I Totally Taught These People Japanese

This is one of those posts where I show a video and then share some book links because the video just ain't enough. Here's the vid of me teaching Japanese:


And now here's the useful books that will not be all flippant when answering your queries.
Using Japanese Slang (US)(JP): All those fun dirty words

Common Japanese Phrases(US)(JP): Useful expressions for every occasion

Strange But True(US)(JP): A Reader that is super helpful for building literacy

How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese (US)(JP): A super vocabulary builder

Making Sense of Japanese(US)(JP): Learn the difference between は and が

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters(US)(JP): More like a guide to the origins of characters if you as me, but I dig it

Japanese Verbs (US)(JP): I haven't read this one, but I think I have read one from the same series

Also, check those links on the sidebar of this very blog. They will save your study soul.

Japanese Study Links

Sign/Ad J | J Slang | J News w/Pics | J Vids
Karaoke | J Commercials | Let's Yoji!

Using JEDict and Heisig Together

JEDict is a powerful tool. I'm an especially big fan of the kanji features. in the top right of the kanji search, you can see an animated stroke order diagram. Above that is the constituent parts of the kanji. The beauty of this is that not only does it help you to make mnemonics, but you can click and drag these components to either the search bar (near the top) or the building bar (near the middle.
For instance, while looking at 浸, a very wet kanji, I decide that I want to drag some elements and see what other kanji have a similar makeup. Below is an example where I've done that:

Then you'll notice that at the bottom there is a customizable list of indexes and info, above the common English glosses of the kanji's meanings. Heisig is available, so I sometimes copy and paste that number into a PDF version of the book Remembering the Kanji, like so:


Here's another example where we take the kanji for chair...


And see all the other kanji where it's main radical, 奇, shows up. This is great for creating your own meanings for primitives/radicals when Heisig just ain't doing it for you.

The PDF in this case is Remembering the Kanji 3.
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JEDict is Mac OS X only though. My question for you, Dear Reader, is: do you know a Windows or Linux equivalent to this kanji tool with similar drag-and-drop ease of use?

Scanner Pen Translates Japanese as you Read

Here a guy-- that talks much like one of my entertaining students :-D-- shows off a pen that you can scan English or Japanese words with and get a quick definition. I believe the 2 in the name of the pen refers to it's two-second scanslation speed. I guess it's been out for a while, but it's new to me.

I have some reservations about this, starting with the price (about $300). I was also worried about being able to read the Japanese font, but it seems you can enlarge it, and it looks better in the Japanese language version of the above video anyways so I am satisfied. Hirigana seems like it works too. Actually these days it's the hirigana words that trip me up the most, so I am really curious as to how well they are covered.

You can download the manual and get other information at this site. I wonder if it could read E ink, or, in a pinch, a computer screen.

The ability to save my books from ugly underlined words (my current method is to underline and look up words after I have finished the current two pages opened before me) and get an instant definition is very appealing.

Any testimonials from people out there using this?
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EDIT: Saw a vid for a Quiktionary 3, but it seems to be a non-Japanese learner-centered product

A little more on Anki developments

First I gotta point out, I forgot to elucidate on the "=" marks in the cards last post, so I went back and added that in.
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Lately, I discovered that Anki has the option to add a field to type in your answers. I set the "reading" part of the card to be the one you have to punch in on my giant deck. You still have to rate your recall powers from 1-4.
As I really want to focus my studies, this replaces both Read the Kanji and iKnow for me for now. They both still have their merits, but I'm going to be focusing on Anki study for a while. The typing really helps give that extra edge for remembering (perhaps its the kinesthetic factor), much like circling the troublesome parts of a kanji help me to remember them. I also still say each answer out loud and type something for about everything to lock it all in.

Now if only I could find a way to speed up input. I am still averaging 80 to 100 new entries a day. Direct downloads from my brain would be nice...

Download: Anki Grammar Deck for 1kyu Study

Okay, after threatening to unleash a new anki Japanese grammar deck upon the world for a while, I have finally done it. I've learned a lot since the days when I wrote out those grammar lists that I put up on Google Docs. Every day we have quizzes at my language school and I take notes on usage and such. This deck is the culmination of that.

There are some things you need to know to understand how to use these cards though.

"f." stands for both "front" and "follows" For instance, "f.　あげく" means "what goes in front of あげく?"

"nu." stands for nuance. Questions where I wanted to remind myself of how a grammar is used. It sometimes gets paired with "essay."

"essay" means, how is this used in the reading section of the test. Often, words direct you to look forward or back.

"_＿" means "fill in the blank". For instance in "noun＿＿のに" the answer that anki is looking for is "な".

nouns and other parts of speech are sometime abbreviated (like "n"), and sometimes romajied from their Japanese words. Other times I wrote the Japanese linguistic terms, so you might want to already know what a 形容動詞 or a 修飾型 is.

Some of the questions are really simple things that I keep forgetting, sometimes the question and answer may be too mystifying. So feel free to delete cards you don't get or like.

if there are no special symbols or abbreviations in the question, you just need to give the meaning like a normal anki card.

Some cards ask you an actual question. ex: "Who do you usually talk about when you use ときたら?"

EDIT: I forgot about "=" signs. Those are looking for equivalent Japanese expressions, not English.

I'd like feedback on any mistakes in the cards, via comments to this post, where others using the deck can see them. This is not a perfect deck; I may upgrade it a bit in the future.
You may find a good grammar reference book handy while studying. I recommend this one:

It has English, Chinese, and Korean explanations for all levels of the test. And it's an ALC product, so you know it's pretty quality.

And here be the link to download the deck!

　
EDIT: Or if you are savvy enough to sync with a shared deck, the ID seems to be a74a8f213db81f5d

Spring Break

Hey, spring break starts tomorrow, so I probably won't post much for a little bit. I am toying with the idea of trying to read a Japanese novel each day (one of those train-carry sized paperback ones that are popular over here). Or maybe I will try hitchhiking. Either way, I'm sure I would learn tons of Japanese.
May you all have a productive time as well!

Check Your Kanji Mastery

When I didn't include kanji I know the meaning of but can read aloud, I scored 1400-500 kanji. When I go back and add those kanji, plus others I didn't know until a second glance/missed due to being inattentive, it goes up by a hundred.

What's your score?

I've blogged this before, but it is fun to gage growth.

Cute Puppy Practices Zen!

Merciful Eye Temple--This little champ is named Conan, and he is praying for good grades for students. Apparently, the crowd made him frisky at first, but he calmed down and properly did his 合掌 (prayer hands). Of course, there was some memorabilia, a few charms, or omamori, and other stuff with his image on sale too. All for the grade. No mention of whether or not poop played a part in this grade-praying event.
[original Japanese+big pic]

Here are a couple more religious stories I found interesting:


Shiga-ken--One thing about festivals in Japan is that usually a portable shrine gets pulled out. I myself have helped pull one or two down the street--next goal is battling shrines!-- but this is pretty awesome a feat: getting together about 200 guys to carry a shrine 1km into the mountains. And that final bit of stone stairs is a 45% slope!
[original article]


From Fuki to Obama city--Have you ever heard the sound of a ほら貝? Here is a video of what a conch-horn of the Japanese variety sounds like (it's pretty difficult to do). Now, keep that in mind when you look at this picture. Sure the group may resemble a certain group of ill-repute in America, but these folks are doing nothing sinister; just the opposite in fact: that horn signals spring coming. Where better to announce spring than at a spring*, in an event called "the sending of the water"? They place their flaming cedar sticks in the water (2,500 people doing this, mind you) and purify it.
[article]
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* Actually this one was pretty hard to read and then decide proper English terms for, so if you notice anything off, do comment.

Obama's Speeches are a Best Selling Source of (I Hope) English Interest

The English teacher in me is well please that a lot of my students, nay, a lot of Japanese people everywhere are buying books about Barrack Obama. Not just his own books, but transcripts of his speeches, complete with translation. I hope they are actually reading the facing English pages.

I sent my students a link to iKnow recently, as my obsession with trying to get them to learn more than for an hour a week and study English grows all the time. Today I sent them a followup link to the iKnow lessons based on Obama's speeches. We'll see if any new terms get bandied about in class. Here's a link if you are curious.

If you would like to read up on the book phenomenon, well, I have a link for that too (MSNBC). I think that it is great so many people are getting interested in American politics over here; I just wish they would take some initiative locally too.

Today's Language Acquisition tip

Ever try to speak a in a foreign language that you can, say, read exceptionally well, but can't actually say things well in? For a lot of us shy people, lack of speaking, combined with lack of good words to say when we finally get a chance to speak, can be frustrating--especially when you've got a complaint about the way something is being inflicted on you, but let's reel in our ranting, self, and continue with the post. However, your speaking skills need not be so bad; today, I exhort you to speak as you study. All too many times, I have had a word in my head. I'd know the concept--sometimes I don't have an English equivalent in mind, I just know it--, and I even have a good idea of the kanji behind it. But it won't come out. Especially if there is conjugation involved. Now you know my frustration when I watch my own recent videos. But if I had started speaking as I studied long ago*, maybe I would be a much smoother orator.

This speaking tip is one I never really used before I read a post by Alex and gave it a shot, but I have found it to be pretty useful. So now here's what I do: As I go through my Anki deck, which ideally happens every night, I speak each word. It is not only useful for a smooth recall in later, real life conversations, but it also cuts down on my studying time dramatically. I usually remember words after I have missed them once thanks to my newly discover auditory memory.

While it will probably provide a boost to everyone, this may not work as fantastically for you if you are not an auditory learner; looking back on my educational career, I always had a pretty good memory about what the teacher lectured on during any given class, with minimal notes. I am even remembering right this moment how a high school teacher got mad at me one time for not taking notes. "But Mr. Fatso"--I'm pretty sure that was his name-- "you said on the first day of class that we should only take as much notes as we feel we need." Mr. Fatso didn't like my infuriating memory that day, or my calling him Mr. Fatso.

So I guess the moral is, as always, study in the way that works for you --and don't forget what way of studying is best for you, because I am kicking myself as I write this post (blame the typos on said kicks)--, try many different ways to study even if they feel silly, and pretend to keep notes to keep Mr. Fatso from sending you to the principal's office.
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*Well come to think of it, I did speak as I studied when I first started out. Have I told that story on this blog yet? Maybe it deserves a reiteration in the future.

This is Not the Japanese I Signed on for

So I thought since the Daily Yomiuri offers feeds now I would try it out and try to read a newspaper article a day. But then I get to the headline.

Me: Oh geeze, what is that again, Rikaichan? Foreign product something or othe--
Rikaichan says: 商品先物取引 しょうひんさきものとりひき (n) commodity futures
Me: gawugljl [commence brain-melt]

Think I'll stick to novels and manga for now, as last I checked, the most complicated financial term I knew in either language was "mutual fund".
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BTW, I haven't had the confidence to invest at all this year. I asked the guy that set up my mutual funds at the bank about it, and he used a bunch of words I didn't know along with "strategy". Ergo my lack of financial planning this year. On the one hand, Americas' economy sucking makes what I already invested look dangerously pittanceful [neologism], but on the other, the more it sucks in America, the stronger my yen is here, at least for now. Maybe, if the American economy gets really bad, it will actually be a good time to invest and I can pull a grandpa Forbes. That's the ticket!
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Edit: I just finished reading a different article, and learned the word 拉致問題. Can you guess what recent story I was reading about? My brain is sleepy and limp now. I take fall down sleep time good.

How to Study Japanese: Japanese Tools Online

So here's the links for things mentioned in the videos (the sidebar I mentioned is to your right as we speak).

Get Rikaichan at this site. You will need to download its dictionary separately. I also use the names dictionary. Usually shift switches on the fly between dictionaries and kanji details.

You can join Lang-8 here.

Download Anki here.

You can download many kinds of Anki decks here.

The audio links I mentioned are here.

Firefox search engines can be found at Mycroft.

Bonus for ya: All the 1kyu grammar terms are explained in my own poor words here. A few 2kyu grammar explanations can be found here And my general advice for taking the JLPT can be seen here.

A great way to have Firefox with you wherever you go is to use the USB-drive version from Portableapps.
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Need to know where something is or have a suggestion for what else is good to use to study via computers and internet? Leave a comment.
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And finally, my only other video on studying Japanese: What Books to Read

Please spread this info if you found it useful!

I have ongoing Japanese-related themes on this very blog. Here they are:
# Sign/Ad J
# J Slang
# J News w/Pics
# J Vids
# Karaoke
# J Commercials
# Let's Yoji!

A couple JLPT observations

1): Nobody in Saga-ken seems to have passed 2kyu this year. I blame the dialect for the thousandth time. Luckily I got a girl that doesn't speak English and eschews Saga-ben, so I look to improve. Also, I think a lot of people I saw that came here with good Japanese may have rested on their laurels a bit. Whereas I had trouble reading even kana 2.5 years back and desperately tried to catch up, which may lead us into:

2): I scored better on reading (84) than friends that passed the overall test when I didn't. This tells me I was on the right track somewhere. So look for my old posts on passing the JLPT and my video on which books to read if you are interested. 1kyu looks pretty possible right now.

Life after the big test

Well. It's like I had been in a pretty intense relationship for the past three months. I felt like I was working hard to make it work. But in the end I got a cold slap in the face and had to watch the JLPT walk off with some Chinese* transfer student cause he has the smarts to make a future.
I was actually kinda depressed in the aftermath that is Monday-back-to-the-real-world-work. I studied a little, but it just wasn't the same. It was a hollow lie. The language didn't love me and never would.
But I perked up a bit when I realized I had gone through another sub-piphany. You may recall that is my term for when I realize I suddenly know a bunch of new words and can hear them all around me. I may not be able to find gainful employment with my language skills, but at least I now understand the office gossip--which is about me-- all that much more.

So what I'm saying is, even knowing how things turned out, JLPT, baby, I don't regret a minute of our time together.
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*that seems a really random thing if you weren't at the test. Basically, there were way more Asians than other varieties of foreigners there; most of them seemed to be high school exchange students.

This is no surprise

Ganbatte！

Ganbatte！　An English announcement script.

みんなさんＨｅｌｌｏ、先週に僕は日本語能力試験を受験した。

一生懸命勉強した。まあ、合格の可能性が低いし、毎日僕がいろいろな間違いをしちゃうしけど、日本語として、最後まで頑張りたい。

君たちも英語やすべてに頑張ってほしいよ。　そのため僕の粗末な言語の始まりのものがたりを伝えたいと思う。もし、きいたら、君たちがインスピレーションがわいてくる気がするかな。

そもそも僕は何となく大学に行く前は言語授業がなかった。面白半分で日本語をえらんだ。簡単だろうと思った。なのに、最初のレッスンは僕にとって、ものすごくむずかしかった。内容は二つの句だった：「できました？」と「はい。できました。」そんな短くくせに僕は覚えられなかった。

結局、僕はその会話のビデオを何回も観た。たぶん、４０回ぐらいごろにやっと覚えられるようになった。その厳しいことのあと日本語が簡単になった。あいにく都合のせいでその期間のあと、長い間日本語を勉強ことがあきらめなければならなかった。そして能力回復のはまだ続いているんだ。だから僕の推薦は君たちもあきらめないで。そのうえ、最初から一生懸命したらものごとが楽になるはずだ。

ためしてみよう。

(yeah I know; this script is from the future! Oooooh.)

Finally finished the book

Since I have a few guests, and a file of words that was laying forgotten and unpublished on my desktop, I though you guys might like to know that I have collected all the 2kyu grammar terms I translated (not a complete list of 2kyu grammar terms, but still a lot) and put them in one document here.

How to study for the JLPT--some ideas

I am starting to feel like I can actually pass 2kyu! Here is how I think you could achieve it too (you can adjust/search around resources I will provide you with for other kyus).

1. Use Anki.
It's free. You can adjust the scheduling. Tip the guy if you pass, or just on principal. I have been covering around 300-500 words a day for the last week or so. I got through all the words, and am now concentrating on the sticklers.

2. Use online resources to populate your Anki deck(s). Some I have used include:
grammar and other grammar
I supplement this with a good book, cause these grammar sites be missing the nuances that make grammars corrects.
vocabulary
The nice thing I discovered about Renshuu.org is that the compact lists have tabs (spaces Anki can understand) built in. You can cut and paste these to a text document and then import it into Anki. I check words (to make sure I am not studying unnecessary words) against this online list, and tag cards I don't currently need with "suspend"
Me

3. Suppliment with Kakitory-kun.
Note: Kakitori-kun is not real study per say, but quite useful for remembering the differences between similar kanji. I skipped ahead to the sixth grade after finishing the 1st grade (I only do 熟語ドリル).

4. Test yourself to know your weak points.
All three aspects of the JLPT can be self-tested here. It helps you know how far along you are (my kanji is currently in passing range, the other aspects not so much, but I know I have time to bring them up).

5: Study for about 15 minutes at a time.
Fellow mac users, I recommend the timer feature of Alarm Clock 2 (freeware).
Then do some exercise between study sessions.
BTW, this program is really cool. It can get you up on time on test day to the itunes song of your choice.

6: Get out.
My head is swimming with Japanese right now. I need to see people, just like on the TV shows that are so popular these days.

7: Collapse your feedreader.
View your feedreader in collapsed (list) view to save time. Internets love to stealses our precious timeses!

8: Don't blog too much.
Especially don't waste your time making lists.

More test stuff

Chinese pirates are awesome. They get all the best stuff online these days. Okay, maybe the questions from previous years' JLPT tests isn't outright piracy, but it is on a Chinese website. Yes, this is in my shared items right now; I hope people look at that thing.

Anyhoo, it helped me fine-tune my studying a bit. A while back, Alex introduced me to the program Anki, which has improved my vocabulary tons. Well, I am currently deleting the English (production) side of most of the cards; only grammar points have been deemed important enough to keep bilingual. Also, I am not worrying about simpler words; I don't even have to really comprehend what I am reading, but rather I have to know how to read my 2kyu kanji and the words they make (lower vocab won't be tested outright). Besides, at this point I can guess pretty accurately/already know about the lower vocabulary. Finally, I'm not so sure the lists at renshuu.org are complete, so I will be perusing my other resources.

If you are interested in taking the JLPT, get Anki and go look through my links on the far right column of this blog. Good luck to us all.

Remember the kanji tester

Back then (old post has a link to the test you can take too) I was in the 540 to 560 range. Now I am 790 to 830. Well, that means I only learned about 300 kanji since February. This is less than I expected, and I gotta step it up if I am gonna get to 2kyu level by December. On the plus side, I finally bested past Deas and Alex, so with the help of future Alex (he has a time machine), I could go into the past and gloat, but I am sure they are still ahead of me in the present.