Tofugu.com – Wonky Japanese Language and Culture

Passing the JLPT at any level requires being able to read some Japanese and of course the best way to learn to read is well….reading stuff.  The problem with reading is that it’s really hard.  For most of us below the JLPT Level 1, pulling out a newspaper, book, or magazine in Japanese and just reading and understanding it is next to impossible to do in a reasonable amount of time.  To be fair, those newspapers, books, and magazines are written for adults and the JLPT only tests up to a middle school level of language comprehension.  If our Japanese reading level is the same as kids, why not read like one?  Most people solve this problem using manga, but the JLPT makes you to read paragraphs not text bubbles with pictures.  Thanks to my JLPT prep class teacher, I found a great way to study for the JLPT: Japanese Newspapers for Kids! Read more…

You know how it’s hard to quit bad habits? Biting your nails, drinking, eating too many cookies, yadda yadda (sure, you could take it to be the Seinfeld reference if you want)… But I bet you didn’t realize you have a ton of good habits as well. Brushing your teeth (well, not all of you have this), putting away the dishes, going running, etc.

Now, I’m not saying that creating a habit to study Japanese on a daily basis is easy (it’s not!), and that’s why I’ve compiled a few sneaky things that will “trick” you into studying Japanese and getting yourself into a good habit. It all comes down to analyzing what makes habits into habits, and taking advantage of those things so that you can create a habit without actually having a… habit. Read more…

I get all kinds of weird questions in my e-mail inbox. Sometimes they’re creepy, sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes they’re interesting, and sometimes they’re a part of a pattern. This is one of those patterns. A few times a month I’ll get the following question:

What is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary?

Once I get the same question too many times, there’s a good likelihood that I’ll just write the answer via a post here, which is exactly what’ I’m doing. So, what is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary out there? Let’s find out. Read more…

Japanese girls are great for a lot of reasons, I mean, get real, they’re loved world wide because they’re small, cute, wear tiny tiny skirts, and sometimes dress up in school uniforms (even if they’re not in school anymore).  It seems to be a rite of passage for every male exchange student, every JET, and everyone visiting Japan to try to find a Japanese girlfriend when they visit… Read more…

When it comes down to it, I’m pretty certain that most people don’t quit learning Japanese because it’s too hard. Really, the Japanese language isn’t that hard at all (at least if you know English already, which is a big ol’ mess by comparison). The problem with most Japanese learners is that they just don’t have the right motivation and inspiration to keep them going. Learning a new language is 99% motivation and 1% “other.” Originally, I kept this mailing list reserved for TextFugu members only. This morning, though, I took a looksy over the TextFugu Manifesto (as I try to do every morning) and stopped for a moment on #3: “Help People To Learn Japanese.” That’s when I realized that this mailing list is perfect for anyone learning Japanese (whether they use TextFugu or not), and thought it could be really useful if made available to the public. Read more…

With the advent of computers, e-mail, and all those other fancy things that causes our handwriting to be terrible and makes us dependent on spell check, getting opportunities to actually write kanji with our hands is becoming rarer and rarer. I know my hands hurt several seconds into writing something. I have weak hands that a grandma would scoff at (though they’re very beautiful, I’m pretty sure I could go into hand modeling if this whole blogging thing doesn’t work out).

The other day I got an e-mail from Skritter. They’re a pretty rag-tag bunch, but I like that. Skritter lets you practice writing kanji using various flash card sets (either Skritter made, community made, or you-made). Sure, you could do all this with your hands, but here’s what makes Skritter interesting. Read more…

Sometimes, I think, it’s important to think different. Sometimes, when everyone is doing one thing, you should try the exact opposite.  It doesn’t mean it will work, but it’s almost always worth the try. Perhaps you’ll run into something nobody has ever thought of.

This idea is one of those things. I think it works pretty well… sometimes, and it probably won’t work for everyone. The idea is simple: When studying Japanese (or doing anything else), you should stop when you least want to (i.e. when you want to keep studying). Sounds counter intuitive, right? Here’s why it works.

Read more…

Did you make it past that highly distracting image of the butterfly? Whew… then you might not need this article… or maybe you do? We can all learn how to be more motivated and inspired, and we’re all human in that shiny things distract us a …. what was I saying? Read more…

This is a guest post by the awesome Japanese language teacher and blogger Rainbowhill. Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter (a personal favorite of mine!) and follow him on Twitter.

On Friday last week I spent most of the afternoon being verbally abused and physically threatened. It was all part of the training in conflict resolution offered by my employer and conducted by a wirey ex-cop that reminded me of an Aussie version of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. Our police trainer hired actors to play a client that had reached a level of aggravation beyond negotiation.

Our trainer told us that he wanted to scar our subconscious deeply enough so that when we were confronted with a potentially life threatening situation we would know how to respond instinctively. So with little knowledge of the conflict unfolding behind a closed door we were thrust into a room where we had to rescue a co-worker from a hostile situation. Read more…

This, of course, shouldn’t be confused with being “emo” (do people still do that?). Your emotions are actually one of the most effective tools in your Japanese learning arsenal, yet you’ll never see a Japanese teacher telling you to “get angry about that kanji” (not that most people don’t already do that on their own). By using your emotions, you can safely expect a 2-3x jump in Japanese learning effectiveness. No joke. You’ll learn faster, you’ll store things in your long term memory more quickly, and be a much better learner because of it. Read more…