I’m pretty sure someone like Rainbowhill or someone sparked this idea via a comment / tweet (so whoever you are be sure to come forward so I can make credit where credit is due).
If you’ve been around the internet for a while, you’ve probably run into Flickr at least a couple of times. It’s a photo sharing site where amateurs and professionals put their pictures up and allow you to look at them. Great, splendid. So, how do you use these images to study your Japanese? The way I see it, there are two effective ways to do it (and a bunch of really dumb ways too), so let’s take a look at those.
1. “Image-a-Day” Translations
Learning Japanese is more about consistent practice and studying than anything else, so daily “traditions” get you a long way, at least if you think long term. This includes things like studying your flashcards every day, reading a Japanese newspaper article every day, writing a post on Lang-8 every day, or even just sitting down with your Japanese textbook and studying every day. The key here is consistency, because it’s not going to happen overnight anyways. By coming up with little traditions that you can do on a daily basis you’ll learn a lot more than the person who studies in big bursts. I think this is one of those things.
Flickr has a ton of new content every day, which makes it the perfect place to do this, though any image site would probably work. Pixiv.net, TwitPic, etc, to name a few (and I’m sure you’ll name a few more in the comments, right?). The idea is simple:
- Find an interesting, engaging image every day from one of these sites. Preferably this image will have a good amount going on (the simpler the image is, the less you will be able to get out of it).
- Take this image and find all of the nouns in the image (people, pleaces, things). Write them down on a piece of paper.
- Look up these words in Japanese. This list of words is your “daily new vocabulary.” You could make flash cards (or add them into Smart.fm) too, to help you review these words later / the next day.
This idea goes beyond just finding new vocab to study every day. There’s something to be said about associating images with words too. The more you can associate with a vocabulary word (images included), the more likely your brain is to remember said vocabulary word. Other “associations” can include emotions and senses (like sight, touch, smell, etc… you’d have to use your imagination here). By using a picture, and associating that picture with the vocab words, you’re giving your brain something else to latch on to, which probably means you’ll remember these vocab words more effectively than, say, if you just found them in a random vocabulary list.
Some Bonus Tips:
- Although you can pick random images from the home page, try searching every once in a while too. Search for things you like and are interested in, as this will help motivate and inspire you to study on a more consistent basis.
- Because this is an “extra” method of learning Japanese (i.e. you won’t be using Flickr as your sole Japanese learning method), don’t overdo it. 10-15 words per day is plenty. Much more than that is too much, and you should probably be using that time to study something more well rounded.
- Sort your searches by “interesting” to get the most interesting images. Images are more effective when they are inspiring and interesting.
- When you are studying the new vocab, make sure you look at the spot of the image which that vocab is associated with as you are studying. For example, if a flashcard comes up with the word “tree,” you’ll want to look at the image, find the tree, and then answer. Making these associations will help you remember the word more quickly and get them in your long term memory more effectively.
2. Associating Vocabulary With Images
This is going off of the last bit of part one. This, I think, is probably going to get you a little less bang for your buck, but if you find you’re the type of person who has a lot of trouble remembering vocabulary (or even kanji), this might help you. It’s definitely more time intensive, but if it gets you the results you need, then that time is definitely worth it. Here’s how it works:
- You have a list of vocabulary you’re learning, and you’re making your own flash cards (probably, if you’re using images, Anki will work best).
- For each vocabulary word (or, just the ones you’re having the most trouble with), add an image (which you can get from Flickr, or Google image search) as part of the vocabulary word. This can be its own slide, or added on to the English / Japanese slide (or both) to help you make that association. The brain likes these associations, and it will help you learn these words more effectively.
- Rinse, repeat, and learn your vocab.
Like I said, though, this method is more time intensive, so you’ll have to weigh your options. Is it faster to add the images and learn the vocab more quickly, or is it just faster to spend more time with the vocab and learn it that way? The decision is yours.
Bonus Tips:
- Pick wild images to go with your words. The crazier it is, the better it will work. This is a soft version of “creating flash bulb memories” while you’re learning, Your brain remembers crazier / wilder things more easily than boring, drab things.
- Try different image placements (as mentioned in point two, above) and see which combination works best for you. Everyone learns differently, so figure out what’s best for you.
- Try this with kanji, too. It should work pretty similarly, though you’ll want to be careful about associating the actual kanji shape with an image (which is not what you want to do). You’ll just want to focus on meaning, instead of how the kanji looks.
That should get you going. If you want some good images to get started with, I’ve provided a few below. You can click on them to get to the actual image itself!
Example Vocab: Mountain, Mountain climber, Sky, Clouds, Hat, Jacket…
Example Vocab: Food, Computer, Mouse, Notebook, Tape, Chair, CD, Coffee…
Example Vocab: Water, Sea, Ocean, Boat, Dock, Harbor…
Example Vocab: Cemetery, Police, Grave, Snow, Statue…
Example Vocab: Cat, Van, Vehicle, License Plate, Cardboard, Kitten…
There you go! I hope you enjoy them and get an idea of how to use images to learn Japanese! Be sure to share your tips and tricks down below (as well as more image-related sites you like that could be applicable!).
P.S. If you’re a visual learner (i.e. you can see), you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.
P.P.S. If you’ve been trying to figure out how to learn Japanese for a long, long, time, you should give TextFugu a try.