JLR: Verbling

Verbling is another website you can use to practice your speaking and chatting (instant messaging) skills in Japanese, or whatever language you’re studying. I don’t remember the first time I heard about Verbling, but I recently rediscovered it when I decided that my language skills in both Japanese and Spanish wouldn’t improve very much if I didn’t practice speaking in addition to all the other type of studying I do. Speaking is a valuable skill that I have been avoiding practicing because it’s really nerve-wracking to think about. But that’s just something you have to get over as a language learner.

What I like:

• Chat box (send text messages/instant messages through the chat feature)
• Video feature, if you want to see who you are talking to.
• Audio only feature, if you don’t want to share your face and background or if you don’t have a webcam.
• English lessons (this is only good for people learning English, but I like this feature too.)
• Conversation starters are suggested to you in the language you are learning (with English translation) to help promote actually talking in both languages in the exchange and avoid awkward pauses in the conversation so that you make the most of your time.
• Congratulatory stars under the video screen to encourage your partner as they speak in your native language (good grammar etc.), which will flash across the screen in real-time.
• Add friend feature after you’ve talked with someone over Verbling if you want to continue speaking with them as a language partner.

What I dislike:

• I wish they had lessons in other languages besides English.

Conclusion:

I’m still learning how to use this website, so I can’t say much about it seeing how I’ve just started using it. But, some things I noticed during my first few attempts were: your connection on Verbling depends on each person’s individual Internet connection so you may experience problems and it may take you some time to find a partner (I had to wait a few minutes before someone else was on the site). I didn’t speak with any Japanese speakers, so I don’t know how many are actually on the website. But, it is listed as a language on the website.

Resource:

http://www.verbling.com

How to learn Japanese from blogs

One thing I have been doing more of this month is reading language blogs. Some of the blogs I read are about learning foreign languages in general, some are by people  writing about learning Japanese and some are by people who are polyglots. Keeping a blog about your language studies is a great way to reflect and constantly reevaluate how you study or to even practice using the language you are studying, but reading other blogs can teach you more than what you can learn by yourself. Some things you can learn from reading other blogs are about study techniques, different learning resources and how other language learners confronted their language learning obstacles.

How do you find language blogs to follow? If you have an account on a blogging website, use the search feature to find other blogs that cover the topics you are interested in following such as ‘learning Japanese’. Even if you do not have a blogging account, you can still search for blogs using Google’s blog search. The more advance you are in your language studies, the more specific you can get with your searches. A lot of YouTube channels have accompanying blogs, so if there is a language channel you like to follow, they probably have a blog or website that you can add to a Reader, such as Google Reader. I recommend using a Reader or RSS to keep track of the blogs you like to follow, especially if you subscribe to a lot of them. If you are at a  more advanced level in your language studies, I recommend following a blog written in the language you are studying. Of course, if you know another language, you can look for blogs written in that other language about learning Japanese and vice versa. While most blogs will not teach you another language, you can definitely benefit from reading what language bloggers, who may be more knowledgeable than you,  have to say.

JLR: Thumbelina and other stories

I recently posted about アカン日本語, which was made by DICO Co. Ltd. Their company also makes story book iPod/iPhone applications such as  Thumbelina.

What I like:

• There’s audio in multiple languages, including Japanese.
• There’s text in multiple languages, including Japanese.
• Record and become your own narrator feature.
• You can create multiple narrators.
• Music.
• Touching pictures activates special effects (such as noises and movement).
• Pop-up book screen for skipping ahead or going back in the story.
• Some of their apps are free.

What I dislike:

• Nothing.

Conclusion:

I like the concept of this application and hope that its producers come out with more applications such as this one. I definitely recommend it.

Resources:

http://www.dico4u.com/en/

App Store

JLR: Lang-8

Lang-8 is a website I learned about from Tofugu’s YouTube videos. It is a website to practice and connect  with people learning languages. The basic idea of the site is that you write journals in the language you are studying, wait for native speakers to correct your writing and correct others who are learning your language. I like to think of this website as Facebook for languages.

What I like:

• It’s free! But you can support the website by getting a premium account.
• You can connect with people through groups on the website
• Built-in dictionary
• Messaging (you can send messages back and forth with other members)
• Writing journals
• Friending (like Facebook)
• You are able to read other journal entries (so that’s reading and comprehension practice)
• Multi-language website (you can change your language settings, so the website will appear in Japanese)

What I dislike:

• Nothing really.

Conclusion:

I like this website a lot because if you do not have access to natives of the language you are studying, you can meet them here. However, it is really easy to become addicted, or to just correct journal entries in your native language. So, 気をつけて！

Resources:

http://www.tofugu.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu

http://lang-8.com/

JLR: Memrise

Memrise is a website that one of my friends showed me. The basic idea is that you either choose a pre-existing study list or create your own to study. Memrise is a free website that reminds me of the old website smart.fm, which is now known as iKnow, but instead of getting percentage points towards mastering words or items from your list, you grow a plant by studying the items on your study lists.

What I like about Memrise:

• Growing plants
• It is a free website
• Various subjects to study
• If you register, you can track your progress

Resource:

http://www.memrise.com/

JLR: Japanese Class

I previously wrote a post about learning Japanese on Twitter. One of the websites I found out about is Japanese class. It is a free website where you can study kanji, vocabulary and even practice reading in Japanese.

What I like:

• It is free
• Kanji lessons (stroke order, combinations, meanings)
• Kana lessons
• Practice
• Readings (with furigana [small kana above kanji] and vocabulary list)
• Experience points

What I dislike:

• The advertisements
• Attendance (It makes me feel guilty if I do not log in and practice to get.)

Conclusion:

It is a good website.

Resources:

http://JapaneseClass.jp/

JLR: Erin’s Challenge

A long time ago, I discovered Erin’s Challenge: I can speak Japanese. This is a Japanese learning website that includes both video, text and activities for Japanese language learners at all levels.

Great things about this website:

• It is completely free
• You can register and track your progress
• 26 episodes, basic and advance skits with subtitles (in multiple languages, romaji, kana and Kanji)
• Scripts of the videos with vocabulary and grammar explanations
• Cultural lessons
• Reading activities
• Interactive activities

My conclusion:

This is a wonderful website.

Resources:

http://www.erin.ne.jp/ (This is their global home website.)