LEARNING JAPANESE

by Julianne Medranoand Anneli Jooste

ANNELI

The neanderthal…

Beginners Japanese What to do if you have arrived in Japan knowing

only “konnichiwa”

JULIANNE

The whizz kid

Intermediate and advanced Japanese How to improve your Japanese while in Japan

GETTING STARTED How did we go about learning Japanese?

Let’s share some of our secrets…

IN THE BEGINNING…

FEAR NOT! Hiragana and Katakana – your new best

friends!

ン OR ソ http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=5IvYNbjLveA

WHY SHOULD I MASTER THE KANA? Better quality resources available You start understanding the world around

you, bit by bit

HOW DO I MEMORIZE SO MANY CHARACTERS? Mnemonics

Uhm… say what?

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE Hiragana and katakana are

everywhere! Train stations…your microwave (which doesn’t have any numbers on it) …shampoo bottles…restaurant menus…shop names…

Use flashcard type websites http://ankisrs.net/ https://www.readthekanji.com/

ASK HELP FROM YOUR COLLEAGUESYour textbook makes me 笑…

STAR OF THE MOMENT…

HINT-O! Do a little bit of studying or revision every

day… On the train, on the bus During free periods While you wait for your ramen to heat up

BUT I ALREADY HAVE MAD NIHONGO SKILLS! WHAT IS THERE FOR ME TO DO?

I want to be the very best! Upgrade your

inventory! Electronic

Dictionary (Denshi Jisho) OR “Kanji Sonomama DS Rakubikijiten” for the Nintendo DS

Grammar Dictionary

Moar Textbooks

Go full Japanese Find an interest!

Watch movies, read magazines, listen to music, etc.

Watch TV! Become friends (or

more than friends) with native speakers! Speak everyday!!

DO I NEED A JAPANESE TEACHER? Japanese classes for foreigners

In different cities throughout Yamaguchi prefecture

Affordable Meet new people!

Private lessons Ask your school Find a private language school Expensive An investment for the JLPT… 先生　先生！

WHAT IS THE JLPT? JLPT=Japanese Language

Proficiency Test Prove your Nihongo skillz

Especially to future employers!

5 test levels: N5 (Very easy) N1 (Nightmare mode)

Tests Reading, Listening, Vocab/Grammar/Kanji No writing or speaking

Twice a year July and December The application period starts

in mid-August for December!

JET LANGUAGE COURSE A love-hate relationship…

Pros ConsYou can start broadening your communication skills even before mastering written Japanese.

All in romaji. Becoming dependent on romaji should be avoided.

Exposes you to a lot of vocab and grammatical structures in small, bite-size pieces.

It doesn’t explain the grammatical structures . This can make it difficult and frustrating.

Relevant and useful dialogues.

Grammar points need to be supplemented with other textbooks.

…BUT YOU GET A LOVELY CERTIFICATE!

MORE HINT-O! Make mistakes

but learn from them!

Improve your written Japanese Lang8 http://lang-8.com/

TECH SAVVY? All the textbooks are available on amazon, or

in bookstores (mostly in the bigger cities)

Cool websites: http://www.tofugu.com/

Articles on everything, from baffling cultural practices to learning Japanese.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/ Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese

http://www.popjisyo.com/WebHint/Portal.aspx http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

Best. Thing. Ever.

FOR THE IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH Kotoba!

Midori $10…

Poke!

GANBATTE NE!!