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Dogen — The Early Years

(I was going to title this post “My Hero Academia”, but that would get angry anime fans leaving nasty comments. So I didn’t.) So what is his background? How did he achieve mastery over pitch accent? Did he achieve mastery over pitch accent? Let’s answer the last question first. Native speakers on YouTube have confirmed how good his Japanese is. So how did he get this expertise? Basically, he started back in undergraduate university. He began in Washington, and then got to study in Tokyo. He also decided to only focus on native pronunciation in his studies. This kind of laser-like intensity paid dividends, at the cost of maybe being… Read More

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The Path of Pitch Accent

So what is pitch accent? Let’s go to the self-proclaimed 上手 of it all. Or at least in the English-speaking world. Kevin O’Donnell (who goes by Dogen [see below]) is certainly メッチャペラペラ. No argument from me as to how hard the man worked to get where he is today. He teaches you pitch accent. For the government-approved dialect of Japanese. I get a bit irked by his choice of pseudonym.  Dōgen, also called Jōyō Daishi, or Kigen Dōgen, (born Jan. 19, 1200, Kyōto, Japan—died Sept. 22, 1253, Kyōto), leading Japanese Buddhist during the Kamakura period (1192–1333), who introduced Zen to Japan in the form of the Sōtō school (Chinese: Ts’ao-tung). A creative personality, he combined meditative practice and philosophical speculation.… Read More

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Dialects

Had an interesting discussion yesterday in Japanese class about particles in Japan, which led to a discussion about how natural fluency develops from childhood, which led to talking about an English dialect. The main example was we say “I am going home”, not “I am going to home”. But Japanese will always have に in the sentence when you’re going somewhere specific, 「家に帰る」。 Then someone said that they’ve heard some people in the States and the UK say something like “I went hospital”, which brought up briefly the notion of English dialects. And then after class, I reminded myself that the Japanese I’m learning is “standard” Japanese, and there are… Read More

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Fluent Forever?

I don’t think there is any single app or website that can give you the full Japanese experience.  Japan Activator comes very close, and if you haven’t seen it, check it out. One of the new entries in the overcrowded “Learn a new language easily at home” category is Fluent Forever.  I have to say, its origin story sounds like a superhero origin. “A young opera singer, surrounded by productions in multiple languages, broke out of his unilingual prison, and developed a method to quickly learn any language.” It’s a variation on the flashcard theme. You start off by setting your familiarity level with the language. Then, you choose words to create… Read More

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The Paradox of Busuu

I registered Busuu for Japanese. That is, I paid money for it. It has a big claim in that it’s going to get you, not fluent in Japanese, but to a point where you can survive and speak some basic sentences if you are suddenly strapped into a parachute and dropped into Tokyo. And how does it do this? First of all, though, let me say that some languages in Busuu have placement tests. So if you have some experience already, it tests you, and then starts off at a higher level. Japanese doesn’t have this feature, so everyone starts off at lesson 1. I’m not too proud to admit… Read More

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Talking to Yourself (PG Rated)

I do love dancing to Caribbean music. There is one song that contains the lyrics If you can’t get a woman, take a manIt’s the only solutionTake a man Nothing wrong with that, but not my personal preference. But for Japanese studying, the lyrics would be If you can’t get a language partner, talk to yourselfIt’s the only solutionTalk to yourself Again, not my personal preference, but this time I am all for it. You can do language shadowing, or you can follow along with LingoDeer stories, but getting language practice this way is, well…better than nothing.

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So Many Choices: Grammar [Apps and Web Sites]

Web sites and apps, the painless way to study Japanese grammar. Ha, ha! Oh, I’m so funny. There is no painless way to study Japanese grammar. Just a lot of hard work and regular study. At some point, the pain lessens as you become more fluent in regular conversations. At least, that’s my theory. If it ever happens to me, I’ll let you know. This list isn’t by any means the full list of what’s out there. It contains entries I’ve had personal experience with. I roughly break these down into the following categories: Websites ImabiThis one is the full course meal. The owner of this site has a grand… Read More

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