How I Study Japanese

I taught two classes today, and although my classroom-related duties are over, I will remain in school for another five hours. I will take this time to make good on my promise of revisiting the goals I set for myself while in Japan, beginning with discussing the resources I use to study Japanese.

I have had an abundance of time to study Japanese at school. For me, I practice speaking and listening as a side-effect of every day interactions (e.g. speaking to students and faculty, going grocery shopping, and watching TV) but learning to read and write come the least naturally, especially kanji. I must read hiragana and katakana in many daily situations, but when I face a kanji in any reading material, I am stuck totally helpless.

For my birthday, the organizer of the English Circle gave me a really cool Japan Times book in the Genki series: KanjiLook and Learn, "512 Kanji with Illustrations and Mnemonic Hints." I also purchased the highly acclaimed but controversial book, Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig from my predecessor, and I must say that Kanji Look and Learn takes a more interesting and realistic approach to understanding kanji. The book provides imaginative drawings for each kanji, alongside sentences that help you remember the more complicated ones.

For example, the kanji for spring is made up of three other recognizable kanji: person, three, and sun. So, they show a picture illustrating the three and tell you, "Spring has come. Three people look at the sun." This totally helps me remember. In comparison, Remembering the Kanji gives you the kanji in a weird order (gall bladder is one of the first that you learn) and not only do you have to remember the meaning, but he also tells you to remember another unrelated meaning that supposedly will help you remember future compound kanji, but I find that it greatly over complicates things in an attempt to provide a shortcut. In addition, Kanji Look and Learn gives you stroke order diagrams, on and kun-yumi readings, and compound words of which the kanji is a part.

I couple use of this book with White Rabbit Press' "Japanese Kanji Flashcards I" for more accessible review, and Kodansha's Let's Learn Kanji to help understand the radicals and practice my writing.

Kanji is but the tip of the iceberg. There are a couple of fun games that I would recommend for reading too. First, a game for the iPhone called Kanji Pop. In this game you are given about 16 kanji, and a time limit in which you have to match these kanji with words that pop up. It is a nice distraction on a train or car trip. Secondly, a computer game called SlimeForest Adventure. It's an RPG type game where the enemies are slimes who throw katakana, hiragana, and kanji at you for attacks and your defense is recognizing them. They present kanji that look similar in a group so you can recognize the differences. The only downfall to learning kanji in this game is that you do not learn the Japanese pronunciation, only the English word.

On my 40-minute+ drive through the mountain pass to two of my schools, I have been listening to "speed learning" audio tapes. Specifically, I have found the Pimsleur method to be very effective. Lessons build upon one another and advance at a reasonable pace. Following the principles of Second Language Acquisition, the audio tapes require listener response and input. Each lesson begins with a conversation, and by the end of the lesson, one can participate in a similar conversation. Additionally, this method encourages listeners to make connections and discover rules for different words and verb tenses based on use in phrases. For beginners, these are a great resource. After every lesson, I think to myself, "If only I had known this when I came to Japan, I would have avoided many of a confusing conversation."

I have a variety of workbooks that I am using in combination. It has been challenging for me to focus on just one. I need to whip through the "Japanese for JETs" book that I have been working on when at the BOE, but the audio portions always take a little while.  I also have Japanese Demystified, and Genki I and II. When winter comes, I will surely snuggle under my kotatsu and put the hammer to the grindstone (is that the expression?) - that is - when I am not watching marathons of TV shows (my favorite embarrassing winter hobby).

As a whole, the time I spend studying Japanese on a weekly basis is like another part-time job, but I have enough down time at work that it isn't a hassle. What I need to guard against, now that I have been in Japan for almost 2 months, is the tendency that people have to give up on studying due to lack of motivation. Besides the functional need to learn Japanese, I will find it beneficial in the future to study for a purpose, like taking the JLPT - (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). That might help better focus my course of study.