At the Japanese-English Language Meetup

I enter the Japanese-English meetup and am assigned to a group. For the first part of the meetup, we speak in English. Then, forty to forty-five minutes later, the host tells us to switch languages. Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we just keep speaking English. No one objects. For some, Japanese is a scary language, and for others, they appreciate getting more English practice. Sometimes we do. Then the fluency stream takes over. Either you are swimming in the stream, or swimming as hard as you can so you don’t drown. The native speakers and the people who are almost fluent dominate. Sometimes I get a word in. Sometimes I just… Read More

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Shadowing

I have an Android app I have had installed for the longest time. So long, I forgot about it. But then, you see a moment from someone you’re following on HelloTalk, and your memory gets jogged. To be honest, I forgot about it because my Japanese skill when I installed it was pretty low. But now, I think it’s improved to the point where I can get some benefit from using it regularly. It’s an app created by the International University of Japan for their students, but non-students can use it too. Called Ganbatte Shadowing, it explains all the concepts of shadowing, and then has “tasks” for you to complete.… Read More

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The Language as She is Spoke

So, I use HelloTalk, and sometimes I use it to actually talk with people. Last night I tried a conversation with a long time language partner. We were both equally clumsy in our studied languages, although I think I was a bit more clumsy. But it was interesting. I figured out something from context and responded, and some of my sentences were spoken without me thinking in English first. What I found lacking from most formal Japanese classes was speaking and listening training. Sure, you did the exercises in the book and played around with the questions and answers a bit, but it wasn’t like a normal everyday, lengthy, conversation.… Read More

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Easy Tomato

My Current Study Routine

So, you can’t study Japanese and not study daily. You can squeak by with less study time in languages closer to English, but Japanese demands a lot of daily studies. I’m going to share my current study tools, and maybe some of them are new to you. Kanji I mean, there are arguments about how hard you need to study kanji if all you want to do is speak the language. But if you’re like me, getting exposure to this part of the writing system helps you learn the spoken part faster. Wanikani I have used Wanikani in the past. It was good for getting down some of the basic… Read More

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How To Language Shadow?

Language shadowing is apparently best done by walking around while you’re doing it. All the videos I’ve seen of people doing language shadowing show them walking around a park, by themselves, with ear buds in, and walking around and talking. I admire parks where there is no one to look at the weirdo walking around talking to themselves in a foreign language. I imagine calls to the police are greatly reduced in that scenario. Anyway, I’ve been using Erin’s Challenge! to try and do some language shadowing while bouncing up and down in my chair. Bouncing is movement, right? Also, one of my cats always decides it would be great… Read More

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