Update and Reading

I recently received my JLPT certificate in the mail! Many of my friends also took the JLPT and passed their exams as well. This year I would like to take the JLPT N2. I heard it’s more difficult to pass than the N3, so even if I do not pass this year, I will not be discouraged.

Lately, I have been thinking about language learning a lot. I finished reading a book called ‘Fluent Forever,’ which is about concrete steps a language learner can take to learn a language. I really enjoyed reading the book and its appendixes. It helped motivate me to use Anki again. I like using Anki, but the deck building process can be a little convoluted at times.

‘Fluent Forever’ introduced and reminded me of many aspects of the language learning process. Specifically, it mentioned the developmental stages of a L2 (foreign language) learner, pronunciation, frequency lists and Anki. I want to explore the concept of developmental stages of language more. Basically, the developmental stages of language refers to the process of learning a language. For example, we learn present tense before past tense etc. Of course, this is not the best explanation of this concept, but I think if I understand these stages for L2 learners it will make me a better L2 learner and a better English teacher.

Pronunciation is something I struggle with, not so much with Japanese, but there are some sounds that I need more training in. The book talks about how to tackle pronunciation, so I am going to try to incorporate that advice into my studies.

Frequency list are something I keep hearing about in passing, but I have not used them very much. For Japanese, I mostly use JLPT vocabulary list or vocabulary list provided by my textbooks. I would like to try out learning vocabulary through frequency lists, because I have heard a lot of good things about it.

Anki is a free online SRS (spaced repetition system) flash card website and app (the iTunes app is not free and cost about $25, while the Android app is free). You can build your own flash cards with whatever features you want (audio, text, pictures etc.) or download and use flash card decks shared by other people. I do not use Anki regularly so, I had to look a lot of things up to figure out how to build a custom deck. Also, Anki uses HTML when you create fields or question cards, so that can be confusing. It helps to know HTML, but you can use Anki without knowing it. Anki is a great free resource that is customizable, so I am going to try using it again.

Japanese with Video Games (part 2)

Recently, I mentioned using non-traditional study methods for my Japanese studies. While it may be a no-brainer to many people to do things in the foreign language they are studying or rather look to material, that native speakers of the foreign language use, for foreign language study material, it is still a fairly new concept for me. Lately, I have decided to use my love of video games as study material for Japanese, since I really like Japanese video games. In this post, I am going to discuss watching other people play video games and how you can learn from that.

What do you do if you do not have time to play video games or you enjoy watching others play games more than playing them yourself? There’s the internet. There are people playing Japanese video games online on websites such as YouTube and recording themselves doing it. Some of them talk while they play the games, so although the video games themselves may not have audio for their characters’ conversations, you can just listen to the person playing the video game talk about it or sometimes even read the text on the game aloud as they play. Another option is NicoNico, a video streaming website and app (available on Japanese Nintendo 3DS and PSVita) similar to YouTube which has plenty of videos of people playing video games, sometimes in groups, and you can get the bonus benefit of listening to speech from the video game and the person(s) playing the game.

Another way to watch people play video games is the video game streaming website and app, Twitch. Twitch is worldwide, so you can find channels from countries other than your own that play video games you are interested in watching and there is the added plus of the chat feature. You do not have to participate in the chat, although it would be good written practice, but you can look to it as a form of reading practice and the chats usually revolve around the video game being played, so you have some context to go off of no matter when you begin watching the channel. I actually have not used Twitch a lot in terms of Japanese practice, but I have watched games played in other languages. There are plenty of gamers on Twitch playing video games in Japanese. Many of them are using the Japanese versions for speed runs of the game, but it still is good reading/listening practice, even if the pace seems a bit fast, but even in speed runs, there are some portions of the game (i.e. movie scenes) that cannot be skipped through.

Can you think of any other websites where you can watch others play video games in Japanese?

Japanese with Video Games (part 1)

Recently, I mentioned using non-traditional study methods for my Japanese studies. While it may be a no-brainer to many people to do things in the foreign language they are studying or rather look to material, that native speakers of the foreign language use, for foreign language study material, it is still a fairly new concept for me. Lately, I have decided to use my love of video games as study material for Japanese, since I really like Japanese video games. In this post, I am going to discuss using Japanese video games as listening and reading practice.

How do you make video games into listening practice? One obvious idea is to play a video game in a foreign language that has voice actors and listen to what the characters in the game say. Although not everything will be vocalized, when you do hear audio, it will a good opportunity to test your listening skills at native speed or your ability to keep up with the speech as the subtitles (if offered in the game) flash by. (Of course, playing a video game in a foreign language usually requires buying said game or game system or both! depending on whether or not the game/game system is region locked. I will discuss some of the ways you can get Japanese video games in the third part of this ‘Japanese with Video Games’ posts.) Many games, especially home game systems have narrator or character audio. You can watch Japanese tv commercials for video games online or videos that Japanese game companies create to discuss their latest games and systems.

Playing video games in another language is mostly reading practice rather than listening practice. There are a lot of games that do not have audio, which makes for good reading practice. Games marketed towards children have furigana above kanji or may be written completely in kana! While video games are not books, they can have a surprisingly large amount of text. I like playing RPGs, which usually have long storylines and subquests. Some RPGs (role-playing games) allow you to do things not possible in other types of games such as sub-plots, which can help you build your vocabulary beyond the usual parameters of the game. Playing games in Japanese will expose you to a lot of vocabulary that you may not be exposed to in Japanese classes and can be a good supplement to using textbooks or studying kanji. While I was studying for the JLPT N3, I played Youkai Watch 2 Honke, which exposed me to not only vocabulary and kanji from the JLPT N3, but also from N2 and N1! Seeing the kanji and vocabulary in use in the video game helped solidify them in my memory more than just studying them from a textbook.

Have you used video games as listening or reading practice? What kind of games do you play and how was it effective?

 

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

JLR: The Japanese Page

I haven’t written about a website JLR in a while, so here’s another one: The Japanese Page. I haven’t used this website, but I discovered it in the past and wanted to write about a JLR website instead of an app for a change.

What I like:

• It’s free.
• Beginner lessons
• Intermediate and some Advance lessons
• Free ebooks
• Free downloads
• Kanji practice (stroke order, multiple kanji lists such as JLPT N4 [I think the website goes by the old JLPT levels])
• Listening practice and audio for ebooks
• Seems like there are ways to connect with native speakers for language exchanges (you teach English and they teach you Japanese according to the Japanese advertisement on the right side of their website)
• Teaches kana (hiragana and katakana)

What I don’t like:

• I don’t actually use this website so I can’t really say I dislike anything, but I would like for them to update their JLPT level lists in accordance with the new levels (N5-N1)

Conclusion:

This seems like a good, free resource. If you have used this website, please comment below and tell me about your experience with it.

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: Dr. Moku

Dr. Moku is a smartphone (Android and iPhone) and Desktop application for learning how to read kana through picture associations. You can try the app for free and if you like it, you can get the paid (full) version. The Android application is cheaper than the iPhone application.

Resources:

http://drmoku.com/

Cómo aprender japonés

Este aporte es sobre cómo se aprende japonés o algo así. Mi primer idioma es inglés pero he estudiado español desde escuela secundaria.  Recientemente, empecé a usar el español que conozco como una herramienta para aprender japonés. No sé mucho sobre este tema porque uso inglés para estudiar japonés. Pero, sé pocos recursos que quiero compartir con hispanohablantes. No voy a escribir en español frecuente pero, cuando encuentro un recurso para hispanohablantes, compartiré lo que encontraré. Debajo son unos recursos que sé.

1. Hablemos en japonés por NHK

NHK es un compañía que transmite televisión, radio y por Internet cosas como las noticias, cultura del mundo etcétera. Su sitio web tiene unas páginas para aprender japonés en muchas lenguas como español y inglés. Por gratis, puede descargar el audio y el texto de las lecciones. Hay casi cincuenta lecciones que incluyeron consejo de vivir en japón y más. Si tiene un smartphone (celular/móvil inteligente) como el iPhone de Apple o un iPod, puede descargar la aplicación de Hablemos en japonés con todas las lecciones por su móvil.

2. ¡El reto de Erin! Aprendamos japonés.

Me gusta este sitio web también porque el sitio fue traslucido en muchas lenguas y tiene subtítulos en japonés como kana, kanji, romaji y en español debajo los vídeos  Hay 25 episodios del programa y muchas actividades y recursos para ayudarse con el aprendizaje de japonés y la cultura japonesa. El sitio web entero es gratis.

3. YouTube

Por supuesto, se puede usar YouTube para aprender japonés. Hay bastante canales que enseñan el japonés con lecciones de vídeo en YouTube.

3. Otros blogs

Hay muchas blogs por hispanohablantes que enseñan japonés por gratis, algunas tienen audio también.

4. Lang-8

Lang-8 es un sitio de Web como Facebook para aprender lenguas. Se puede escribir en la lengua que se ha estudiado y se puede corregir la escritura de otras personas quienes están aprendiendo su lengua. Hay grupos para conocer y conectar con personas y otras cosas también. El sitio es gratis pero se puede comprar una suscripción para ayudar con los costos del sitio de Internet. Se puede cambiar la lengua del sitio de Web en la cabeza de la página.

Conclusión:

Espero que este aporte fue útil y buena suerte con sus estudios.

Recursos:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lesson/spanish/index.html

https://www.erin.ne.jp/es/

http://lang-8.com/

JLR: Real kana and Real Kanji

If you want to learn how to recognize kana (hiragana and katakana), you should try out Real Kana. It is a website that let’s you select which kana characters you want to study, the script you want them to be written in and it is free. There is also the kanji website, Real Kanji, which is basically the same thing for kanji.

What I like:

• It’s free, unless you want the iPod/iPhone  app.
• Different scripts (font types)
• Real Kanji has kanji list based off of different kanji books

What I dislike:

• I have no complaints.

Conclusion:

It is a good website when you are beginning your language studies and want to be able to recognize kana and basic kanji.

Resource:

http://www.realkana.com/

http://www.realkanji.com/

JLR: Yes Japan

I found this website through Youtube, when I was doing some research about the college I will be studying at in Japan. Yes Japan is a partially free and mostly paid Japanese learning website.

What I like:

• You can try it for free
• Reasonably priced subscription
• Grammar lessons
• Video lessons
• Real Japanese taught (YJ teaches distinctions between words and explains how Japanese people really talk)
• Updated frequently
• Textbook
• Forum
• Romaji/Kana/Kanji+ settings to view written Japanese
• Written Japanese settings can be changed whenever you want
• Learn kana (hiragana and katakana) and kanji
• Audio
• Quizzes
• Manageable lessons

What I dislike:

• I noticed a few times when I used the pop-up feature to see the reading of some vocabulary words in the Kanji+ mode that it wrote the romaji instead of kana. Although it was easier and faster to read, I was expecting kanji to appear.
• Nothing to complain about since I have a free account.

Conclusion:

You should try it out. If you like it and do not have a set study plan or formal Japanese classes, this seems like a great program. My favorite aspect of this website is the video lessons. Just by watching a few of them, I learned new things, even though a lot of it was review material for me and a lot of my misconceptions and beginner mistakes were addressed in those introductory videos and lessons.

Resource:

http://www.yesjapan.com