One application which I’ve used for a long time is Evernote, though I’ve mostly been collecting and organizing recipes… until now. Just today, as I was scrolling through the Asahi Shinbun, I had an epiphany. I should be saving articles, sentences, vocabulary, and what-have-you in Evernote so that I can easily search for them later if I ever need to come up with examples on how grammar, vocab, etc., is used in a sentence. Doing this with Japanese blogs would be splendid too. More importantly, I’m going to deconstruct how to use Evernote for language learning (specifically Japanese in this article). It’s a very powerful tool with a lot of potential – I’m sure you’ll even find some interesting uses that I won’t even think of too.

What Is Evernote?

First off, you should probably learn more about how Evernote works, on a whole, before I dive into how you can use it to study Japanese. Evernote is a tool that helps you capture and remember everything. Because it syncs with your phone, computer, and so on, no matter how or where you gather the information, it will appear on all of your devices. These can be things like grocery lists (I write down my grocery list in Evernote on my computer, and it syncs with my iPhone, which I use in the store), remembering your favorite vintage of wine (take a picture of the bottle in the restaurant), or even saving entire articles with the click of a button (if you have a plugin installed in your browser). Because the organization and search features (you can separate your notes into notebooks, and then further break them up with tags) it’s easy to find your notes later. I use Evernote to take pictures of books I want to buy, movies I want to watch, to copy and paste articles I’ll read on my phone later, backups of newsletters / important information, shortcut keys for different applications, instructions on pieces of paper I don’t want to physically keep, my license plate number (in case I need to remember it), and more. Really, it’s good for almost any type of information you could ever want to store and have easy access to later. It’s not the prettiest UI in the world, but it does its job really well (that job being storing information and allowing me to retrieve it easily later). Best part is that it’s free unless you want to upgrade to a bigger plan, which I may actually have to do pretty soon.

So how about using it to learn Japanese, or perhaps some other language? I haven’t started doing this yet personally (I told you, I just had my epiphany today!), but I’ve thought about it, and here are some great ways to use Evernote to practice your Japanese. After I’m done, I’d love to hear from Evernote users out there on how you would use it for Japanese practice as well. I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential in this simple little app!

Copying Articles To Practice Later

A lot of times when I’m scrolling through Japanese content, I find something I want to read and use as study material, but don’t have the time to study it right then. There are a couple of problems with this. 1. A lot of newspaper sites pull their content after a little while, which means bookmarking it won’t work. 2. I’m not going to remember it if I just bookmark it anyways.

With Evernote, you can install their browser plugin, highlight the text you want, and then click the Evernote button. From there, a popup will appear allowing you to add it to a particular notebook (I’d create a “Japanese” notebook) and then add tags (highly recommend you tag everything! In this case, I might tag it as “asahi,” “readlater,” and “Japanese.”

By using Evernote, it’s easy to gather a lot of content (and only the content you want, i.e. the article) and store it away for later in a place that’s easily searchable. Other options besides newspapers are Japanese blogs, Japanese Tweets, and any other sites that have regularly updated Japanese content.

Studying Vocabulary

Vocabulary study on it’s own probably shouldn’t be done on Evernote (use Smart.fm or Anki if you want to do that). There is, however, a lot of potential for compiling sentences that use the vocabulary that you’re learning. There’s probably a couple of ways you could do it.

1. Create a new note for every vocabulary word that you’re studying. As you come across sentences (either through dictionary searches, or Smart.fm example sentences) that use the word you’re studying, add them to that vocab’s note. That way, whenever you search for that vocab word, you’ll be able to find sentences that go along with it, and you can use that to study.

2. Just create one big note that has all your practice sentences in it. Using the search feature, you can find sentences that use the word you’re looking for and just scroll through looking at those. Not quite as organized, but less time-intensive as well.

Another thing you could try is using the tag feature to tag notes with the vocab you are learning. This, I imagine, could get kind of overwhelming, though, so try it at your own risk.

Keeping Track Of Grammar

One really neat thing you could do with Evernote is use it to keep track of grammar you’ve learned. All you would need to do is create a “Grammar” notebook (or even a note) and put all the grammar you’ve learned in one place. This way, if you’re having trouble with a particular grammar point (or just learned something new about a grammar point), you can open up Evernote no matter where you are, get the information you need, and move on with your life. No more searching your textbook or searching the Internet. It’s all there at your fingertips and you can always add more info whenever you need to, and it’s written in your own style, which means you’ll understand it.

Personally, I think this would be a great way to study for the JLPT, since a lot of the learning is pretty grammar-centric. As you’re going through other study material, this could be a great reference and help you study faster and more effectively.

Keeping A Language Log

Keeping track of the things you’ve done, the things you had trouble with, and then everything in between is pretty important, I think. Normally, I’d recommend using a blog platform (like Wordpress) to do this, since being “public” with your log should help motivate you more, but this article is about Evernote, so let’s stick to that. Keeping a log with Evernote is fairly easy, and it’s a good way to keep track of what you had trouble with and what you should study more of. Here is a list of things you could log in Evernote in regards to your Japanese learning:

• What you did today / What you studied today
• What was giving you trouble? Can you write more about it and figure out the root cause of the problem?
• Breakthroughs
• Vocabulary words you learned / studied / need to study more
• What you’ll be studying next (so you don’t forget the next day)
• Sentences, paragraphs, etc., that you wrote today
• Ideas for studying better based on what happened earlier
• etc.

There’s a lot to keep track of when you’re learning a new language, and Evernote is a great platform to help you do it. By keeping a language log, you’re deconstructing a lot of what you’re doing, which is actually really helpful and will assist you in understanding what you’ve done and what you need to do. I’d recommend trying it out for a week or two if you haven’t before. It does a lot more than you might think!

Collecting Inspiration

Staying inspired and motivated is one of the most difficult things when learning a new language (especially on your own). This is something that TextFugu does a pretty good job tackling and taking care of – but you can find and compile the things that inspire you personally, right in Evernote! By collecting articles, quotes, notes, etc., into an “inspiration” notebook or tag, anytime you’re feeling down, or feeling like you can’t do it anymore, you can go straight to that section of Evernote and get a boost of energy.

Although I haven’t done this with Evernote myself, I do have a stack of books with chapters marked off anytime I need an inspirational “you can do it” lift. If those books were in Evernote, it would be that much easier. You’d be surprised at how much of a pick-me-up something like this can do, especially with something that really does need a lot of motivation, like language learning (especially if you study on your own).

Taking Plain Ol’ Notes

I wish I had Evernote when I was in school. I would have used it to take notes in class (well, actually, I’d probably have used Google Wave, and just collaborated on notes with 3-4 other people). If you’re in a class, though, Evernote is a pretty sweet way to do it, especially since you can sync your notes between computers and study no matter where you are (of course, there are things like Google Docs, Dropbox, and others which can do this part pretty well too). Still, it’s a pretty good way to do things. At the end of class (or during class, if you sit in the front), you can even take a picture of the whiteboard and save it to your note (it will even make the words in the image searchable!), that way you have the teacher’s scrobbles, your own scrobbles, and all the scrobbles in between right in one place. It certainly beats pen and paper, at least in terms of searching for things later. If anything, the tagging system makes Evernote a really worthwhile option for taking notes in class.

Sharing And Collaborating

One cool little feature that Evernote has is the ability to share your notes with others. If you want to allow people to modify your notes, you do have to be a premium member (which may or may not be worth it to you). I could see this being useful for people who are studying Japanese with others and want to share notes and ideas. I can also see this being useful for those of you who are learning in a class and taking class notes (and want to share those as well). There are any number of ways to use the share / collaborate feature of Evernote to your advantage. Other alternatives which also let you collaborate include Google Docs and Google Wave, which I would probably recommend more for the collaboration angle of things.

What Are Your Ideas?

Contribute to the Evernote-Japanese-Studying Idea-Pool by commenting below. I’m curious how you use or would use Evernote to your advantage when it comes to language learning. Like I’ve said a couple times already, I think there’s a ton of untapped Japanese-studying potential hidden away in Evernote, and it’s only a matter of figuring out the different uses. So, how would you use the big green elephant? [Evernote]

P.S. If you like elephants, you should follow me on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Japanese Language Cheatsheet for Travelers
2. How to NOT find a Japanese language partner
3. Why you should use a Mac to study Japanese

I’ve written two articles about Mixi so far (kind of a love-hate relationship going, I think). The first was about how you can use the Japanese social network Mixi to study Japanese. The second was about how Mixi essentially closed themselves off from all foreigners (or at least people outside of Japan) by making you input a Japanese cell phone e-mail address. This article is all about getting around that restriction and getting you your Mixi invite. Whew. Wait a sec, this reminds me of something…

Perry’s Black Ships Invade Mixi

I think this has happened once before… right? Back in the day, Japan closed Japan off to those damn foreigners. Then, one day Matthew Perry came in with his black ships and told Japan to open up or face the consequences. This work-around, I think, is just like that (though not at all significant in comparison). Mixi started off by letting anyone with an invitation in (and that was swell). Then, they decided, “hey, we don’t like your kind around here” so they made it pretty hard to join (unless you were in Japan / Japanese). Now, the preverbal black ships have come into port, and it’s time to show you how you can get in. We’ll have to see, however… I think this time the black ships could get themselves sunk.

Of course, keep in mind they probably closed Mixi off in the first place because non-Japanese people were probably being super creepy, so make sure you play nice and only request an invite if you really want one (for non-weird purposes, you weirdo).

The following is a video that walks you through it (and also includes a sweet giveaway at the end, which you can get a jump start on before it’s posted here on the actual Tofugu blog!). Of course, you can skip the video and just read the information below, and have your Mixi invite in 24-48 hours. How swell.

How To Get A Mixi Invite

Get a .edu email address

If you already have one, then that’s great. You can skip to the next step and just use that (probably, though I can’t say 100% for everyone). If you don’t have a .edu e-mail address, here’s how you get one.

1. Go to Australia.edu

2. Click on the email banner to request your own australia.edu e-mail account.

3. Fill out the information – there is a waiting period while they decide whether or not to accept you in. If you give them a $20 donation it apparently helps them make their decision more “effectively,” if you know what I mean. You should think about donating, though – they’re going to start hating how many people go over there for .edu e-mail handouts via Tofugu. Sorry Australia.edu folks!

4. Wait for a while.

5. Maybe after 24-48 hours, they’ll send you your australia.edu e-mail address. After that, you’re in business! If they don’t send you one? Well… pony up that donation.

Request a Mixi invite

After you get your .edu email address, you’ll have to get a Mixi invite sent to that address. Because only people who are already in Mixi can send you an invite, you’ll have to ask for one. Even though I HATE HATE HATE sending out Mixi invites, I’ll hook you up (you better really want it… just saying). Click the link below to request one. If you want to make me feel better, or if you want to learn Japanese so you can actually use Mixi (it’s all in Japanese, you know), consider becoming a member of TextFugu, my online Japanese textbook that will help you self-teach yourself Japanese, oh so good. Anyways, here’s the Mixi request form. Please give me a few days to get to the request, as I’m guessing there will be a lot of them coming in :(

UPDATE: INVITES NO LONGER REQUIRED

Whew, okay, I’m nervous, but looking forward to getting your requests.

Receive Your Mixi Invite

After I send out your Mixi invite, you’ll be able to sign up for Mixi (hooray!). Now, here is where I would normally spell out how to fill everything out… but, when it comes down to it, you should know some Japanese if you’re going to be using Mixi. That being said, hopefully you can figure out how to fill the sign up form all on your own. If that doesn’t work, you can always use Rikaichan.

By following all the steps above, you’ll be able to join the Mixi social network without a Japanese cell phone e-mail address. I don’t know how long this will last, but for now, it should do the trick. If it stops working, be sure to let us know so I can add an update up here. Anyways, get your Mixi invites now, while the hole is still open. Until then, best of luck to all of you!

Related posts:

1. Mixi No Longer Requires an Invite. edu Loophole Still Works!
2. Tenso: Get Your Own Japanese Shipping Address (and ship things on the cheap)
3. How The Japanese Address System Works

Apple’s iPad announcement has (finally) arrived blessed itself upon me, and of course, my first thoughts (besides when can I spend my money on this) are “How will this make Japanese learning better?”

Of course, the iPad is poised to change the way we learn in a lot of ways (textbooks, learning games, etc), but since Japanese is one of the most popular languages to learn out there, and because those that learn Japanese tend to be a lot more tech savvy than, say, those who learn Spanish (take that, Spanish!), there’s going to be a huge amount of Japanese + iPad potential as soon as it comes out in March (or April, if you want the 3G enabled one).

iPad Applications for Japanese Learning

One of the coolest things about the iPad is that you can use any iPhone / iPod Touch app and scale it up to fit the iPad (and apparently it looks pretty good). That means you have access to every Japanese learning app that’s already on there, not to mention any new apps that take advantage of the iPad.

The application that I’m most excited for (pictured on the right, above) is a Smart.fm (or Anki) application. Right now, I don’t feel like the apps will translate as is to an iPad version very effectively. They’ll work, but everything’s going to be HUGE. Too huge. There is, however, so much potential for an iPad-only version of the Smart.fm app. Especially if you get the 3G version of the iPad, a Smart.fm app would be perfect for vocab study on the go – much more usable than the iPhone / web versions.

Besides this, though, I’d love to see more (and I’m sure I will) in this space, including apps that let you practice writing kanji right on the screen, and more. What apps would you like to see specifically for the iPad? I could see some good potential for language exchange applications, though they couldn’t be too “typing” intensive.

Japanese Textbooks

After the iPad goes mainstream, nobody will ever pick up a regular, old textbook again. Why? Not because you can read text on the iPad. That’s dumb (even with the ability to swipe pages around on screen). Although it won’t happen immediately, Textbooks on the iPad are going to be way more than textbooks. I don’t know what exactly publishers can do with their books for the iPad right now, but here is how I imagine it (and if this isn’t the way it works, then there will be apps!).

Imagine, you open your textbook, but it isn’t just a textbook. You touch a word in Japanese, and you can hear the audio of someone speaking it. You want to see the stroke order for something, and you can just click on it (and even practice writing it right on the screen). Better yet, there are interactive question / answer section, which allow you to write in your answers, take notes, and more. How freakin’ cool would that be. Beyond just text, you have audio, video, interactive activities, and much much more. Learning via textbook will no longer be so boring and one-sided. It will be dynamic, and there will (actually) be potential for people to use Textbooks to self teach themselves something.

Of course, one of the reasons I’m really excited about the iPad is because I feel like it could be a perfect vessel for my own Japanese teaching / learning site, TextFugu. In terms of Japanese Textbooks, TextFugu already has a lot of the features I’ve listed above, though the iPad would give it so much more sexy! So, anyone know how one would / should learn how to make iPad applications / where someone amazing could be hired?

Writing Kanji On The iPad

Right now, you can write kanji into your iPhone / iPod touch. But it sucks. It kind of sort of works, but it’s too small and writing with your finger is a bit tough. With the iPad, I feel like there’s a lot of potential for applications that are just for practicing kanji writing. Now, I’m not sure about the differences in learning with your fingers and learning with a pen, but if the iPad was coupled with a stylus (like the Pogo for example), I could see a lot of good things happening in regards to being able to write in Japanese on the iPad. Various applications could help you practice writing kanji, tell you if you’re right or wrong, and help you write more beautifully (unlike the above example on my iPhone). Not to mention, with a pressure sensitive screen, you could practice you calligraphy as well.

If There Was A Camera…

Who knows, maybe there will be… there is, apparently, a spot for one (though my bet goes on iPad version 2 having a camera). If there was a camera, think of how easy it would be to talk to someone in Japan and practice your Japanese? Of course, you can do this with your laptop, but the reality is that most mainstream computer users still have trouble (or are just afraid with) using a camera on their laptop. With a device like the iPad, all this gets streamlined (software, hardware, etc) and therefor everything just works better. The mystery would be removed, and applications / websites could be made just for the iPad to help make culture and language exchanges happen. When things are made really easy and convenient, a lot of people use them, and I think there’s a lot of potential there for the iPad making this work.

Also imagine taking classes on the iPad. Lots of advancement has been made in this field, and the iPad is the perfect place to take advantage of this. Of course, most online classrooms run in Flash, and we all know that Apple doesn’t really like those lazy bums at Adobe.

What Would You Like To See?

I know I’m missing some things, but that’s where you come in. What Japanese learning tools would you like to see on the iPad? There’s so much that can be done with a product like this, especially if when it goes mainstream with the public. I’m super excited for what the iPad can do for Japanese learning (and education in general, really). What about you?

P.S. Have you seen the original Japanese iPad?

P.P.S. You should follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Why you should use a Mac to study Japanese
2. How To Use Evernote To Study Japanese (Or Any Other Language)
3. Alternatives to Rosetta Stone Japanese (i.e. Should I buy Rosetta Stone?)

I just read a great article by awesome j-blog WhatJapanThinks, which translates Japanese surveys into English for your enjoyment. This particular article is titled “How Japanese Call Their Partners.” i.e., what Japanese guys and gals call their significant others. I thought it was a particularly interesting study, and since what you call someone says a lot about someone in Japanese (There’s a lesson about this on TextFugu, if you’re a member), but this article goes deeper into one particular niche… the girlfriend / boyfriend. Oh baby oh baby.

Survey Results

Although you can read about the entire survey here, here are the most important bits of information for this particular article. Data was collected by iShare, and translated by WhatJapanThinks.

★ How do you most often refer to your partner? (Sample size=383)

*Most Common nicknames were those with -tan or -nyan added to the end of names

★ How does your partner most often refer to you? (Sample size=383)

*Most Common nicknames were those with -tan or -nyan added to the end of names

★ If you were to be called a name by a partner, which would you most want to be called? (Sample size=484)

Now, this data that was collected consisted of 289 males, and 195 females, which means the “All” percentages will tend to lean toward the male point of view, and this is what I want to focus on, especially with my special interest in male / female speech patterns (which I wrote about in the Japan Times in 2009). Let’s take a look at the top results, broken down by male/female from each data-set, and compare.

How do you refer to your partner?

• Men: Given Name Only (i.e. first name without -kun, -san, -chan, etc., name enders). 36%
• Women: Given Name plus -chan, -kun. 30.4%

In this data block, it’s interesting to see that the largest group of men who took the survey refer to their girlfriends without using name-enders like -kun, -chan, etc., whereas women response shows that their largets percentage block do call their boyfriends by name + chan / kun. Let’s keep this in mind while we move on to the next data-set.

How does your partner refer to you?

• Men: Given name plus chan, kun. 34.7%
• Women: Given name only. 34.2%

Of course, the opposite of the first dataset should be true, and that’s reflected here. Men are referred to by their name + chan / kun, and women are referred to by their given name only. This helps to validate the above data set even further.

What would you like to be called most?

• Men: Given name plus chan, kun. 27%
• Women: Given name only. 39.5%

This is the most interesting table, I think. Although it was fairly split up amongst men (#1 was given name + chan / kun, but there was a close second, which was “given name only”), the women pretty much only had one answer that really stood out, which was “given name only.” I find it really interesting that women are most interested in being called by their given name only, though they are more often calling their significant others by given name + chan / kun.

Although I have very little real data to back this up, I think there are some interesting hypothesis that can be.. er… hypothesized from this.

1. This is part of the whole “women must talk like women” thing… i.e. more polite, more submissive, etc. Even though kun / chan aren’t necessarily considered to be “polite” in the purest sense (nothing wrong with using these on your significant other, though), it is considered more “polite” than just doing given name without adding an honorific to the end.
2. Since “given name only” was a close second for men (26.3% versus 27%), and the top spot for “what would you like to be called most” when you add male/female responses together, this could be showing a change in the Japanese language towards a more Western style of language (i.e. just calling people by their first names, at least in casual situations). I’m not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, but the Japanese language does change very quickly, and this could be one of those changes. People surveyed in this study were between the ages of 20-50, which, overall, is pretty young, and could represent a more “modern” generation that is making various changes to the language. It’s hard to look at this data and get too much more out of it without looking at the age groups individually, and then getting more results per age group.
3. Everyone actually calls each other “snuggy-bottoms” and just don’t want to admit it.

What insight can you pull from the survey data? Personally, I’m not all that good with numbers / statistics unless it involves baseball, so I’m sure I’m missing something, and would love to hear what you think, even if it’s something like “Koichi, you’re full of #$!@.”

What Should You Call YOUR Japanese Sweetheart?

If, by chance, you had a Japanese boyfriend or girlfriend, and you didn’t want to call them Snuggy-bottoms, I’d stick with the given name + kun / chan. It’s safe, it works, and there’s nothing wrong with it. The four “main” ways to do it are:

1. Given name only
2. Given name plus kun, chan
3. Nickname (i.e. snuggy bottoms)
4. Given name plus -san

Everything else drops way off there, and seem kind of weird. I feel sad for the 1-2% of people who are just called “you” or “Hey” or “Oy!” … unless their name is actually “you” or “hey” or “oy,” then I guess it’s okay.

Oh, and before you go, you should follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. How to NOT find a Japanese language partner

Over at TextFugu (Tofugu’s Online Japanese Textbook), I get to make all kinds of worksheets, cheatsheets, etc., that go along with the Japanese lessons, some of which might be useful to you. I figure hiragana and katakana charts are the kinds of things people go out and search for on the interwebs when they aren’t distracted by LOLcats.

Although the hiragana and katakana charts were designed to use with TextFugu, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t use it with any other Japanese learning resource out there. Share it with friends, family, teachers, students, colleagues, classmates, online communities, torrent sites, whatever. You can take these charts and do what you will with them, as long as it doesn’t get weird (I know you love how curvaceous the hiragana is, Gakuranman). Anyways, just click on the images to go to the download page.

Hiragana Chart

Katakana Chart

Enjoy these charts – put them on your wall, write on them, lick them… whatever needs to be done. And, of course, if you have no idea what any of these wild and crazy symbols mean, you should check out TextFugu. In fact, the hiragana chapters are in the free zone, which means no excuses!

Related posts:

1. Strange Katakana Words
2. Japanese Language Cheatsheet for Travelers
3. Japanese Particles [Cheatsheet]

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas (if that’s what you celebrate), full of Christmas Cake and KFC. Yum! Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra raaaa!

One of the things that almost every Japanese learner has trouble with (if they’re a native English speaker), is the Japanese “R” sound. More specifically: Ra, ri, ru, re, & ro. Often times, it just ends up being a straight-up “R” sound, which is wrong, or some weird hybrid version of the sound that “L” makes when it’s on the toilet. It’s kind of sad, but very few people have “cracked” the Japanese “R” sound. A good 90% of people have trouble with this, and I’m going to flip that statistic on it’s head. After going through this lesson, 90% of you will be able to pronounce the Japanese R sound perfectly.

How To Do The Japanese “R”

Until a linguist friend told me about these steps, I was able to do the “R” sound, but it was difficult to explain in a way that most people could understand and see results. How did you do? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Better? The same? Worse (I hope not).

Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra!

Related posts:

1. Japanese Language Cheatsheet for Travelers
2. How To Pronounce The Japanese “R”
3. Alternatives to Rosetta Stone Japanese (i.e. Should I buy Rosetta Stone?)

One of the most common e-mail questions I get is “Should I buy Rosetta Stone Japanese?” It’s time to put an end to this e-mail silliness. From now on, I get to link to this post and video. Hopefully you, whoever “you” are (tell me in the comments), can get something out of this post as well. Here’s the itinerary:

1. Should I buy Rosetta Stone Japanese?
2. What makes Rosetta Stone “good”?
3. Alternatives to Rosetta Stone Japanese
4. Getting Your Opinion

Should I buy Rosetta Stone Japanese?

The nice and quick answer would be a nice and quick “no, probably not.” I’m not saying that Rosetta Stone is bad, necessarily. They put a ton of money into it, so of course they came up with something that’s decent. I’d give them a C+ or so – some parents wouldn’t accept a “C” grade, but on the other hand some parents would be super happy because they’re used to you getting F’s all the time (you know who you are). When it comes down to it though, if you’re going to buy Rosetta Stone, in terms of value versus what you can actually get out of it, you better be really damn rich. I imagine a Rosetta Stone customer looks something like this:

or maybe this…

Rosetta Stone is fine, it probably works for some people, but it’s also a huge waste of money. Please, if you were planning on buying Rosetta Stone, stumbled upon this article, and changed your mind, send me the extra $1000 so I can buy a monocle, pocket watch, and top hat. I’ve always wanted to look like a rich Rosetta Stone Customer. Nya!

What Makes Rosetta Stone “Good”?

There’s a couple different versions of Rosetta Stone Japanese that you could buy. There’s the normal software package, which is around $500. Or, you can go with their TotalE program, which is all online and adds the benefit of having a live online Japanese teacher once a month, for a mere $1200 a year. The Rosetta Stone software is really spiffy, it’s pretty glitch-free, and if you go with TotalE the pictures are a lot less corny. All-in-all, it looks nice, which might be important to some of you when making a decision, but it still doesn’t change how expensive it is, and how you could be doing a lot better than Rosetta Stone.

Here are the things that they like about themselves, though.

Rosetta Stone Loves Their Marketing Budget

They spend a ridiculous amount of money on all that advertising / marketing / mall kiosk-ing stuff. The actual number eludes me at the moment, but I remember having myself a little heart attack when I heard it. But it makes sense – they are the big sleeping bear of language learning. Everyone knows who they are, and when you think “language learning” you probably think, at least for a couple of seconds, about Rosetta Stone as an option. This is great for them, of course, because it makes them look like they’re the best way to learn a new language. This is far from true, of course, but it’s all about how you present yourself, right? They do a great job of it. At the very least, even if you are hooked by their marketing department, try sleeping on the decision at least one night, or keep reading and try out the alternatives I’ve laid out below.

Rosetta Stone “Immerses” You Into the Language (Japanese)

One thing Rosetta Stone likes about themselves is the idea that they teach you Japanese just like a baby in Japan would learn it. No grammar, no explanation, just practice and context. First of all, you’re not a baby in Japan (and if you are, you’re probably in good shape on the learning Japanese front), and secondly you aren’t spending 24 hours a day in front of Rosetta Stone (most likely) so it’s not anywhere near immersion (see immersion section down below for more info). At the most, you’re probably spending an hour or two doing the Rosetta Stone thing, which definitely isn’t enough if you want to take this approach. Either do it all the way, or don’t do it at all. Japanese babies don’t have 2 hours of Japanese “immersion” and then 22 hours of English. If they did, they’d all speak English, not Japanese, and that’s not the goal you’re trying to head towards here.

So is Rosetta Stone Japanese Good?

It’s okay, I’ll give them that, and probably not worth the money it costs (you’re paying a ton extra to fill their marketing budgets I imagine). Unfortunately for them, there are way better (and cheaper / free-er) alternatives out there that blow Rosetta’s socks off. The only problem is these alternatives don’t have marketing budgets like Rosetta, which means you’ve never heard of them before (that’s why I’m here!).

Alternatives to Rosetta Stone Japanese

So this is the part you might have been waiting for – here are the alternatives to Rosetta Stone Japanese. Sure, it is a big list of resources, but when used all together, you’ll find that your Japanese learning speed will go way up (compared to Rosetta Stone), you’ll spend a lot less money, and in the end probably have a lot more fun doing it. All these resources do a good job doing what they do, and Rosetta Stone just does a mediocre job doing all of these things. Much better to find a hip doctor that’s really good at hips, rather than one that’s mediocre at hips, hearts, elbows, golfing, and boob jobs. Am I right right, Dude, or am I right? (name that reference)

Immersion

We’ve already established that Rosetta Stone doesn’t cut it when it comes to immersion. AJATT kind of pioneers this method, and he’s a smart frood. Here are some great resources to help immerse yourself in Japanese for more than an hour or two a day, like Rosetta Stone.

Favorite Choice: iTunes Japanese Podcasts
A lot of people have iPods, and even more people have computers, CD Players, and the like. It’s really easy to get Japanese podcasts for free and listen to them 24/7 (or whenever you have a chance, even at work I’m sure). All you have to do is change your location settings on iTunes to Japan, and suddenly you have access to every free Japanese podcast on there. You have to do a bit of a work-around to have access to things that cost money, but anything that’s free is good to go for you.

Choice 2: JapanesePod101 – JapanesePod101 is just what it sounds like: a website full of Japanese podcasts. In this case, their podcasts are designed to help people learn Japanese, and they do a pretty good job at it. There are paid programs, which get you things like PDFs and other study materials, but a lot is also available for free.

Choice 3: YouTube: YouTube has a ton of Japanese content you can sit and listen to, or put on in the background, and it can be a lot more interesting because you get the visuals with it. Just try and avoid subtitles, because that’s not doing you much good unless you really actively compare and contrast as you’re watching.

More Alternatives: Vimeo | NicoNicoVideo | CrunchyRoll (and of course, several “illegal” options as well, which I won’t be listing – sorry!)

Choice 4: Become a Japanese Hobo – They have pretty sweet hobo-houses. One-way tickets to Japan aren’t as much as round trip tickets? Perfect immersion strategy for the person who’s strapped for cash. Not sure how green cards work in this situation – I imagine you’d just become a fugitive?

TotalE Teacher Alternatives

One of the things you get with the TotalE program (the $1200 one) is a live online teacher. I called Rosetta Stone and got some details on this. You get one class a month (which you can repeat if you still don’t get things after taking it, but it’s the same lesson over and over), which changes every month as you progress. You go over the stuff you went over in the online app, which helps solidify things.

I think this is a bit of garbage – it’s a nice attempt at offering a good “teacher” solution to help guide you along, but you could still spend the $120 a month you’re spending somewhere else, and get a lot more out of it.

Favorite Choice: eduFire for Live Online Classes
When it comes to finding an online Japanese teacher, eduFire is the way to go. There are alternatives to eduFire in the live online education space (which will be listed below), but they aren’t as good for Japanese just because their listings are a bit lacking (and the pricing can be pretty steep). eduFire has free online classes as well as a subscription program (a mere $29 a month for unlimited Japanese classes with live online teachers). Especially with the recent study that came out from the U.S. Dept. of Education which shows online learning as being more effective, I think it’s a no brainer (oh, and to be fair, I should probably mention I’m an employee here, but promise, not being bias. Research it for yourself if you want). Alternatives to eduFire: WizIQ | Myngle

Choice 2: Craigslist – Craigslist is mostly in America, but I imagine there are “alternatives to Craigslist” in other countries as well. It’s a good way to find affordable local teachers, just be careful not to accidentally join a sex or drug ring.

Choice 3: TeachStreet – TeachStreet is aiming to become the leader when it comes to teacher listings, online or local. Like Craigslist, they are only in certain locations, but if you’re in a fairly big city in the U.S. you might be in luck and be able to find some great Japanese classes as well.

Rosetta Stone Clones

There have even been some Rosetta Stone clones popping up. Complete alternatives to Rosetta Stone, and the cool thing is that they’re pretty much all free. There are some programs out there that don’t have Japanese (yet) as well, that I’m keeping my eye on, but here’s what’s available right now.

Favorite Choice – LiveMocha: Two things about LiveMocha. First of all, I’m not sure how they’re going to make money, because basically they’re offering what Rosetta Stone offers, except it’s free, and secondly, I’m not sure what Rosetta Stone is going to do once more people figure out about LiveMocha, because it’s basically Rosetta Stone (with a lot of its pitfalls as well, but hey, it’s free!).

Japanese Vocabulary Learning Alternatives:

At Rosetta Stone, because of the whole “baby immersion thing” you don’t really learn vocab in the traditional sense. Here are some great vocab resources for you to use instead:

Favorite Choice – Smart.fm: Smart.fm does an amazing job with flashcards. It’s like they can read your brain in a way that helps you learn more vocab and kanji at a nice and speedy rate. Just spend a little bit of time every day, and you’ll be a vocab expert in no time. Couple this with some of the other resources, and you have yourself a powerhouse. Alternative: Anki is a lot like Smart.fm, and has it’s own cult following. Maybe you’ll like it more than Smart.fm, but it’s not for me.

Second Choice – NihongoUp: NihongoUp is a little game you can play on your computer or iPod Touch / iPhone. Definitely takes some of the monotony out of vocab learning, and can help solidify a lot of things for you. You can trial run it for quite a while, and the paid version is too cheap to pass up (and the particle practice mode is gold).

Japanese Grammar Learning Alternatives:

Another thing that Rosetta Stone doesn’t really do is “Grammar.” I’m a big fan of grammar learning + actual usage + some of that immersion stuff to make it all meld together. Boo on you, Rosetta.

Favorite Choice – guidetojapanese.org: Tae Kim does a good job explaining grammar, and takes you all the way from basic to advanced. He does a good job simplifying things, and of course, everything over there is free, so indulge yourself!

Second Choice – Genki Textbooks: When it comes to textbooks, I think Genki is the best I’ve come across so far. Definitely not perfect by any means (and costs $30-$40, which really isn’t that bad for a textbook), but gets the job done. You can even use Smart.fm to practice the vocab from the textbook series.

Third Choice – Jgram.org: Jgram is a wiki of Japanese grammar. Sometimes their explanations are better than the top two, and sometimes they’re not. Either way, it’s a good resource to keep a hold of.

Japanese Language Exchange:

Language exchange is something that Rosetta Stone can’t really shake a stick at. Learning a language with a native speaker of that language is an awesome way to have fun, meet new people, and keep up with all the things the cool kids say.

Favorite Choice – Lang-8: Lang-8 is all about language exchange, which isn’t necessarily a new idea, but it’s an idea Lang-8 has taken and done good things with. At Lang-8, you write in the language you are learning (Japanese?), and then native speakers of that language (i.e. Japanese people) correct your entries in a way that makes it easy to see your mistakes so you don’t make them again. Everything’s free, though they have a premium plan that gets you more features and fewer ads.

Second Choice Skype Forums: I haven’t actually made my way to the Skype forums, so I can’t confirm this, but from what I hear you can find people to talk with that will help you learn Japanese (and then they’ll help you). Over at Lang-8, as well, you can see who has added a Skype account and talk to them that way too.

So What’s Your Opinion?

Oof, that’s a lot of writing, and my fingers hurt.

I bet some of you have used Rosetta Stone in the past (or are currently using Rosetta Stone… your rich bastard you). What do you think? What resources am I missing that you couldn’t live without (and totally beat down “The stone”?).

Anyways, so there you have it. That’s my opinion on Rosetta Stone. Decent / Okay / Mediocre, but not worth the money. It’s one of those situations where because they’ve made it so expensive, people automatically think it’s valuable, which isn’t always the case.

Either way, no matter what you decide to do, now is the best time to start learning Japanese. You don’t want to look back six months from now and wish you were six months into things. That always sucks big time. Go, figure out what your next actionable step is and start learning today. To find more cool Japanese resources, be sure to check out “Tofugu’s Top Ten Free Online Japanese Resources.”

This video includes an attempt at a British Accent. Ouch.

Video Transcript

Oh, and you should follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Practice Kana, Kanji, and Particles with Nihongoup
2. Japanese Language Cheatsheet for Travelers
3. Is Learning Japanese Not Popular Anymore?

Johnson Banks recently put up a post about “phonetikana” which has to either be the most genius discovery of all time, or the laziest. Either way, there’s no denying that it’s beautiful, regardless, but you know me, I hate romaji with a passion (and you should too).

Here’s the concept behind phonetikana: 1. Katakana is irritating to learn / you don’t have the time to learn it / you’re lazy. 2. Katakana often spells out words that English speakers can kind-of-sort-of understand. 3. If you add the English phonetic pronunciation to the katakana, you’ll be able to read it and possibly decipher it. 4. Integrate it into the actual katakana to get that “aww, that’s boootiful effect.”

Let’s put it more simply (and visually). Here’s how you’d write “Uniqlo” in Japanese (Uniqlo is a big ol’ Japanese clothes company).

Now, let’s phonetikana it!

Now you can read it phonetically! Yoo-Nee-Koo-Roh. Doesn’t get you perfect pronunciation, but close enough for someone who doesn’t really want to learn Japanese in the first place.

What does a Cow say? Good job!

Who’s the top Banana here? Profess your Top-banana-ness in the comments below!

There are a ton more examples over on Johnson Bank’s post about phonetikana. If you haven’t gotten all the Top Bananas you can handle, be sure to go take a look. It’s pretty fascinating. I’ve always been into typography, but am totally incapable of making anything look nice (Anyone want to teach me about typography on eduFire? I’ll pay you).

Please start a flame war in the comments arguing about who’s the top banana, please, please, please. Use logic to prove your perspectives.

Related posts:

1. Strange Katakana Words
2. Hiragana Chart, Katakana Chart, Ready For Download

This is an example of something really cool (i.e. not Japanese learning)

Of course, one of Tofugu’s goals is to make Japanese learning cool again. “Again?” you ask. “But I’m so cool.” Sorry friend, but the All-Mighty Google doesn’t lie. It looks like learning Japanese is trending down, despite the popularity of anime, manga, and the like (though, actually, if you look it up those keywords are also trending down as well… Cause/correlation? Hard to tell). So how dorky and niche has Japanese learning gotten?

Japanese Language Trends

Over at Google Trends, you can see what people are searching for. In this search, I looked at “Japanese Language” to see how that was doing. As you can see since the beginning of 2004, the search “Japanese Language” has really gone down. It looks like it hasn’t quite leveled out yet, so I imagine we’ll continue to see a bit of downward trends. I wonder how language learning companies have been doing. Perhaps they are in trouble right now?

The term “Learn Japanese” has also gone down – it’s not as sharp as “Japanese Language,” but it still reflects the downward trend. Uh oh, Japanese. So, how is Japanese doing against other Asian languages?

Over the last twelve months things have been fairly level. I was surprised to see that Chinese isn’t that far ahead of Japanese, especially considering the popularity of the Chinese language recently.

So what do you think (that’s why I wrote this post, because I’m curious of your opinion)? Has Japanese become less popular? Have you noticed this trend, or is Google crazy? I’d love to hear about your experience and what you’ve noticed in the Japanese learning space.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource
2. How to NOT find a Japanese language partner
3. Win an iPhone 3GS by Learning Japanese

Have you heard of eduFire SuperPass? Maybe you’ve seen the big banner in the right-side bar. Essentially, SuperPass is a subscription program over at eduFire that lets you take unlimited (SuperPass) classes for a low fee of $29 a month. We’re talking less than $1 a day here, and you can get a lot out of it. I’ve definitely seen a lot of people really improve their Japanese over the last couple of months way faster than if you were meeting with someone once a week, or something along those lines.

BUT, I know a lot of you are poor, and if only you had the chance… just one chance (or eight chances?)… you would eat it up and try your best (and then get pretty good at Japanese!). There are eight blogs out there giving away eduFire SuperPass subscriptions right now. I’ll be giving away some on Tofugu at a later date, so for now, I’ll have to bid you farewell and send you off to eight amazing blogs. Check out their other posts too – all of these blogs are blogs I already read, and you should too!

How to Win eduFire SuperPass

1. RainbowHill’s Language Lab:
Brett is an Aussie who lived in Japan for a long time, and is also a teacher on eduFire! So, if you won his contest (or any other contest) you might end up taking lessons from him! His contest involves Twitter and tweeting. It doesn’t get any easier than that, right? For your chance to win, head on over to his Japanese language blog and figure out the details.

2. Caught Red-Handed:
Don’t get caught red-handed not checking out this site. I always love the extra work that goes into each and every post. Just like the beauty of the website, to win your copy of SuperPass on this blog you have to do something beautiful as well… write poetry. Specifically, a haiku. You can post the haiku on Twitter or the comments of the actual post. You can read more rules by visiting this super-sexy Japan blog.

3. DumbOtaku:
Feeling a little dumb? We’ve all been there once or twice, where we made a huge mistake and people look at us funny. DumbOtaku’s contest is all about mistakes… more specifically, Japanese language mistakes. Got a funny one? Head on over to DumbOtaku and share it with the world (to get your hands on some juicy SuperPass).

4. RockingInHakata:
Deas has been RockingInHakata for a while now, but he hasn’t had a logo to show for it. Fancy yourself a designer? Think you can outdo his plain text header? I think you can. Head on over to RockingInHakata now and help this guy out! For your hard work, you’ll get yourself a month of free Japanese lessons!

5. TheNihonSuki:
I think a lot of you have a favorite Japanese word, right? Like mine is 滅法. TheNihonSuki would like you to use your favorite Japanese word in a sentence. That’s it! For more details check out the contest page.

6. Jamaipanese:
Hey Mon (can I say that?). On this blog, you’re being asked a bit of a riddle, and it’s not too difficult too! I have a feeling if you don’t know the answer already, you can find it somewhere on the Jamaipanese Blog. For more details, check out the contest page… Mon.

7. GakuranMan:
Wow. Not just one prize… More than one prize! If you don’t win tasty SuperPass, you can win some tasty sweets instead! Though, we all know that sweets are a fleeting pleasure, whereas language acquisition is forever (take that to the diamond commercials). All he wants is a tag-line for his site. I’m thinking something along the lines of “Gakuranman – Shouldn’t wear one of these when it’s warm.” Hmm, I think you could do better.

8. Claytonian:
This guy had a bat in his possession. Not like a wooden or aluminum bat, but like a Batman bat. That’s pretty cool. Also pretty cool that he’s giving away a SuperPass subscription. All you need to do is want it. That’s it. So do you? Punk?

More contests are coming, so check back on this page occasionally, or follow me on Twitter. Even if you don’t want SuperPass, definitely just check out these blogs. Every single one of them are great, and I read / follow them too.

FAQ about SuperPass

• What can you learn?
  It’s not just for learning Japanese, though it is the most popular subject (which means more classes). There are all sorts of other classes as well, including social marketing, cooking, other languages, business, and more, all of which you can take with a SuperPass subscription. You aren’t limited to Japanese, though I assume most of you are interested in Japanese.
• How much does it cost?
  It’s normally $29 a month (if you don’t win one of these prizes), though the first week is only $1. Not too shabby a price to try it out, right? And it’s super-easy to cancel, of course.
• Does it work?
  I suppose that depends on you. If you take advantage of it and take a lot of classes (it’s unlimited, yo!) then it works really well. I’ve seen a lot of people grow a ton in their Japanese ability over a pretty short period of time. It’s really all about how much you’re willing to put into it. Of course, if you subscribe and never go to any classes, you won’t improve at all. Duh.
• When will Tofugu give away a subscription or two?
  Later, later, later. Well, not too much later. Keep watching.

Any other questions? Ask them in the comments. If you don’t have any other questions, hurry up and check out those other blogs.

Also, you should follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Win an iPhone 3GS by Learning Japanese
2. 10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource
3. Two (or Three) More Days To Win These Flashcards