Editor’s Note: Since yesterday you learned about the history of JSL, as well as some of the movements going on around it, I thought today it would be appropriate to take a look at a guest post by Rochelle, which goes over shuwa (Japanese sign language) and how it can be used to learn spoken Japanese at the same time.
Chances are, you’ve probably met a few non-native English speakers in some of your classes who were learning Japanese or Spanish or Swahili alongside you. You probably thought, “Rad. I don’t think I could learn Spanish or Swahili if the teacher was instructing in Japanese.” I’m here to tell you that you definitely could do such a thing, that it will help your Japanese abilities if you try, and then I’ll outline an easy way for you to get started.
This post will be helpful for intermediate and advanced learners, but beginners who are reading this should still find useful information here. This also might be one of the strangest Tofugu posts yet because I’m talking about how to learn a language that isn’t Japanese: Japanese Sign Language (JSL / shuwa 手話). While there are generally awesome things to be gained from learning a language through another language, shuwa makes the task easier because of 1) an abundance of learning materials with subtitles and 2) grammatical similarities to spoken Japanese.
Agar Mode: Learning A Language Through Another Language
In microbiology, agar is the jelly-like algae medium used to hold bacteria in petri dishes so they can be observed (without destroying the world). It’s also used in Japanese confections, like yōkan. So, as a way to shorten the phrase “Learning a language through another language”, let’s just call that “Agar Mode.” While there isn’t a lot of research on the added benefits of this mode of learning, there is research that suggests foreign language learning is easier the second time around.
Why is that? How does that even work when you’ve been stuffing the jōyō-kanji plus hundreds (thousands?) of vocabulary words and shadowing dramas and news programs for pronunciation? How can you learn a third language more easily, with a still-in-progress Nihongo squeezing up against whatever English knowledge, physics equations, quilt patterns, and “that one story that makes everyone I’m drinking with do a spit-take”?
It comes down to practice… kind of. Second language learning is one area of research that has a lot of conflicting evidence. Some of the surer things are “We don’t know what kind of motivation works best for everyone, but we know there has to be some of it somewhere for people to get anywhere in language learning.” Similarly, it’s been concluded that people who do okay at picking up one foreign language do okay a little more easily at the second because they’ve already learned and practiced successful study habits. The reason it goes smoother the second time around is because you already know that you need: vocabulary lists, listening practice, writing practice, websites and apps to feed you new challenges, and maybe small increments work best, etc. Believe it or not, the specifics of these study habits, and which ones work best for you, are the non-language things you’re learning while learning Japanese.
Okay. So you can get started with another language easily. Now you might be thinking, “Why should I?”
There are some people out there (again, the research is hard to find, but this guy backs me up) who find that the Agar Mode makes you practice Japanese in a new and impressive way. While immersive experiences are great (e.g., taking photography in Japanese, or taking Japanese in Japanese), the immersive language-learning experience specifically draws on vocabulary and expressions you’re already familiar with in Japanese: verbs, adjectives, modifying phrases, て-form, formality, etc. In the end, your head isn’t translating Japanese > English, English > Japanese, it’s translating Japanese > Language-X, Language-X > Japanese. Other posts on Tofugu mention passive learning, translating all the time, and thinking in Japanese. Sounds similar. Sounds like an integrated way to get better at Nihongo.
Exhibit A: Japanese Sign Language
Obviously, any language would work as the specimen in the Nihongo agar. But I’m going to outline resources for use with Japanese Sign Language in this article. In addition to working well with Agar Mode (so many subtitled materials!), Shuwa is as much a part of Japan as Shinto shrines and Kansai-ben. The people who use it daily read and often speak Japanese regardless of whether they can hear or not. Some Shuwa users went to schools for the deaf, but many such schools have been closed down over the years (see Karen Nakamura’s Deaf in Japan for more background on this), and now many have gone to the same schools as any other Japanese person you might meet.
For those interested in going to or living in Kyoto or Tokyo, you’ll run into a few more people using shuwa; the first Japanese school for the deaf was established in Kyoto, while Tokyo boasts the headquarters of the Japan Federation for the Deaf, as well as a number of active college circles and even academic programs (Tsukuba University, for example) for shuwa users. Furthermore, you’ll see shuwa lessons on Japanese TV and on the railways, not to mention in the popular 2004 drama Orange Days.
Again, the best part about trying this Agar Mode out with Japanese Sign Language is what kind of materials you’ll have available. Also, the grammar is going to be similar.
It should be noted that at the beginner level, most of what you’ll run into is a pidgin between shuwa and spoken Japanese called Nihongo Taiou Shuwa (日本語対応手話), which is more like Signed Japanese than Japanese Sign Language. But for getting started and practicing Japanese, this will do just fine.
Getting Started
Just like you start Japanese by learning hiragana and basic vocabulary, most people start learning shuwa with yubi-moji (‘finger-spelling’, 指文字) and vocabulary in categories like colors, food, places, relationships, etc. Here’s a chart for the yubi-moji; illustrations depict someone facing you directly with these hand shapes. Right or left-handedness doesn’t matter.
When you’ve learned all the hand shapes for the hiragana and have properly associated them, try spelling out some words that you know. By hand-spelling out たべます, for example, you’re not only cementing the hand shapes into your mind, but the concept and idea of たべます as well. When you do this, たべます isn’t “to eat” in English, it’s the idea of “to eat” without the “to eat.” You’re helping your brain to really know the word and idea, rather than telling it to recall the information based off some other information that’s in your brain. It’s Agar Mode in action.
This can help you to learn words you are having trouble memorizing too. For example, when I was having trouble remembering 都/みやこ, I found that when I started signing the word I could suddenly memorize it. So, this concept can have benefits even when used in small doses as well.
Continuing Your JSL Education
There isn’t going to be one single way to learn JSL along with your Japanese, especially if you’re looking to supplement it in this Agar Mode way. It really depends on how you’re learning Japanese. Luckily, Agar Mode is flexible and can mold (ha ha!) to just about any Japanese learning method that you do.
If you’re looking to move beyond the yubi-moji hand shapes, there are a number of resources I’ve found to help you out:
Youtube:
- Shuwa songs: Search for these with 「手話ソング」 or 「手話歌」. My favorite so far is this.
- HeartfulPowerHideo channel: This couple is funny, adorable, and effective at teaching Shuwa through subbed skits.
- Clark Chiba: You won’t be alone in the crowd of foreigners seeking to learn JSL. This person, American, has done some lessons, in Japanese, for people wanting to learn, along with some Shuwa Songs.
- jslvideodayo: this Japanese woman knows Shuwa and learned ASL after coming to the U.S. Her videos feature translations between each (JSL/ASL) with English subs
Drama:
Orange Days: In the words of most Japanese people I talk to about this show, it’s filled with all the great and also difficult things about college life in Japan, especially when facing the dreaded job hunting, but adds in the dilemma a semi-pro musician faces now that she’s deaf.
Shuwa Jiten
Like any other language, there are dialects and regional differences, and the list of words isn’t exhaustive, but this is helpful for looking up illustrations and videos of Shuwa words you want to learn. Try learning the JSL version of a word as you learn the Japanese version of a word at the same time. Or, as you make sentences in Japanese, throw in JSL words as you’re speaking it out loud. Even one or two per sentence will surely help! [Shuwa Jiten]
Academics:
- How about the Wikipedia page on Shuwa?
- Ichida Yasuhiro is a sign linguistics researcher who lectures at places like Todai and Osaka University. His website features a glossary of terms relating to sign language and the linguistics of it. Try out your reading comprehension! For advanced Japanese learners / linguistics students, check out his reference section.
Your Experiment
JSL would help you learn more about Japanese culture while practicing Nihongo, but at the end of the day, it’s your experiment. If you aren’t interested in JSL, have you ever wanted to learn French? Korean? Chinese? Consider using the Agar Mode as a way to start thinking in Japanese more. Crawl the internet with Japanese search terms, and you’ll be taking a dynamic new approach to your studies as you pick through the results.
Or maybe you’re reading this and are yawning because you’ve been here, done this. If so, tell us about your ‘learning a language through Japanese medium’ experiences in the comments!
We want to know: Was this approach effective? What kind of challenges did you face, and how did you navigate them?
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