Nihongojouzu

Mobile phones and learning Japanese

Whilst contributing to the development of a society where it is impossible to make eye-contact with anyone because everyone is permanently hunched over their new keitai,  mobile phone technology in Japan is a constant source of joy to language learners. Emailing in Japanese helps your reading skills, the predictive function of the character input helps your lexical knowledge and any time you forget how to write a kanji you can simply whip out your phone.

But it is the internet abilities of the Japanese phone which make it invaluable as a learning tool. Think of all those times you have a few spare moments - in line at the bank, sitting at the train station or perched on the warmed seat of a western style toilet - with a mobile phone those moments become study time.

To look up a word:
Jim Breen's EDICT dictionary page
Go to the keitai (mobile phone) J-E page and you have a free dictionary (no need to sign up for the DoCoMo paid services) The J-E page also has an E-J link.

Practise grammar points:
jgram.org
Next time you are waiting for your Hokka Hokka bento to be made up spend the time running through JLPT grammar points, or sign up for the daily grammar point email quiz.

Kanji review:
Forgot your flashcards? No problem - Reviewing the Kanji gives you flashcards on your phone, anywhere.

And of course this blog can be read on a mobile phone too.

Tags learning Japanese | keitai | mobile phone | kanji

Reviewing the Kanji

Reviewing the Kanji is a website designed to assist people using the Heisig method to study the 2000 or so Joyo kanji. Register on the site and you have access to your own set of online Heisig kanji cards to which you can add your own stories. The "share this story" option gives you examples of stories other people have come up with - a good way to kick your brain into gear if you get stuck coming up with a story. For example, for the kanji 重　which has the Heisig keyword 'heavy':

erikkusan
Last edited: 20-3-2006
The first computer in the world was as heavy as thousand computers are now.

fuaburisu
Last edited: 16-10-2005
This is the latest in technology from Macrosoft : a machine nicknamed "heavy duty". Capable of dealing with heavy load computations, it is made of one thousand computers linked together. You may picture it as a big cube, the inside made of 10 x 10 x 10 computers.

Easy to use, accessible anywhere you can get online plus warm fuzzy joy of sharing feeling.
Reviewing the Kanji is based upon the Leitner Cardfile System.

Tags kanji | learning Japanese

Common Japanese Phrases

I prefer the Japanese title: 決まり文句の辞典- ("A Dictionary of Set Expressions" - my translation), but the English title is the only thing I don't like about this book. At 140 pages it is a wonderful collection of set phrases for all manner of situations. Set phrases? Shouldn't I just say things in my own words? Well, a lot of the time, no. The blurb on the back explains:

 

"Words don't exist in isolation, to be placed willy-nilly in grammatical slots by a speaker exercising absolute freedom of choice. Rather, words come in neatly bound packages - in phrases or entire sentences - ready to communicate an idea that cannot be expressed economically in any other way"

Sage advice. Once you realise that there is no need to reinvent the wheel and create sentences anew in a vast number of situations your learning becomes much simplified:

1. Find out what situations have set phrases.
2. Learn the appropriate phrase for each situation.
3. In all other situations wing it.

Don't waste time trying to cobble together your own sentences when  those  expressions already exist - you will sound more natural by following protocol and the person you are talking to will understand immediately because they are expecting a set expression.  Some examples from the book:

Welcoming into your home someone who has just arrived at the front door:

どうぞお上がりください。
Douzo oagari kudasai.
Please come in.

Replying when someone asks where you are going:

ええ、ちょっとそこまで。
Ee, chotto soko made.
Yes, I'm just stepping out for a minute.

No one knows quite what to say at a funeral - even in English - but in Japanese this one phrase will suffice:

このたびはご愁傷さまでございます。
Kono tabi wa goshuushousama de gozaimasu.
Please accept my condolences on this sad occasion.

Common Japanese Phrases covers Congratulation, Condolences, Making a Speech, Gift-giving, Addressing Someone, Visiting, Leaving, Making Requests, Consenting to a Request, Refusing a Request, Persuading, Stating an Objection, Making Excuses, Criticizing, Praising, Reacting to Praise, Expressing thanks and Apologizing.

The explanations are both entertaining and  easy to follow and contain cultural notes to further enable proficient use of the phrases contained within. If you live in Japan this book is gold. It even has romaji (each example is set out as above) so even absolute beginners can wow people with formal expressions.

Compiled by Sanseido, translated by John Brennan and part of the Kodansha's Power Japanese series - look for the diminutive, angry sumo dude on the cover.

Tags learning Japanese | speak Japanese

365日物語 Podcast

365日物語 (365 Days of Stories - my translation) is a series of three minute readings from the book of the same name. Each episode ties into a historical event linked to the same date - I listened to episodes about Mary Shelley's publication of Frankenstein, Churchill's take on the Iron Curtain and how Franklin Roosevelt was never photographed in his wheelchair. Very easy on the ears, especially on multiple listenings - the narrator's almost imperceptible lisp reminds me of the endearing Atsushi Ito from Densha Otoko. Lots of great vocab and if you are not careful you may even learn something about history too. Intermediate and above.

Tags learning Japanese | podcast

Japanese onomatopoeia in action

For most people onomatopoeia is simply a long word which has something to do with sounds and is really tricky to spell - especially at the end. Here's a simple working definition: a type of word that sounds like the thing it is describing. Choice English examples include slither, splash and baa baa. Japanese has a lot of onomatopoeia, but it also has an enormous number of sound symbolic words which describe non-auditory senses, actions and psychological states. These words aren't strictly onomatopoeia, though they are often grouped together. Leaving aside for a moment the chance to engage in a semantic pissing contest (something I will do in a later article) I want to focus on the practical use of these words. All you really need to know about Japanese sound symbolic words is this:

Reading Japanese Signs

If Eric Cartman was learning Japanese and came across the Reading Japanese Signs resource he would issue a loud "SWEEEEEEEET!", because as practical, useful resources go, they don't come much better. Charles Kelly, Aichi Institute of Technology Professor and the man behind Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials, has grabbed 900 photos of real life Japanese signs and stuck them on the web so people outside of Japan (or people in Japan who can't pry themselves away from the computer) can practise reading them. The photos don't come with translations (you have to do some work yourself!) but Charles indicates that he may set up the pages in quiz format like this older set. Street signs, shop signs, family surnames (as found on houses and gates) and from simple to read to fiendishly difficult. If you are sitting level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this would be a fun way to boost the breadth of your kanji exposure.

Tags learning Japanese | kanji | JLPT | reading Japanese

mp3japan

Is your audio cupboard looking bare? You may be interested in this cache of listening goodies. mp3japan is an archive of mp3 files from the NHK audio series "Basic Japanese for You" and "Brush Up Your Japanese" which are only available in streaming form on the NHK site. 100 and 50 episodes respectively, 3-4Mb per episode. Knock yourself out.

Tags learning Japanese | NHK | mp3 | Japanese lessons

KanjiGymLight: "Remembering the Kanji" review software

Back in February Jim Heisig, author of Remembering the Kanji, left a comment following my review of WriteKanji, pointing out that in cooperation with German publisher Vittorio Klostermann he has produced a free application for reviewing the 2042 kanji introduced in RTK. KanjiGymLight is a Java based application designed to aid in kanji review via either 56 pre-set lessons or using the Heisig numbers. KanjiGymLight comes in a laptop/PC and a Palm version, needs the Java Runtime Environment (downloadable here) and all you need do is register to download it.

The interface is straightforward - the Heisig keyword is given and a blank pallet enables you to write the kanji using a mouse or touchpad. Click the "Check" button and the kanji itself appears - compare it with what you wrote on the pallet and then mark yourself correct or not.  A "Note" button allows you to add comments - for example you can write your particular story for that kanji - and saves automatically on quitting. Click the "Stroke order" button and see the kanji drawn as a small animation.

KanjiGymLight is the perfect companion to Remembering the Kanji - so long as you have access to your computer you don't need to lug around flashcards, but you will have to enter the mnemonic story for each kanji manually - hey, if all the stories, elements etc were included you wouldn't need to buy the book! Cheaper than WriteKanji, comes in English, German and French versions, works on both PCs and Macs and put togther by Jim Heisig himself. A must have. Just add time and effort....

Tags studying Japanese | Heisig | Remembering the Kanji | Kanji

Studying Japanese as an absolute beginner

Think everyone who comes to Japan arrives with at least a rudimentary knowledge of the language? Think again. From Todd, who came to Japan on the JET Programme, an account of what it is like arriving here knowing zero Japanese:

When I arrived in Japan I didn't speak a word.  In fact, when I got picked up from the airport my friend said "konnichiwa" to someone and I had to ask her what it meant.  I didn't have a job at the time, so I usually studied for 3-5 hours a day, but my friend wasn't around for the first two weeks and I was pretty scared to go out too much, so I might have spent 8-10 hours studying for those first weeks.  The first thing I did was to learn katakana and hiragana.  With intense reading, writing, and flash cards, I was able to learn katakana in a day and hiragana in about a day and a half.

Mnemonics and Language Learning

Some words lodge in your ear on first hearing and stay there, accessible at any moment thereafter. Few people have trouble remembering, for example, the Japanese word natto because a person's first experience with this fermented (ie rotting) bean delicacy, apart from scarring their tastebuds for life, will probably leave the word itself burnt into that person's mind, to be dropped into conversation the moment someone asks "Is there anything you can't eat?"

Other words refuse to be memorised, dancing on the edges of one's consciousness but never quite making the short journey to the tongue. This may be because the word lacks any context (you are studying from a list), has little emotional attachment (the name of someone you met at a party but didn't fancy) or is tricky to pronounce (okonomiyaki anyone?)

Thank God for mnemonics.