AJATT and Japanese immersion in the US

About 1.5 years ago, I stopped attending Japanese classes.  The main reason was that the textbook for the next class was full of kanji and had very little, if any, furigana.  There was no way that I would be able to successfully participate in a class like that, although many of my classmates went ahead anyway.

I needed something different, and that was Heisig's book, which at first, I ignored and thought was stupid.  It wasn't until I re-read many of the articles at AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com (AJATT) and really understood the learning techniques, such as use Heisig's book and an SRS, have fun, listen to music, etc.

One of the techniques outlined at AJATT is immersion.   I tried to find a Japanese equivalent for any site that I used to visit that was in English.  It worked out great for a while, but I felt like I was not keeping current with US news.

I thought many times: "Is there a site where I can read US news in Japanese?" Sure, there are plenty of Japanese sites covering Japanese news, but it was difficult, at least to me, to find US news.  I had given up hope, but found US Frontline. It's an excellent site that has world/US news, and you can even download full back issues in PDF format for free!

Now there is no excuse not to immerse yourself.  You can stay current with US and world events, and still learn Japanese.

Never forget anything with SRS

How would you like to never forget anything, ever again? With enough repetition, your brain will remember something so well that the time for you to forget it is longer than your lifespan.
An SRS, or spaced repetition system, is designed so that you review items at the moment you are about to forget something; no sooner, and no later.

So how does it help with Japanese? Well, you can add your sentences, vocabulary words, and kanji to it so that you save time by reviewing flash cards that you are about to forget, and optimize your study time. With over 2000 kanji, and 10,000 sentences containing many vocabulary words, I think you'll agree that it's wise to use an SRS.

Here's a few other articles with the benefits of an SRS:

• What is spaced repetition, and why should I care?  blog article at WooChinese
• What is an SRS? at AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com, including a link to SRS on Wikipedia

All your kanji are belong to us

Nihongo Ninja fans: sorry for the lack of updates. I've changed my studying methods and I promise, I will have lots to share in the coming weeks.

As a student of Japanese, you eventually have to learn kanji; however, it's something that many of us are afraid of. You may have had thoughts like these:

"The scribbles mean nothing to me, and I can't remember them after a few days! Okay, go back and write it 1000 times again, and maybe it'll stick? When will I learn at least 2000? When I'm 50 years old?"

I used to have thoughts like these too. But not anymore.

Here's why.

It's all because of my experiences with the book, Remembering the Kanji, Vol 1. by James Heisig.

Using the power of imaginative memory, you can learn what he calls primitive elements and associate them with an English key word, and a "story." More complex kanji are themselves built up from other primitives and also have stories associated with them.

When you want to recall a kanji, you would use an SRS (another post to explain that will be written soon) and go from the English keyword, recalling the primitives and their related"story", and finally, you would write it out.

The method might seem a bit unorthodox, but it is really effective and makes sense when he tells you that he puts you on the same level playing field as Chinese and Korean students of Japanese who know how to write kanji, and their meanings, but don't know the Japanese readings.

What about the readings? Why shouldn't you learn it all at once? Well, it's all about divide and conquer, baby. Heisig starts with the simpler of the two, which is writing and meaning. Once you've got that, you can then tackle the issue of compounds, on'yomi, kun'yomi, etc.

Does it work? Based on my experience and many others (see the forums at Reviewing the Kanji), I'd say it does. I'm currently at 734 kanji, with about a 95% - 99% retention rate when I'm doing my daily SRS reps. 2000+, here I come!

If you found this article useful, please support this site by using the links below, so that I can continue to write more articles. Thanks!

Beginner Tips for Learning Japanese

I promised this site would be for beginners, and I intend to keep that promise. I've read many blogs that had some great ideas for beginners (Tofugu.com is one of them), and I thought I'd provide a few of my own.

Recently, I've taken a lot of beginner classes at a few different schools, only because each school uses a different textbook, and therefore, it's something I didn't want to miss. In doing so, I've noticed a lot of things that would make my classmates' Japanese a lot better if they would only do the following:

1. LEARN hiragana and katakana as soon as possible. Romaji is fine, for the first few weeks, but you MUST wean yourself off of it as soon as you can for at least two good reasons: your pronunciation, and reading ability. Videogames, manga, and signs in Japan are not in romaji. :)
2. Whether you study on your own or in a classroom environment, get yourself the CD accompaniment. I've noticed that those who listen to the CDs have excellent pronunciation, and those that don't, well, don't.
   
3. Learn the patterns and internalize them. What do I mean? Well, for instance, one of the first patterns you learn is "X は　Y です。”　　(X wa Y desu). This example might be too simple for many of you, but for those of you that haven't learned it yet, once you internalize a pattern, you simply substitute the appropriate words into that pattern, and your Japanese flows much smoother. There are a lot more patterns than that, but each time you understand and internalize it, it makes learning a lot more enjoyable, and you won't stumble as much. (Perhaps I'll go over this in a future post.)
4. Finally, be patient, but study, study, study. Studies have shown that at the college level, at least 2-3 hours for every hour you are in class. I followed this formula in college and got mostly A's, especially in Japanese. :) Try it for at least two weeks, and if you don't find that you are learning things a lot easier than before, then go back to your old methods.
5. This last technique/tip can be used for any class you may be taking: READ THE NEXT CHAPTER, before class. Why? This gives your mind time to adjust to the new topic, perhaps form new questions you might want to ask, and makes the next class that much more interesting. If you read before the class, then you attend class, and finally, review your notes, you have effectively "seen" the material at least 3 times. It's much easier to absorb the material this way, instead of a cram session the night before a test.

I hope these tips get you started on your path to becoming an expert in Japanese!

te-form, Part II: Basic usage

Okay, last time we went over how to obtain, or conjugate a verb into its te-form.

Today, we will go over two basic, but major, uses of te-form verbs.
1. Making requests
2. Linking verbs together, like "and" in English


Making Requests
To make a request to do something, add 下さい　(kudasai) to the end of the te-form.

~て　+ 下さい

Examples:
まどをあけて下さい。 [mado o akete kudasai]
Please open the window.

　　すわってください。 [ suwatte kudasai]
Please sit down.

　　テレビをみてください。[terebi o mite kudasai]
Watch tv, please.


Linking verbs together
In Japanese, you can not link verbs using と (to). You must use the te-form to link verbs.

For instance, if you were to say that you will go home and eat dinner, you could say:
じゃ、いえ　に　かえって、ばんごはんをたべます。
[ja, ie ni kaette, bangohan o tabemasu.]

Note that the te-form of a verb has no tense on its own; the tense is determined by the final verb in the sentence. In this case, かえて (kaete) is in the present affirmative tense, because of the last verb, たべます(tabemasu).

You are not limited to just two verbs in a sentence, however. You can link as many as you would like; just keep in mind that the last verb should not be in te-form, and determines the tense of the entire sentence.

Conjugating te-form (て-form) verbs

Ah, the te-form of verbs. They're not that difficult to learn, if you remember the rules.
First, you should familiarize yourself with the dictionary, or short-form of verbs.

For instance, the dictionary form of かいます (kaimasu) is かう (kau).

Once you are familiar with the dictionary forms, all you need to do is determine if it is an u-verb, ru-verb, or irregular verb.

1. First, if it is a ru-verb, you simply drop the -ru ending, and add te. So, 食べる　(taberu) becomes　食べて (tabete).
2. There are two irregular verbs: する (suru)　and くる (kuru). You will simply have to memorize their conjugations, which are して　(shite) and 　きて　(kite), respectively.
3. Now the fun part. U-verbs conjugate differently, based on their last syllable.

Last syllable of verb	Example
う、つ、る	かう -> かって まつ ->　まって かえる ->　かえって
ぬ、む、ぶ	しぬ ->　しんで よむ ->　よんで あそぶ　-> あそんで
く**	かく　-> かいて
ぐ	およぐ　-> およいで
す	はなす ->　はなして

** Exception for 行く:
行く ->　いって

Wow! I realize that's a lot to digest, but once you memorize this, it gets a lot easier. At least that's what I was told. :)

So take your time, and memorize a few rules at a time. It's best to repeat the dictionary form, the present, polite form, and the te-form together.

Next time, we'll go over the uses of the te-form.

ようこそ！ (Welcome, again)

This is the new home of Nihongo Ninja. We've moved from Wordpress to Blogspot.
Welcome everyone!
I'll be adding some new content within the next few days.