Nihongojouzu

The Nihongo Journal (日本語ジャーナル）

Somewhere near the end of 2005 I heard a rumour that ALC Press was discontinuing The Nihongo Journal, a monthly magazine aimed at students of Japanese. Crawling around on the web yesterday I was delighted to discover that the rumour was wrong, and NJ is alive and well.
So what exactly is this Journal?

I don't have a current copy of NJ but I pulled the November 2004 copy off my bookshelf and took a gander. There are regular sections, interspersed with feature and seasonal articles. The regular columns:

• NJ News
• Kanji Breakthrough
• Passing the JETRO Business Japanese Test
• Composition Clinic - improve your written Japanese
• Passing the JLPT
• Reading Time
• Using Manga to Improve Conversation

(I just found the online guide - you can browse parts of the Sept 2006 edition as a pdf)

Most of the articles are either bilingual or have English language explanations sprinkled here and there, but the layout means that the Japanese is always most prominent and the English relegated to a referential role only. The content is topical - stories taken from the news, pop culture etc.  Every issue comes with a CD of matching audio - 90 minutes plus of aural joy including listening practice for the JLPT. Total cost per issue - 1680yen - a bargain.

I remember listening to the NJ tapes (yes - back in 1997 cassette tapes were still the rage) in my car and being able to listen over and over because the balance of short episodes, practical exercises and longer narrations meant that my ears never got fatigued (The skits were always worth a chortle or two.) These days you can rip the CD contents to your iPod and pick and choose what you listen to - what luxury! Having the  text accompanying the CD is gold - learning new vocab becomes multi-sensory.

Is there a down side? 1680yen is almost the price of a small book and may scare off a few people, but there is a wealth of content in each issue (approx 112 pages) and you'll find yourself revisiting the text often. My only gripe is that the format for the listening quizzes is often slightly different to the JLPT format so people practising for the exam should use NJ earlier on in the study process and switch to past papers (where the format is exactly the same) when the test gets closer. This is a small point, but time is of the essence in the world of the JLPT so familiarity with the exact style of questions is paramount.

I love the NJ and reckon that repeated listening to the NJ tapes was a big part of me getting a good ear for the language, and I recommend the journal to anyone from beginner to advanced. You should find it in big bookshops like Maruzen and Kinokuniya or you can order in online from ALC.

漢検DS: Kanji Kentei on the Nintendo DS

There is a God. September 28 will see the release of a Kanji Kentei (漢字検定) training  application for the Nintendo DS. Check out an overview here. A full review when I get my hands on it.

My Japanese sucks

Via YouTube, a monologue from an American student who styles himself houkouonchi. He's got good pronunciation, good vocab (OK, he could be reading off something) and attributes this to a steady diet of J-drama and manga (and being a Japanese major at college). He also has a LOT of comments on the clip which make for a great read. Lesson to be learnt - video yourself speaking Japanese, stick it on YouTube and wait for the feedback. You don't have to be as good as this guy, in fact if your Japanese is absolute pants then just think how great the comparison will be a few weeks down the track. (PS a 方向音痴 is a person with no sense of direction)

Improve Your Memory

Via 43folders,  a great article called How to Improve Your Memory.

There are lots of points applicable to language learning and a few in particular which piqued my interest:

Reduce stress. You remember more when you are less stressed. Not only does making study fun help your motivation to continue learning it will also lower the stress involved and you will retain more.

Make a conscious effort to remember. In effect train to get better at remembering. This relates to my point about language being a skill which needs practice. Forget about "osmosis" - osmosis is for cell membranes - humans have to practise.

Repeat things you need to learn.  Review, review, review.

Write stuff down. Don't kid yourself - if you don't take notes you will probably forget.

Use mnemonics to remember abstract information.

And there are some good memory links at the end of the article.

Kotoba: flashcards while playing video games

Bryn Davies, the man behind kanjiPod , has found a way to combine study and play....

World of Warcraft has been making me procrastinate from studying for the JLPT, so I eventually went and hammered out a compromise.

There is an excellent OSX Flashcard application called Kotoba which has a neat feature where you can set it to be "Always On Top" and semi-transparent.  Now, if you play WoW in "Windowed Maximised" mode ( doesn't work in regular fullscreen mode ), you can still use your flashcards on autoplay while you slay an elf in fantasy land.  This may work for doing background absorption while working on other things / games too.

One of the problems with Kotoba is that the dictionary editor can be a bit crappy for mass entry - so after entering 684 words of vocabulary from the Meguro Language Center's study guides into Kantango ( ugh ), I wrote a program to pull them out again and make a Kotoba import file for them.

You can find the vocab file here... at least when progsoc isn't crashing.

Cheers!
  Bryn.

I had a quick look at Kotoba (impressive) and I'll do a review of it shortly. Though Kotoba is for Macs, Bryn's text file can of course be used on any OS - you just have to find another flashcard application...

Thanks Bryn.

Tags  study Japanese | flashcards | learning Japanese

男らしい blog

Otokorashi (full title: 男らしい: For the questions that bug ya. Questions, commments, complaints about the ol' nee-hon-go) covers grammar points aimed at people taking the JLPT Level 1 or 2, like the difference between わけではない　and わけがない、the various uses　for 気, how to use 限り、discussions of kanji compounds and advanced vocabulary. Very readable posts and informative comments. Worth a gander.

Japanese learning hints: 2006 Ehime JET Matsuyama Orientation

The other day I gave a presentation at the Ehime Prefectural Orientation Meeting for 63 newly arrived JETs (participants on the Japan Exchange Teaching Programme). The schedule was tight and I only had 25 minutes to cover the topic "Hints for Learning Japanese" so I was concise and tried as much as possible to give hints on successfully 'learning how to fish' as opposed to simply handing out a few 'fish'. 

It wasn't your average group of Japanese learners:
1. Most people had next to no Japanese ability
2. They would however be living in Japan for the following year
3. They weren't necessarily interested in studying Japanese but rather they needed Japanese simply to go shopping, ask directions etc.

(hence the use of romaji!!!!!!)

I have reproduced my handout in the continuation of this post and I will expand on a few of the points in later posts.

ビールの話 Talking Drunk Podcast

Like beer? Study Japanese? Want to combine the two? The ビールの話-talking drunk- podcast is just a guy sampling different beers and talking about them - that's it. There's a bit of small talk about the weather too but basically just a beer-fueled monologue. For example, Episode Four deals with Kirin's autumn beer 秋味 (あきあじ), 一番搾り（いちばんしぼり and Classic Lager. What makes it a good resource (besides the subject matter) is that the podcaster, Kodaredera, is easy to understand and he is always covering similar ground (colour, taste etc) so there is a good amount of repetition. Listen up and soon you too will be able to say more than simply "ビールが好きです！”. In fact if you plan ahead you could buy the same beer that Kodaredera is drinking and drink along to the episode, providing even more context (taste, smell) for your learning.

There are only four episodes on iTunes at the moment so fingers crossed that Koderedera keeps drinking on the job. The companion blog is here. For intermediate learners and up. Be warned - the beer sounds effects are seductive and if you are not drinking when you start listening you probably will be by the end.

JLPT Late Applications

Tomorrow is the last day for Japanese Language Proficiency Test applications - if your application envelope is postmarked no later than September 5 you are in.

However, even if you miss this deadline all is not lost - the late application period extends from September 12 to October 4. During this period late applications will be accepted IF there are seats available at the the test sites, but no late applications for Sapporo, Tokyo, Shizuoka or Takamatsu.

To make a late application call the application centre (03-5220-3431) to see whether there are any seats available and if so, to get a reservation number. If you have yet to get your hands on an application form you can pick one up from Bonjinsha in Tokyo or Osaka or fax an order to Bonjinsha with the following information 1. Name in kanji, katakana, and Roman letters 2. Address 3. Phone number 4. The number of copies required 5. Your reservation number

Oh - the kicker - a late application will set you back 8500yen - a 3000yen increase on the normal fee.