Everyone knows that the GOOG is an incredible resource no matter what you’re doing (Japanese language learning included!). Despite this, there are very few people who know about some really useful features. Some of them “hacks,” some of them just somewhat hidden. Although there are way more than ten ways to use Google for your Japanese learning (you’ll list more in the comments section, right?), these are my favorite Google “gems” that will help you speed up your Japanese studies in no time.

1. Google Image Search

A while back, the Official Google Blog had a really cool post about how to use Google Image Search as a visual dictionary. The basic premise is that if you’re talking to someone who speaks another language, and you’re both trying to figure out a certain word, you can just use Google Image Search to figure out what it is you’re both talking about. Since you can search in both languages (and get pretty good results), you can use Google as a sort of visual translator or dictionary. For example, say you’re both trying to say the word “penguin.”

In English, you just say “penguin,” but in Japanese you would say ペンギン (pengin). Even though it’s a loan word, the pronunciation is different enough to fool two beginning language learners.

“Is it a bird?”
“Yes…”
“Is it black and white?”
“Yes”
“A Penguin?”
“No, a Pengin. hmm.”
“A what? Let’s just search an image…”

And yes, that conversation was totally and completely ripped from the Google blog. Sue me… actually, please don’t. [Google Images]

2. Figuring out words based search results

Maybe about a year ago, I was trying to remember the verb that went with piano in order to say “play the piano.” There’s some weird rules when it comes to instrument playing verbs that mean “to play,” and I couldn’t find a definitive answer via my dictionary. Then I realized I could use Google to my advantage.

I thought I’d try the verb “hiku” (ひく) which is how you say “to play” when it comes to stringed instruments. Pianos are kind of funny because they have strings, but they’re hidden strings and you don’t directly touch them, so I was wondering if maybe it was an exception. I typed it into Google and was able to find a plethora of phrases which included ピアノをひく (piano wo hiku), which meant I could safely assume it was the right result. Other things that I tried had fewer search results (Google shows the number of results, which can be a good indication of whether you’re right or wrong), or didn’t have the entire phrase all together (and all the words were spread out amongst the title and content, which of course means the phrase was wrong as well). This is a really useful tool if you just want to make sure something is correct, and can even be used to emulate and borrow someone else’s sentences. [Google Search]

3. Google Video (aka YouTube)

If you’re always looking for cute Japanese cat videos, then this is for you. Really, it’s almost the same as the image search, so I’m not going to spend much time talking about it, though there are a few more neat little pluses you can get out of video that you can’t in image.

Of course, with video you’re going to get a better visual than if you did an image search (though it will take longer if you actually watch these things). One perk is that there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to hear the actual word used in action, or you can listen / watch the word you’re “looking up” in context, which can be valuable as well. Really, though, if you want to get a word in context, it might just be better to look it up at smart.fm or somewhere not so Googly. [YouTube]

4. Google’s Translated Search

This is a really really cool tool. You can actually search for something in your native language (let’s say English), and Google translate your search and then show you results from the language you want to search in (let’s say Japanese). That’s not where it ends, however. It will show two columns of search results. One column will be the original Japanese content, and the other column will be the translated English version. This means you get a side-by-side translation of your search results, which also means you can look up all kinds of things (and read them) while at the same time targeting only Japanese content.

Of course, be sure to take these things with a grain of salt. Once you get beyond one-word translations, you can really start getting into trouble. Still, this is a great tool to look words and phrases up, and see what Google thinks the translation is. It’s just a great way to double check a word or translation that you already have a decent grasp of. Better yet, it’s in context! [Google Translated Search]

5. Call someone in Japan with Google Voice

If you’re cool like me and you got an invite to Google Voice, then you’ll know that you can call people on the uber-cheap. Now, this totally depends on you having people you can call without being incredibly creepy (and you should probably do a quick google search to see what time it is right now in Tokyo), but I’ll leave that part up to you. It’s only 3 cents a minute to call someone in Japan via Google voice, so if you know someone that’s willing to answer your Penguin translation questions, then you’re gold. Oh, and while you’re doing it you can use Google image search to confirm things, right?

And yes, another option is Skype, but we’re talking about Google right now! Expect to see a “call me” button somewhere on the side of this blog sometime soon, too. Google Voice will let you leave me messages. I look forward to all your drunken phone calls!

6. Google’s Advanced Search

If you feel like you’ve got the “normal” search stuff down, then maybe it’s time to go advanced. This is a great way to learn all the Google shortcuts that will get you better results down the road. If you find yourself looking for a word that has a lot of search results you don’t want, you can search minus things that have that word. You can add more words to narrow your search down. You can choose the language you want to search in. The list goes on and on.

Of course, how you use this all depends on what you’re looking for, but it’s a great way to narrow things down and look for the exact word, phrase, or whatever to get the results you want. [Google Advanced Search]

7. Translating Your Docs and E-mails

Maybe it’s just me, but I use Google docs (and gmail) all the time. I live in both of those places. At work, we use Google Docs instead of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. Working at eduFire means I get a decent amount of e-mails and docs in other languages. Google is my somewhat inaccurate translating savior. There is a feature in both g-docs and gmail (in gmail you have to add it through gmail labs) that lets you translate your content in any language that Google does translations (which is a lot).

Here’s the original message (above)

And here’s the translated message (above)

First of all, the translation pretty garbage, and secondly, if you’re learning Japanese this isn’t something you necessarily want to rely on. It can be a good resource for beginners / intermediates to get an idea of what something is about, before diving in and really studying it to pull out a real translation, though. Also great for penpals! Couple this up with Rikaichan and you’ve got yourself something golden. [Google Docs, Google Mail]

8. Google Translate Japanese to English

I’m not a huge fan of translation services, as you’ve probably already figured out. They make you lazy and they’re usually quite off. Still, I have to admit, as long as you aren’t doing anything too sensitive to painful translation mistakes, you can use these things to get the gist of something before you work out a better translation.

I put my American culture website Koichi弁 through the translator, and it came out nice and funny. Maybe it’s my strange Japanese… though most likely it’s the translator. Still, it gives you a basic picture of what’s going on.

If you do use Google Translate, I’d recommend translating things one word at a time (just like looking up words in a dictionary). There are some better dictionary services out there, but as I said before, today the Goog gets the spotlight. [Google Translate]

9. Google Calendar to Schedule Your Studies

If you’re as busy as me, calendars and e-mails rule your life. I highly recommend getting a calendar to everyone, and gCal is a good one.

You can set up reminder alerts (perhaps for your Japanese classes?), you can block off Japanese self-study sessions, remind yourself to finish up that flashcard set,  or give yourself an hour to write a Japanese journal entry to be corrected by native Japanese speakers. Staying organized is a great thing when it comes to studying, and it helps keep you on track (and helps you to set goals!). Did you know that people who write down their goals are statistically 10x more successful than those that don’t? [Google Calendar]

10. Use Google to Find Other Search Engines That do Similar Things

Of course, Google isn’t the only one that can do all these things. There’s Bing, Yahoo, Ask, Wolfram Alpha, and so on. All these other search engines have similar features, and they come up with slightly different results, depending on what you’re trying to do. This means that if Google isn’t doing it for you, then one of the other search engines may be able to give you a hand.

I hope this guide helped you, and I know there are a ton more ways to use Google to your advantage when studying Japanese. What are your favorite Google tricks, whether they are listed here or not?