn how to make sentences in Japanese if you start from the ground up -- from the very most basic sentence you can possibly have. And it's very very easy because it's only a single word!
In Japanese, you can make a sentence with only a single word. You don't need to have any kind of object or subject or anything like that. You simply need to have an action or description. I am going to call this part of the sentence the "predicate," but you can call it whatever you want. It is the meat of the sentence, and it's all you need!
There are different types of word classes in Japanese, and each one forms a predicate in a slightly different way. But I will get into predicate types later. For now, we'll just use some simple words so you can be on your way to making Japanese sentences in a matter of seconds.
Think of all the Japanese words you've learned. Do you know any that end in い i and can be used to describe something else? If you are an anime fan, you probably know words like kawaii and sugoi. If not, you may have studied some things like color words akai, aoi, and the like.
You can use these words to make a complete sentence right now! I'm going to use the word うれしい uresii/ureshii. It is often translated as "happy."
In Japanese, you don't need to use a subject unless it's necessary. If it's obvious who or what you're talking about, you should just drop that part of the sentence. In English, we would say things like "I am happy." But in Japanese, you don't need to say all of those words.
So here is my sentence:
うれしい。
Uresii. / Ureshii.
Yes, that's it. One word. This sentence means "I am happy." or "I feel happy." It's a complete, full, proper sentence in Japanese! It actually sounds clunky and awkward if you add the "I am" part and specify that you're talking about yourself. Sometimes, it's okay, but most of the time, you should not add things that aren't needed and stick to smaller sentences like this when talking about yourself.
Now, let's see you are shopping and you and your friend see a cute bag. You and your friend are standing over it... You can say this sentence now:
可愛い！
Kawaii!
And you've just said "This is so cute!" In Japanese, you don't need to have all those words in there like in English, but it still means the same thing, and it's a whole sentence. You're not cutting anything out or leaving parts off or simplifying it. That's a good sentence.
I know a lot of people who use Japanese because they like anime get harped on for using this word like this... but that's 100% proper, natural Japanese! And it's a full, complete sentence! If you say it, you're using Japanese like a native. Don't let people make fun of you if you're wanting to use Japanese and say this... because you're doing it right :) Sure, you might sound like an anime nerd if you just say kawaii all the time and nothing else, but it's still good for your first steps.
Now, as you learn more words and structure, you'll be able to add more to your sentences to be more specific when you need to be. But when you're expressing a simple thought that doesn't need you to point out anything else (like, if you were looking at the bag, obviously you are talking about the bag!) then you can use single words like this, and it will be perfectly natural and proper to do so.
EVERY complete sentence in Japanese is essentially one of these one-word sentences, just with more tacked onto it to be more descriptive when it needs it (you can use other words in your "predicate" as well, but for now I'm only using this one type of word). If you think of Japanese sentences like that, and not as a big list of words with a bunch of rules you need to use, it will be a lot easier to understand. Just start with this very most basic type of sentence, and learn how to add things to it little by little.
If you do this, you will always learn everything you can fully understand. If you use the type of sentence I talked about in this post, you are saying a sentence and you understand every last word in it fully. As you learn to make your sentences more complicated, learn one step at a time. Like "How do I add a subject to talk about a specific thing?" or "How do I add an object of the action I want to talk about?" Then learn how to add those things to your sentence. Then once you do, you'll completely understand the sentences you are making.
This is a lot different from starting from a bigger sentence and trying to learn all the parts at once. This way, you always know exactly what you're doing in Japanese! You're not going to learn the whole language overnight, so I think a pacing like this where you always fully understand what you're saying can work really well. This way you don't practice saying things that are actually bad Japanese that don't make sense. And I feel that when you're not trying to overcomplicate things, you can learn faster, too.
Practice making simple sentences like the ones I taught you for now. Look for these describing words that end in い i and use them by themselves and you'll be saying complete sentences in Japanese, naturally and properly!
Seriously, just take a day thinking of sentences as only one word. Think of places when you can use a single word to describe something without having to specify what you're talking about. Here are some full sentences and examples of when it would be natural to use them:
面白い。 Omosiroi. / Omoshiroi.
1. You're watching a TV show and you think it's funny. If you just say "funny" here, it's obvious you're talking about the show.
おかしい。 Okasii. / Okashii.
2. Someone does something strange and you say "strange." If you just say "strange" here, it's obvious you're talking about the person's action.
おいしい Oisii. / Oishii.
3. You just tried octopus ball (a Japanese food) for the first time and you like it. If you said "tasty" here, it's obvious you're talking about the food.
Try to come up with your own examples. As you spend the rest of the day today, think of descriptive words to talk about what you're doing, tasting, seeing, hearing, experiencing... if you know a Japanese word that fits that, try saying it. If you can look it up, try it and see what you find. You're making whole sentences now!
And it will be so easy to build on them, because this is the core of every Japanese sentence. So get out there and try it!
Daily Japanese: April 07, 2011 - Date & Time
こんにちは～ Sorry for missing out yesterday. Here's the return of the Japanese of the Day spot :) So I'll make it extra long today, ahaha...
Today we're going to talk about writing the date and time. This is the first time we're going to focus more on reading and writing than speaking usage in Daily Japanese!
Anyway, I'm going to point out how time is written in Japanese. It's quite easy to learn, but if you don't know about it when you're first starting out, you may be confused.
In Japanese, you can reference the time with punctuation symbols like you're used to in English (so 10/24 or 10.24 would mean October 24). You can also write the time of day off the clock with a colon like "4:45."
But you can also write date and time with the 漢字 kanzi/kanji (Chinese characters) to represent them. This also corresponds with the way you say them aloud. It is written like this often in Japanese, so you should learn how to recognize and read it early.
年 is the kanji that means "year."
月 is the kanji that means "month."
日 is the kanji that means "day."
時 is the kanji that means "hour."
分 is the kanji that means "minute."
Of course, these characters can mean different things when they're not used to write the time of day or the date. We're only talking about their meanings when using them to write the date and time right now. Also note that they can also be used to count time, so ７時 can mean 7 o'clock OR 7 hours. ２０日 can mean the 20th OR 20 days.
When writing time, you always write from big to small. So if you wanted to denote a certain month in a certain year, you would put the year first because it is bigger. In English, we commonly do the opposite (saying "March 2004" instead of "2004 March"). In English outside of the US (and sometimes in the US, too) we even do the entire date from small to big (24 October 1985).
In Japanese, you go from small to big... so Year-Month-Day-Hour-Minute.
To write them, you can still use Arabic numbers, however, so it's just a matter of knowing the order and which kanji corresponds to which. You place the kanji after the number. Japanese months are actually named by number.
Let's look at the aspects of today's date:
２０１１年 is how you would write the year (2011).
４月 is how you would write the month (April).
７日 is how you would write the day (the 7th).
I write the date by writing ２０１１年４月７日.
When you are writing vertically (top to bottom), you more often will write the entire numbers with kanji, like this: 二千十一年 to mean 2011. Either way, you always pronounce them the same way of course.
The time of day works the same. If it's 5:42, you can put the proper kanji after the hours and minutes to show the time: ５時４２分. You will more often see this when the time is written out as part of a sentence.
Another note about the time of day is that Japan uses 24-hour time. Japanese people understand both the 24 hour clock and the 12 hour clock (since circular clocks and watches only display 12 hours), but more often, you will come across 24-hour time.
What does this mean?
It means that the day starts at 00:00 (zero o'clock) at midnight, and continues counting hours until it reaches the 24th hour, which is zero again.
00:00 is midnight
05:00 is 5AM
10:00 is 10AM
12:00 is noon
14:00 is 2PM
21:00 is 9PM
23:59 is 11:59PM, and in one minute it will be midnight again, or 00:00.
As I'm typing this, my clock displaying 24 hour time says it is１３時１１分 . That means it's 1:11PM.
To reference AM and PM, you use the words 午前 gozen for AM (literally "before noon") and 午後 gogo for PM (literally "after noon.") Noon is called 正午 syougo/shougo (literally "exact noon").
You put it before the time, so 午後５時 gogo go ji is 5PM.
Lastly, I want to talk about the days of the week, since it will be helpful in reading calendars.
In Japan, the seven days of the week are named after astral bodies (from Roman astrology) and have corresponding elements (from Chinese astrology).
In Japanese, all days of the week end with the suffix 曜日 youbi, just like all days in English end with "day." Before the youbi is the name of the day.
Note that on Japanese calendars, the week traditionally starts on Monday, not Sunday. However, this is not always the case since a lot of websites and things have calendars originally made for a western audience first, then are just translated straight into Japanese without changing the look of the calendar. Stuff like that. Just look at the calendar and make sure you've noticed which day is listed first.
These are the seven days, starting with Monday:
月曜日 getuyoubi/getsuyoubi is Monday, named after Moon.
火曜日 kayoubi is Tuesday, named after Mars. Day of Fire.
水曜日 suiyoubi is Wednesday, named after Mercury. Day of Water.
木曜日 mokuyoubi is Thursday, named after Jupiter. Day of Wood.
金曜日 kinyoubi is Friday, named after Venus. Day of Metal.
土曜日 douyoubi is Saturday, named after Saturn. Day of Earth.
日曜日 nichiyoubi is Sunday, named after Sun.
When you see the day written, you will come across the day of the week written after it to specify what day it was. You don't have to write the full day of the week, just the kanji that tells which day it is. So if you see this:
２０１１年４月７日（木）
You know that the moku part written at the end means that the 7th of April in 2011 falls on a Thursday. It doesn't mean wood or tree or Jupiter :)
It's a big blog post, but reading the date and time is actually pretty simple once you get used to it. Try looking in newspapers for things that talk about when events happened and you'll see it come up a lot. Another great place to see it is release dates for movies and games and things.
Here are two of Japan's biggest newspapers' websites:
朝日新聞 Asahi
毎日新聞 Mainichi
You can look around and look for things with dates and time :) Even if you can't read Japanese yet, the current date will always be displayed on the main page, so see if you can find it.
If you look at Asahi's newest stories (at the top middle of the page, usually with red squares next to them), you will also notice that the time the article was posted is listed next to them. These are written in 24-hour time!
If you scroll down a bit in the middle of Mainichi's page, you will see a section called ニュースセレクト nyuususerekuto (News Select, or "news selection") that lists current articles. The times for these articles are written using the kanji and also use 24-hour time.
Keep an eye out for dates and times. You can even change your computer to display the date and time in Japanese :)
Today we're going to talk about writing the date and time. This is the first time we're going to focus more on reading and writing than speaking usage in Daily Japanese!
Anyway, I'm going to point out how time is written in Japanese. It's quite easy to learn, but if you don't know about it when you're first starting out, you may be confused.
In Japanese, you can reference the time with punctuation symbols like you're used to in English (so 10/24 or 10.24 would mean October 24). You can also write the time of day off the clock with a colon like "4:45."
But you can also write date and time with the 漢字 kanzi/kanji (Chinese characters) to represent them. This also corresponds with the way you say them aloud. It is written like this often in Japanese, so you should learn how to recognize and read it early.
年 is the kanji that means "year."
月 is the kanji that means "month."
日 is the kanji that means "day."
時 is the kanji that means "hour."
分 is the kanji that means "minute."
Of course, these characters can mean different things when they're not used to write the time of day or the date. We're only talking about their meanings when using them to write the date and time right now. Also note that they can also be used to count time, so ７時 can mean 7 o'clock OR 7 hours. ２０日 can mean the 20th OR 20 days.
When writing time, you always write from big to small. So if you wanted to denote a certain month in a certain year, you would put the year first because it is bigger. In English, we commonly do the opposite (saying "March 2004" instead of "2004 March"). In English outside of the US (and sometimes in the US, too) we even do the entire date from small to big (24 October 1985).
In Japanese, you go from small to big... so Year-Month-Day-Hour-Minute.
To write them, you can still use Arabic numbers, however, so it's just a matter of knowing the order and which kanji corresponds to which. You place the kanji after the number. Japanese months are actually named by number.
Let's look at the aspects of today's date:
２０１１年 is how you would write the year (2011).
４月 is how you would write the month (April).
７日 is how you would write the day (the 7th).
I write the date by writing ２０１１年４月７日.
When you are writing vertically (top to bottom), you more often will write the entire numbers with kanji, like this: 二千十一年 to mean 2011. Either way, you always pronounce them the same way of course.
The time of day works the same. If it's 5:42, you can put the proper kanji after the hours and minutes to show the time: ５時４２分. You will more often see this when the time is written out as part of a sentence.
Another note about the time of day is that Japan uses 24-hour time. Japanese people understand both the 24 hour clock and the 12 hour clock (since circular clocks and watches only display 12 hours), but more often, you will come across 24-hour time.
What does this mean?
It means that the day starts at 00:00 (zero o'clock) at midnight, and continues counting hours until it reaches the 24th hour, which is zero again.
00:00 is midnight
05:00 is 5AM
10:00 is 10AM
12:00 is noon
14:00 is 2PM
21:00 is 9PM
23:59 is 11:59PM, and in one minute it will be midnight again, or 00:00.
As I'm typing this, my clock displaying 24 hour time says it is１３時１１分 . That means it's 1:11PM.
To reference AM and PM, you use the words 午前 gozen for AM (literally "before noon") and 午後 gogo for PM (literally "after noon.") Noon is called 正午 syougo/shougo (literally "exact noon").
You put it before the time, so 午後５時 gogo go ji is 5PM.
Lastly, I want to talk about the days of the week, since it will be helpful in reading calendars.
In Japan, the seven days of the week are named after astral bodies (from Roman astrology) and have corresponding elements (from Chinese astrology).
In Japanese, all days of the week end with the suffix 曜日 youbi, just like all days in English end with "day." Before the youbi is the name of the day.
Note that on Japanese calendars, the week traditionally starts on Monday, not Sunday. However, this is not always the case since a lot of websites and things have calendars originally made for a western audience first, then are just translated straight into Japanese without changing the look of the calendar. Stuff like that. Just look at the calendar and make sure you've noticed which day is listed first.
These are the seven days, starting with Monday:
月曜日 getuyoubi/getsuyoubi is Monday, named after Moon.
火曜日 kayoubi is Tuesday, named after Mars. Day of Fire.
水曜日 suiyoubi is Wednesday, named after Mercury. Day of Water.
木曜日 mokuyoubi is Thursday, named after Jupiter. Day of Wood.
金曜日 kinyoubi is Friday, named after Venus. Day of Metal.
土曜日 douyoubi is Saturday, named after Saturn. Day of Earth.
日曜日 nichiyoubi is Sunday, named after Sun.
When you see the day written, you will come across the day of the week written after it to specify what day it was. You don't have to write the full day of the week, just the kanji that tells which day it is. So if you see this:
２０１１年４月７日（木）
You know that the moku part written at the end means that the 7th of April in 2011 falls on a Thursday. It doesn't mean wood or tree or Jupiter :)
It's a big blog post, but reading the date and time is actually pretty simple once you get used to it. Try looking in newspapers for things that talk about when events happened and you'll see it come up a lot. Another great place to see it is release dates for movies and games and things.
Here are two of Japan's biggest newspapers' websites:
朝日新聞 Asahi
毎日新聞 Mainichi
You can look around and look for things with dates and time :) Even if you can't read Japanese yet, the current date will always be displayed on the main page, so see if you can find it.
If you look at Asahi's newest stories (at the top middle of the page, usually with red squares next to them), you will also notice that the time the article was posted is listed next to them. These are written in 24-hour time!
If you scroll down a bit in the middle of Mainichi's page, you will see a section called ニュースセレクト nyuususerekuto (News Select, or "news selection") that lists current articles. The times for these articles are written using the kanji and also use 24-hour time.
Keep an eye out for dates and times. You can even change your computer to display the date and time in Japanese :)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The right mindset...
Learning Japanese is hard at first. But I can tell you that the hardest part is the beginning! Once it "clicks" for you, you pretty much are just practicing and learning new things until you know enough to be fluent. The hardest part is getting that click.
What you need to do is think about Japanese in the right way.
One of the biggest things to realize is that Japanese is not English. I know, you're saying "Uh, yeah?" because that seems obvious. But there's more to it than just that.
When you are learning Japanese words, you need to learn them as Japanese words, not as translations of English words. Translation is its own unique skill that you gain once you are good in two different languages. You don't need to -- or rather you shouldn't translate when you are just starting to learn a language.
If your friend pointed to your pet cat and asked なにそれ？ (What is that?), you should not think "It's a cat, and cat in Japanese is 猫." and then answer 猫だ。 Rather, you should just see the 猫 and know you have a pet 猫 and never think about how you even have a pet cat. Because you only have a pet cat when you're speaking English.
It's never a good idea to study vocabulary through methods that link a Japanese word with an English word. Rather, you should learn vocabulary through usage and imagery. When you are a baby, you see a cookie and you hear someone say cookie. After a while, you start to learn that the object you are looking at can be talked about by making a series of sounds that looks like "cookie." You don't learn it a secret baby language and then have someone give you a dictionary to translate to cookie. And you don't look at it and think of it in baby language first and then translate it to cookie in your head. You just look at the cookie and know it's a cookie.
Japanese needs to be that natural, too. Learn words by thinking of them to yourself when you see them. When you see your cat, say 猫 to yourself. Do the same with your テレビ and that 諸説 next to your ベッド. Get in your 車 to go to your 仕事.
You may not be able to read those words just yet, but that's how you have to think of the words when you do learn them. They are not equivalents to English words you already know. They are their own words.
This is important because sometimes even the most simple words that seem like they should translate directly do not always work that way. I remember our teacher used to sit at a table in front of the classroom, but she called it in Japanese something that would translate to "desk" if you asked a dictionary. But to us, it was definitely a table, not a desk. To her, there was no way it was a table. When you're picking up new words in Japanese, be careful to pay attention to how they are being used. Learn them the same way you learned that cookie. You see something, learn a name for it, and then start applying that name to it. Later on your definition of what is or is not a cookie or a desk or a chair can change -- don't think that just because a dictionary says something or you learned it one way that it is necessarily that way.
The same goes with learning grammar and structure. Japanese grammar is so vastly different from English that you can't really think about it in those terms. Certainly there are action words which are like verbs, descriptive words which are like adjectives, and naming words which are like nouns. But there will be many times that these seem to overlap or trick you in Japanese. That's because Japanese do not class their words based on their English translations and how those words are used in English.
When you learn a new grammar or structure in Japanese, try to think of its function, learn how its used, then don't try to think of what you would call it in English until you are forced to.
Now, when you're learning, sometimes you'll need certain terminology to be able to learn things. That's why I think it's really helpful to make up your own or use ones that you don't use when you're talking about English. Instead of calling words like 出来る 飲む "verbs," try calling them "u-words" or "masu-words." LINK:JSL uses the term "verbals" because it's similar to the English word "verb" but it's NOT a verb. Because they really aren't verbs. And I'm not just saying that to encourage you to think of them that way -- they're really not. "Verb" is just the closest English word we have to describe them.
Your brain needs to learn to go between English mode and Japanese mode and separate them. There shouldn't be any translating in your head going on. When you're first learning new things, you'll have to think of them in English for a bit because English is the way you're being introduced to them for the most part, but keep practicing them until you don't have to think about English. Once a Japanese word or concept or structure comes to you without you having to think through it in English (even if it's a bit sluggish to come out in Japanese), then you've really learned that part.
It's hard to do at first, but once you have them separated in your head, Japanese will be a lot easier to retain and a bit less complicated. Just really learn all of the basics and get a foundation, and you'll soon realize that you can learn anything in Japanese.
It's a very structured and organized language. Once you get down the basics, it's actually quite easy! The hardest part is definitely overcoming the barrier of difference between the two languages, so it's vital that you try not to think of Japanese as translations of English, and try not to think of things with English meanings or descriptions. Practice what you know until it just makes sense to you naturally. You can do it :)
What you need to do is think about Japanese in the right way.
One of the biggest things to realize is that Japanese is not English. I know, you're saying "Uh, yeah?" because that seems obvious. But there's more to it than just that.
When you are learning Japanese words, you need to learn them as Japanese words, not as translations of English words. Translation is its own unique skill that you gain once you are good in two different languages. You don't need to -- or rather you shouldn't translate when you are just starting to learn a language.
If your friend pointed to your pet cat and asked なにそれ？ (What is that?), you should not think "It's a cat, and cat in Japanese is 猫." and then answer 猫だ。 Rather, you should just see the 猫 and know you have a pet 猫 and never think about how you even have a pet cat. Because you only have a pet cat when you're speaking English.
It's never a good idea to study vocabulary through methods that link a Japanese word with an English word. Rather, you should learn vocabulary through usage and imagery. When you are a baby, you see a cookie and you hear someone say cookie. After a while, you start to learn that the object you are looking at can be talked about by making a series of sounds that looks like "cookie." You don't learn it a secret baby language and then have someone give you a dictionary to translate to cookie. And you don't look at it and think of it in baby language first and then translate it to cookie in your head. You just look at the cookie and know it's a cookie.
Japanese needs to be that natural, too. Learn words by thinking of them to yourself when you see them. When you see your cat, say 猫 to yourself. Do the same with your テレビ and that 諸説 next to your ベッド. Get in your 車 to go to your 仕事.
You may not be able to read those words just yet, but that's how you have to think of the words when you do learn them. They are not equivalents to English words you already know. They are their own words.
This is important because sometimes even the most simple words that seem like they should translate directly do not always work that way. I remember our teacher used to sit at a table in front of the classroom, but she called it in Japanese something that would translate to "desk" if you asked a dictionary. But to us, it was definitely a table, not a desk. To her, there was no way it was a table. When you're picking up new words in Japanese, be careful to pay attention to how they are being used. Learn them the same way you learned that cookie. You see something, learn a name for it, and then start applying that name to it. Later on your definition of what is or is not a cookie or a desk or a chair can change -- don't think that just because a dictionary says something or you learned it one way that it is necessarily that way.
The same goes with learning grammar and structure. Japanese grammar is so vastly different from English that you can't really think about it in those terms. Certainly there are action words which are like verbs, descriptive words which are like adjectives, and naming words which are like nouns. But there will be many times that these seem to overlap or trick you in Japanese. That's because Japanese do not class their words based on their English translations and how those words are used in English.
When you learn a new grammar or structure in Japanese, try to think of its function, learn how its used, then don't try to think of what you would call it in English until you are forced to.
Now, when you're learning, sometimes you'll need certain terminology to be able to learn things. That's why I think it's really helpful to make up your own or use ones that you don't use when you're talking about English. Instead of calling words like 出来る 飲む "verbs," try calling them "u-words" or "masu-words." LINK:JSL uses the term "verbals" because it's similar to the English word "verb" but it's NOT a verb. Because they really aren't verbs. And I'm not just saying that to encourage you to think of them that way -- they're really not. "Verb" is just the closest English word we have to describe them.
Your brain needs to learn to go between English mode and Japanese mode and separate them. There shouldn't be any translating in your head going on. When you're first learning new things, you'll have to think of them in English for a bit because English is the way you're being introduced to them for the most part, but keep practicing them until you don't have to think about English. Once a Japanese word or concept or structure comes to you without you having to think through it in English (even if it's a bit sluggish to come out in Japanese), then you've really learned that part.
It's hard to do at first, but once you have them separated in your head, Japanese will be a lot easier to retain and a bit less complicated. Just really learn all of the basics and get a foundation, and you'll soon realize that you can learn anything in Japanese.
It's a very structured and organized language. Once you get down the basics, it's actually quite easy! The hardest part is definitely overcoming the barrier of difference between the two languages, so it's vital that you try not to think of Japanese as translations of English, and try not to think of things with English meanings or descriptions. Practice what you know until it just makes sense to you naturally. You can do it :)
Daily Japanese: April 05, 2011 - "It'll be fine."
I was playing UNLIMITED:Saga today, and I was reminded of a useful phrase that anyone can use. It's the favorite mantra of character Ruby, and even in a way her life philosophy, I guess, hehe.
This phrase is 何とかなる nan to ka naru. First, let's look at the parts that make up this phrase:
何 nan is an unknown thing (often this is translated as "what" when used alone). It stands for any thing that is not specified when you're talking. When you're asking questions, this asks about a specific thing. We're not asking a question here, though, so it just means something, but it's not specified what.
とか to ka is added to nan to make it more vague. You can use this in other ways, like 雑誌とか zassi/zasshi to ka would mean "magazines or something" or "magazines or stuff like that." Those kinds of things.
なる naru is our predicate here. It references some kind of changing from one thing to another. It's the same naru that is used in cases like 大人になる otona ni naru (to become an adult). In Japanese, naru can be used without talking about a certain thing changing. When you use it like this, it has a meaning of things turning out or working out.
When you put the whole phrase together, 何とかなる nan to ka naru means something literally like "Something or other will turn out." When you use it, it means "It'll work out somehow," "Things have a way of working out," "Everything will work out fine," or those kinds of things.
When your friend is worrying to much too much about something, reassure them that everything will be all right in the end by saying this phrase. まぁ、何とかなるだろうね～
Try it out, and listen for it!
This phrase is 何とかなる nan to ka naru. First, let's look at the parts that make up this phrase:
何 nan is an unknown thing (often this is translated as "what" when used alone). It stands for any thing that is not specified when you're talking. When you're asking questions, this asks about a specific thing. We're not asking a question here, though, so it just means something, but it's not specified what.
とか to ka is added to nan to make it more vague. You can use this in other ways, like 雑誌とか zassi/zasshi to ka would mean "magazines or something" or "magazines or stuff like that." Those kinds of things.
なる naru is our predicate here. It references some kind of changing from one thing to another. It's the same naru that is used in cases like 大人になる otona ni naru (to become an adult). In Japanese, naru can be used without talking about a certain thing changing. When you use it like this, it has a meaning of things turning out or working out.
When you put the whole phrase together, 何とかなる nan to ka naru means something literally like "Something or other will turn out." When you use it, it means "It'll work out somehow," "Things have a way of working out," "Everything will work out fine," or those kinds of things.
When your friend is worrying to much too much about something, reassure them that everything will be all right in the end by saying this phrase. まぁ、何とかなるだろうね～
Try it out, and listen for it!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Daily Japanese: April 04, 2011 - "Sugoi!"
I have found that, especially among anime and manga fans, there is a common misconception about the word すごい sugoi. I almost always see places referencing and teaching this word saying it means "cool" with no further description or explanation.
While in translation, there are certainly times in which an appropriate way to relate this word into English may be through the word "cool," the meaning of sugoi is actually much deeper, versatile, and a lot more interesting than that!
The word itself describes things that bring you awe. In a way, you could say it more literally means "awesome." Anything that is amazing or elicits a powerful feeling can be described as sugoi.
Try checking out the first couple minutes of this video on youtube, titled すごい雷雨 & 停電. In the title, and in the video itself, you can hear すごい used naturally many times :)
Using it alone:
Using it alone, you can say sugoi to express some kind of awe or amazement. Let's say you just saw a video of someone break through a stack of bricks with their hand. Amazed at the display of power, you could respond すごい！ sugoi! . In a lot of cases, this could be like saying "Wow!" in English. In fact, in pretty much any case you can say "wow" in English, you can say sugoi in Japanese to express your same feeling.
Modifying nouns:
For example, a very fierce wind could be described as すごい風 sugoi kaze. Saying that this meant something like "cool wind" would be very inappropriate in most cases. Likewise, an amazing person who does something beyond what you would expect from most people could be a すごい人 sugoi hito.
Using sugoku to modify descriptive words:
Using the ~ku form of the word (すごく sugoku... no, not sudoku), you can use it to modify other modifying words. When you use it this way, it makes the word stronger, a lot like using the word "very" in English.
すごくうれしい sugoku uresii/ureshii -> "very happy"
すごく高い sugoku takai -> "very tall" or "very expensive"
すごく便利 sugoku benri -> "very convenient"
Just put すごく sugoku before these types of words, you can make them stronger. This simple word will make your Japanese more diverse, so try it out!
You can also use ものすごく monosugoku to make it even stronger. ものすごく悲しい monosugoku kanasii/kanashii would describe something that is extremely sad.
Note that you can't use sugoku to modify any word. Use it on other descriptive words. Depending on the text and resources you use, the kind of word you use here will go by different names. But descriptive words that conjugate with 'na' (like 駄目) and that conjugate with i/katta (like 楽しい) work here. (Some texts will call these all "adjectives," others will classify them based on how they are conjugated. If it's descriptive and takes na or katta, it should work).
In conclusion...
So, as you see, there's a lot more to sugoi than "cool," and you can use it in a lot of ways! If you see something so cool that you are amazed, you can say sugoi to express that, but you can use it so many other ways, too. So try it out and try to incorporate it into your Japanese. It's a very common and useful term to know :)
While in translation, there are certainly times in which an appropriate way to relate this word into English may be through the word "cool," the meaning of sugoi is actually much deeper, versatile, and a lot more interesting than that!
The word itself describes things that bring you awe. In a way, you could say it more literally means "awesome." Anything that is amazing or elicits a powerful feeling can be described as sugoi.
Try checking out the first couple minutes of this video on youtube, titled すごい雷雨 & 停電. In the title, and in the video itself, you can hear すごい used naturally many times :)
Using it alone:
Using it alone, you can say sugoi to express some kind of awe or amazement. Let's say you just saw a video of someone break through a stack of bricks with their hand. Amazed at the display of power, you could respond すごい！ sugoi! . In a lot of cases, this could be like saying "Wow!" in English. In fact, in pretty much any case you can say "wow" in English, you can say sugoi in Japanese to express your same feeling.
Modifying nouns:
For example, a very fierce wind could be described as すごい風 sugoi kaze. Saying that this meant something like "cool wind" would be very inappropriate in most cases. Likewise, an amazing person who does something beyond what you would expect from most people could be a すごい人 sugoi hito.
Using sugoku to modify descriptive words:
Using the ~ku form of the word (すごく sugoku... no, not sudoku), you can use it to modify other modifying words. When you use it this way, it makes the word stronger, a lot like using the word "very" in English.
すごくうれしい sugoku uresii/ureshii -> "very happy"
すごく高い sugoku takai -> "very tall" or "very expensive"
すごく便利 sugoku benri -> "very convenient"
Just put すごく sugoku before these types of words, you can make them stronger. This simple word will make your Japanese more diverse, so try it out!
You can also use ものすごく monosugoku to make it even stronger. ものすごく悲しい monosugoku kanasii/kanashii would describe something that is extremely sad.
Note that you can't use sugoku to modify any word. Use it on other descriptive words. Depending on the text and resources you use, the kind of word you use here will go by different names. But descriptive words that conjugate with 'na' (like 駄目) and that conjugate with i/katta (like 楽しい) work here. (Some texts will call these all "adjectives," others will classify them based on how they are conjugated. If it's descriptive and takes na or katta, it should work).
In conclusion...
So, as you see, there's a lot more to sugoi than "cool," and you can use it in a lot of ways! If you see something so cool that you are amazed, you can say sugoi to express that, but you can use it so many other ways, too. So try it out and try to incorporate it into your Japanese. It's a very common and useful term to know :)
Links
ONLINE REFERENCES
Jim Breen's - WWWJDIC home (Online dictionary and database)
Denshi Jisho - Another online dictionary using the WWWJDIC database, a bit more aesthetic than Jim Breen's (and a little more user-friendly)
Talking katakana chart - This chart talks so you can hear the pronunciations of the characters. Some are yelled a bit weirdly, though :)
ONLINE LEARNING TOOLS
Skritter - Tool for reviewing kanji.
Jim Breen's - WWWJDIC home (Online dictionary and database)
Denshi Jisho - Another online dictionary using the WWWJDIC database, a bit more aesthetic than Jim Breen's (and a little more user-friendly)
Talking katakana chart - This chart talks so you can hear the pronunciations of the characters. Some are yelled a bit weirdly, though :)
ONLINE LEARNING TOOLS
Skritter - Tool for reviewing kanji.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
What materials do I need to learn Japanese?
Since you're here, I'm guessing you already have some kind of access to the internet. That's probably the biggest resource you have right now. But if you want to get really serious about studying Japanese, you're going to have to put a little bit more into it. You don't need much outside of your computer, but you will need some stuff.
TEXTBOOKS - I don't believe that textbooks are the ultimate key to learning Japanese, but textbooks were created for the sole purpose of assisting students in learning the language. They're more than just reference books -- they are teachers and guides as well. They explain things in ways expecting you to be learning from them.
A lot of reference books are websites are just that -- reference material. They're for looking up things you're already familiar with, organized in a way that's good for looking stuff up. Textbooks try to teach you things, and are organized in a way so that you learn as you go. There's a big difference.
There are tons of reference websites out there, and even some that function like textbooks with lessons, but I still think that buying textbooks will be really helpful. Textbooks have been written by professionals who spend their life studying how to help others learn Japanese.
The first book I think any student serious about studying Japanese should buy is Japanese: The Spoken Language (Part 1)
. I mentioned it in the getting started post, but I'll mention it again.
This book serves as the ultimate "road map" for self-study. It's not going to teach you Japanese, since it's made for a specific classroom experience, but it will give you a great idea of what you should be doing to build a foundation and grow from it. You'll know exactly what would be good to study next and how to think about everything. It goes into even the smallest grammar points in great detail, making sure you fully understand every last little sound you're making when you speak Japanese. It's really a wonderful resource, but you'll need to complement it with other things.
Just combining JSL as a guideline and reference with all the resources available to you on the internet is good enough for the very beginning. As you go on, you might want to pick up more textbooks to see more ways of learning the language than just the dry, linguistically-detailed JSL text.
Two popular texts that can help accompany your studies are Genki and Japanese for Everyone. Each is a different approach to learning Japanese and are quite popular with self-study students as references and guides.
Remember that textbooks are meant for classroom use, so you're not going to get their full experience without a teacher and classmates. But that's why you buy different texts -- each one takes one role of teaching and leaves the rest to a teacher; each one also covers up for the missing "teacher" in the others.
Of course, finding a teacher is always a good idea. If you ever gain the opportunity to study in a classroom or with a private lessons teacher, take it!
I would say it's best to start out, once you've decided you're going to become serious about studying Japanese, with JSL, following their general structure and order of lessons while using everything out there online, and then add texts once you feel you need more approaches to the material. JSL comes in three parts, but you only need the first book to get a solid foundation in Japanese. If you like using it, you can choose to continue on to books 2 and 3 if you like the style and feel you've mastered the first book.
If you don't have the money or desire to purchase textbooks, just follow your heart and learn what you want to learn. Hopefully this blog will provide you with direction that can help you gain a foundation in Japanese.
RESOURCE BOOKS - In addition to textbooks, it's helpful to have other books to use as resources. At first, you're just going to want to have a dictionary, because you'll be wanting to look up a lot of words. Luckily, there is a wonderful open dictionary system online called WWWJDIC. The best way to access it is through Jim Breen's site. Not only is it a word dictionary, but it includes detailed and useful Chinese character (kanji) lookup and it's customizable.
But there will be times when you can't use Jim Breen's, or you just want to use a book. When I was new to studying Japanese (and internet wasn't too big back then with everyone on dial-up, ahaha), I got all my words from Random House's Japanese Dictionary
. It works pretty well for new students. It has a large collection of words and provides you with Chinese characters as well. The words are listed in English alphabetical order, so you can look them up easily without knowing how words are organized in Japanese.
Unless you are planning on going to Japan or being in a Japanese-speaking area where you will need to look up words at any given point in time, I would not waste your money on a pocket dictionary. The Random House dictionary and other good "big" dictionaries will have more word entries and be easier to read, and they really don't cost that much more than a pocket dictionary.
As you progress in writing, you'll want to find a kanji dictionary that allows you to look up the Chinese characters. There are all kinds of these, and I will review some good ones later. But you can also use Jim Breen's for this kind of lookup.
STUDY MATERIALS - You may not be a student in a classroom, but you could still make great use of school supplies! Get yourself some notebooks and pencils and stuff so you can keep notes for yourself. It's true for learning anything -- writing it down helps. Plus you can organize your thoughts and keep track of your own study progress. You can also quiz yourself and things like that. Paper and pencils are not hard to come by, but it's good to get a notebook to devote just to your studies. You can use it however you see fit, but keep all of your study materials in one place. You might even want to get a bag or binder to keep everything in.
As you get into writing, you'll want to get some Japanese writing paper so you can practice writing with the proper spacing. You can find some for free online to print off here. It's PDF.
JAPANESE STUFF - Listening to and seeing Japanese is very important. On the internet, you have access to all kinds of Japanese websites and places where you can hear Japanese. Try to find websites relevant to your interests. Japanese news sites are a really great resource for Japanese and will cover a variety of interests. Start reading your NFL news in Japanese :)
In the beginning, though, you're not going to be reading at that kind of level for a while. But you can still look. You can also go to youtube and find all kinds of Japanese-language stuff. Music, clips from TV shows, anime, stuff like that.
I personally spent a lot of time playing Japanese games. I have bought tons of games from Play-Asia.com. It's cheaper than a lot of game import stores online, with a huge selection, ability to buy used games (Japanese "used" quality is astounding compared to what you're used to... it's pretty much like buying stuff new!), and they're always having sales and bargain deals and stuff. You can buy movies and CDs and stuff there, too, I think, but I don't know what the pricing for that kind of thing is. I just buy games. If you have a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, they are region free, so you can play Japanese games without having to buy any special equipment or hack for your system. Note that the new 3DS is region-locked, so you can't play Japanese games on it. For other systems, you'll most likely need to buy a Japanese console to play the games on.
You can also, of course, just shop on Amazon.com and look for Japanese movies that have been released in the United States. For those of you outside of this region encoding, I don't really know what is available, but if there's anyone from the UK or other countries who knows a good place online to buy Japanese movies, let me know!
OTHER PEOPLE - This is probably one of the most difficult resources. There are a few other people you'll want to seek out:
It can be really helpful to have someone to study and/or practice with. It's not necessary, but you won't believe how much easier it is when you have someone else studying alongside you. You can help each other out and practice with each other. The problem is, unless you're planning on going into this with a friend to start with, this kind of person is near impossible to find. So if you can't find someone, don't worry, you can always study and practice by yourself.
You'll also want to find someone who can help you if you have questions. Likewise, this can be difficult to find someone in real life, but luckily, there are places online where you can ask questions. My favorite place, and where I think is the most useful, is the LiVEJOURNAL community ~japanese. It's a forum where everyone can posts questions, and then the users comment giving advice. Usually there is discussion if answers contradict or are different, so you can get a variety of opinions and views on a subject. Plus, there are many people there who are really good at explaining even the most complicated and difficult aspects of the Japanese language.
As you get better, you may want to find someone to teach. I find, as do a lot of other people, that the best way to learn is to teach. By trying to teach someone else, you find out what you really know, and you are forced to come to a better understanding. It works with Japanese! Plus you'll get to see someone else having fun learning Japanese, and may even develop another practice partner!
AN OPEN MIND - Okay, this one is a lot less literal, but you need to prepare your mind! Learning Japanese is indeed very fun, but at times it will be discouraging and frustrating. You need to just step back and have fun with it, even when you're studying diligently and seriously.
You're training your brain to do something it's not supposed to do -- learn another language after the language-learning process has been shut off. It's going to be hard! But in the end, it's very satisfying and rewarding, and you'll learn a priceless skill that you can enjoy and use practically at the same time.
Good luck with your Japanese studies!
TEXTBOOKS - I don't believe that textbooks are the ultimate key to learning Japanese, but textbooks were created for the sole purpose of assisting students in learning the language. They're more than just reference books -- they are teachers and guides as well. They explain things in ways expecting you to be learning from them.
A lot of reference books are websites are just that -- reference material. They're for looking up things you're already familiar with, organized in a way that's good for looking stuff up. Textbooks try to teach you things, and are organized in a way so that you learn as you go. There's a big difference.
There are tons of reference websites out there, and even some that function like textbooks with lessons, but I still think that buying textbooks will be really helpful. Textbooks have been written by professionals who spend their life studying how to help others learn Japanese.
The first book I think any student serious about studying Japanese should buy is Japanese: The Spoken Language (Part 1)
. I mentioned it in the getting started post, but I'll mention it again.This book serves as the ultimate "road map" for self-study. It's not going to teach you Japanese, since it's made for a specific classroom experience, but it will give you a great idea of what you should be doing to build a foundation and grow from it. You'll know exactly what would be good to study next and how to think about everything. It goes into even the smallest grammar points in great detail, making sure you fully understand every last little sound you're making when you speak Japanese. It's really a wonderful resource, but you'll need to complement it with other things.
Just combining JSL as a guideline and reference with all the resources available to you on the internet is good enough for the very beginning. As you go on, you might want to pick up more textbooks to see more ways of learning the language than just the dry, linguistically-detailed JSL text.
Two popular texts that can help accompany your studies are Genki and Japanese for Everyone. Each is a different approach to learning Japanese and are quite popular with self-study students as references and guides.
Remember that textbooks are meant for classroom use, so you're not going to get their full experience without a teacher and classmates. But that's why you buy different texts -- each one takes one role of teaching and leaves the rest to a teacher; each one also covers up for the missing "teacher" in the others.
Of course, finding a teacher is always a good idea. If you ever gain the opportunity to study in a classroom or with a private lessons teacher, take it!
I would say it's best to start out, once you've decided you're going to become serious about studying Japanese, with JSL, following their general structure and order of lessons while using everything out there online, and then add texts once you feel you need more approaches to the material. JSL comes in three parts, but you only need the first book to get a solid foundation in Japanese. If you like using it, you can choose to continue on to books 2 and 3 if you like the style and feel you've mastered the first book.
If you don't have the money or desire to purchase textbooks, just follow your heart and learn what you want to learn. Hopefully this blog will provide you with direction that can help you gain a foundation in Japanese.
RESOURCE BOOKS - In addition to textbooks, it's helpful to have other books to use as resources. At first, you're just going to want to have a dictionary, because you'll be wanting to look up a lot of words. Luckily, there is a wonderful open dictionary system online called WWWJDIC. The best way to access it is through Jim Breen's site. Not only is it a word dictionary, but it includes detailed and useful Chinese character (kanji) lookup and it's customizable.
But there will be times when you can't use Jim Breen's, or you just want to use a book. When I was new to studying Japanese (and internet wasn't too big back then with everyone on dial-up, ahaha), I got all my words from Random House's Japanese Dictionary
. It works pretty well for new students. It has a large collection of words and provides you with Chinese characters as well. The words are listed in English alphabetical order, so you can look them up easily without knowing how words are organized in Japanese.Unless you are planning on going to Japan or being in a Japanese-speaking area where you will need to look up words at any given point in time, I would not waste your money on a pocket dictionary. The Random House dictionary and other good "big" dictionaries will have more word entries and be easier to read, and they really don't cost that much more than a pocket dictionary.
As you progress in writing, you'll want to find a kanji dictionary that allows you to look up the Chinese characters. There are all kinds of these, and I will review some good ones later. But you can also use Jim Breen's for this kind of lookup.
STUDY MATERIALS - You may not be a student in a classroom, but you could still make great use of school supplies! Get yourself some notebooks and pencils and stuff so you can keep notes for yourself. It's true for learning anything -- writing it down helps. Plus you can organize your thoughts and keep track of your own study progress. You can also quiz yourself and things like that. Paper and pencils are not hard to come by, but it's good to get a notebook to devote just to your studies. You can use it however you see fit, but keep all of your study materials in one place. You might even want to get a bag or binder to keep everything in.
As you get into writing, you'll want to get some Japanese writing paper so you can practice writing with the proper spacing. You can find some for free online to print off here. It's PDF.
JAPANESE STUFF - Listening to and seeing Japanese is very important. On the internet, you have access to all kinds of Japanese websites and places where you can hear Japanese. Try to find websites relevant to your interests. Japanese news sites are a really great resource for Japanese and will cover a variety of interests. Start reading your NFL news in Japanese :)
In the beginning, though, you're not going to be reading at that kind of level for a while. But you can still look. You can also go to youtube and find all kinds of Japanese-language stuff. Music, clips from TV shows, anime, stuff like that.
I personally spent a lot of time playing Japanese games. I have bought tons of games from Play-Asia.com. It's cheaper than a lot of game import stores online, with a huge selection, ability to buy used games (Japanese "used" quality is astounding compared to what you're used to... it's pretty much like buying stuff new!), and they're always having sales and bargain deals and stuff. You can buy movies and CDs and stuff there, too, I think, but I don't know what the pricing for that kind of thing is. I just buy games. If you have a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, they are region free, so you can play Japanese games without having to buy any special equipment or hack for your system. Note that the new 3DS is region-locked, so you can't play Japanese games on it. For other systems, you'll most likely need to buy a Japanese console to play the games on.
You can also, of course, just shop on Amazon.com
and look for Japanese movies that have been released in the United States. For those of you outside of this region encoding, I don't really know what is available, but if there's anyone from the UK or other countries who knows a good place online to buy Japanese movies, let me know!OTHER PEOPLE - This is probably one of the most difficult resources. There are a few other people you'll want to seek out:
It can be really helpful to have someone to study and/or practice with. It's not necessary, but you won't believe how much easier it is when you have someone else studying alongside you. You can help each other out and practice with each other. The problem is, unless you're planning on going into this with a friend to start with, this kind of person is near impossible to find. So if you can't find someone, don't worry, you can always study and practice by yourself.
You'll also want to find someone who can help you if you have questions. Likewise, this can be difficult to find someone in real life, but luckily, there are places online where you can ask questions. My favorite place, and where I think is the most useful, is the LiVEJOURNAL community ~japanese. It's a forum where everyone can posts questions, and then the users comment giving advice. Usually there is discussion if answers contradict or are different, so you can get a variety of opinions and views on a subject. Plus, there are many people there who are really good at explaining even the most complicated and difficult aspects of the Japanese language.
As you get better, you may want to find someone to teach. I find, as do a lot of other people, that the best way to learn is to teach. By trying to teach someone else, you find out what you really know, and you are forced to come to a better understanding. It works with Japanese! Plus you'll get to see someone else having fun learning Japanese, and may even develop another practice partner!
AN OPEN MIND - Okay, this one is a lot less literal, but you need to prepare your mind! Learning Japanese is indeed very fun, but at times it will be discouraging and frustrating. You need to just step back and have fun with it, even when you're studying diligently and seriously.
You're training your brain to do something it's not supposed to do -- learn another language after the language-learning process has been shut off. It's going to be hard! But in the end, it's very satisfying and rewarding, and you'll learn a priceless skill that you can enjoy and use practically at the same time.
Good luck with your Japanese studies!
Daily Japanese: April 03, 2011 - "Anyway..."
Hello, everyone :) Today's Daily Japanese is going to be short and sweet. (I spilled the sugar when I was making iced tea...)
We are going to use a useful phrase that you will hear a lot and don't need to know any special structure or grammar to use it.
It is called とにかく tonikaku, and it means something like "anyway." You use it when you are changing subject. Like let's say you were talking about a crazy drive you were on, but then you got sidetracked talking about the price of gas, but you want to switch the topic back to the crazy drive. Just say tonikaku and you're good to go! It works best in these cases where you're returning to your main point. You could also say it means things like "in any case" or "at any rate."
The intonation rises up, like you're leading into something. Listen for it and you'll probably hear it a lot! Any time you want to switch subject or get a subject back on track while you are speaking Japanese, feel free to try this one out! You of course can do it while writing. And it can be used in some other ways, so keep an ear out and try to pick up how people are using it. The best way to learn is through exposure and picking stuff up :)
とにかく、急がなきゃなりません！
We are going to use a useful phrase that you will hear a lot and don't need to know any special structure or grammar to use it.
It is called とにかく tonikaku, and it means something like "anyway." You use it when you are changing subject. Like let's say you were talking about a crazy drive you were on, but then you got sidetracked talking about the price of gas, but you want to switch the topic back to the crazy drive. Just say tonikaku and you're good to go! It works best in these cases where you're returning to your main point. You could also say it means things like "in any case" or "at any rate."
The intonation rises up, like you're leading into something. Listen for it and you'll probably hear it a lot! Any time you want to switch subject or get a subject back on track while you are speaking Japanese, feel free to try this one out! You of course can do it while writing. And it can be used in some other ways, so keep an ear out and try to pick up how people are using it. The best way to learn is through exposure and picking stuff up :)
とにかく、急がなきゃなりません！
Friday, April 1, 2011
Daily Japanese: April 02, 2011 - "That sucks!"
Today I want to talk about two very common phrases that you can incorporate easily into everyday life. But first, here's a video of a cute Japanese girl learning the other way around -- how to say this in English:
I'd also like to note that the girl teaching the English in this video is a good example of yesterday's Daily Japanese, tarento. The pop-idol group, ココナツ娘。 (kokonatu musume. - Coconut Girls.), had very short-lived popularity, leeching from their sister group モーニング娘。 (mooningu musume. - Morning Girls.) While most of the girls left the group and went on to pursue other things, leader Ayaka got stuck in being a TV personality. The only real "talent" she had was her fluent English. So she appeared in little segments like this and other various things, and was talked about in the media.
But anyway, let's get to the real heart of the matter here. How to say "That sucks!" in Japanese! The two phrases I want to introduce you two today are the following:
最高 - さいこう - saikou
最低 - さいてい - saitei
If you look at the Chinese characters used to write them, the sai 最 part means "most," and the second parts, kou 高 and tei 低, mean "high" and "low" respectively. So essentially, these two phrases mean "Absolute Top" and "Absolute Bottom." More colloquially, you could think of them as meaning "best of the best" and "worst of the worst."
When just used alone, I often see saitei translated as "That sucks!" or "This sucks!" or things like that, and rightfully so. Saying that something 'sucks' is pretty much like saying "That's the worst!" right? So if you want to say something sucks or is really bad, just say saitei!
The same is true for the opposite. I can't say I see many translations of it saying something polar... I haven't ran into a translation of saikou as "This rocks!" but it does carry similar meaning.
Although they seem descriptive, like "best" and "worst," they are nominal words (which means to make a predicate of them, you'll use the copula, like 最高だ。) But when using them colloquially, you can easily drop most of what you're saying.
Quite often you'll hear a pattern like この番組、最高！(kono bangumi, saikou!) or その人、最低。 (sono hito, saitei.)
Basically, you just point out some object like kono bangumi - "this show," or sono hito - "that guy," and then modify it with one of the two words. It means "This show is the best!" or "That guy is the worst." It's very colloquial and sounds really natural, so try it out.
Next time you have your favorite coffee after not having it for a while and want to say to your friend "Damn, I love this coffee!" consider saying 「このコーヒー、最高！」 (kono koohii, saikou!) to express essentially the same thing in Japanese :)
Or maybe next time you are frustrated with something, just shout 最低！ (saite!) for a classic "This totally reeks!" feeling! I taught this to my friend, and now she says it all the time. (Don't be a Negative Nancy though. Some things are 最高, too!)
Be careful when saying saitei about another person, because it's a very mean thing to say!
Even though it's simple, saying little things like this in every day life helps get you used to thinking in Japanese! And remember, you could translate these little phrases tons of ways depending on your mood, so don't think of them in English, just let them flow naturally. They're pretty easy to understand, so after only a little bit of using them, they should feel natural to you :)
And if you don't understand この,その, and あの (kono, sono, and ano), be sure to look those up before you start using them!
Of course, you can use these phrases in all kinds of ways other than just how I mentioned them here. They can also be used a lot more literally and less colloquially. Just listen out for them when you're listening to Japanese. You may be surprised how often they turn up!
やっぱり日本語の勉強、最高ですよね！
I'd also like to note that the girl teaching the English in this video is a good example of yesterday's Daily Japanese, tarento. The pop-idol group, ココナツ娘。 (kokonatu musume. - Coconut Girls.), had very short-lived popularity, leeching from their sister group モーニング娘。 (mooningu musume. - Morning Girls.) While most of the girls left the group and went on to pursue other things, leader Ayaka got stuck in being a TV personality. The only real "talent" she had was her fluent English. So she appeared in little segments like this and other various things, and was talked about in the media.
But anyway, let's get to the real heart of the matter here. How to say "That sucks!" in Japanese! The two phrases I want to introduce you two today are the following:
最高 - さいこう - saikou
最低 - さいてい - saitei
If you look at the Chinese characters used to write them, the sai 最 part means "most," and the second parts, kou 高 and tei 低, mean "high" and "low" respectively. So essentially, these two phrases mean "Absolute Top" and "Absolute Bottom." More colloquially, you could think of them as meaning "best of the best" and "worst of the worst."
When just used alone, I often see saitei translated as "That sucks!" or "This sucks!" or things like that, and rightfully so. Saying that something 'sucks' is pretty much like saying "That's the worst!" right? So if you want to say something sucks or is really bad, just say saitei!
The same is true for the opposite. I can't say I see many translations of it saying something polar... I haven't ran into a translation of saikou as "This rocks!" but it does carry similar meaning.
Although they seem descriptive, like "best" and "worst," they are nominal words (which means to make a predicate of them, you'll use the copula, like 最高だ。) But when using them colloquially, you can easily drop most of what you're saying.
Quite often you'll hear a pattern like この番組、最高！(kono bangumi, saikou!) or その人、最低。 (sono hito, saitei.)
Basically, you just point out some object like kono bangumi - "this show," or sono hito - "that guy," and then modify it with one of the two words. It means "This show is the best!" or "That guy is the worst." It's very colloquial and sounds really natural, so try it out.
Next time you have your favorite coffee after not having it for a while and want to say to your friend "Damn, I love this coffee!" consider saying 「このコーヒー、最高！」 (kono koohii, saikou!) to express essentially the same thing in Japanese :)
Or maybe next time you are frustrated with something, just shout 最低！ (saite!) for a classic "This totally reeks!" feeling! I taught this to my friend, and now she says it all the time. (Don't be a Negative Nancy though. Some things are 最高, too!)
Be careful when saying saitei about another person, because it's a very mean thing to say!
Even though it's simple, saying little things like this in every day life helps get you used to thinking in Japanese! And remember, you could translate these little phrases tons of ways depending on your mood, so don't think of them in English, just let them flow naturally. They're pretty easy to understand, so after only a little bit of using them, they should feel natural to you :)
And if you don't understand この,その, and あの (kono, sono, and ano), be sure to look those up before you start using them!
Of course, you can use these phrases in all kinds of ways other than just how I mentioned them here. They can also be used a lot more literally and less colloquially. Just listen out for them when you're listening to Japanese. You may be surprised how often they turn up!
やっぱり日本語の勉強、最高ですよね！
Daily Japanese: April 01, 2011 - "Talent"
I'm going to try to write a short blurb a day introducing some Japanese phrase or word or something that is fun to learn.
Today we're going to talk about タレント (tarento). Written in katakana, this is a word borrowed from English. Can you guess what English word it sounds like? You may have guessed that it's the word "talent." If you did, well, you're right!
But there's a problem... this word means something quiet different than what you think it would mean.
タレント refers to some kind of famous person, generally a TV personality; however, this doesn't mean great actors on TV dramas and sitcoms. Rather, it just means someone who pops up in the media all the time. Sometimes this person is some kind of comedian, sometimes they are pretty girls, sometimes they're washed-up idols, and sometimes they can even be nothing more than the son or daughter of a famous actor or politician or something.
So why are they all over the media? Sometimes they have some kind of quirk or personality they have made up that gets them attention. Sometimes it's just because people like to gossip about them.
What's ironic about the word they chose from English is that more than often enough, these famous people have nothing particularly unique or special about them, and don't posses any real kind of talent.
So next time you hear something about a tarento being mentioned in the media, you'll know exactly what they're talking about. These people who are just famous for being famous :)
Today we're going to talk about タレント (tarento). Written in katakana, this is a word borrowed from English. Can you guess what English word it sounds like? You may have guessed that it's the word "talent." If you did, well, you're right!
But there's a problem... this word means something quiet different than what you think it would mean.
So why are they all over the media? Sometimes they have some kind of quirk or personality they have made up that gets them attention. Sometimes it's just because people like to gossip about them.
What's ironic about the word they chose from English is that more than often enough, these famous people have nothing particularly unique or special about them, and don't posses any real kind of talent.
So next time you hear something about a tarento being mentioned in the media, you'll know exactly what they're talking about. These people who are just famous for being famous :)
Where do I start?!
One of the biggest problems with teaching yourself Japanese comes from the very beginning: How am I supposed to start doing all this?!
You have a lot in front of you right now. You're thinking, "I need to learn reading, writing, speaking, and listening... and within those, I'll need to learn grammar, vocabulary, three writing scripts, pronunciation, and..."
Okay, stop. While it's possible to break Japanese ability down into all those things, it's also possible to simplify it into one single thing. You just need to understand.
You probably already understand some Japanese. I'm guessing you've heard of words like "sushi," "tsunami," and "anime," right? Those are all Japanese words, and you understand pretty much what they mean.
Learning the rest of Japanese is not too much harder, actually. You just start building on that.
Now, you may have already started trying to study on your own and are just looking for direction, or you may be wanting to start studying but have no idea what you should be studying or looking at.
The answer is simple: Learn what you want to learn!
Of course, you're not going to just learn it all at once. You need to learn what you can. You can't play an instrument if you don't know how to hold it; you can't play a sport if you don't know the rules; you can't do algebra if you don't know arithmetic. You're not going to be able to read a book in Japanese or say a complete sentence unless you know the parts that make those things up.
You're going to want to be speaking complicated sentences right away. You're going to have all kinds of things you'd like to say in Japanese, or you're going to want to understand what someone or something is saying. But you're not going to be able to understand all of that in a day, or from one session of studying. You're going to have to understand just little pieces at first, and eventually put those pieces together to make a fuller understanding of Japanese.
So the most important thing you can do in the beginning is start working on building a solid foundation of Japanese. But how do you do that?
Step 1: Figure out what you want and need to learn next.
You probably have all kinds of things you want to learn. But you need to think about what all skills you need to be able to do that.
Let's say you want to say a sentence in Japanese. It doesn't matter what it is. Maybe you want to say "Your mom in a library looks like a unicorn cupcake in a Saw movie." I'm guessing you can't say that in Japanese if you're just starting.
What skills and tools do you need to be able to say that.
Well, for one you need to know all the words. Now, you could go find a Japanese dictionary and look up all the words. Now what do you do with those words? If you just put them all in the same order you do in English, it's not going to make any sense. So you need to learn how to use the words.
Now, you're not going to be able to learn all of the grammar concepts needed to say something weird and long like that all of a sudden. You don't even understand how to make a sentence!
And you've answered your first question: How do you make a sentence in Japanese? How are words put together in Japanese to make sentences?
Step 2: Go find out what you need to know.
This is going to be the hard part. How are you supposed to find out how to make sentences? This is where I hope to come in and help. Across the articles and posts I'll be writing, I'll be pointing to resources and give my own help on these important questions.
In this particular case, you'll want to find some kind of article or textbook lesson (or even a person?) that can tell you what makes a Japanese sentence.
I plan on making a post all about this particular subject soon, so stay tuned. But even then, it's a difficult concept even for advanced students. But I think it's actually quite simple if you learn it early before trying to over-cram your head with all kinds of information.
And that's how it works...
Seriously, just figure out what it is you want to do, and then figure out if there's anything else you need to know first. Keep repeating to you figure out the most basic things you don't know yet, then learn about them. You can keep repeating this process until you know Japanese. It's really that simple.
Okay, that sounds great, but I still don't know what to do. What do you recommend learning first?
I know you want to get started right now. It's exciting! And when there are so many things you want to learn how to do, it's hard to choose what you should be doing first, even if you try to break it down into the most simple things, because you'll probably find there's all kinds of simple things you can learn now.
Everyone learns differently, I know, but you still have to learn some things before you can learn others, no matter how you learn it.
Everyone wants some kind of simple step-by-step method to follow, but honestly, I just don't think that's how self-study works (or really any study). Everyone learns differently and at different paces and in different ways. There are just some core things you need to be doing first.
Here are my tips on what you should be doing if you're just starting:
1. Whether you understand it or not, you want to familiarize yourself with Japanese. Listen to Japanese music, watchanime and movies and stuff, try watching with the subtitles off, or try your best not to look at them. You're mostly ignoring the Japanese while you're reading the English.) It's a lot easier to learn about Japanese when it's familiar. Just like it's easier to play a song you've heard before, even if you are new to reading music, because you're just familiar with what it's "supposed to sound like." I'm serious, it really helps more than anything! So get out there and start experiencing. And don't ever stop.
2. Now learn how to do that yourself. You've been listening to Japanese now, so you know what it sounds like. Learn to read and pronounce romanized Japanese. Romanization is simply just writing out the Japanese using the roman letters so that you can read it. So it just means writing "kuruma" instead of 車 or くるま. (That means "car," by the way.) I recommend that you DON'T try to learn how to write just yet. I'll make a post about that later, but it's better to learn how to write once you have a handle on basic Japanese, because you need to know a bit about how the language works to better understand how the writing works. Don't worry, it won't be long before you should be comfortable learning writing. It's okay to try it out and look at it, but it helps to know a bit more first. Trust me. :)
3. You know what it's supposed to sound and look like, but you can't do it yourself yet, right? Start building a vocabulary. In the beginning you're not going to know all about types of words and stuff, so it's better to start with names of things and nouns, because you can easily relate them to English things. Like if you learn the word for "cat" (猫 "neko") and "dog" (犬 "inu") you're probably going to be able to use them well, because they never change, and a dog in Japan is the same as a dog in English-speaking countries.
4. You'll know some words, but you need to know how to put them together to say what you want to say, and you're going to need to know how to figure out what they mean when you encounter them together. Now you need to start building a foundation. Learn what the different types of words in Japanese are and how they fit together. Learn what makes a sentence and how to use them. It's a lot at first, but don't worry. A good first step is to learn the most basic sentence.
5. Build upon all of those things until you can start learning more complicated things. Once you have your foundation down and you know some words, it's just building up from there. Sometimes you're going to find that the things you want to learn are more difficult than you expected, so you might have to try learning them later.
For some more specific direction...
If you want some personal direction because you can't choose for yourself what order to do things, I really recommend using Japanese: The Spoken Language, a textbook designed for classroom use. I warn you now, this book is not going to teach you Japanese as a self-study student; however, the book is built to offer the means to build a solid foundation in Japanese for classroom students with the aid of teachers and a class full of interactive peers.
However, you can still use the book as a really great guideline to what order to learn everything you need to build a strong foundation in Japanese. The book starts out simply telling you how to read and pronounce the words, then starts off with the most basic of sentences: A single word. From there, it slowly builds on this, only using knowledge it's already given you. So you learn 1 + 1 and build up from there until you're doing calculus.
I'll warn you, though, that you're not going to learn Japanese from this book alone. But if you want to know what you should be studying next, this book is your perfect road map. I think it's a really important addition to any self-studier's arsenal of study tools, but remember that you're going to be using it as a map or outline of what you should be learning and when. (And you can feel free to deviate within your own comfort, too.) I plan on making another post on what kinds of tools and resources you should gather for learning Japanese later, and what you should be using them for, so look out for that to see what you need to use to complement this text.
I know it's overwhelming right now to decide where to start. But even just watching the news and learning random words from a dictionary is helpful in the beginning. My next few posts will help you get started even further by telling you what materials and resources you should gather, and I'll be explaining some of the most important points to learn to help you build a strong foundation that will allow you to learn anything you want in Japanese on your own.
Like in math, if you can't add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you're never going to be able to do algebra or geometry or trigonometry or calculus. And even if someone taught you how to do random geometry problems with a calculator, you'll never be able to learn other ones on your own or even understand what you're doing. Knowing the basics is the most important thing.
In Japanese, that means knowing how to pronounce words, how to make sentence, and how to organize and use the different types of words. Stay tuned to this blog, and I'll try to help you master those fundamentals so you can start teaching yourself Japanese.
You have a lot in front of you right now. You're thinking, "I need to learn reading, writing, speaking, and listening... and within those, I'll need to learn grammar, vocabulary, three writing scripts, pronunciation, and..."
Okay, stop. While it's possible to break Japanese ability down into all those things, it's also possible to simplify it into one single thing. You just need to understand.
You probably already understand some Japanese. I'm guessing you've heard of words like "sushi," "tsunami," and "anime," right? Those are all Japanese words, and you understand pretty much what they mean.
Learning the rest of Japanese is not too much harder, actually. You just start building on that.
Now, you may have already started trying to study on your own and are just looking for direction, or you may be wanting to start studying but have no idea what you should be studying or looking at.
The answer is simple: Learn what you want to learn!
Of course, you're not going to just learn it all at once. You need to learn what you can. You can't play an instrument if you don't know how to hold it; you can't play a sport if you don't know the rules; you can't do algebra if you don't know arithmetic. You're not going to be able to read a book in Japanese or say a complete sentence unless you know the parts that make those things up.
You're going to want to be speaking complicated sentences right away. You're going to have all kinds of things you'd like to say in Japanese, or you're going to want to understand what someone or something is saying. But you're not going to be able to understand all of that in a day, or from one session of studying. You're going to have to understand just little pieces at first, and eventually put those pieces together to make a fuller understanding of Japanese.
So the most important thing you can do in the beginning is start working on building a solid foundation of Japanese. But how do you do that?
Step 1: Figure out what you want and need to learn next.
You probably have all kinds of things you want to learn. But you need to think about what all skills you need to be able to do that.
Let's say you want to say a sentence in Japanese. It doesn't matter what it is. Maybe you want to say "Your mom in a library looks like a unicorn cupcake in a Saw movie." I'm guessing you can't say that in Japanese if you're just starting.
What skills and tools do you need to be able to say that.
Well, for one you need to know all the words. Now, you could go find a Japanese dictionary and look up all the words. Now what do you do with those words? If you just put them all in the same order you do in English, it's not going to make any sense. So you need to learn how to use the words.
Now, you're not going to be able to learn all of the grammar concepts needed to say something weird and long like that all of a sudden. You don't even understand how to make a sentence!
And you've answered your first question: How do you make a sentence in Japanese? How are words put together in Japanese to make sentences?
Step 2: Go find out what you need to know.
This is going to be the hard part. How are you supposed to find out how to make sentences? This is where I hope to come in and help. Across the articles and posts I'll be writing, I'll be pointing to resources and give my own help on these important questions.
In this particular case, you'll want to find some kind of article or textbook lesson (or even a person?) that can tell you what makes a Japanese sentence.
I plan on making a post all about this particular subject soon, so stay tuned. But even then, it's a difficult concept even for advanced students. But I think it's actually quite simple if you learn it early before trying to over-cram your head with all kinds of information.
And that's how it works...
Seriously, just figure out what it is you want to do, and then figure out if there's anything else you need to know first. Keep repeating to you figure out the most basic things you don't know yet, then learn about them. You can keep repeating this process until you know Japanese. It's really that simple.
Okay, that sounds great, but I still don't know what to do. What do you recommend learning first?
I know you want to get started right now. It's exciting! And when there are so many things you want to learn how to do, it's hard to choose what you should be doing first, even if you try to break it down into the most simple things, because you'll probably find there's all kinds of simple things you can learn now.
Everyone learns differently, I know, but you still have to learn some things before you can learn others, no matter how you learn it.
Everyone wants some kind of simple step-by-step method to follow, but honestly, I just don't think that's how self-study works (or really any study). Everyone learns differently and at different paces and in different ways. There are just some core things you need to be doing first.
Here are my tips on what you should be doing if you're just starting:
1. Whether you understand it or not, you want to familiarize yourself with Japanese. Listen to Japanese music, watchanime and movies and stuff, try watching with the subtitles off, or try your best not to look at them. You're mostly ignoring the Japanese while you're reading the English.) It's a lot easier to learn about Japanese when it's familiar. Just like it's easier to play a song you've heard before, even if you are new to reading music, because you're just familiar with what it's "supposed to sound like." I'm serious, it really helps more than anything! So get out there and start experiencing. And don't ever stop.
2. Now learn how to do that yourself. You've been listening to Japanese now, so you know what it sounds like. Learn to read and pronounce romanized Japanese. Romanization is simply just writing out the Japanese using the roman letters so that you can read it. So it just means writing "kuruma" instead of 車 or くるま. (That means "car," by the way.) I recommend that you DON'T try to learn how to write just yet. I'll make a post about that later, but it's better to learn how to write once you have a handle on basic Japanese, because you need to know a bit about how the language works to better understand how the writing works. Don't worry, it won't be long before you should be comfortable learning writing. It's okay to try it out and look at it, but it helps to know a bit more first. Trust me. :)
3. You know what it's supposed to sound and look like, but you can't do it yourself yet, right? Start building a vocabulary. In the beginning you're not going to know all about types of words and stuff, so it's better to start with names of things and nouns, because you can easily relate them to English things. Like if you learn the word for "cat" (猫 "neko") and "dog" (犬 "inu") you're probably going to be able to use them well, because they never change, and a dog in Japan is the same as a dog in English-speaking countries.
4. You'll know some words, but you need to know how to put them together to say what you want to say, and you're going to need to know how to figure out what they mean when you encounter them together. Now you need to start building a foundation. Learn what the different types of words in Japanese are and how they fit together. Learn what makes a sentence and how to use them. It's a lot at first, but don't worry. A good first step is to learn the most basic sentence.
5. Build upon all of those things until you can start learning more complicated things. Once you have your foundation down and you know some words, it's just building up from there. Sometimes you're going to find that the things you want to learn are more difficult than you expected, so you might have to try learning them later.
For some more specific direction...
If you want some personal direction because you can't choose for yourself what order to do things, I really recommend using Japanese: The Spoken Language
, a textbook designed for classroom use. I warn you now, this book is not going to teach you Japanese as a self-study student; however, the book is built to offer the means to build a solid foundation in Japanese for classroom students with the aid of teachers and a class full of interactive peers.However, you can still use the book as a really great guideline to what order to learn everything you need to build a strong foundation in Japanese. The book starts out simply telling you how to read and pronounce the words, then starts off with the most basic of sentences: A single word. From there, it slowly builds on this, only using knowledge it's already given you. So you learn 1 + 1 and build up from there until you're doing calculus.
I'll warn you, though, that you're not going to learn Japanese from this book alone. But if you want to know what you should be studying next, this book is your perfect road map. I think it's a really important addition to any self-studier's arsenal of study tools, but remember that you're going to be using it as a map or outline of what you should be learning and when. (And you can feel free to deviate within your own comfort, too.) I plan on making another post on what kinds of tools and resources you should gather for learning Japanese later, and what you should be using them for, so look out for that to see what you need to use to complement this text.
I know it's overwhelming right now to decide where to start. But even just watching the news and learning random words from a dictionary is helpful in the beginning. My next few posts will help you get started even further by telling you what materials and resources you should gather, and I'll be explaining some of the most important points to learn to help you build a strong foundation that will allow you to learn anything you want in Japanese on your own.
Like in math, if you can't add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you're never going to be able to do algebra or geometry or trigonometry or calculus. And even if someone taught you how to do random geometry problems with a calculator, you'll never be able to learn other ones on your own or even understand what you're doing. Knowing the basics is the most important thing.
In Japanese, that means knowing how to pronounce words, how to make sentence, and how to organize and use the different types of words. Stay tuned to this blog, and I'll try to help you master those fundamentals so you can start teaching yourself Japanese.
Index of articles
SITE
About this blog
Index of articles (You're already here, dummy!)
Links
GETTING STARTED
Where do I start?!
What materials do I need?
Having the right mindset to learn Japanese
Making your first sentences!
Pacing yourself
ADVICE, LESSONS, TIPS, ETC.
Three types of sentence "cores." - A simple foundation concept.
Sentence structure made easy - No, seriously, it's easy!
GAMING JAPANESE
Pocket Monsters - For beginners at reading.
Super Smash Bros. Melee - Practice reading all kinds of stuff for under $20
PRODUCT/SERVICE REVIEWS
Skritter.com - Awesome kanji review service online!
DAILY WEEKLY JAPANESE
タレント - tarento
最高＆最低 - saikou & saitei
とにかく - tonikaku
すごい - sugoi
何とかなる - nan to ka naru
Date & Time - reading time
Yes & No - natural usage
分からない - wakaranai
About this blog
Index of articles (You're already here, dummy!)
Links
GETTING STARTED
Where do I start?!
What materials do I need?
Having the right mindset to learn Japanese
Making your first sentences!
Pacing yourself
ADVICE, LESSONS, TIPS, ETC.
Three types of sentence "cores." - A simple foundation concept.
Sentence structure made easy - No, seriously, it's easy!
GAMING JAPANESE
Pocket Monsters - For beginners at reading.
Super Smash Bros. Melee - Practice reading all kinds of stuff for under $20
PRODUCT/SERVICE REVIEWS
Skritter.com - Awesome kanji review service online!
タレント - tarento
最高＆最低 - saikou & saitei
とにかく - tonikaku
すごい - sugoi
何とかなる - nan to ka naru
Date & Time - reading time
Yes & No - natural usage
分からない - wakaranai
About this blog
So, you've run into this weird blog called "Easy Breezy Japanesey." First of all, congratulations! You're now pretty awesome. And now you probably want to know what exactly this is and what it can do for you, right? Of course you do.
This blog is anyone's guide to self-study Japanese. If you have ever tried to teach yourself Japanese, you probably have found that it's one of the most difficult things you've ever tried to do. It doesn't have to be that way! The hardest part of learning Japanese on your own is the abundance of resources (both good and bad...) available to you. In other words, it's just all about knowing where to start and where to go.
I tried to study Japanese on my own for a while, eventually went to school for Japanese, and then continued my studies on my own. I learned a lot about studying Japanese in school, but these tools and resources aren't available to everyone.
If I had known back then what I know now, I would have been able to become fluent in Japanese without ever stepping foot in a classroom or hiring a private tutor or anything like that. I'm not saying that classrooms and teachers are bad; they're wonderful! I'm just saying that there are people who can't get a class or a teacher where they are right now, but those people still want to learn Japanese.
Luckily, it's really not as hard as it looks. I don't have a PhD in Japanese. I'm not a Japanese professor. I'm just a regular guy who went to school and studied on my own and played a crapton of Japanese games on my computer and Playstation. And I was able to learn to speak fluent Japanese!
Certainly I don't have the credentials to write in academic journals or publish elaborate books that people will actually take seriously. But not everyone who can speak Japanese is a Japanese professor who publishes professional works. And that means that there are plenty of "regular" people out there who know how to learn Japanese. I want to share my experience and knowledge and help others learn to speak, read, write, and understand Japanese.
This blog is not going to be full of Japanese lessons, but rather is going to be like a mentor to those learning Japanese on their own. I want to help point you to all the resources I've learned about and give you tips on how to think, study, and learn in the best way you can. I will try to cover everything you need to get started in self-study, get a good foundation in the language, and eventually learn to teach yourself Japanese.
With the recent tragic disaster in Japan, I've been in contact with friends and colleagues living or staying in the country, or just ones who want to help. I've been reminded of one of the most important benefits of speaking Japanese: simply the ability to communicate. Looking at how the recent events in Japan have shaken the rest of the world, I'm reminded of the connected world we live in today -- a world in which communication is vital and important! I think that anyone should be able to learn to communicate in the ways they want, and anyone should be able to learn Japanese.
As I said, I'm just a regular guy, and I learned how to do it. I think it's important for people to share their experiences and help others in any way they can. I have a BA in Japanese. I can't write a textbook or teach a class. But I do have plenty of years studying Japanese both in school and on my own; I have experience teaching -- including tutoring and giving private lessons in Japanese; I have a passion for linguistics, languages, studying, and teaching; and I have a computer, internet access, and a blogger account. Because of all of that, I feel I'm more than qualified to help you on the long road ahead of you... the road of self-study that will eventually lead to Japanese fluency. :)
And I know a lot of resources you find are going to try to teach you everything from beginning to end, or they'll only give you really basic information, or they'll be so full of technical words or jargon that you'll have no idea what the hell is going on. Learning Japanese can be overwhelming when you see all the stuff out there on the internet and in your public library telling you how to learn. This blog is going to be a friendly, casual, and common-language guide to help you puzzle all that out and figure out what's going on.
My first answer to this is everyone. I want to be clear that I am very confident that anyone can learn Japanese. Yes, it doesn't matter if you're old and stupid (sadly, that's a common excuse...); you can do it.
Secondly, I want to point out that this blog is dedicated to those who have decided to try to teach themselves self-study. It's mainly for those of you who can't take lessons or classes but still strive to learn the language.
Lastly, I want to say that this blog can still be a great resource to people studying formally. Even when you're in a class with teachers and a textbook, you can still
In other words, if you're trying to learn Japanese, I can help you. :)
What is this blog?
This blog is anyone's guide to self-study Japanese. If you have ever tried to teach yourself Japanese, you probably have found that it's one of the most difficult things you've ever tried to do. It doesn't have to be that way! The hardest part of learning Japanese on your own is the abundance of resources (both good and bad...) available to you. In other words, it's just all about knowing where to start and where to go.
I tried to study Japanese on my own for a while, eventually went to school for Japanese, and then continued my studies on my own. I learned a lot about studying Japanese in school, but these tools and resources aren't available to everyone.
If I had known back then what I know now, I would have been able to become fluent in Japanese without ever stepping foot in a classroom or hiring a private tutor or anything like that. I'm not saying that classrooms and teachers are bad; they're wonderful! I'm just saying that there are people who can't get a class or a teacher where they are right now, but those people still want to learn Japanese.
Luckily, it's really not as hard as it looks. I don't have a PhD in Japanese. I'm not a Japanese professor. I'm just a regular guy who went to school and studied on my own and played a crapton of Japanese games on my computer and Playstation. And I was able to learn to speak fluent Japanese!
Certainly I don't have the credentials to write in academic journals or publish elaborate books that people will actually take seriously. But not everyone who can speak Japanese is a Japanese professor who publishes professional works. And that means that there are plenty of "regular" people out there who know how to learn Japanese. I want to share my experience and knowledge and help others learn to speak, read, write, and understand Japanese.
This blog is not going to be full of Japanese lessons, but rather is going to be like a mentor to those learning Japanese on their own. I want to help point you to all the resources I've learned about and give you tips on how to think, study, and learn in the best way you can. I will try to cover everything you need to get started in self-study, get a good foundation in the language, and eventually learn to teach yourself Japanese.
Why are you doing this?
With the recent tragic disaster in Japan, I've been in contact with friends and colleagues living or staying in the country, or just ones who want to help. I've been reminded of one of the most important benefits of speaking Japanese: simply the ability to communicate. Looking at how the recent events in Japan have shaken the rest of the world, I'm reminded of the connected world we live in today -- a world in which communication is vital and important! I think that anyone should be able to learn to communicate in the ways they want, and anyone should be able to learn Japanese.
As I said, I'm just a regular guy, and I learned how to do it. I think it's important for people to share their experiences and help others in any way they can. I have a BA in Japanese. I can't write a textbook or teach a class. But I do have plenty of years studying Japanese both in school and on my own; I have experience teaching -- including tutoring and giving private lessons in Japanese; I have a passion for linguistics, languages, studying, and teaching; and I have a computer, internet access, and a blogger account. Because of all of that, I feel I'm more than qualified to help you on the long road ahead of you... the road of self-study that will eventually lead to Japanese fluency. :)
And I know a lot of resources you find are going to try to teach you everything from beginning to end, or they'll only give you really basic information, or they'll be so full of technical words or jargon that you'll have no idea what the hell is going on. Learning Japanese can be overwhelming when you see all the stuff out there on the internet and in your public library telling you how to learn. This blog is going to be a friendly, casual, and common-language guide to help you puzzle all that out and figure out what's going on.
Who is this blog for?
My first answer to this is everyone. I want to be clear that I am very confident that anyone can learn Japanese. Yes, it doesn't matter if you're old and stupid (sadly, that's a common excuse...); you can do it.
Secondly, I want to point out that this blog is dedicated to those who have decided to try to teach themselves self-study. It's mainly for those of you who can't take lessons or classes but still strive to learn the language.
Lastly, I want to say that this blog can still be a great resource to people studying formally. Even when you're in a class with teachers and a textbook, you can still
In other words, if you're trying to learn Japanese, I can help you. :)
What's up with the name?
I originally named my blogger account "easybreezy," as I wanted to write a variety of blogs using my life experiences to help other people. One thing I've discovered in my life is that anything can be easy if you know how to make it easy. I truly believe that anyone can do anything they want. Since one of the biggest passions in my life is language, and my favorite languages to study are Japanese and Korean, and for the reasons above, my first blog ended up being one about learning Japanese.
When I was in high school, I got really interested in Japanese pop music. At the time, Utada Hikaru had just become a big sensation in Japan, and her music was really popular. I was listening to her a lot at the time, and when she decided to release an album in the United States, I was pretty stoked!
If you know about it, there was a particular line in one of the songs she used to promote the album that said "You're easy-breezy, and I'm Japanesey." I remember a lot of people were really upset about that line because they thought it sounded stupid. Actually, I thought it sounded pretty stupid myself. I even wrote her a letter and said "Please change the lyrics to your song. It sounds really bad." (hahaha)
Since then, I've listened to that song so much that it's really grown on me. And as I studied Japanese language and culture more, the line actually started to... make a little sense to me, in a way. I can't really describe it. But being that I love that song and have been listening to it forever, and the fact that everyone made such a big deal out of that line, that line is one that's in my head a lot. And now it's pretty amiable to me.
So I decided that since my blogger account was already named "easybreezy," it seems like the perfect name! Not only am I attempting to make the task of teaching yourself Japanese easy, but the title comes from a song from a Japanese-American singer (Or would it be American-Japanese? She was born to Japanese parents in America and then moved to Japan... hmmm...)
Anyway, the name seemed pretty cute to me, so I picked it. That's the long-story-short version of it, I guess, ahaha.
How can I help?
If you want to help me out, ask me questions! If you're having particular trouble in an aspect of learning Japanese, let me know, and I'll try to address it. Please don't ask me for a translation or help on a particular lesson or something (like "I don't get how to use this form...") or something... because I could potentially get thousands of questions like that and it would be too hard to address them all. And the purpose of this guide is to teach people how to find those answers on their own -- to be able to learn Japanese without teachers or tutors, since it's a self-study blog.
But if you have a question that you think could benefit anyone learning Japanese like "I have a problem with learning new vocabulary" or "I have a problem distinguishing these politeness levels" or something (which are problems I already plan on discussing), feel free to ask me those. Anything that applies to the entire language, very common problems that a lot of students seem to have, &c.
Also, if you have any useful techniques or study habits or tools or resources or anything that you would like to share, I'd love to hear it and share it with readers, too!
You are so cool! Can I give you money??
Well, I'm not really all that cool. Okay, maybe I am. And yeah, you can give me money! It currently doesn't cost me anything to write a blog on blogger, but I would like to eventually upgrade to a full, shiny web site.
But in seriousness, if you find this blog useful, and you think it's worth a donation, feel free to click the PayPal donation button on the right menu bar.
But in seriousness, if you find this blog useful, and you think it's worth a donation, feel free to click the PayPal donation button on the right menu bar.
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