How to Study Japanese: a JETs Guide Adam H Lisbon – Kōbe City 神戸市 – 2004-2007  

bit.ly Get this sheet online anytime: delicious.com/learnjapanese Online index of sites for learning Japanese: ★★★ -- discover the ‘real’ Japan GOALS: -- survive, get by day-to-day ★ ★★ -- connect with people -- fluency, and all its opportunities ★★★★ & MEDIA: -- Read books/manga/blogs/news | Watch TV shows/anime | Sing at karaoke --steady monthly obligations --JET program language course BENCHMARKING: --The JLPT Exam --offered annually, beginner - advanced --Jitsuyō Shiken/実用試験 --go to a Japanese University, get a job 1 Learn katakana カタカナ first – used for lots of English loan words Where to start? 2 Learn hiragana ひらがな next – used to write Japanese words 3 ‘set phrases’ are incredibly useful, but harder for beginners to remember -- 2000 daily use kanji, really hard in the beginning, exponentially easier later on 1 learn the 216 radicals (部首 bushu), you really only need to know about 60 2 Focus on their meanings first, you can learn to read them in context later 3 Take the time to write them, in the CORRECT stroke order KANJI 4 Focus on the patterns that you see emerging (活 泳 滴 淡 洋 泣) 漢字 5 Read about kanji, get a kanji dictionary: -- Check out lessons 5 – 11 on this site: nccjapan.org -- Get the Nelson’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary -- Pocket edition for most people, unabridged if you’re “hardcore” 話 Speaking = Connecting ！Your “foreignness” is the perfect talking point, you’re new, you need to ask lots of questions ？What’s …this word? …this kanji? …this called? …this mean? -- Your students can teach you. Co-workers too, Introduce yourself to EVERYONE 1-on-1 -- Sit in on other classes, just get the teacher’s permission to join first -- Social hobbies: participate in local events, integrate you into the community -- Toastmasters, polish your public speaking, meet people, improve your Japanese 読 Reading = Discovering -- Start with kids books, but be careful of slang and “childish” language -- Trivia books on a topic you enjoy are a great motivator to keep reading -- Blogs by topic and popularity at Blog Ranking ブログランキング -- Join the local library, the librarian can find you books appropriate to your language ability -- “graded readers” or nembetsu 年別: easy to hard books, more here: kids & teens J-series 書 Writing = Expressing -- Get a tutor, a patient friend, or try using Lang-8.com (crowd-sourced proof-reading)

聞＆聴 Listening = Understanding -- Children’s songs, lots of easy words and culturally informative -- The news, usually spoken very clearly. NHK Radio News lets you set the speed -- Eavesdropping, so you can ask people to stop talking about you when you’re in front of them Stuff I wish I knew when I started studying Japanese -- Men & women have different speech patterns, be careful if you get a J-girl/boyfriend -- Japanese has only 5 vowels, English has nearly 30 (don’t make sounds they’ve never heard) -- There’s no alphabet, but a syllabary: 1 kana = 1 syllable, even ん(n) is its own syllable -- Long vowels vs. short vowels: ここ koko = “here” こうこう kōkō = “high school” -- (Japanese actually get really confused if you use the wrong vowel lengths) -- English syllables alter in emphasis (i.e. loudness) (PHOto, phoTOgrapher, inCREDible) -- (Japanese has nothing like this, speak in nice evenly spaced increments) -- There is a part-of-speech in Japanese called the particle -- When you truly understand them the language becomes much easier to comprehend -- Become familiar with affices, i.e. prefixes & suffixes -- Finally, read as much as you can (in English) about Japanese’s linguistic properties 凄い書誌 The best bibliography ever -- Awesome Japanese Learning Tools Rikaichan for Firefox OR Rikaikun for Chrome -- read Kanji online with ease Genki -- Very popular, easy to use textbook Yookoso -- Better grammar explanations Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar Tofugu Intuitive explanations, includes other topics Hilarious explanations of language & culture Dictionaries: Jisho.org -- very accessible dictionary, has everything you could dream of. Kotoba -- iPhone dictionary, similar to jisho.org, try JED for Android ALC.co.jp -- advanced dictionary complied by translators, good for nuance and usage Goo jisho -- online dictionary for Japanese people Yahoo Jisho -- Good for its encyclopedia entries Kanji AsahiKanji -- Free flashcards for iPhone, Android, and online ReadtheKanji -- Online pay site, but with free sections, very cool stat tracking Anki -- Unique system for memorizing, infinite number of flashcard sets -- (online, iphone, and android) Vocabulary LanguageGuide.org -- divided by category, with exceptional audio to hear all the words. You will naturally make lots of mistakes, which means funny stories to tell later and proof that you’re actively learning. Especially for rural JETs, connecting with your community will do wonders for leveling-up your Japanese. Your students will be great teachers if you show curiosity in learning, and your co-workers will appreciate your effort. Asking for help with your Japanese is almost always the perfect excuse to start a conversation.