Category Archives: Learn Japanese with Videos

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2015 goals

It’s a new year! I haven’t made a New Year’s resolution in years, but I decided to make a list of goals for 2015, mostly foreign language related. Since I’m done with my Japanese major, I’m not taking any Japanese classes right now. This has given me the chance to reevaluate how I study Japanese and to commit to using some of the Japanese learning material I’ve gathered over the years.

Lately, I’ve shifted my Japanese learning focus to kanji. I would like to learn all the Joyo kanji by the end of this year and study for the JLPT N2. In order to reach my goal, I’ve been using flash card apps with SRS and playing video games in Japanese. I’m almost finish with the 漢字の館とお化け達 games (I only have to do 6th grade kanji)! By the middle of this year, I want to learn middle school kanji and since I don’t have a high school kanji list, I’ll just study the rest of the kanji from my new and old joyo kanji flash card list.

I’ve also been doing a lot of listening practice via YouTube and Bilingual News. I enjoy using video games as a study tool. Many words appear repeatedly throughout different games and a lot of the vocabulary and kanji correspond with either Joyo kanji or the JLPT. I don’t force myself to study and I enjoy how relaxing ‘studying’ is. I made a few specific deadlines for knowing the meanings of kanji and how to write to write kanji, to keep my kanji studies on track though.

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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?

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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?

 

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Japanese 3DS

A Japanese 3DS is not that much different from the US version of the 3DS. I admit, when I first bought mine, it took a while to set up. Things that were easy to read for me in English, I did not understand in Japanese. But with my American 3DS and my Midori (Japanese-English dictionary app on iPhone) in hand, I managed to do it after what was probably a few hours. I also managed to learn a lot of technical vocabulary as well.

One thing that I noticed about my new Japanese 3DS was that games on it were very expensive. It shouldn’t have surprised me, because I had seen prices of video games at electronic stores and Book OFF. But compared to video game prices, games in Japan can be about $20 more expensive. A lot of new games cost around $50 or $60, whereas on the US 3DS, games are around $40 or $30. Physical games and downloadable games can be around the same price. Some games are only available through download and a lot of games on Japanese 3DS do not make it to America or take about a year to be released for American 3DS systems. Some games are relatively cheap for download too, less than $10.

Having a Japanese 3DS is great for studying Japanese. Not only can you buy Japanese games and play them in Japanese, which is great for reading practice and broadening your vocabulary, but you can watch videos on it as well. About every week, Nintendo comes out with Nintendo Direct videos and other Nintendo videos, which you can watch either on the 3DS or on their YouTube channel. I was also able to sign up for a NicoNico (ニコニコ動画) account through my 3DS and start watching videos in Japanese on it. Also, when you view games on the Nintendo eShop, many of the games have tv commercials or other videos that introduce the game that you can watch.

There is also a lot of free applications and games you can download and use on the 3DS. Although they have many in-app purchases available, there’s still a lot you can do for free.

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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

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JLR: Minna no Nihongo

This is one of my favorite apps to use. Minna no Nihongo is an iPod/iPhone application that is basically a textbook in an app.

What I like:

  • Flashcards. Most of these have audio and some have kanji. They’re primarily written in kana with English translations. Some flashcards only have kanji and some of those have comments with show the reading in hiragana.
  • 50 Lessons. I don’t have a physical copy of the Minna no Nihongo textbook, so I can’t compare the app with the physical textbook series. But that’s a lot of lessons.
  • Really inexpensive. I don’t remember what I paid for this app, but I’m sure it was cheaper than the current price ($5.99), which isn’t very expensive.
  • Dialogues. The dialogue tab has so many features/ways you can interact with the dialogue. There’s a picture with each dialogue, English translation, audio, text (which you can make disappear depending on which role/person speaking you want to listen to, manual mode to listen to each sentence at your leisure and my favorite: a video of the conversation.
  • Grammar lessons. These are pretty brief, so it’s best to have another grammar source to use alongside this app for better explanations.
  • Covers some things that I didn’t see in the Genki textbook, such as some vocabulary. Or maybe the way/order it teaches grammar and vocabulary is different.

What I dislike:

  • I wish there were kanji for all the vocabulary words that kanji exists for. 
  • Some English mistakes, I noticed “postcard” was spelled “poat card” and some other things. Overall, the English is really good. The application maker seems to primarily make apps in Chinese.
  • A learning tool for kanji would be cool.

Conclusion:

I really like this app. It’s more of a review for what I learned with the Genki textbook series for me. I think the dialogue features are what makes it the best…and the low price. It covers what my college considers elementary and intermediate Japanese, so two years of college Japanese (minus the reading and writing practice).

Resources:

Minna no Nihongo by iLoveStudy

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Jumping on the Bandwagon

A lot of my friends and classmates have been telling me that I need to start watching Japanese dramas, saying it was a good way to get better at Japanese. Since I’m off from school for about three months and I’ll be going to study in Japan, I’ve decided to take some of their advice.

I grew up watching anime, so it’s a habit that’s followed me into adulthood; although, I watch anime less since I’m more focused on school. But, when I do watch anime, I try to see if I can catch any words I know in Japanese. Of course, that only works when I watch subbed anime, which is what I primarily watch now.

Recently, I’ve been watching a series called “Mainichi Kaasan,” which I’ve probably mentioned before in another post. Since I’ve been studying Japanese more seriously recently, I’ve noticed I understand a lot more. That and the series doesn’t use a lot of complicated grammar or advance vocabulary. As for Japanese drama, I’m slowly starting to watch it. I’ve started out with the series “Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo” or “The Japanese the Japanese (people) don’t know”.

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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

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JLR: Videos with subtitles

I recently discovered a website called “amara” through Language Bandit’s twitter account and I decided to write a posts about websites that offer videos with subtitles in multiple languages.

Amara is a website that allows volunteers to add subtitles to videos so that the videos are more accessible to people who are deaf and hard at hearing. Their goal is to make subtitles for all the videos on the Internet…in multiple languages. You can submit videos to the website that you want subtitles for and volunteers (and you) can add subtitles for the video in multiple languages.

Viki.com is another website with subtitles on their videos. It is basically a website to watch dramas, mostly Korean dramas; but, you can watch the videos with subtitles in multiple languages or add your own subtitles.

I also wrote a post about Erin’s Challenge I can Speak Japanese, which has videos with Japanese subtitles.

Resources: