Naturally, if you want to learn how to speak a language, you need to speak it with a native speaker of the language. Someone who isn’t afraid to correct your mistakes. But outside of Japan, how do you meet with native speakers of the language? School This is certainly one option. But the only native speakers in the room are going to be the 先生 and any アシスタント. And they’re too busy running classes to have much time to chat with you after class. Some schools offer an immersion experience. If you’re independently wealthy, you can apply to do a full immersion at a school in Japan, which solves all… Read More
Continue ReadingGanbatte Shadowing App
I was introduced to this app on HelloTalk. I haven’t had much of a chance to try it out yet, but it does have impressive credentials, developed by the International University of Japan, both for their registered students and for non-students. It has a nice reference page describing the different methods of language shadowing, and then you go to download lessons at your current level of Japanese fluency. You can have the script used open, or you can hide it and just focus on shadowing the speech you hear. It records your voice so you can compare your speech patterns to the patterns of the native speakers. This might be… Read More
Continue ReadingPogan Lol
Pogan Lol昔、昔。。。 Pogan Lolが自己の侍あり呼び出されるのが日本の海岸に来ました。TooYoobの芸人さんでした。＋７カメラや七つ人のNPCの仲間も持っていた。 「俺は有名な白人だぜ」と言った。「アメリカのOhioの白人だぜ。全部の日本人は必ず俺にニコニコしてるぞ。俺にたくさん人がおめでとうと言う。こっら！」 彼はカメラを設置して撮影を始めた。 NPCsは「Pogan Lol様はすごいですね」と言った。Pogan Lolは何ごとを言わなかった。 「おおい！」Pokechuuのコスチュームを持ちながら怒鳴った。「behifuhetaguhichikiyonmiboinpaemo！！！」と言った。それから彼は1万の恐ろしい行為をした。 NPCは「天才！天才だぜ！」と言った。 それからPogan Lolは日本を去って全部の日本人が「よっかった！」と大声で叫んだ。 二週ごはPogan Lolが「俺はまだ百万長者だぞ！」と言った。 NPCは「将軍！将軍だぜ！」と言った。 TooYoobは「私たちはぜったい嚇怒しています！」と言ってそうして穏やかな懲らしめを上げた。 世界は違わなかった。ハッピーエンドではありませんすみませんです。
Continue ReadingGo big or go home…
Go big or go home… …is a recipe due to make you fail in studying a new language. You need to do it every day, regularly. I’m as guilty as anyone else of failing to do this. So this is my new plan going forward in 2018. I’ve set my WaniKani subscription to expire by next December. So I will need to finish the course there in a year, which is certainly doable, especially since I’m not starting from level 1. There are some new online grammar resources, like bunpro.jp. And Dogen on Patreon. Heck, I might even take a physical course somewhere this year. So, go big or go… Read More
Continue Readingお久しぶりですね？
It’s been a long time since my last blog entry. So what have I been doing with my Japanese studies? HelloTalk I’ve been using this app quite a bit to get answers on Japanese grammar, give answers to English grammar, and practice speaking some Japanese. Meetups I’ve been going to a lot of Japanese-English meetings via Meetup.com. I don’t know how these are going to be affected, given that they were recently bought by WeWork, but I guess I’ll find out. WaniKani Getting back into kanji studying. I’ve given myself a year to finish up using this online resource. That’s it. I don’t want this to become a dead blog,… Read More
Continue ReadingAnalysing Unfamiliar Grammar
So today I got a message which contained, in part, 聞きたくなる Well, I had very little idea what it meant. The first part meant to listen/hear, and the なる part meant that some action was being aimed for, but the exact action was unclear. Except it had to do with listening/hearing. First I tried pasting it into Aedict. That wasn’t very helpful. Then I did some Google searches on たく, and that wasn’t helpful, either. Then I looked at the verb, and realised it was in the conjunctive form (or verb stem, or whatever grammatical term you like to use): 聞き. So, 聞き+ます, and so on. So the たく part… Read More
Continue ReadingMonetizing Japan: The Mysteries of YouTube
So, there are a lot of YouTubers living in Japan and making videos. Some of them are even Japanese. Japan is perceived as a really cool country by a lot of people who don’t live there. YouTubers find the coolest parts of the country, and display them to us, the Western audience, so many kilometers away from there. We go ooh, aah, and then the cycle repeats. A lot of these videos are about Japanese food. I understand as well as anyone that Japan is a gourmet’s paradise. And, sure, it’s interesting to see a video now and then about food, but EVERY video? There’s a lot more to Japan… Read More
Continue ReadingConfusing the Kanji, part 1 of ???
It’s no secret to any student of Japanese that, once they get into the kanji (you know, roll up their sleeves and really start dealing with that old cranky dog), there are a lot of confusing ones. Here are some of the ones currently plaguing me. 民 氏 猫 描 和 相 I leave their interpretation as an exercise for the reader.
Continue ReadingWorking the Conditional Form
Wow, this part of Japanese grammar is SO complicated. So I can use と たら ば なら Obviously, not all can be used, based on the context of the sentence. It’s figuring out the context of the sentence that’s the problem. The way I am trying to learn it is that there is an antecedent part of the sentence, and a consequent part of the sentence. I go to Japan (antecedent) I will visit Osaka and eat a lot (consequent) In English, I’ve got one word for conditional, if. If I go to Japan, I will visit Osaka and eat a lot. In English, there is also the word when,… Read More
Continue ReadingMy Dream Trip to Japan
I need some motivation to remind me why I’m doing all this Japanese studying, so I am going to write this blog post. These are the places I really want to visit, but if I win the lottery, I’ll be happy to go to lots more. Tokyo. 2-3 days. I think I would be able to enjoy it for this amount of time, but then what looks to be a very hectic pace would wear me out. Kyoto. 4-5 days. I want to see some temples and older buildings, in a quieter city. Also some kabuki and noh theatre, if I can find some. Locals could marvel at my complete… Read More
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