Japanese and How You’re Doin’ It Wrong: Tips From John-sensei

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Learning a foreign language can be a daunting experience, especially one as intimidating as Japanese. Over my 3+ years of studying the language, I’ve learned what works for me, and what doesn’t. Which habits are good, and which habits are bad. There are a lot of things I really wish I would have known when I started studying all those many years ago, and now I’d like to share that erudition with you. Bask in this mighty font of knowledge, friends – and read on to see if your current study habits are setting you up for disaster (or success)!

Listen to as Much Japanese as You Can

Think about it – as a baby you listened to the English language constantly before you ever spoke a single word. By listening to Japanese all the time (TV, music, podcasts, etc) you prepare your brain for the great adventure ahead of you. It also helps out a lot with pronunciation. The more authentic Japanese you hear, the easier it will be for you to produce Japanese with little to no accent.

I listened to a lot of Japanese before I ever started seriously studying the language (TV, movies, music) and as a result I had a much more native sounding accent when I started taking classes. It really works!

As far as TV shows – dramas and talk shows are definitely the way to go. Watch them without subtitles, or just have it playing in the background while you do something else. Even passive listening can be a great help.

Anime can be good too, but for the beginner I’d say listening to real people talk in dramas and talk shows is best. The style of speech in anime is not always parallel with how people speak in the real world, and if you’re still just a beginner you might not always know if the styles and phrases used are practical. Wouldn’t want to develop any bad habits!

Don’t Use Romaji

Speaking of bad habits, let’s talk about romaji. Romaji is an unfortunate, unsightly crutch. Using English characters to represent the Japanese language will encourage you to speak with an English accent. And that’s bad. Very bad. There are even different “forms” of romaji (arigato, arigatou, arigatō), and that’s just confusing. Either don’t use romaji at all, or get yourself off it as soon as you can.

One of the first steps you should take in learning Japanese is getting katakana and hiragana down pat. If you can do that, you’ll never need to touch romaji ever again. And that’s a good thing.

One of my biggest gripes with the textbook we used in college was that it was chock full of romaji. Even in the third volume, everything was still in romaji. This really slowed down my reading speed and it wasn’t until I actually started reading real Japanese media on my own that I started to see great improvement. Check out the Tofugu Japanese Language Resources Guide for textbooks that don’t suck.

Sticking with romaji will really slow down your reading ability. If you get used to reading Japanese strictly in romaji, you will be very slow at reading Japanese in hiragana/katakana. The quicker you get used to reading in real Japanese, the better.

Use an SRS

SRS stands for Spaced Repetition System. They’re basically smart flashcards that track your progress for you. My favorites are Anki and iKnow. I use Anki for making my own flashcard decks, and I use iKnow for general vocabulary. SRS is really helpful because it automatically pays attention to which cards you get wrong and which ones you get right.

For example, if you keep missing one card, then the SRS will bring it up more frequently to give you more practice with it. And then if there’s a card you consistently get right all the time, the SRS will place it on the back burner and bring it back when it is ripe for review.

I use Anki when I want to make my own flashcard decks. I use video games, manga, and TV shows as material for getting new vocab words and phrases. As I’m going along, I make note of the words or phrases that I don’t understand and then later I put them into an Anki deck. That way, I can review the words and phrases that were difficult for me and speed up my comprehension. It really helps me focus and make the best use of my time.

Programs like Anki and websites like iKnow are very helpful for setting up a systematic schedule of study. They keep track of what you need to focus on studying first, and what you can save for another day. Anki also has a great community and a lot of premade decks you can download and check out before delving into the adventure of making your own. Using regular old flashcards is fine, but you’re really wasting a lot of time by not using an SRS.

Make Japanese Friends

While not as important as the other tips on this list (in the very beginning, at least), having real life Japanese people to talk to is very helpful, especially if you are self taught. And besides, what fun is learning a language if you have no one to talk to?

Having someone to send emails back and forth with, call, or webcam with can be a great learning asset. It prepares you for the real world of speaking Japanese, and you’ll have a native to immediately correct any mistakes you’re making. One of the online services that Koichi really likes is Lang-8. You can check out his review of it here.

Just make sure to let your new-found Japanese friends know that you actually want them to tell you when you mess up. A good amount of Japanese people are very shy and hesitant when it comes to correcting people and telling them they are wrong. This of course depends on the person. Our language partners in Japan had no problem telling us when we screwed up.

I made a lot of good friends when I studied abroad though, and I talk to most of them weekly. I still email with my home-stay sisters on a regular basis and talk to my other Japanese friends on Facebook. They help keep my Japanese skills sharp as well as improve my writing and reading comprehension. The Firefox plug-in Rikaichan can be a very useful tool for deciphering cryptic Japanese on the internet. Check it out!

Be Consistent

Don’t study Japanese for five hours on Monday, not touch it again for a week, and try to make up for it by studying ten hours next Tuesday. You need to be consistent. Study Japanese every day if you can. Figure out how much time you can set aside each day and develop a schedule. Studying a little bit each day is way better than studying for long periods erratically. Keeping a consistent schedule will help you learn faster and retain information better.

Out of everything on the list, this is what I personally have the most trouble with. There’s just too many video games to play and people to hang out with for me to stay focused all the time. Don’t be like me! Set up a schedule for yourself and stick to it!

Have Fun While You Learn

Most important of all, just have fun with it! You’re not going to want to do something if you’re not enjoying yourself and you’ll retain a lot more information if you’re having a good time. And once you find a study method that works for you, stick with it, but don’t overdo it.

For example, if you’re really enjoying a study session with your favorite manga, stop a little early. Quit while you’re still having fun. That way, you’ll be looking forward to getting back into it. Don’t study until you’re completely stressed out and frustrated – who would want to come back to that?

Study with your friends and learn with manga, TV shows, and video games you actually enjoy. As you start to have fun with it, you’ll actually start to look forward to studying. Suddenly studying seems less like a chore and more like an adventure! (Whee!)

Put It All Together

On days when I’m not slacking off, I try to get a solid 2-3 hours of real study time in. I really like the Core Japanese decks on iKnow, so I make use of those quite often.

Lately, I’ve been reading the manga Yotsuba&! and making Anki cards out of the words and phrases that are new to me. I usually start from the beginning of the manga every session just to practice reading with the new phrases I’ve learned because it’s good review.

When I’m not actively studying, I like to have Japanese TV playing in the background. I have a two monitor set up on my computer, so when I’m surfing the web, I’ll have my browser up on one and a Japanese playlist up on the other. My playlist is comprised of some of my favorite dramas and a handful of variety shows.

When I’m not at home, I try to listen to Japanese music. I’ve been listening to a lot of Imaginary Flying Machine lately, but it’s always good to listen to music where the lyrics are audible and easy to understand.

Listening to Japanese all day really gets your brain into “Japanese mode.” On days when I really immerse myself in Japanese media I’ll often find myself thinking and even dreaming in Japanese. Fun!

There’s also a lot of mobile apps that you can use to study Japanese on the road. Some of my favorites include Kotoba! (awesome free Japanese dictionary), Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese (super awesome for grammar and structure), and Kanji Study (great for studying kanji on the go).

With Japanese, anything is possible

And there you have it. Just keep these simple tips in mind and you’ll have no problem overcoming the obstacle of conquering the Japanese language. I’ve been studying for 3+ years now and I still make good use of these basic tips each and every day. Now get out there and JFDI.

So tell me, what are your best tips for someone starting to learn the Japanese language?

P.S. Does the Japanese language give you the ability to fly? Like us on Facebook.

P.P.S. Want to learn more ways to become a Japanese expert? Follow us on Twitter.

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  • John

    Awesome. Thanks for sharing!

  • John

    Not bad!

  • John

    Not bad!

  • http://twitter.com/xharmony harmony

    You just need more practice reading, that’s all. I was god awful slow after I first learned kana. Now I can read Japanese as fast as English (assuming I’m not getting tripped up on unknown vocab/grammar), but it took practice to get there.  It’s painful and slow at first, but it’ll happen.

  • http://twitter.com/nicksitruc nick

    I feel like I can write pretty well, however when it comes to speaking or putting sentences together quickly I am very bad at it.   What do you recommend to become faster at this?  I have a japanese friend I am teaching english and she helps me with Japanese but I always get stuck and feel like I am wasting her time.  Do you know of any good learning exercises that are good for two people?

  • Jon E.

    Did you screencap and then crop to get the pictures into Anki?

  • あんじぃ

    I chisel my flashcards out of the living rock and I love it. Granted, I’ve been “dabbling” for 9 months and haven’t learned katakana yet. In my defense I know my hiragana, roughly 25 kanji and can read children’s manga; along with working full time night shift.

  • Jon E.

    YUI~! She really enunciates super clearly in almost all of her songs, doesn’t she?? She’s probably the most easily-understandable Japanese musician I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to, out of the hundreds I have on my zune.

  • Jon E.

    Thanks for the android apps!

  • http://hatchjapan.wordpress.com/ ざっちー

    This is one of the bands I mentioned in the Princess Ghibli post (btw, I’ve listened to the album a little less than a million-ish times). Fear, and Loathing are the type of Japanese music I’ve been searching for forever, too. Rock/Electronic/screamo. The problem is, FaLiLV seem to sing in English a lot. But the fact that there is a band like this gives me hope that there is an underground scene with a variety in a similar range.

  • http://hatchjapan.wordpress.com/ ざっちー

    I wish I had learned the KANA by seeing the Japanese character while hearing the native pronunciation. No ROMAJI at all. No English referrals. That way, I would’ve been 100% reliant on listening and developed a real sense of what sounds exist in the language. Even now, I know all my Japanese is based on an English background and there’s nothing I can do to change that, which kinda sucks.
    It might take longer, but, in the long run, I think that method would yield the most native like results.

    Whenever I see Japanese words in ROMAJI, I find it harder to read in general. There are twice as many characters [plus SHI, TSU, CHI, etc.], and I find myself trying to pronounce them with English emphasis. 
    Plus, I think the Japanese characters just look more B.A. and would rather tickle my face-balls with the sights of those.

  • John

    Basically, yeah.

  • John

    Just keep talking to each other and pick up new vocab wherever you can!

  • Syhyulki

    I used to remember the days of the week in japanese wih the song Weeek by NEWs. It was fun, but fast :x.

  • Meeks

    This will probably be something for your more upper intermediate to advance group but when I’m just goofing around on the net or waiting for someone or something I like to go here, http://japanese-speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/ , and see what kanji I can remember and how fast I can type in Japanese.

  • Tawlar98

    Sometimes listening to Japanese too much can mess up your English. I was in a restraunt once practicing Japanese phrases inside of my head, and the waiter came to take our order, and I pronounced the name of my dish totally wrong.

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    The whole romaji is bad thing comes down to avoiding to learn kana/kanji properly I feel. If you get rid of all romaji (like I’ve tried to do) your kana reading speed will increase naturally. I’ve been at it for 6 months at uni and feel miles ahead of my class in kanji/kana reading speed because I practice reading/writing more and avoid romaji where ever possible.
    It’s not like there’s a special trick to it, Japanese kids learn by having nothing else available, so do the same. If you have time of course!

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    One of my friends didn’t understand a word that I used the other day and reposted it to me in romaji and it looked so foreign to me, whereas I would read it no problems in katakana. webbudeberoppaa yuck

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    One of my friends didn’t understand a word that I used the other day and reposted it to me in romaji and it looked so foreign to me, whereas I would read it no problems in katakana. webbudeberoppaa yuck

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    http://www.jpopasia.com/ I use that site a little to find groups I like.

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    http://www.jpopasia.com/ I use that site a little to find groups I like.

  • http://twitter.com/Tyriar Daniel Imms

    JED: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.umibouzu.jed&feature=search_result

    Really good dictionary, one thing I’ve found particularly useful as a beginner is it doesn’t just have the base forms. You can look up nomu, nomimasu, nomanai, etc. and they will all take you to the same page. It also has stroke order which is always useful if you want to look it up where you’re away from your computer.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Michi79kw Michi Kunugi-Wang

    I learned my kana but still read at an extremely slow pace. Once I quit using romaji and actually started taking my notes in kana I saw a huge improvement in my reading ability. This means actually writing out the words I’m learning by hand and after a while the letters start to make more sense. This has also helped greatly with defining the difference between the ones that look a lot alike such as  シ ,ツ, ン , and ソ. I also suggest fully learning the kana before trying to learn any other Japanese kanji or vocabulary. If you have an iPhone I found the  app below to be really helpful and it’s a good way to practice stroke order. I actually still use this sometimes to test my katakana because I don’t use it that much and don’t want to forget it.

    http://www.epochrypha.com/kanacomplete/

  • http://twitter.com/Adelaide_Ben AdelaideBen

    Very much appreciated your post…. lots of good stuff in there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1652419195 Travis Dove

    Yo, I got some しつもん！

    1. Did you study abroad in Japan? 
    2. If so, how long?
    3. If so, what did you do about your economics major and engineering minor? Were there classes offered or did you just take a bunch of Japanese courses?

    ありがとう！

  • John

    Started watching the first season the other day. I like it so far! Thanks for the recommendation. 

  • John

    I studied abroad in Kobe last spring for 10 weeks. I just took 15 credits worth of Japanese pretty much. 5 language, 5 culture, and like 5 study abroad credit. I just put everything else on hold for a quarter because I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. 

  • Kansaijesse

    I wish I had more Japanese male friends. Plenty of female friends which has its own benefits, but male friends to pick up male speech would be awesome.  Thankfully my Japanese female friends are quick to point out how much of a girl I sound like and they correct me.  So, at least I’m very lucky in that department.

  • clc88

    i knew listening to this isnt a waste of time
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNHitUDJ1zo

  • Anonymous

    Very useful post John. I’ve found that “listening to as much Japanese…” coupled with “consistency” can get you pretty far. Sometimes it’s frustrating, not the learning part, that’s fun. The frustrating part is that you want to know more and you want to know it now! But as Koichiせんせい put it once “In Japanese, it’s all about the small victories.”

    Remember in “The Karate Kid” when Danielさん busted out moves and he didn’t even realize he was doing them as if it was berating or 2nd nature? At some point learning Japanese starts to be like that. You start with “です” (at least in TextFugu) and before you know it you are conversing with your Japanese friends, even if it’s small talk or basic sentences/questions, it’s still great practice.

  • Anonymous

    Very useful post John. I’ve found that “listening to as much Japanese…” coupled with “consistency” can get you pretty far. Sometimes it’s frustrating, not the learning part, that’s fun. The frustrating part is that you want to know more and you want to know it now! But as Koichiせんせい put it once “In Japanese, it’s all about the small victories.”

    Remember in “The Karate Kid” when Danielさん busted out moves and he didn’t even realize he was doing them as if it was berating or 2nd nature? At some point learning Japanese starts to be like that. You start with “です” (at least in TextFugu) and before you know it you are conversing with your Japanese friends, even if it’s small talk or basic sentences/questions, it’s still great practice.

  • Anonymous

    Very useful post John. I’ve found that “listening to as much Japanese…” coupled with “consistency” can get you pretty far. Sometimes it’s frustrating, not the learning part, that’s fun. The frustrating part is that you want to know more and you want to know it now! But as Koichiせんせい put it once “In Japanese, it’s all about the small victories.”

    Remember in “The Karate Kid” when Danielさん busted out moves and he didn’t even realize he was doing them as if it was berating or 2nd nature? At some point learning Japanese starts to be like that. You start with “です” (at least in TextFugu) and before you know it you are conversing with your Japanese friends, even if it’s small talk or basic sentences/questions, it’s still great practice.

  • Seline

    I totally agree with the “listen to Japanese to learn” part. Japanese music is what got me interested in learning the language, and I was already familiar with the different language sounds (like how ふ is pronounced like “hu” and “fu” mixed together and the characters that begin with a t sound are kinda like the Spanish t). I could see that my Japanese sounded a lot more authentic when I was already exposed to it. Also, a lot of Japanese songs have English words in them. Sometimes those same words are in Japanese in the song. It helps for learning a bit of vocabulary once you’ve already learned the fundamentals of a sentence.

  • Anonymous

    Just like those people who work on improving their English pronunciation, you can work on improving your Japanese pronunciation. There are many books available for improving your pronunciation such as コミュニケーションのための日本語発音レッスン from Amazon.jp.　Good luck in creating that B.A. Japanese.

  • Jason

    How much Japanese do you read/listen to everyday?? I’m not talking stupid textbook, I’m talking actual Japanese novels/magazines, websites and stuff like that.

  • Anonymous

    Hey John. Nicely written post!
    I was like you. Completely immersed myself in Anime and manga through the last few years of elementary school. Got obsessed with jdramas in high school and started watching variety shows not soon after. Immersion works wonders. 
    I took a one year Japanese course after high school and by then I’ve sung so much Anime songs that I had no accent. I don’t pursue Japanese professionally but I’ve been dying to go to Japan.

    Lately I’ve noticed that I’ve developed an odd sort of accent when I speak Japanese. I think I should find a Japanese buddy who can webcam with me. Not sure where to find that.

    Regarding learning Japanese through romanji. I learnt how to read romanji lyrics to sing Anime songs. I learnt hiragana reading Japanese lyrics that romanji versions weren’t available. I once picked up japanese textbooks where most of the instruction was through romanji. I was dumbfounded that people actually expect students to _learn_ Japanese through romanji. I honestly don’t think it can be done.

  • Anonymous

    Hey John. Nicely written post!
    I was like you. Completely immersed myself in Anime and manga through the last few years of elementary school. Got obsessed with jdramas in high school and started watching variety shows not soon after. Immersion works wonders. 
    I took a one year Japanese course after high school and by then I’ve sung so much Anime songs that I had no accent. I don’t pursue Japanese professionally but I’ve been dying to go to Japan.

    Lately I’ve noticed that I’ve developed an odd sort of accent when I speak Japanese. I think I should find a Japanese buddy who can webcam with me. Not sure where to find that.

    Regarding learning Japanese through romanji. I learnt how to read romanji lyrics to sing Anime songs. I learnt hiragana reading Japanese lyrics that romanji versions weren’t available. I once picked up japanese textbooks where most of the instruction was through romanji. I was dumbfounded that people actually expect students to _learn_ Japanese through romanji. I honestly don’t think it can be done.

  • Anonymous

    Hey John. Nicely written post!
    I was like you. Completely immersed myself in Anime and manga through the last few years of elementary school. Got obsessed with jdramas in high school and started watching variety shows not soon after. Immersion works wonders. 
    I took a one year Japanese course after high school and by then I’ve sung so much Anime songs that I had no accent. I don’t pursue Japanese professionally but I’ve been dying to go to Japan.

    Lately I’ve noticed that I’ve developed an odd sort of accent when I speak Japanese. I think I should find a Japanese buddy who can webcam with me. Not sure where to find that.

    Regarding learning Japanese through romanji. I learnt how to read romanji lyrics to sing Anime songs. I learnt hiragana reading Japanese lyrics that romanji versions weren’t available. I once picked up japanese textbooks where most of the instruction was through romanji. I was dumbfounded that people actually expect students to _learn_ Japanese through romanji. I honestly don’t think it can be done.

  • MovementAndTime

    Awsome! thanks. =O

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  • http://anordinaryjpopaddict.blogspot.com/ Angi

    Thanks a lot for this entrie.
    It is a lot of help for a beginner like me! ^-^

  • Anonymous

    “Using English characters to represent the Japanese language will encourage you to speak with an English accent.”

    I am sorry to disappoint you but romaji are not english characters, it’s latin characters…

  • Anonymous

    “Using English characters to represent the Japanese language will encourage you to speak with an English accent.”

    I am sorry to disappoint you but romaji are not english characters, it’s latin characters…

  • kukisvoomchor

    You have a good point there (what the heck — I’m in the habit of calling them “Roman” characters), but technically that’s not correct since during those intervening centuries English added J [as distinguished from I], U [as distinguished from V), and W.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000321010101 Tom Landry

    Great job with this article. It has really helped me focus more. Lately I have been watching Japanese game shows and they are awesome.

  • DamienSan

    Wrong.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet#Medieval_and_later_developments

    J for example comes from germany, moreover, the english one comes from french

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J#History
    “therefore, English J, acquired from the French J, ”

    Now if you want to speak about the letter usage:
    “Like J, K, Q, W, and Y, V is not used very frequently in English. However, it appears frequently in the Spanish (where its pronunciation is the same as B) and French languages.”

    Still, it’s latin alphabet but not english one. That was the point in my post. American people always think they invented everything. Another proof of that today.

  • Anonymous

    I just take it as it comes! The hardest part for me was getting started. I outright refused to learn anything that I couldn’t write, so I took very few, if any, notes in romaji. At the same time, that made hiragana a little groundless and a bit harder. It felt great when I could read without using my notebook for reference, though! I was less disciplined with katakana, I sort of skimmed the table a few times and then just looked them up whenever I forgot them.
    Learning kanji has been a tad directionless, but now that I’ve gotten a bunch down, it’s easier because I’ll often see words made up of one or more kanji I know and maybe one that I don’t. Usually if I see one a whole lot, I’ll take that direction to take note of it and practice it. Lang-8 helps a lot too!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Mcdowell/1071311934 Joshua Mcdowell

    John, how do you recommend finding un-translated manga for reading/downloading on the computer? I really like the idea of screen-capping it into ANKI cards but everything I’ve been able to find is “scan-lated.” And while we’re on the subject, any recs for being able to read manga on theiPad (in Japanese as well, of course)?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Mcdowell/1071311934 Joshua Mcdowell

    If that were true, he would’ve referred to them as American characters. 

    Thank you for enlightening us all DamienSan (I’m sorry to disappoint you but NO ONE refers to him or herself as -san) but I think he only meant it as letters from the English language.

  • John

    Google is your friend. That’s about all I can tell you, lol. Just search for RAW versions of whatever manga you’re looking for. I’m sure it depends on how popular the manga is you’re looking for though. I don’t have an iPad, but can’t you do something like importing PDFs and use it like an ereader or something? I’m sure there’s tutorials online or something. Best of luck!

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