Japanese Lesson: Pronunciation (and beginner's words)

So I finally posted my FIRST actual Japanese lesson! I've been giving a ton of tips on how to go about learning Japanese, and now, I'm actually teaching you the language itself. This first one is very basic with a focus on how to pronounce things in Japanese. I use some beginner's words to illustrate these pronunciation rules, so by the end of it, you know how to say - and correctly pronounce - a basic introduction!

Hope to make more of these (there will be more intermediate lessons in the future as well), and I hope they were helpful. Happy learning!

Arashi Radio Shows

Here's the Youtube video I made about Arashi's radio shows. Enjoy!

Lang-8

Here's a video I made in Japanese (with English subs) about the awesome language-learning resource, Lang-8. Enjoy!



By the way, a huuuge thank you to Lang-8 for putting this vid on their Facebook fanpage!!

Using SRS to Learn Japanese

I've mentioned applications like Anki before, but I actually made a video explaining what an SRS is and how you can apply it to your Japanese study (and anything else you're studying!) Check it out~

Heisig's Method in a Nutshell

Earlier this week I posted a video explaining how Heisig works:



This was a lot of fun to make! I haven't been drawing anything in a while, so I enjoyed making those sketches. I'm perhaps considering making more of these, teaching a kanji in a short video with my own stories and pictures. It's pretty time-consuming though, so we'll see. Anyone interested in seeing more of this kind of content? Let me know in a comment here or on Youtube :)

Motivation Ideas: Song Puzzle

So going along with similar ideas from my last post about motivation, I came up with a new activity to help with motivation. This time, the method itself deals directly in helping learn Japanese. With the previous method, I created a jigsaw puzzle from a drawing. This time, instead of a picture, I did it with a Japanese song.

It’s pretty simple: find the lyrics to a song you like (in Japanese, of course, hopefully with as much kanji as possible). Print them out with a decently sized font and then cut out the lyrics so that each piece is an individual word. Set up tasks for yourself and whenever you complete a task, award yourself a word at random. Then try to piece together the song! This way, you’ll be exposed to kanji you may not know well, pay closer attention to grammar and vocab, understand when to use which particles, etc. And you’ll also have an easier time learning the song by heart if you’re continuously exposed to it.

I used a song that I was already familiar with: Tsubasa wo Kudasai. It’s a pretty and fairly short children’s song that has rather simple lyrics. While I already knew how to sing it, I had never paid much attention to the mechanics of the sentences, the kanji, or even the meaning of some parts. I separated the song into different sections, first verse, second verse, chorus, etc., and then pieced the song together one section at a time before moving on to the next section. With this simple song and separation method, I didn’t have way too many pieces to have to put together at once, so it was much more fun and doable.

The task that I used this method for were my SRS kanji reviews. While I finished going through Heisig’s Remember the Kanji by the beginning of my school semester, it was hard keeping up with it during the semester, especially since I had only briefly seen many of those kanji at the end and didn’t know them very concretely. By the end my winter vacation started I had over 800 kanji in backlog… So I decided to create a little motivation for myself with this puzzle song. The song I picked had just over 80 words in it so it worked out very well – for every 10 kanji I would get through in my backlog, I would give myself a word. By the time I finished going through my entire SRS, I would have completed the song.

After trying this method out, as an experiment, there are things that worked, and other things that I would change. For one, I didn’t give myself word pieces as I went, that was just too much trouble to constantly have to pay attention every time I finished ten more kanji. Generally, I would wait until the end of the day, count up the kanji I went through that day, and give myself the according number of words. Also, all the bits of paper were kind of a hassle. Originally I had paper clipped each section of the song together, and would take off the paper clip one section at a time so I could draw a word from each verse in order. I kept all of these papers in a small ziploc bag, which was nice to travel with, but it was nevertheless a ton of little pieces that were hard to put together and easy to lose. So what I ended up doing was gluing them down to some thin cardboard after I finished a section so I could keep track of them more easily.

As to whether this method is effective… It was for me! It motivated me to get through my kanji, and I know the kanji in the song better than I used to. But, I was already very familiar with the song beforehand, and I think it would have been virtually impossible to piece it together otherwise. I liked the jigsaw puzzle better, I must say, with a picture instead of a song. The visual aspect is more exciting, albeit less educational. Overall, I plan to do this again and think it’s worth trying out, but it miiight be more trouble than it’s worth?

Anyway, just throwing another idea out there! Good luck with your studies~ :D

Motivation ideas: Jigsaw puzzles

I’m dealing with finals for school right now and am trying a new way to keep myself motivated. Maybe this would work for you too!

I try to find different ways to turn tasks into a game to keep things fun and help with motivation. This includes checklists and bar graphs, like I mentioned in another post. An awesome app for the iPhone is EpicWin (check them out!) But I’ve also added a further element to the fun.

A jigsaw puzzle. What I did was print out a picture (this time around, it was one of Teppei Koike – I mean he does have one of the best motivational videos ever…). I flipped the picture over, drew dividing lines on the back, and cut the picture into pieces. The number of pieces equals the number of tasks I need to finish (for this case, the number of readings I need to do for a final exam). I put these aside, and every time I finish a task, I award myself one of the pieces of the puzzle at random. The puzzle itself isn’t that difficult, but this way, instead of just writing check marks or filling in a progress bar, I’m actually piecing together a picture, which is much more gratifying.

I’m surprised by just how much this has been helping me. It might be the fact that I personally love jigsaw puzzles, so this may not work for everyone. I definitely plan to use this kind of thing next semester for my new courses, and this can also be used for things like Japanese study (or just about anything!). 

I love coming up with fun activities like this to track progress on various tasks, and over the break I’d like to develop some kind of new fun system for next semester’s classes. I really like the jigsaw puzzle thing, but I also love things like treasure hunts and whatnot, and I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate that. I feel like I’m turning into a kid again, but hey, fun gets things done!

I realize that the methods used to accomplish tasks probably shouldn’t take more time/effort than the tasks themselves… I’m trying not to go overboard, but just come up with new ideas every once in a while and implement them in the most efficient way possible. If you guys have any fun ways to keep yourself motivated, let me know!

Smart.fm: Japanese Core 2000

So I know I've briefly discussed Smart.fm before in my Japanese Learning Methods post a while back. I still think it's an awesome tool, but in the past few months I had been focusing on other methods of learning. Now I'm coming back and wanted to have more of a discussion of my current Japanese learning methods.

So here's some background on my personal learning situation. A year ago, I was taking a Japanese class in college (my fifth semester) and was still in the earlier stages of the first volume of Remember the Kanji (which I talk about in my discussion of kanji). At that point, while I still felt like I had so much to learn, I also felt pretty "well-rounded." My listening and speaking skills, as well as my reading and writing skills, were all at around the same level, with maybe my listening skills being just above the rest of my other skills since I was already watching a lot of doramas and variety shows.

Then, last semester, I took a semester off from my Japanese course, since my other classes didn't really permit it. It didn't really bother me, and thankfully my skills didn't really drop or anything. I had managed to keep up with my Japanese decently enough, but my focus definitely changed during that semester. I wasn't practicing speaking too much and was focusing on kanji. I started reading Japanese manga, so I was getting much better at reading, but I never took any time to learn new grammar points or vocab, only naturally picking up a couple of things every once in a while. It was all about Remember the Kanji at that point. Well, by the end of the summer, I had finally finished the book! And then the fall semester had started, and I'm taking a Japanese class again.

Finishing RTK has definitely made a difference in the learning process. I'm not an expert on the kanji yet by any means - I'm still reviewing them everyday, and the backlog's pretty hefty. But whenever I see a new word, I'll have an idea as to what it means, or at least feel like I've seen it before, which does wonders for remembering it. So I'd just like to take this moment to reiterate how ingenious Heisig's concepts are and urge you to check it out if you haven't yet!

Anyway, while I am still doing my kanji reps now, my focus for the past couple of months has shifted once more. I'm learning new grammar and vocab through my class now, but the biggest difference has to be in my speaking practice. I realized during my semester off that, even if I don't always feel like I learn enough from my class alone, it still forces me to listen and speak Japanese for a solid fifty minutes, three times a week. I am thankful for that class for giving me that small opportunity to practice speaking. Something else that's made a difference is the fact that I've joined an organization that matches you up with a language partner, and now I'm meeting up with two Japanese friends once a week and can practice speaking with them.

I've already felt a difference from the past couple of months. It's not that I've necessarily learned all that much that allows me to speak more, but I'm really starting to just feel comfortable and less afraid to make mistakes when I speak. I'm often told that my Japanese sounds "natural," even if it's not perfect. I really feel like I'm overcoming a hurdle with my speaking skills here, and that feels great - I'm so much less shy, which really does wonders.

So now I feel like I have a good base - a couple of thousand kanji to help with my writing, the necessary confidence and naturalness to help with my speaking, not to mention a basic understanding of grammar to help me with both. And now I'm really wanting to take the next step, which is: vocab.

I honestly just feel so limited when it comes to vocabulary. I can hold a basic conversation now, which makes me happy, but I want to take it to that next level, and now I have the tools to do so. I don't think it will be as dramatic change of focus as my last two stages (in fact, I feel like I'm still in the midst of the stage where I'm improving my speaking skills). But it's something I want to slowly edge into and add to the rest of my Japanese learning.

So the point of this long-winded post? (If you've stuck around this long, I do appreciate it!) I'm getting back into smart.fm and am resuming my progress on Japanese Core 2000. Now, it's true that my original plans a long time ago would be to follow the AJATT way of doing sentence practice once I'm done with kanji. I'm not abandoning that, and I do plan to write my own sentences later on. But I'm still reviewing my kanji cards on Anki, and I think that creating another deck right now from scratch may not be the best choice. I had already been studying Japanese by the time I stumbled onto AJATT, so I haven't really been able to follow the "standard" order of things. I don't feel like I necessarily *need* sentences right now, since I have a decent understanding of basic grammar, and what I'm really craving right now is more vocabulary.

I've actually already started the core 2000 a long time ago, and I realize that there are a lot of words I already know, but I'm not too worried about it. The fact that all of the flashcards are already made for me helps so much. Besides, each word comes with their own example sentence, and I know that the goal is to aim for 10,000 sentences, but 2000 is okay for a first step, right? Also, I think having something outside of Anki will be nice. It's a change of setting (I find smart.fm to be much prettier than Anki is heh), and because I haven't bought the iphone app for Anki (yet?) but I have the free smart.fm one, I can focus on my kanji reps when I'm at the computer, and do my vocab reps when I'm out and about.

I'll see how things work out! Has anyone else done the core 2000 set? What methods do *you* use to learn Japanese in general? I'd love to hear from you guys :)

My take on learning Kanji

If you’ve kept up with this blog (or if you follow me on Twitter), you probably know that I use Heisig’s method of learning kanji depicted in his book, Remembering the Kanji.


If you don’t know about this book, I strongly recommend for you to check it out, as I think it’s an ingenious method. In a nutshell, you break the kanji down into basic primitives that each have their own individual meanings and are oftentimes fairly pictographic, and then you combine these parts into more and more complicated kanji, creating vivid stories that brings all the elements together. Here’s an example of combining the kanji for sun (日) and moon (月):


This system really works for so many people, myself included. It’s definitely a book worth checking out.

An additional growingly popular tool that you can use to facilitate learning these thousands of kanji is a spaced repetition system (SRS). Again, if you aren’t familiar with this, I strongly recommend for you to check it out. An SRS is essentially a flashcard system that measures how well you know each individual card, and it shows you that card right when you need to see it. Instead of going over a card twenty times in a day, and then you completely forget it a week later, you would see the card a day later, then three days later, then a week later, then up to months and years later. There’s scientific research behind this that analyzes how your brain remembers things and how the SRS system takes advantage of your natural learning abilities. Thus you can make your kanji studies – or almost any studies, really – much more efficient. The system that I personally use is Anki.

So. Those are all awesome tools that have really been working for me. But there’s a huge point I’d like to make here. If you follow something like AJATT’s method, you probably have the idea of learning all the kanji first, and then moving on to sentences in your SRS. I think that’s totally fine, and once I get through all my kanji flashcards, that’s what I plan to do as well. However… I don’t think you should necessarily limit yourself to just learning kanji for that bit of time. I have heard about many situations where people were almost afraid to learn anything else about Japanese other than kanji because they think they won’t get the same benefit until they learn the kanji. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best tactic.

Now, if you can bang out all the kanji very quickly and are able to focus on nothing but that without any problems, more power to you. But most of us need a little break sometimes. I really enjoy doing my kanji reps, but after a while I do get sick of it and need to stop – while I try to do them often, my kanji sessions don’t last for hours, and in fact they sometimes just last a few minutes. But while I’m not always studying kanji, I don’t necessarily need to stop the Japanese learning – I just switch to something else.

Simple immersion (watching Japanese videos, listening to Japanese music, etc) is a common, easy learning method that most people have no qualms with. You don’t even need to be paying strict attention, just have it playing in the background and get used to the sound of it. But at the same time – it’s okay to pay attention. It’s okay to learn new vocabulary, new grammar points, etc. Sure, you might still be in the “kanji stage”, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn other things too. Try to pick up as much as you can! Also, when you read manga or webpages, don’t only look at the kanji you’ve learned and completely ignore the rest. It’s okay to look at unfamiliar kanji, especially if they pop up often. If you’ve already seen it before, when you actually get to that kanji in your SRS, it will be that much easier learning it – you’ve already been exposed to it.

One last specific example. There are some points where I couldn’t do my kanji reps if I wanted to. I carry my computer around with me a lot, but it’s not with me 24/7, and I also much prefer sitting down with paper and writing utensils to properly practice physically writing out the kanji. Kanji reps can just be really inconvenient at times. However, unlike my computer, I almost always have my phone on me. This allows me to access other study methods – namely, the Smart.fm app for the iPhone. I follow several lists of vocab on Smart.fm, and can easily access and practice them at almost any time (some moments I’ve used it: waiting in line for a movie, waiting for class to start – or sometimes even during class… eheh…). Most of these are simple vocab that I already know pretty well, but I make sure that the kanji setting is on. I’ve been using this app for a couple of months now, and I love using it because I get to see a lot of the kanji I’ve already learned in action. It’s like “oohhhh, that’s how you use that kanji!” Sure, I didn’t plan on learning this yet – I haven’t started studying sentences. But this way I feel like I’m getting a head start on the next step, and whenever that kanji pops up in my SRS deck again, I have an even easier time remembering it.

The point is, while my main focus is studying kanji, I’m studying a lot of stuff on the side, which reinforces my kanji studies and helps it go faster. And I’m getting a head start on learning how to read, write, listen, and speak as well.

So don’t be scared of learning anything and everything that excites you! Don’t keep your studies too structured! That way you’ll have a lot more fun and learn a lot faster. That’s my 2 cents at least (^-^)

(By the way, just a quick disclaimer, I’m trying out the new “Amazon Associates” feature for blogger, which is how I added that Remembering the Kanji book link. I do earn a small commission if any of you decide to buy the book through Amazon. Not trying to pressure anyone, of course, I’m just letting you guys know! ^-^)

Another way to view Japanese material

So here’s just a tiny dilemma I had that ended with a simple yet satisfying solution.

For the longest time, the only way I could watch anything Japanese was through the computer. I would download countless videos to my laptop, watch them whenever I found the time, and store them on external hardrives. The problem is, while I do like to focus my full attention on shows, especially if I’m watching them for the first time, I also like to do menial tasks or doing some homework while watching TV. Oftentimes, I need my computer for these tasks. This would lead to me turning on the TV (and watch stuff in English) while I checked my email or organized my homework or something. The fact that my laptop is pretty small also made it harder to do things like clean my room while still enjoying a Japanese show, which would also lead to my turning on American TV. This is a habit I do try to get rid of.

My savior in this particular predicament? To my surprise, it ended up being the PS3. I hadn’t realized this until recently, but most of the video files that you store on a hardrive can be read on the PS3 – just plug it into the USB drive! Now, not only can I watch my shows on a bigger TV screen (which is a huuuge plus, I have to say), it also frees up my computer so I can multitask. Also, because of the larger size, it’s easier to watch a drama with your friends without crowding around a small computer screen. I do like the PS3 interface a lot, so everything is just made much more seamless and pleasant and I can free up the space on my computer.

This is just a simple idea if you happen to have a PS3 or similar system as well – who would have thought you could watch Japanese TV with it?

Lang-8: Looking Back and to the Future!

So, first of all, if you don’t know about lang-8, go check it out: lang-8.com. I talked about it in my Japanese Learning Methods post. It’s a brilliant website for any language learner. You write little diary entries in the language you are learning and native speakers of that language will help correct your entries and comment on them (and you can help others with English or whatever language you’re fluent in). It’s a great way to learn in an interactive setting, so I strongly suggest for you to try it if you want to improve your Japanese.

I was active on lang-8 for only a brief time before losing track of it, and I’ve just started to try getting back into the habit of writing diary entries. So I thought, why not add this as another feature to my blog here? Every once in awhile, once I get, let’s say, ten or so lang-8 entries together, I’ll post the corrected entries here as a blog in Japanese (and, rarely, Spanish). That way I can track my progress while providing more content.

So… Here are the first few corrected entries that I wrote a long time ago:


はじめまして！

Hello, everyone! I'm rather nervous doing this as I'm afraid to embarrass myself, but I might as well give it a shot - I won't learn unless I put myself out there! Mainly I am here to improve my Japanese. Although I've been studying for a few years now, I've only started taking college classes last year, so my grasp of the language isn't very strong yet.

じゃ、がんばります！よろしくおねがいします。

***

今日

今日はすごくいい天気です。 外でジョギングをしたいのですが、たくさん宿題があります。 文化人類学の作文を書くつもりです。 そしてちょっと日本語を勉強するつもりです。 今、私の母がラザニアを作っています。 あれはよい香りがします。 おいしそう〜！ すみません、みなさん！ 私は日本語が苦手ですよ。 これからがんばります。。。

***
ディル アン グレイのライブ

今日、私は友達にあう予定です。 車で私たちは新しい Dir en Grey のCD を聞くつもりです。

火曜日にディルのライブへ行きました。 すごく楽しかったです！！ 私はライブへはあまり行けませんので、とてもうれしかったです。 ライブの後で、CDを買いました。 そこにはたくさんの人がいました！ そして、としやさんとしんやさんに会って、ちょっと話しました。 夢みたいでした。

日本語を書くのは難しいですね。 ごめんなさいみなさん！XP

As I've been trying to write these journal entries, I realize more and more how insufficient my Japanese is! I know I'm a beginner, but it just makes me want to learn more and more! I ask for your patience. ^^

Honestly words (especially my clumsy Japanese vocabulary) cannot express how amazing that Dir en Grey concert was, and getting autographs from Toshiya and Shinya afterwards was even more incredible...

Thank you for reading!

***

今週

昨日、車でヒュストンからオースティンに行きました。 テキサス大学の学生なので、オースティンに住んでいます。

たくさん宿題があるので、ちょっと心配しています。 今週も来週も時間がありませんですが、テストの後に時間があるから大丈夫です

***
できた。。。

先週は大変でした。 期末試験がとても 難しかったです。 でも、昨日、さいごの試験がありました。 そして、今日家に帰りました。 私はホッとした。 家族に会いましたから、とてもうれしいです。
クリスマスが来ます！ いいですね！ 私の妹はクリスマスツリーを飾りました。 とてもきれいですよ。
じゃ、またね〜

***
冬休み

今、冬休みだから、私は家族の家にいます。 クリスマスはとてもよかったです。 本と服とビデオ•ゲームをもらいました。 とてもうれしかったです。 来週、大学に戻ります。残念です。。。

今、もっと日本語を勉強したいです。家で、勉強をするのはちょっと難しいです。 れんしゅうのために、たくさんドラマを見て、日本語のサイトを読みますが、また日本語のクラスへ行きたいです。

みなさん、冬休みはどうでしたか。

***
日本の旅行：どこがいいでしょう。。。

明日、オースティンへ行きます。 火曜日にクラスが始まります。 やった。。。

でも、うれしいです！ 昨日、友達の家へ行って、日本の旅行について話し合いました。 夏休みに日本へ行くつもりです！ とても興奮しています。 これは私の初めての日本旅行です。

日本でどこへ行ったらいいでしょうか。 ２週間ぐらい行きます。 東京と京都と大阪へ行くつもりです。 もしかすると神戸へ行くかもしれません。 みなさんは、日本ではどこへいったらいいと思いますか。

ありがとうございます！

***
クラス。。。

いま、私は大学にいます。 クラスの前にちょっとエントリーを書きます。 そして、アパートに帰った時にもっと書きます。

今年の日本語のクラスはむずかしそうです。 ちょっとこわいけど、がんばります。 ほかのクラスもちょっとむずかしくてたくさんあります。 毎日勉強するつもりです。

***
Miyavi!

いま興奮しています！　昨日Miyaviのライブのチケットを買いました！VIPのチケットです。信じられないです！四月にヒューストンへ行って、Miyaviのライブを見ます。

サインを求める時に、何を言ったらいいですか。。。日本語で話したいですが、ちょっと恥ずかしいですね。。。

***
Un poco en espanol

Hola~

Hace dos años que yo he practicado mi espanol. Se me olvida mucho! Estoy aprendiendo Japonés y entonces se me olvida todo el español. Quiero practicar de nuevo...

Ahora estoy en la clase de química (que es muy aburrida). No he comido mucho esta mañana y tengo un poco de hambre. En dos horas comeré con una amiga.

Ahh, escribir en español es muy dificil... Lo siento... Debo practicar más... Ah! Yo tengo la serie "Harry Potter" en espanol. Ya leí el primer libro y ahora estoy leyendo el segundo libro. Es más fácil leer:P Todavia no puedo escribir.

Tal vez sea difícil estudiar dos idiomas al mismo tiempo pero no quiero perder mi español. Ayudame por favor! XD

***

And, finally, here’s my new post I’m starting anew with:

おひさしぶり〜

今まで日本語を勉強してきましたけど、長い間lang-8をやってなかったです。これからはもっと日記を書きたいと思います。

私は今大学三年生です。大学は大変で忙しいけど、私は元気です！今は日本語の授業を取っていないんですけど、日本語の勉強を続けます。毎日漢字を勉強したり、いろいろな日本の番組を見たりします。大学の勉強も難しくてあまり時間がないんですが、がんばりたいと思います。これからもよろしくお願いします。^-^

Hope you enjoy these tidbits! And feel free to friend me on lang-8 :)

Exercising while Studying Japanese

One of the things I do is try to figure out how to insert some Japanese everywhere that I can. There are so many hidden opportunities. When you’re doing any kind of housekeeping – doing the dishes, cleaning your room, organizing some papers – you can have your favorite Japanese show playing in the background. You don’t have to pay attention 100%, just have it entering your ears. Or if you don’t have access to a TV/computer, listen to Japanese music or radio shows. The time you spend going to the bathroom or showering is also a short but valuable opportunity for more listening. I actually don’t have any waterproof listening devices for the shower, so if anyone has an inexpensive suggestion, please let me know!

Exercising is a great time to insert some Japanese immersion. Not only is it good for you, you can maybe learn something at the same time! First, there’s the obvious method of just listening to Japanese music while working out or walking. Simple and effective. Another idea that’s more difficult to carry out is to use a treadmill or something so that you can work out while watching Japanese TV. Finally, I was recently referred to a podcast that helps you run (it tells you when to start and stop running, and becomes a harder workout week by week). Unfortunately, this podcast is in English, but if someone found something like this in Japanese, I think it could be a great study tool.

The very specific way that I do it every time I go home (and have access to a treadmill) is the following. I’d use the podcast I referred to earlier (Robert Ullrey’s Couch to 5k Running Program). On top of my treadmill is a convenient spot where I can place my laptop. And although I’m listening to the podcast in English, I’m watching a Japanese variety show, which has those handy Japanese subtitles to practice reading. The show I always watch is VS Arashi as it’s very action-oriented and just seems more appropriate for exercising!

So there you have it. One of my personal methods that you could maybe pull ideas from! :)

Life Management Tips

So I’m back in school, entering the second semester of my junior year of college, and I’ve started experimenting with different “life management” habits, for lack of a better term. Not only am I trying to manage my time better with everything I need and want to do, but I’m trying to find ways to keep myself motivated and not burn out. I’m not taking an actual Japanese class this semester, and while I’m not really worried about this, I’m no longer required to spend time with the language like I used to be. So now I need to make my own time for it, apart from school, and this can be quite a challenge, although it definitely does not have to be unpleasant. I thought I might list some of these personal tips in case anyone was interested.

Mind you, this is all very experimental, and I’m just trying to work them out myself, so they may not work for you (heck, they may even not end up working for me!). This is just to maybe give you some ideas to pick and choose from. Hope it can help you and your Japanese studies! :)

Start off strong
Every semester, I always tell myself to stay on top of my schoolwork, to start working out more, to spend time studying Japanese everyday, etc etc. Honestly, these habits rarely make it all the way through the semester, but I do feel that setting a few goals and making a clear effort at the beginning makes a difference. Better than starting off “weak”, right?

Have fun with Japanese
Hopefully your classes are interesting, but in all cases they’re bound to take up much of your time. This is why you have to make your Japanese time precious. Even if you can’t find the time or effort to actively study anything, make sure to have fun with it no matter what. Love the Japanese shows you’re watching, the music you’re listening to, the manga you’re reading – love it. Then whenever you have a break from your schoolwork you’ll want to spend it having fun in Japanese. If you’re doing a menial task, maybe try adding some Japanese to that. You can still listen to Japanese or maybe even watch it while doing things like cleaning your room, doing the dishes, showering, etc. Even as I write this blog post, I have a Japanese show playing in the background. Just make sure you enjoy it!

Change your environment
Last semester, I finally switched from being in a dorm to an apartment, and as I had a living room area in which to study, I tended to stay at home a lot. I rarely left the apartment for the sole reason of going to study somewhere. And, honestly, while relaxing at home is nice, I started feeling closed up and rather sluggish after a while. Now I try to go to different study areas, and especially go outside if the weather is nice. You’d be surprised how much fresh air helps your brain. Try going to a nearby park, a coffee shop, a library, etc. to study every once in a while. Walking there is even better – again, taking a moment to get some fresh air and light exercise will do wonders. I’ve found that simply changing my environment has helped me to keep up my focus and motivation. I do still spend time studying at home, just not as much as before. I now find it extremely relaxing to sit at a table outside, listening to Japanese radio while practicing kanji.

Write things down (use checklists)
When it comes to my schoolwork, I love making checklists. I often hear that goals are much more likely to come true if you write them down, so why not try that out? I also try to keep a constant list of tasks on a whiteboard and in planners. This is mainly homework assignments and whatnot, along with things that I have to do but don’t necessarily want to (such as phone calls, meetings, errands, etc.) I find that writing checklists of things that may be unpleasant help in making those things a little easier – it just feels so good to cross those tasks off! I also try to split things up into the smallest possible task. For example, if I have to read Chapters 6-8 of something, I would separately write out 6, 7, 8, and cross them out individually. The more you cross out, the more you get that satisfied feeling, the more motivated you feel.

I don't personally do this so much with Japanese studying, actually, as I’m honestly not sure how I would structure that. Aside from maybe SRS items, I don’t really have anything I try to “complete” per say, I’m just always trying to “do things” in Japanese every moment that I can. This is just a personal thing (always subject to change), and if you want to make checklists for your Japanese studies, I don’t really see why you shouldn’t.

[An awesome suggestion by my good friend @CarisEll:
My dad has an even spiffier system, wherein he'll mark an item with something different depending upon whether it's been started or totally finished. I tried it (with empty, half-full, and filled-in circles), and it does help to know what you're also in the middle of doing.]

Be efficient and feel efficient
We all have so much that we need to get done on a daily basis; as a college student, I can definitely say that for myself at least. Homework, studying, internship research, study abroad applications… it can get a little overwhelming. It’d be nice if every time you sat down to work, you’d accomplish something no matter how small. Being efficient is great, but I think it’s even better to really feel efficient – if you feel like you’re accomplishing something it can keep the motivation way up. This is where the checklists can come in. Keep checking things off, crossing things out, and even if you haven’t gotten very much done in actuality, you can keep going with high spirits. I realize this might not work for everyone, but I feel really great when I “buckle down” and take care of a ton of little things – and the little things really do add up. I hope this part makes sense… I really feel like people underestimate the power of keeping yourself motivated.

Here’s hoping someone can make use of my floating thoughts! I’ve only been in school for a little over a week at this point, but so far so good. I might make a similar post later on down the line… Good luck with your Japanese studies along with all the work you need to do! がんばれ！

Japanese Learning Methods

I would like to make list of online resources for learning Japanese for those interested and my reviews of them (a lot of these websites can be used for other languages or even entirely different subject matters as well). Also, please check out this article posted by Koichi over at Tofugu:
http://www.tofugu.com/2008/10/21/top-10-online-resources-for-learning-japanese-for-free/.
That is the page I found some of these awesome resources, and there are also some that I haven’t written about too, so take a look!

Now my own thoughts. I’m not really listing these in any particular order…

First, a couple of dictionaries.





Denshi Jisho
An extremely useful English-Japanese dictionary where you can not only look up words, but sample sentences or individual kanji. The interface is nice and very comprehensive, and I refer to this all the time.

Website: http://www.jisho.org/




Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary
Also a very nice tool, I usually use this to study kanji as when you look up a kanji character, it shows you the stroke order along with an animation to help you visualize exactly how one should draw it.

Website: http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/SortedByKanji2THEnglish?OpenView



There are many other dictionaries out there and I’m not saying these are necessarily the very best, but they serve their purpose well and I use them all the time. (^^) Moving on to the learning-based websites…




EduFire
A simply brilliant website. I really, really urge you to at least visit the site, even if you’re not studying Japanese, as you can be taught so many things here – heck you can even teach and make some money yourself. At EduFire you can find a personal tutor to help you with a certain language or subject matter and meet them by webcam. You can also look through a long list of different classes, where the teachers present their lessons via webcam to a group of people instead of an individual. Several of these classes are free, and most of them are probably cheaper then teachers you would find off-line. Seriously, it’s worth taking a look! To top it all off, the community is so warm and friendly, so even just participating in the forums is nice~ (^^)

Website: www.edufire.com




Lang8
An awesome website for practicing any language(s) you may be learning! Here you can write journal entries in the target language and people who speak that language will be able to correct your entries and comment on them. This system is very effective, as they can literally cross out a word, add one in a different color, italicize something they want to emphasize, etc. In turn, you can help other by correcting journal entries written in English (or whatever language you know). You’ll understand how useful this is when you try it, so please do! Everyone there is always so nice too~

Website: http://lang-8.com/




Rikaichan
This is a Firefox extension that can help you learn Kanji from any webpage that you are visiting. It is a dictionary extension, and when you hover your mouse over a Japanese word, you can look up its reading, meaning etc. The application can also characterizes your webpage so that the first letter of certain words becomes the Japanese character that signifies that word. You can set this according to the study method of your choice – for example, I’m using the Remembering the Kanji profile, but I know there are others such as Kanjidic and Kanji in Context. Sometimes this can get a little confusing if you’re reading something important, so what’s nice about this characterizer is that it’s very easy to turn on and off as it’s sitting right in your browser.
Website: http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

And finally, a more specific types of learning systems - the SRS systems.




Anki
An SRS system (space repetition system); there are many different kinds out there that work just as well, but this is the one I use. It’s basically flashcards on your computer, but based on how well you remember the answer on the card, the system shows you that card when you need to see it again to maximize effective learning. It makes a lot of sense once you try it, and it can truly revolutionize the way to memorize and learn things. You can create your own flashcards for just about anything, and there are also many decks that other have created that you can download. The most popular one is for learning kanji based on Heisig’s book Remembering the Kanji. I use this myself, and it’s one of the best tools I’ve ever used to study Japanese.

Website: http://ichi2.net/anki/




Smart.fm
This is also technically an SRS, but there’s more to it. Instead of downloading the program to your computer, the whole thing is online, so you can access it from anywhere if you have internet. It’s also “prettier” and more interactive, and the process is a little different: instead of you rating how well you know the piece of information, you’re playing more of a game where you get the answer right or wrong. Again, you can make your own list of anything you want, or use the ones that others have made.

Website: http://smart.fm/


Here is my method concerning SRS systems (I use both of the ones I listed, but for different situations). Anki is very good for the long-term stuff – a very large amount information you want to learn over several months but retain for longer. Smart.fm, on the other hand, is great for the short-term and smaller amounts of information (so if you have a quiz the next morning or something for a class or a trip coming up quickly). Of course, both systems can be used for both situations, that’s just my personal preference, so experiment a little and see what works for you.




I hope this can help some of you! I realize many of you are probably aware of many of these awesome websites, I’d just like to help spread the word. So are there any other good educational sites you know of? Leave a comment and tell me about them!